In His Holy Temple

          1 Corinthians 3: 10, 11, 16-23

            In the third chapter of Exodus, Moses approaches the person of God, represented by a bush on fire but not consumed. Moses is arrested by God before he can get too close. He is told to remove his sandals, for he is standing on holy ground. In the twenty fifth chapter of Exodus, God again speaks to Moses. Moses is told to speak to the people, to gather contributions from them. In verse 8, God says to Moses “and let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.” In both passages, we are confronted with the concept of holiness, here being connoted as a holy place. What is “holy?” It is that which has been consecrated, or set apart. Why set apart? Because such places are where God dwells. They are made holy by the presence of God.

          Flash forward to the third chapter of 1^st Corinthians, where the apostle Paul addresses the new Christians in the city of Corinth. Paul probably wrote the letter while in Ephesus, where he was laboring to establish a church plant as he had done in Corinth. The Corinthian church was plagued with problems of immorality, of leadership and of pride. Paul sought to help his flock right their course.  “Do you not know you are God’s temple?” asked Paul. Do you not know “that God’s spirit dwells in you?”

          In Exodus 3, God is talking to Moses. God says: I am here. Don’t come any closer. You’re standing on holy ground, a place I have set aside for myself.  Again, in Exodus 8, God says to Moses that he wants God’s people to build him a sanctuary, a place for God to dwell in the midst of his people.

          So what is Paul getting at in Corinthians? Do you know that you are God’s temple? he asks.  Who is “you?” Paul must be talking about the corporate body known as the church. If the temple is a place, then “you” must be the church. Certainly Paul is writing to the church, specifically the church in Corinth and universally, churches everywhere. “You are God’s temple” must mean that you, the church, are God’s temple.

          That could hardly be called wrong. Surely the church is the temple where God dwells, the sanctuary where God’s Spirit is in the midst of his people. But as surely as such an interpretation bears a ring of truth, it just as surely sells Paul’s message short of its mark. The Greek word for church is ecclesia or “gathering”…a gathering, in this instance, of God’s people. So we may fairly read this sentence as saying that “you, the people of God, are God’s sacred dwelling place.” When read in this light, it becomes more personal. Each of us is the dwelling place of God. Each of us is that sacred place, that sanctuary, set aside by God for his Spirit to live.

A young couple in our church was recently blessed with the arrival of a baby boy. I know they are very happy to be parents and to have their son Luke, as are his grandparents. But I can’t help but wonder if they were really ready for a baby who came six weeks earlier than expected. Was the nursery ready? Was the crib assembled and the linens bought? Were all the many things in place that go with receiving an infant into a home?

I remember when my first child came. Rebekah was adopted and came to us at three months of age. We had one day’s notice. I remember my church throwing an “emergency” baby shower for us the next week. We were not prepared for what came our way. If I were meant to be Rebekah’s sanctuary, I had to catch up fast to be able to bring her into my midst.
          Well, of course, we got prepared in a hurry for our new baby. I’m sure that the new parents, with plenty of assistance offered by their families, also got all their final preparations completed in a New York minute for little Luke. That’s what we do for our children. We look after them. We move mountains for those we love simply because we love them. They are in our midst and we will give them a dwelling place with love. We offer them sanctuary, a place set apart. 

Shouldn’t we do at least as much for our father God, for his Holy Spirit, as we do for our children? God is living in you right now. His Spirit is roaming around inside you, trying to find a place to sit down and get comfortable. What does the living room of your heart look like? Have you got the home fire burning? Did you leave the light on at the door? After all, God gave you that body. He gave you that conscience and those gifts.

What does Paul say about that? He says that “God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” And think about this. Paul does not qualify the condition of that temple. He says that we are the temple of God, ready or not. Even if we’re all mixed up and messed up, God comes calling and wants to dwell within us. If we believe in him, then God’s Spirit dwells in us in sanctuary. Do you have room? Do you have God’s temple in order?

Church buildings are important. They are meeting places for God’s people to gather, to worship, to fellowship. But they are not God’s temple. God cannot be confined to a few buildings scattered across the landscape. God is the author of that landscape, and the jewel in the crown of that creation is his people! The temple of God is not the buildings in which we meet. The temple of God is the people of God. That is where God’s Spirit dwells. When God says he wants to be in our midst, he takes center stage in the heart and body of every single believer!

