Short sermon preached at 8am Eucharist at St Alphege, Solihull on 14th February 2010.
The sermon was also preached at St Michael’s, Oak Cottage, Solihull at 4pm that day.
Sunday next before Lent
Readings 1 Kings 8: 22-23 & 41-43 Galatians 1: 1-12 Luke 7: 1b-10
(RCL alternative to the normal CofE readings)
Our first reading today comes from one of the real high points in the history of Israel. King Solomon, the wise and wealthy king, is dedicating the new temple that he has built for God in Jerusalem. No expense has been spared! The temple is huge and richly decorated. The priests have moved the ark of God into the inner sanctuary of the temple, and the glory of God has filled the temple, like a great cloud. And King Solomon is standing before the altar of the Lord in the temple and he makes a great, long prayer dedicating the temple to God, and we read just a short part of that prayer of dedication today.
But the part of the prayer that we read was particularly interesting because it tells us that the temple in Jerusalem was built not just to aid the prayers of the nation of Israel but to aid the prayers of foreigners, as well! And this is very significant. Most of the Old Testament is about God’s covenant with his chosen people Israel. But every now and again, especially at key moments like this one, there are very clear reminders that God’s covenant with Israel is not solely for the benefit of Israel, but ultimately it is for the for benefit of the whole world (e.g. Genesis 12: 2-3, 18: 18, 22: 17-18, 26: 3-5, 28: 13-14 and Isaiah 40: 5, 42: 1-9, 45: 22-25, 49: 5-6, 51: 4-5, 52: 10).
And we see this same thing in the ministry of Jesus. Jesus is born and brought up as a Jew. Simeon in the temple foresaw that the baby Jesus was the “light for revelation to the gentiles” (Luke 2: 32), but much of the time Jesus clearly focused his mission on the people of Israel (e.g. Matt 10: 5-6, 15: 24). But then there are several remarkable moments, like the one in our gospel reading today, when the generosity of Jesus spontaneous pours out over people beyond the Jewish nation.
In our gospel reading we heard that Jesus was profoundly moved by the faith that he found in the centurion. Of course, the centurion was not a Jew, and as an official of the Roman Army he might easily be thought of as an enemy of the Jews, but Jesus did not hesitate to cure the centurion’s servant. He even presented the faith of the centurion as an example to Israel. There was never any suggestion that the centurion should become a Jew.
Those hints in the Old Testament that God will bless all the nations of the earth through Israel do eventually find their fulfilment in Jesus. The religion that Jesus establishes becomes a universal religion. Christianity is for all people. Everyone is called to become part of the church. Rich and poor, young and old, saints and sinners; all called.
But I think it is very helpful for us, in the Church, to reflect on the generosity of Jesus and of his love pouring out upon people beyond the nation of Israel. In the same way we have to pour out love from the Church into the world, even into the non-Christian parts of the world. In our daily lives we probably encounter many people who are nominally Christian, but who seem to have minimal relationship with the church, and may not even be baptised. We probably encounter people from other faiths beyond Christianity, and people who say they have no faith at all, who might even be hostile to faith. These people are to us what the centurion was to Jesus. Like Jesus we need to reach out to them all, to work for their good. We need to help them and serve them in all their good aspirations and to build relationships of trust with them. We need to see God’s good creation in them, and help them to see the good that we share. It’s about a having generous attitude and a willingness to give.
And it seems to me that just as the love of Jesus spilling out beyond Judaism lead to the creation of a new, bigger and broader “People of God”, so too our love spilling out beyond the visible boundaries of the Church will somehow lead to a bigger and fuller salvation. In this way the gospel really becomes “Good News” for all the world, the Church really does become the light for the nations. Amen.
Showing posts with label temple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label temple. Show all posts
14 February 2010
31 January 2010
Christ and the temple in Jerusalem
Sermon for Coral Evensong at St Alphege Church
6.30pm on Sunday 31st January 2010 – Epiphany 4
(Presentation of Christ in the Temple)
Readings: Psalm 122 Haggai 2: 1-9 John 2: 18-22
Our psalm today, and both of our scripture readings concern Jerusalem and especially the temple in Jerusalem. The temple also features strongly in the Presentation of Christ which we remember today. So I thought it might be useful to use this sermon to reflect on the temple and on its history in particular.
Israel first got seriously involved with Jerusalem round about 1000BC when King David, seemingly against all odds, captured the stronghold of Mount Zion from the Jebusites (2 Samuel 5). David started to build a town there called the City of David, and he established it as the capital city of Israel. God granted David many military successes and his kingdom grew bigger and stronger. The City of David grew down the hill into Jerusalem. There was a particularly significant moment ( 2 Samuel 6) when David brought into Jerusalem the ark of God, which Moses had made during the exodus. This was a moment of great rejoicing because the ark represented the presence of God, and the people were delighted to have God present with them in Jerusalem.
The ark of God lived in a tent in Jerusalem, just as it had done in the wilderness, in time of Moses. But David was keen to build a house for the Lord to live in (2 Samuel 7, Ps 132) but the Lord spoke to David through the prophet Nathan. He said “No, you David are not to build me a house; your son will do that. But rather I the Lord will make you David into a house. I shall raise up from your offspring one who will have an everlasting kingdom, your throne will be established for ever.” Of course we think of these words being fulfilled in the birth of Jesus.
So King David never built the temple in Jerusalem, but his son Solomon did (1 Kings 6). With the wise King Solomon at the helm the kingdom is Israel really flourished. Solomon became extremely wealthily, and he spared no expense in the construction of the temple. Solomon’s temple was huge and incredibly richly decorated. There was another profoundly significant moment (1 Kings 8) when the temple had been completed. Solomon told the priests to move the Ark of God into the temple. The priests moved it, complete with its tent and all its artefacts into the inner sanctuary of the temple. And a cloud filled the temple and the glory of the Lord filled the house, and the priests could not even stand to minister there. Solomon made a long prayer dedicating the temple to the Lord, and the Lord appeared to Solomon saying, “I have consecrated this house that you have built and put my name there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time” (1 Kings 9: 3). So it was that the Lord established the temple of Jerusalem as his resting place for ever (Ps 132: 13-14).
The temple became the central to the Jewish religion. Three or four times each year the Jews would all travel up to Jerusalem to celebrate the big religious festivals. Jerusalem is about 700m above sea level, so you do literally go up to Jerusalem. And this is the experience that Psalm 122 speaks of. There is some religious festival and with great gladness the tribes of Israel all go up to Jerusalem, to the seat of the house of David. And then they enter the temple, the house of the Lord, to witness to their identity as the people of Israel, God’s chosen nation.
King Solomon’s reign was Israel’s golden age as a wealthy and powerful independent state. Towards the end of Solomon’s reign, however, and in the centuries that followed, there were persistent problems with kings and people straying from God. The kingdom became divided, and the northern Kingdom was lost to the Assyrians. However the most terrible shock came 597 BC when the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem. Then, about ten years later, the unthinkable happened. The Babylonians utterly destroyed Jerusalem and the temple with it. They take most of the educated Judeans away into exile, and caused the rest of the people to flee, many of them to Samaria.
The exile was a grim period for the Judeans, but it suddenly ended in about 535 BC when the Persians conquered the Babylonians. The Jews were encouraged to go back to Jerusalem, and little by little they go back, rebuilding first the city walls, then the houses and finally, encouraged by the prophet Haggai, they rebuild the temple itself. Our first reading came from this period in the history of the temple. The rebuilt temple seems to be but a poor shadow of the temple of Solomon, but through Haggai God tells the people not to be discouraged. God will shale the nations so that their treasure will come to the temple and make it rich once more. Its new splendour will be greater than the splendour it had of old.
Over the centuries that followed the Jews continue to invest in the temple. In particular, in the thirty years or so before the birth of Jesus, King Herod the Great greatly increased the size and splendour of the temple. Herod was a puppet king, ruling the Jews under the auspices of the Roman Empire. His collaboration with Rome meant he was always under pressure from the Jews to prove his Jewish credentials, and he sought to do this by investing in the temple. By the time of Jesus the second temple was bigger and grander than ever; the glory of Solomon’s temple really had been surpassed.
This morning in church we celebrated the feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. Malachi’s prophecies about the Lord suddenly coming to his temple came to fulfilment. We heard the words of Simeon, which we always have at evensong in the Nunc Dimittis. Simeon described Jesus as light … and the glory of his people Israel. It seems like a reminder of the glory of God which filled the temple at its dedication by Solomon.
Jesus has an interesting relationship with the temple. As a 12 year old his parents lose him there, but he describes it as his Father’s house. Later in his ministry he spends a lot of time there and often preaches there. He appears to resent paying the temple tax because he knows that as “Son of God” the temple exists for him (Matt 17: 24ff). The passage of scripture that we heard in our second reading today comes just after the moment when Jesus drove the traders out the temple, upsetting the tables of the moneychangers. The Jews question his authority for this, and ask for a sign. Jesus says he will “destroy this temple and in three days raise it up”. This makes no sense to the Jews who know that building the temple is a long slow business, but of course Jesus is speaking of his own body; the crucifixion and resurrection.