Before we leave this passage, we would do well to observe Paul’s warning. “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him.” There’s really no need for interpretation here. It is a stern warning to God’s people of every age. There will be judgment for those who choose to mistreat God’s temple.

Origen was a great 3^rd century philosopher and theologian. Some of his ideas have not held up over time, but many have. He has this to say about the subject: “We are most of all God’s temple when we prepare ourselves to receive the Holy Spirit.” I think that exactly what Paul was trying to point out to the early church. We need to be prepared to receive God’s Spirit. And when we do, then he is truly in our midst. He has picked us as his dwelling place. He has picked each of us as his temple.

Throw on a log, vacuum the rug, sweep off the porch and light a candle. God is coming for a visit and you need to be prepared. He wants to stay…in his holy temple…and that temple is you.

Let us pray

2/23/14

Setting the Record Straight

Matthew 5: 21-48

          Outside St. Giles Church in Oxford, England, stands a beautiful neo-gothic spire known as Martyr’s Memorial. It was erected in 1842 as a tribute to three men who were burned at the stake for heresy in the reign of Bloody Mary during the sixteenth century. If you walk about twenty meters down Broad Street, you will come to a cross of bricks set in the road, the actual site of the execution of Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, two Anglican bishops, and Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury. It’s just a small place in the street where the pavement is peeled back. Cars drive over it all the time. Those men lived during the English Reformation, the time when the Church of England broke from the Roman Catholic Church. During the short reign of Mary after Henry VIII died, she wanted to return the Church to Roman Catholicism. The Oxford Three resisted her and found themselves convicted of heresy. Mary had her own set of rules. They wanted to set the record straight, but it would cost them. It was a tough time to be a Christian in England.

          Forty years earlier, across the English Channel in Germany, a young college professor named Martin Luther was struggling mightily with the many rules of the Church. The printing press had been operating for almost sixty years and people were learning to read, as reading material was becoming accessible to everyone. The Church didn’t like this, but Luther became convinced that the Church had lost sight of its central truths. It was 1517. Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church because he wanted to set the record straight. Luther knew that salvation comes from God’s grace, and God’s grace cannot be bought with tithes and indulgences.  The Protestant Reformation had started.  

So many more, before and after, from Steven, the first martyr for Christ, to Paul, to Thomas Beckett, to Dietrich Bonheoffer. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs is full of stories of heroes of the faith. Why did they try so hard? Why didn’t they learn to compromise? Why did they have to die just to make their point?

Chapters 5-7 of Matthew’s gospel are loaded with pearls from Jesus as he teaches his disciples. In this passage, Jesus says not once, but six times the phrase, “You have heard that it was said, but I say…” or something close to it. This section is often called the six antitheses because all six sections begin with this phrase. Jesus uses it as a setup phrase. In each case, he is about to clarify the meaning of Scripture or to correct some misinterpretation of it.  Jesus talks about murder and anger, adultery, divorce, oaths and swearing, retaliation, and treatment of our enemies. All the Scriptural references except one seem to come from the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. In looking at what Jesus is teaching, it is again helpful to understand what he is not doing before we move on to what he is doing. Jesus is not saying that what they know is false and what he teaches is true. He does not contradict the Scriptures. Also, he is not trying to play legalism against real commitment. So what is Jesus doing?

Like so many other times in Scripture, we need to feel our way. God speaks to us in Scripture. God speaks and things happen. Oceans and mountains are formed. God breathes and mankind comes into being. The Hebrew word is ruach, meaning breath, or wind, or spirit. When God speaks though the written word, we must wait for it to come alive in our hearts, to quicken and be breathed into our souls.

Jesus talks about murder and says that anger can be a sin just as grievous. He tells us to apologize and make up before we ask for God’s forgiveness. He talks about adultery and tells us that the lust of our minds wounds God as deeply as the act itself. He condones adultery only on the grounds of sexual immorality.