This link that Jesus makes between his own body and the temple is profound and mysterious. The Church too is the body of Christ. The Church too passes through death and resurrection cycles. The book of Revelation (21) talks of the wedding feast of the lamb, when the Church comes to dwell in a New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is splendid and perfect but it has no temple because “its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the lamb”.
And as for the temple in Jerusalem, well it was destroyed by the Romans in 70AD and has been more or less off limits to the Jews ever since. The temple mound has been completely restored but since the year 691 it has been dominated by Islamic sites such as the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Moque.
When we look at Jerusalem today we see an extraordinary complex situation. God’s chosen place is now sacred to Muslims, Christians and Jews. The tensions felt in Jerusalem are profoundly linked to the tensions felt throughout the Middle East about the state of Israel and its security. There is a sense of waiting and of expectation. What on earth will God do next in this place? And it seems to me that the important thing for us to do is to trust God who is the Lord of history. Certainly terrible things can happen and much can be destroyed, but we must never lose trust in God and in his capacity to raise things up anew.
6.30pm on Sunday 31st January 2010 – Epiphany 4
(Presentation of Christ in the Temple)
Readings: Psalm 122 Haggai 2: 1-9 John 2: 18-22
Our psalm today, and both of our scripture readings concern Jerusalem and especially the temple in Jerusalem. The temple also features strongly in the Presentation of Christ which we remember today. So I thought it might be useful to use this sermon to reflect on the temple and on its history in particular.
Israel first got seriously involved with Jerusalem round about 1000BC when King David, seemingly against all odds, captured the stronghold of Mount Zion from the Jebusites (2 Samuel 5). David started to build a town there called the City of David, and he established it as the capital city of Israel. God granted David many military successes and his kingdom grew bigger and stronger. The City of David grew down the hill into Jerusalem. There was a particularly significant moment ( 2 Samuel 6) when David brought into Jerusalem the ark of God, which Moses had made during the exodus. This was a moment of great rejoicing because the ark represented the presence of God, and the people were delighted to have God present with them in Jerusalem.
The ark of God lived in a tent in Jerusalem, just as it had done in the wilderness, in time of Moses. But David was keen to build a house for the Lord to live in (2 Samuel 7, Ps 132) but the Lord spoke to David through the prophet Nathan. He said “No, you David are not to build me a house; your son will do that. But rather I the Lord will make you David into a house. I shall raise up from your offspring one who will have an everlasting kingdom, your throne will be established for ever.” Of course we think of these words being fulfilled in the birth of Jesus.
So King David never built the temple in Jerusalem, but his son Solomon did (1 Kings 6). With the wise King Solomon at the helm the kingdom is Israel really flourished. Solomon became extremely wealthily, and he spared no expense in the construction of the temple. Solomon’s temple was huge and incredibly richly decorated. There was another profoundly significant moment (1 Kings 8) when the temple had been completed. Solomon told the priests to move the Ark of God into the temple. The priests moved it, complete with its tent and all its artefacts into the inner sanctuary of the temple. And a cloud filled the temple and the glory of the Lord filled the house, and the priests could not even stand to minister there. Solomon made a long prayer dedicating the temple to the Lord, and the Lord appeared to Solomon saying, “I have consecrated this house that you have built and put my name there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time” (1 Kings 9: 3). So it was that the Lord established the temple of Jerusalem as his resting place for ever (Ps 132: 13-14).
The temple became the central to the Jewish religion. Three or four times each year the Jews would all travel up to Jerusalem to celebrate the big religious festivals. Jerusalem is about 700m above sea level, so you do literally go up to Jerusalem. And this is the experience that Psalm 122 speaks of. There is some religious festival and with great gladness the tribes of Israel all go up to Jerusalem, to the seat of the house of David. And then they enter the temple, the house of the Lord, to witness to their identity as the people of Israel, God’s chosen nation.
King Solomon’s reign was Israel’s golden age as a wealthy and powerful independent state. Towards the end of Solomon’s reign, however, and in the centuries that followed, there were persistent problems with kings and people straying from God. The kingdom became divided, and the northern Kingdom was lost to the Assyrians. However the most terrible shock came 597 BC when the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem. Then, about ten years later, the unthinkable happened. The Babylonians utterly destroyed Jerusalem and the temple with it. They take most of the educated Judeans away into exile, and caused the rest of the people to flee, many of them to Samaria.
The exile was a grim period for the Judeans, but it suddenly ended in about 535 BC when the Persians conquered the Babylonians. The Jews were encouraged to go back to Jerusalem, and little by little they go back, rebuilding first the city walls, then the houses and finally, encouraged by the prophet Haggai, they rebuild the temple itself. Our first reading came from this period in the history of the temple. The rebuilt temple seems to be but a poor shadow of the temple of Solomon, but through Haggai God tells the people not to be discouraged. God will shale the nations so that their treasure will come to the temple and make it rich once more. Its new splendour will be greater than the splendour it had of old.
Over the centuries that followed the Jews continue to invest in the temple. In particular, in the thirty years or so before the birth of Jesus, King Herod the Great greatly increased the size and splendour of the temple. Herod was a puppet king, ruling the Jews under the auspices of the Roman Empire. His collaboration with Rome meant he was always under pressure from the Jews to prove his Jewish credentials, and he sought to do this by investing in the temple. By the time of Jesus the second temple was bigger and grander than ever; the glory of Solomon’s temple really had been surpassed.
This morning in church we celebrated the feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. Malachi’s prophecies about the Lord suddenly coming to his temple came to fulfilment. We heard the words of Simeon, which we always have at evensong in the Nunc Dimittis. Simeon described Jesus as light … and the glory of his people Israel. It seems like a reminder of the glory of God which filled the temple at its dedication by Solomon.
Jesus has an interesting relationship with the temple. As a 12 year old his parents lose him there, but he describes it as his Father’s house. Later in his ministry he spends a lot of time there and often preaches there. He appears to resent paying the temple tax because he knows that as “Son of God” the temple exists for him (Matt 17: 24ff). The passage of scripture that we heard in our second reading today comes just after the moment when Jesus drove the traders out the temple, upsetting the tables of the moneychangers. The Jews question his authority for this, and ask for a sign. Jesus says he will “destroy this temple and in three days raise it up”. This makes no sense to the Jews who know that building the temple is a long slow business, but of course Jesus is speaking of his own body; the crucifixion and resurrection.
This link that Jesus makes between his own body and the temple is profound and mysterious. The Church too is the body of Christ. The Church too passes through death and resurrection cycles. The book of Revelation (21) talks of the wedding feast of the lamb, when the Church comes to dwell in a New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is splendid and perfect but it has no temple because “its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the lamb”.
And as for the temple in Jerusalem, well it was destroyed by the Romans in 70AD and has been more or less off limits to the Jews ever since. The temple mound has been completely restored but since the year 691 it has been dominated by Islamic sites such as the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Moque.
When we look at Jerusalem today we see an extraordinary complex situation. God’s chosen place is now sacred to Muslims, Christians and Jews. The tensions felt in Jerusalem are profoundly linked to the tensions felt throughout the Middle East about the state of Israel and its security. There is a sense of waiting and of expectation. What on earth will God do next in this place? And it seems to me that the important thing for us to do is to trust God who is the Lord of history. Certainly terrible things can happen and much can be destroyed, but we must never lose trust in God and in his capacity to raise things up anew.
27 December 2009
Children
Thought for the parish pew slip – Sunday 27th December 2009
Readings: 1 Samuel 1: 20-22 & 24-end 1 John 3: 1-2 & 21-end Luke 2: 41-end
Our readings today offer stories in sharp contrast with our present day attitudes which encourage us to be possessive and protective of our children.
As we read of the extraordinary generosity of Hannah in giving her only child to the Lord we must remember the great struggle that Hannah endured before Samuel was conceived (see 1 Samuel 1: 1-19). We must also remember the great fruit that came from this gift. Samuel grew up to become the last of the Judges of Israel and the man who anointed David as king.
John reminds us that we are children of God. We are much more truly God’s children than anyone else’s (see also Matt 23:9). We must behave as good brothers and sisters to one another, loving each other as the Lord commanded.
Our gospel reading records a moment of great drama for Mary and Joseph when they think they have lost the child Jesus. In fact Jesus is in the temple. He does not feel lost at all; he is in his Father’s house.
Readings: 1 Samuel 1: 20-22 & 24-end 1 John 3: 1-2 & 21-end Luke 2: 41-end
Our readings today offer stories in sharp contrast with our present day attitudes which encourage us to be possessive and protective of our children.
As we read of the extraordinary generosity of Hannah in giving her only child to the Lord we must remember the great struggle that Hannah endured before Samuel was conceived (see 1 Samuel 1: 1-19). We must also remember the great fruit that came from this gift. Samuel grew up to become the last of the Judges of Israel and the man who anointed David as king.
John reminds us that we are children of God. We are much more truly God’s children than anyone else’s (see also Matt 23:9). We must behave as good brothers and sisters to one another, loving each other as the Lord commanded.