When it comes to oaths and swearing, acts that had severe consequences in the first century, Jesus says speak the truth grown from  your own character and let that be enough. As to the old law of retaliation, called lex talionis, an eye for an eye, Jesus seems to be saying that the law was meant to purge evil from among us and that the best way to do so is to act from charity and generosity.

The last item on the menu is loving one’s enemy. The Old Testament never said that we should hate our enemy. It was a given that God hates evil, so it wasn’t such a leap to think that we must be correct in hating those who embody evil. The thing is it’s not there in Scripture. We are to love our neighbor and we know that neighbor is a pretty comprehensive term. So what does Jesus say? He says leave the judging to God. Emulate his love and leave the rest to God.

In all these teachings, Jesus clarifies misunderstandings and points to the truths contained in the law of God. The law of God is not a “don’t” religion, but rather a “do” religion. It is not the letter of the law that brings us to the throne of grace. It is, rather, the spirit, the ruach, of God breathed in us and through us that captures the essence of the gospel.

          During his short ministry here on earth, Jesus broke a lot of rules. He healed on the Sabbath. That was “work” according to the Pharisees’ application of Jewish law. He overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple courtyard. He equated himself with God. Breaking the Sabbath, causing a near riot at the temple and blasphemy. Jesus was a rule breaker. He didn’t play by the rules of the day. The rules of the day were made by men. Even when they quoted Scripture, they applied their own limited understanding to the interpretation of those rules.

Jesus taught his disciples, and we are numbered among that group, the law of love. It is a simple law. Love your way through the hurt. Love your way through the pain. Love your way through the darkness and back into the light.  1 John 4: 8 tells us that God is love. Listen to that again. God is love! Play it backwards. Love is God! Pass it forward. God is love. Want to be with God? Love somebody. Love somebody who is hard to love. Love is hard. Love is rich but it is costly. Love hurts. Love heals.

Jesus never changed a single word of Scripture. Jesus never broke a single law of God. He just applied the rules with love. Why was it so important to set the record straight? After all, he could have lived much longer if he had just stayed inside the lines with the religious rulers.

Jesus had no choice. He loves us. Love does. There is no bending the rule of love. Love is the ruach, the spirit, of life.  When Hugh Latimer went to the stake with his friend Nicolas Ridley, he uttered these famous words: “Be of good cheer, Master Ridley, and play the man, for we shall this day light such a candle in England as I trust by God’s grace shall never be put out.” What a candle they and others lit for the Reformation! But we don’t have to burn at the stake to keep God’s record straight in our own lives and our own homes. We just have to see the rules for what they are and know how to color outside the lines when we are called upon to do so.

So when you read God’s Word, feel your way. From the light God created in Genesis 1 to the light God supplies in Revelation 22, God is our light. He is loving you as you pour over his Word. There is a message there for you and it is pure. Read for the dos, because love does. The record is straight on that, too.

Let us pray

2/16/14

Let It Shine

Matthew 5: 13-20

            In the gospel of Matthew, the author wastes no time getting into Jesus’ ministry. Chapters 1 and 2 contain the genealogy, the birth narrative, the flight to Egypt and the return to Nazareth. Chapters 3 and 4 cover Jesus’ baptism, his temptation, his calling of the first disciples and the beginning of his ministry in Galilee. Chapter 5 opens with the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus appears to be teaching his disciples. Immediately after the Beatitudes, Jesus continues with his famous salt and light statements. Apparently still talking to the disciples, he says to them, “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world.” He then goes on to explain a little about what he means when he uses these terms to describe his followers.

          What does salt mean to you? You use it on food. Why? To give it more taste, of course. Salt is essential to our taste buds, so much so that the human tongue is actually designed to feel four different taste sensations: salt, sour, bitter and sweet. Salt is that important to our taste. Salt enhances and enriches the flavor of food.  For most of us, and many four legged friends as well, salt is like a magnet. Hunters of generations past used to scout for salt deposits along river banks, called salt licks because deer would come to them to do just that…to lick the salt. So hunting deer became a salty proposition.

Salt has another use. It is a natural preservative. We are not so far removed that we don’t have some knowledge of our grandparents curing ham and other meat by salting it down and letting it hang in a dry space until it cures. Salt is still used in some form or another as a preservative in many of the foods we buy.