Our gospel reading records a moment of great drama for Mary and Joseph when they think they have lost the child Jesus. In fact Jesus is in the temple. He does not feel lost at all; he is in his Father’s house.
15 November 2009
End-of-the-world events
Sermon preached at St Alphege, Solihull, at the 8am Eucharist
Sunday 15th November 2009, 2nd Sunday before Advent, Year B
Readings: Daniel 12: 1-3 [Hebrews 10: 11-14 &19-25] Mark 13: 1-8
Last Wednesday I was standing on the Mount of Olives, looking across the Kidron Valley at the Temple Mount. I was in a garden called “Dominus Flevit” or “The Lord wept”. There is a church there in the shape of a teardrop. According to tradition, this is the site described in Luke 19 (v41-44) where Jesus wept over Jerusalem. It may well be that this is the same site, recalled in our gospel reading today, where Peter, Andrew James and John privately ask Jesus when the temple will be destroyed.
Jesus answers that the signs of the approaching destruction will be false Messiahs, wars, earthquakes and famines. He describes these as the beginnings of the birth pangs. The trouble is that false Messiahs, wars, earthquakes and famines seem to be characteristic of every age so they are not as the clear cut indicators that the disciples might have been hoping for. As it turned out, the temple was destroyed in 70AD by the Romans. There is no doubt that it was a terrible event for the Jewish nation, well worthy of Jesus’ tears. The temple has never been rebuilt. The temple mount is now dominated by Islamic buildings; the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.
The destruction of the temple felt like an end-of-the-world event for God’s chosen people, the Jews. But in the scriptures it is hard to distinguish prophesies about this event from prophesies about the second coming of Christ, which is also seen as a time of great anguish, and an end-of-the-world style event. Our reading from Daniel 12 would appear to be about the second coming of Christ because it mentions the resurrection of the dead in a way comparable with Revelation chapter 20.
At this time of year, when one church year is ending, and another beginning, our scripture readings encourage us to reflect on the second coming of Christ and on the end times. Next week, the last in the Churches year, we celebrate the feast of Christ the King expressing our confidence that ultimately good must triumph over evil, and Christ must rule over all things.
This confidence that good must ultimately overcome evil – where does it come from? How can we be so sure about it? It comes from the death and resurrection of Christ. Evil can do its worst, it can crucify the one who created all of us, but the resurrection reveals Jesus as the resurrection and the life, the source of eternal life which he wants to share with all people.
We can be sure that just as God’s own temple was torn apart in AD 70, so our own lives, sooner or later, in small ways and big, are torn apart. It can happen through the loss of a job, or through problems in a marriage or through other sufferings small and large. In these moments it is important to remember Jesus on the cross. We need to grow in love for Jesus as he suffers on the cross. Through our own sufferings we can be united to Christ in his death. And this unity with Christ in death leads to a unity with him in resurrection, in new life. And the more we experience this, the more confidence we place in it. We can become sure that good, ultimately must overcome evil. Amen.
Sunday 15th November 2009, 2nd Sunday before Advent, Year B
Readings: Daniel 12: 1-3 [Hebrews 10: 11-14 &19-25] Mark 13: 1-8
Last Wednesday I was standing on the Mount of Olives, looking across the Kidron Valley at the Temple Mount. I was in a garden called “Dominus Flevit” or “The Lord wept”. There is a church there in the shape of a teardrop. According to tradition, this is the site described in Luke 19 (v41-44) where Jesus wept over Jerusalem. It may well be that this is the same site, recalled in our gospel reading today, where Peter, Andrew James and John privately ask Jesus when the temple will be destroyed.
Jesus answers that the signs of the approaching destruction will be false Messiahs, wars, earthquakes and famines. He describes these as the beginnings of the birth pangs. The trouble is that false Messiahs, wars, earthquakes and famines seem to be characteristic of every age so they are not as the clear cut indicators that the disciples might have been hoping for. As it turned out, the temple was destroyed in 70AD by the Romans. There is no doubt that it was a terrible event for the Jewish nation, well worthy of Jesus’ tears. The temple has never been rebuilt. The temple mount is now dominated by Islamic buildings; the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.
The destruction of the temple felt like an end-of-the-world event for God’s chosen people, the Jews. But in the scriptures it is hard to distinguish prophesies about this event from prophesies about the second coming of Christ, which is also seen as a time of great anguish, and an end-of-the-world style event. Our reading from Daniel 12 would appear to be about the second coming of Christ because it mentions the resurrection of the dead in a way comparable with Revelation chapter 20.