Salt is also a healing agent. We gargle with salt water to soothe our sore throats and soak our cuts in salt water to speed the healing process. Whether enriching our taste or preserving our food or speeding our healing, salt has always been a valuable commodity in our lives.

But what if salt loses its flavor? What if it somehow sours? What is its use then? Can it be restored? My scientist friends tell me that salt is a very stable chemical compound. As long as it remains dry, it can retain its saltiness virtually forever. As we all know from common sense, salt dissolves in water. The more it is diluted, the less it remains salty until finally, it completely disappears. Even though it is still there, it has changed its properties and is no longer recognizable or useful.

About now, you might be thinking how amazing our Lord was in being able to define us in the most simple ways. If we are his disciples, then we are the salt of the earth. If we are his disciples, we enhance and enrich the lives of all those with whom we come in contact. If we are his disciples, we help preserve his kingdom and we even help heal those within it who need help…just like salt. But…if we allow ourselves to become diluted by introducing other things into the mix, then sooner or later, we lose all our taste, all our healing power, all our usefulness, to the point where we are not even recognizable or useful as disciples anymore.

“You are the light of the world,” says Jesus to his disciples.  Light is a big theme in the Bible. The King James Version uses it about 272 times. Light is associated with Jesus, with understanding, with discernment, to name a few concepts. John called Jesus the light of the world and here in Matthew, Jesus uses the same term to refer to his disciples. Notice what Jesus doesn’t say. He doesn’t say you will be the light or you could be the light or even you should be the light. Jesus says you are the light!

A little light goes a long way. There’s an old story about three youngsters who were each given money by an old fella with instructions to go into town and buy as much as they could to fill up a room. The first youngster bought hay with his money and it filled up a whole side of the room. The second child bought straw and it filled up almost half the room. The third child came back with only a small candle and a flint. But then as he struck the flint upon a rock and caused a spark to light that little candle, the whole room was flooded with light. All that light from one candle… A little light goes a long way.

A few years ago, Cindy and I were blessed to tour some old churches and cathedrals in Scotland and England as part of a religious history course that I was taking in seminary. For almost two weeks we wandered through some of the great churches in those countries, some over a thousand years old. We marveled at the architecture, the arches and the stained glass windows. We marveled at the stories of many who gave their lives during various points in history for the advancement of the Gospel. Inside those cathedrals, the awesomeness of God was somehow more real to me. I was reminded of a story I once read about a young man who took a similar tour and upon his return was asked by his Sunday school teacher how he would define a saint. His answer was classic. He said “A saint is a person the light shines through.”

“You are the light of the world,” said Jesus, not to everyone, but to his disciples. You build a city on a hill, he said, and you can’t hide it. It can be seen from miles around. It you light a light, you don’t hide it. That defeats the purpose of the light. Light is to give off illumination for all around it to see. If you let the light shine, then it gives light to all around it. If you hide the light, none will benefit. It will be as useless as salt diluted in water.

In the same way that we light each candle from the candle of another in an evening church service, Jesus stood in front of his disciples as both human and divine light. His disciples became the human counterpart of the candles we light, and they became the reflection of that divine light. They became saints, just like the boy in our story told his Sunday school teacher. They let the light of Jesus shine through them.

Jesus said it. “In the same way [that a lamp gives light to all the house], let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Let me take a minute here to show you a little film clip from another disciple, a twentieth century disciple named Billy Graham. It’s a humorous anecdote, but it illustrates a point that needs to be made.

 Youtube clip of Graham, Shea and Barrows singing Let It Shine

Billy Graham always left the singing to Bev Shea and Cliff Barrows, but in this one moment, he surprised everyone by poking a little fun at himself while making a huge point. Reverend Graham laughingly said that This Little Light of Mine was the only song they could do. I doubt that, but if it were true, wouldn’t that be just fine. If you have only one thing to do, only one song to sing, what better choice!

                             This little light of mine.

                             I’m gonna let it shine.

                             Hide it under a bushel,

                             No!

                             I’m gonna let it shine.

Let it shine, Let it shine, Let it shine.