At this time of year, when one church year is ending, and another beginning, our scripture readings encourage us to reflect on the second coming of Christ and on the end times. Next week, the last in the Churches year, we celebrate the feast of Christ the King expressing our confidence that ultimately good must triumph over evil, and Christ must rule over all things.
This confidence that good must ultimately overcome evil – where does it come from? How can we be so sure about it? It comes from the death and resurrection of Christ. Evil can do its worst, it can crucify the one who created all of us, but the resurrection reveals Jesus as the resurrection and the life, the source of eternal life which he wants to share with all people.
We can be sure that just as God’s own temple was torn apart in AD 70, so our own lives, sooner or later, in small ways and big, are torn apart. It can happen through the loss of a job, or through problems in a marriage or through other sufferings small and large. In these moments it is important to remember Jesus on the cross. We need to grow in love for Jesus as he suffers on the cross. Through our own sufferings we can be united to Christ in his death. And this unity with Christ in death leads to a unity with him in resurrection, in new life. And the more we experience this, the more confidence we place in it. We can become sure that good, ultimately must overcome evil. Amen.
06 April 2008
Building the temple of God
Preached at St Alphege Church on Sunday 6th April 2008 at 6.30pm Evensong.
Third Sunday of Easter
Readings: Haggai 1:13 – 2:9 1 Corinthians 3:10-17
Our readings this evening are all about building the temple of God. They approach this theme in different ways. As time passes, understandings deepen, and we see a development in what is meant by “building the temple of God”.
First of all we heard the choir sing Psalm 48. This is a song of praise to God, written because of the greatness of city of Jerusalem, which King David had established as the seat of the Kingdom of the Israelites. The psalm sets out the way that God’s chosen people like to think about Jerusalem. It mentions the temple in Jerusalem, where the people ponder the steadfast love of the Lord. It mentions the strong fortification in Mount Zion, the hill that overlooked Jerusalem, and by which Jerusalem was defended. It says that the foreign kings trembled when they saw the strength of the fortifications on Mount Zion. Jerusalem was a safe and secure centre for the kingdom of God’s people, with the temple of Jerusalem right at its heart.
But then we see a complete contrast in the reading from the book of Haggai. In this reading God’s chosen people, now called the Jews, have returned to Jerusalem and are starting to rebuild the temple following the most devastating and traumatic period of their history. Round about 600 BC the Judeans had been conquered by the Babylonians who came from the area that we now call Iraq. This was an absolutely catastrophic experience for the God’s people. Jerusalem was completely overrun. Many Judeans were killed and their bodies left unburied in the street. The temple in Jerusalem was first plundered and then destroyed completely. The remaining Judeans, or most of them, (certainly all the leaders and educated people) were taken off to Babylon where they lived as slaves in exile. Psalm 137 tells us of the torment and bitterness of the exiles. But with the great suffering came a great purification. God taught his people to focus on Him and on His laws. And then after about 70 years of exile God delivered his people back home again in a miraculous and extraordinary way. Babylon was conquered by the Persians and King Cyrus of Persia encouraged the Jews to go back to Jerusalem and he encouraged them to rebuild the temple. This was a wonderful deliverance, beyond anything that the Jews could have hoped for. But the task of rebuilding the life of the nation in Jerusalem and of rebuilding the temple were still fraught with difficulties and progress was extremely slow.
In the passage that we read we heard God, through the prophet Haggai, stir up his people to get on with this work. Above all he encourages them. He says, “My spirit abides among you, do not fear.” He asks if there is anyone left who can remember the temple of old. Although the new temple still appears poor and insignificant compared to the great temple of old, God assures the people that he will make it great. “In a little while…I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and fill this house with splendour” says the Lord of Hosts. “The latter splendour of this house will be greater than the former,” says the Lord.
In our New Testament reading from 1 Corinthians, St Paul compares himself to a skilled master builder, because he has laid the foundations of the church in Corinth. After Paul had left Corinth, Apollus, a well respected Christian of the early church (Acts 18:24), had continued to build and develop the Church in Corinth. We know that Paul wanted Apollos to be a church leader in Corinth (1 Cor 16:12) and that he was infuriated that the church in Corinth sometimes divided itself with some saying that they followed the teaching of Paul and some the teaching of Apollos (see 1 Cor 1 10-13).
Of course when Paul talks about building the church in Corinth he does not mean a physical church building, rather he means the Church, the people of God, the body of Christ. Paul describes the Church as the temple of the living God (2 Cor 6:16, see also Eph 2:21) and he sees himself, and others, as builders of that temple. He emphasises that Jesus Christ is the foundation of the Church (1 Cor 3:11). He goes on to say that that the work of himself, Paul, of Apollos, and of the other different people who have worked to build up the church will be tested by fire. What does this mean?
Well a physical temple building built of gold and precious stones will be resistant to fire, whereas a temple built of wood, hay and straw will easily burn up. The quality of a physical temple can therefore be tested by fire. A well built temple will endure fire, a more cheaply built temple will be destroyed by fire. Similarly if a church is solidly build on the foundation of Jesus Christ and on Christ Crucified (1 Cor 1 18 & 22 also 2:2) then it will stand the test of fire. This presumably means the test of suffering, of persecution, of loss.
So just as many different stones are built together to make a temple building, so we, the different members of the church, are being built together into a temple, a dwelling place for God where God lives by his spirit (Eph 2:21). Paul’s analogy is a very good one. The different stones in a temple building each have different functions, and so it is in the Church. Some stones are more visible than others. Some stones carry more weight than others. Some stones are beautifully carved, some more ordinary looking. But all of the stones have a role, and if any of them were missing then the building would lack something. And so it is with us in the church. Over time God carves us, or moulds us to fulfil the purpose he has for us in the church. We have different roles by which we serve one another within the life of the church. We need to be attentive to God in prayer, and attentive to the Christians around us in order to discern our role, and how we fit in. With love, we each need to serve the other people in the church, in the specific way that God wants us to serve. Also we need to receive service from the other Christians in the church with joy and thanksgiving. We each need to trust God, knowing that by following his will we will find roles that sustain us and fulfil us and lead us on the path to heaven.
But for a temple to be a temple it must be the dwelling place of God. We all know that God is present in his church through his Word proclaimed and through his sacraments, but God is present in other ways too. In 2 Corinthians 6:16, Paul quotes the prophets to explain that when we are formed together to be the temple of the living God, God will live with us, and walk about among us. He will be our God and we shall be his people. Similarly in Matthew 18:20 Jesus promises that he will be present in the midst of people united in his name. This means that when we meet together as church we must meet together united in the name of Jesus, following the commandments of Jesus, especially his New Commandment of mutual love. When we do this Jesus is present in our midst.
And in this there is a wonderful hint of the future promise of God. In the book of Revelation chapter 21 we can read about the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. In the New Jerusalem God makes his home among the mortals and dwells with them. The New Jerusalem is built of gold and of the most precious stones and it shines with the glory of God. There is no sun or moon, for all is illuminated by the glory of God. Most interesting of all, there is no temple in the New Jerusalem for the whole city is the dwelling place of God. And all the glory and honour of all the nations are brought to the New Jerusalem and all the nations will walk by the glorious light of God.
So let us allow God to form us into his living temple the Church. Let’s do what we can to help God build up his Church. Let’s be united in the name of Jesus, so that Jesus is present in the midst of us, and let’s prepare ourselves to be good citizens of the New Jerusalem where there is no need for a temple because God dwells in the midst of all his people. Amen.
Third Sunday of Easter
Readings: Haggai 1:13 – 2:9 1 Corinthians 3:10-17
Our readings this evening are all about building the temple of God. They approach this theme in different ways. As time passes, understandings deepen, and we see a development in what is meant by “building the temple of God”.
First of all we heard the choir sing Psalm 48. This is a song of praise to God, written because of the greatness of city of Jerusalem, which King David had established as the seat of the Kingdom of the Israelites. The psalm sets out the way that God’s chosen people like to think about Jerusalem. It mentions the temple in Jerusalem, where the people ponder the steadfast love of the Lord. It mentions the strong fortification in Mount Zion, the hill that overlooked Jerusalem, and by which Jerusalem was defended. It says that the foreign kings trembled when they saw the strength of the fortifications on Mount Zion. Jerusalem was a safe and secure centre for the kingdom of God’s people, with the temple of Jerusalem right at its heart.
But then we see a complete contrast in the reading from the book of Haggai. In this reading God’s chosen people, now called the Jews, have returned to Jerusalem and are starting to rebuild the temple following the most devastating and traumatic period of their history. Round about 600 BC the Judeans had been conquered by the Babylonians who came from the area that we now call Iraq. This was an absolutely catastrophic experience for the God’s people. Jerusalem was completely overrun. Many Judeans were killed and their bodies left unburied in the street. The temple in Jerusalem was first plundered and then destroyed completely. The remaining Judeans, or most of them, (certainly all the leaders and educated people) were taken off to Babylon where they lived as slaves in exile. Psalm 137 tells us of the torment and bitterness of the exiles. But with the great suffering came a great purification. God taught his people to focus on Him and on His laws. And then after about 70 years of exile God delivered his people back home again in a miraculous and extraordinary way. Babylon was conquered by the Persians and King Cyrus of Persia encouraged the Jews to go back to Jerusalem and he encouraged them to rebuild the temple. This was a wonderful deliverance, beyond anything that the Jews could have hoped for. But the task of rebuilding the life of the nation in Jerusalem and of rebuilding the temple were still fraught with difficulties and progress was extremely slow.