          Be salt. Stay salt. Stay tasty and help preserve the good. Don’t let your character get diluted by the showers of life. Be light, and reflect your Savior. Let his light shine through you. And to God be the glory!

Let us pray

2/9/14

The Word of the Cross

1 Corinthians 1: 18-31

            In the twenty first century, nations are still striving to govern themselves under a variety of forms. In the Middle East, many nations are still governed as religious states. In Africa, new labels have hardly replaced old tribal dominance. Communism and Socialism still survive in various forms. Democracy, the form that George Washington called an “experiment,” still thrives in the United States and is practiced in some form number of other countries. After all these centuries, we have yet to settle as a planet on the best form of government. There’s a good reason for that. Governments in whatever form are still run by people, and people can get selfish, greedy and prideful.

The situation was not much different in Paul’s day. In first century Corinth, the subculture of Judaism competed for space with the dominant Greek culture brought by Roman occupation and rule. Corinth was a place where many cultures and religions co-mingled. In Paul’s day, it was a wide open town where anything could happen and generally did. The worship of pagan religion stood side by side with Judaism and this new cult called Christians. The new church plant was struggling. It had many questions for Paul and wrote to him about a number of issues from marriage and divorce to bodily resurrection. They were struggling to find their identity amid much competition for their attention. Paul, probably in Ephesus at the time, wrote them back and let them know that they were out of step with the gospel and had their priorities and loyalties out of order. 1 Corinthians is a love letter, but it is a “tough love” letter.

Paul talks about the “word of the cross.” What a strange phrase! “Word” in John’s gospel is God come to earth in human form. We think of the “Word of God” as the Bible, the written word of God, the collection of all the Holy Scriptures.  We think of Jesus as the “Living Word” of God, the conqueror of death. He lives today and speaks to us through the promised Holy Spirit.  

The word of the cross. What is it?  I think Paul is saying something different from John’s gospel. He takes us to another level of understanding. It does speak to us, but what does Paul mean? Well, in true Presbyterian fashion, I’m going to suggest three things that it means.  First, it is the zenith of God’s self-disclosure.  God reveals himself through nature. God reveals himself through the prophets. God reveals himself through his Son Jesus. But most of all, God reveals himself through the love act that takes place on the cross. Want to really know God? Meet him at the cross!

Secondly, that “word” represented by the cross requires an act of faith. Paul points to the Jews, who demand signs, as if the mighty acts of Jesus were anything less. He then mentions the Greeks, who seek wisdom, as if the teaching of Jesus imparted something less. His answer is our answer. Paul says that “we preach Christ crucified,” meaning that the atonement of our Savior for our sins is the defining moment in history. It has only one correct response. That response is neither sign nor wisdom but faith… faith alone in Jesus alone.

Last, the word of the cross is that God’s grace, not money or power or pedigree, informs us of the membership in this royal family. But as much as the lowly and the meek now take their place at God’s table, we who would do so are warned that pride is the enemy of both low and high. We cannot take any pride in the fact that we are called, for it is the grace of God that calls us. It is the power of God that saves us.

How can we find this power, this grace, this wisdom? Paul’s answer is painfully simple. We can find it at the cross. When Paul says this, when Paul talks about the word of the cross, he is talking about Jesus. The revelation of God, the complete disclosure that leaves nothing back, is Jesus. The act of faith that brings us to the foot of the cross is the act of believing in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The wisdom we must obtain is that the source of it all is God’s love and God’s amazing grace. We can never boast or take credit for that.

“We preach Christ crucified,” said Paul. What he meant to the Corinthians still holds true today. God has revealed himself in his Son. Christ is our wisdom. Christ is our righteousness. Christ is our redemption. He is the power of God and the wisdom of God incarnate for all to see, but our vision will not come through anything short of grace itself. This is real wisdom, when we meet Jesus at the cross, when we recognize the overwhelming love contained in that act of sacrifice.

The wisdom of this world cannot save us. Only our obedience to the Word…the word of the cross…to the gospel of Jesus Christ, can save us. When we understand this word, the word of the cross, then we, too, can preach Christ crucified…and risen!

Let us pray

2/2/14