In the passage that we read we heard God, through the prophet Haggai, stir up his people to get on with this work. Above all he encourages them. He says, “My spirit abides among you, do not fear.” He asks if there is anyone left who can remember the temple of old. Although the new temple still appears poor and insignificant compared to the great temple of old, God assures the people that he will make it great. “In a little while…I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and fill this house with splendour” says the Lord of Hosts. “The latter splendour of this house will be greater than the former,” says the Lord.
In our New Testament reading from 1 Corinthians, St Paul compares himself to a skilled master builder, because he has laid the foundations of the church in Corinth. After Paul had left Corinth, Apollus, a well respected Christian of the early church (Acts 18:24), had continued to build and develop the Church in Corinth. We know that Paul wanted Apollos to be a church leader in Corinth (1 Cor 16:12) and that he was infuriated that the church in Corinth sometimes divided itself with some saying that they followed the teaching of Paul and some the teaching of Apollos (see 1 Cor 1 10-13).
Of course when Paul talks about building the church in Corinth he does not mean a physical church building, rather he means the Church, the people of God, the body of Christ. Paul describes the Church as the temple of the living God (2 Cor 6:16, see also Eph 2:21) and he sees himself, and others, as builders of that temple. He emphasises that Jesus Christ is the foundation of the Church (1 Cor 3:11). He goes on to say that that the work of himself, Paul, of Apollos, and of the other different people who have worked to build up the church will be tested by fire. What does this mean?
Well a physical temple building built of gold and precious stones will be resistant to fire, whereas a temple built of wood, hay and straw will easily burn up. The quality of a physical temple can therefore be tested by fire. A well built temple will endure fire, a more cheaply built temple will be destroyed by fire. Similarly if a church is solidly build on the foundation of Jesus Christ and on Christ Crucified (1 Cor 1 18 & 22 also 2:2) then it will stand the test of fire. This presumably means the test of suffering, of persecution, of loss.
So just as many different stones are built together to make a temple building, so we, the different members of the church, are being built together into a temple, a dwelling place for God where God lives by his spirit (Eph 2:21). Paul’s analogy is a very good one. The different stones in a temple building each have different functions, and so it is in the Church. Some stones are more visible than others. Some stones carry more weight than others. Some stones are beautifully carved, some more ordinary looking. But all of the stones have a role, and if any of them were missing then the building would lack something. And so it is with us in the church. Over time God carves us, or moulds us to fulfil the purpose he has for us in the church. We have different roles by which we serve one another within the life of the church. We need to be attentive to God in prayer, and attentive to the Christians around us in order to discern our role, and how we fit in. With love, we each need to serve the other people in the church, in the specific way that God wants us to serve. Also we need to receive service from the other Christians in the church with joy and thanksgiving. We each need to trust God, knowing that by following his will we will find roles that sustain us and fulfil us and lead us on the path to heaven.
But for a temple to be a temple it must be the dwelling place of God. We all know that God is present in his church through his Word proclaimed and through his sacraments, but God is present in other ways too. In 2 Corinthians 6:16, Paul quotes the prophets to explain that when we are formed together to be the temple of the living God, God will live with us, and walk about among us. He will be our God and we shall be his people. Similarly in Matthew 18:20 Jesus promises that he will be present in the midst of people united in his name. This means that when we meet together as church we must meet together united in the name of Jesus, following the commandments of Jesus, especially his New Commandment of mutual love. When we do this Jesus is present in our midst.
And in this there is a wonderful hint of the future promise of God. In the book of Revelation chapter 21 we can read about the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. In the New Jerusalem God makes his home among the mortals and dwells with them. The New Jerusalem is built of gold and of the most precious stones and it shines with the glory of God. There is no sun or moon, for all is illuminated by the glory of God. Most interesting of all, there is no temple in the New Jerusalem for the whole city is the dwelling place of God. And all the glory and honour of all the nations are brought to the New Jerusalem and all the nations will walk by the glorious light of God.
So let us allow God to form us into his living temple the Church. Let’s do what we can to help God build up his Church. Let’s be united in the name of Jesus, so that Jesus is present in the midst of us, and let’s prepare ourselves to be good citizens of the New Jerusalem where there is no need for a temple because God dwells in the midst of all his people. Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
