Church of the Incarnation

I love our church building. I love all the beautiful wood and the little crosses made with such care. I love the pews, procured with love and worn smooth by generations of worshipers. I love all the beautiful silver communion pieces, each one a remembrance of a loved one. I love to sit in here in the quiet, listening to the creak of the roof in the sunshine. I feel God's presence here.

But my love for this structure can't compare with what Jesus followers felt - and devout Jews everywhere still feel - for the temple at Jerusalem.

To understand their devotion to the temple, we need to understand a little of its history. As the people wandered in the desert looking for the Promised Land, God had commanded them to build an ark, a box they could carry with them. God promised to be present in that ark. So as long as they carried the ark with them, they knew God was right there. When the people settled in the land of Israel, they no longer needed to transport the ark, and they wanted to build a suitable home for it, a home for God. So during King Solomon's reign, in about the tenth century BCE, the temple was built in Jerusalem. It was the largest, most splendid building ever conceived. There were areas that were open to people of all faiths and also areas where only devout Jews could worship. And at the center was the Holy of Holies, the place where the ark came to rest, the place where God resided. Only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies, and he could only enter it once a year, to ask God to forgive the people. The temple complex held baths where those who had been made ritually impure could come for cleansing. And it held the rooms where the great rabbis would sit and teach the people so they could grow in their knowledge and love of God. And it was in the temple that sacrifices were offered so the people could be restored to right relationships with God. All Jewish worship began in the Jerusalem temple and spread out from there. The Temple served as a tangible reminder of God's abiding presence with the people and also of God's faithfulness in leading them out of their desert wanderings and giving them the stability of the Promised Land.

Then in 586 BCE the Babylonians stormed Jerusalem, destroying the temple, and hauling the people away into captivity. For 50 years they lived in a strange land, oppressed and powerless.

They had lost the Promised Land. And with the temple gone, they felt they had lost God as well. When they were finally released and allowed to return to their land, the first thing they did was prepare God a home. They rebuilt the temple according to Solomon's exact specifications, And they experienced God's presence with them again. They worshiped and learned, made sacrifices and were cleansed. And each time they looked at the splendid Temple they remembered God's unswerving faithfulness to them.

Jesus and his disciples are leaving this temple and one of them comments on the size and strength of the structure. Jesus looks at the disciple and says, "Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down." 1

For the disciples, Jesus wasn't just suggesting the destruction of a building. He was predicting the doom of their relationship with God, of the sacrifices and teachings that led them to God, of God's physical presence among them, and of their reminder of God's faithfulness. Without the Temple, how would they know God?

The answer was right in front of them. Jesus. With Jesus among them, whether physically then or spiritually later, they no longer needed the Temple. They didn't need to sit at the feet of the rabbis to learn about God; they could go directly to Jesus. And they didn't need to bathe to become pure enough for God; they could go to Jesus just as they were. And there was no longer need for elaborate sacrifices to God; Jesus was about to become the sacrifice which would pay the price for all of us for all time.

I don't think Jesus is saying there's anything inherently wrong with worship in a temple - obviously. But I think he's saying to hold that worship as a way to Him only. All of this can be taken away from us - terrorists can slam planes into the Twin Towers and a serial killer can run loose in our town and a soldier can turn his weapon on his own men, but Jesus is always there. The economy can crash, we can lose our jobs and our parents, we can get cancer, but Jesus is always there. We don't need some elaborate, man-created way to reach God. Jesus has done all the work for us.

So we can relax and hold onto the things of this world a little less tightly, remembering that Jesus holds us always.

The Psalm for today expresses this hope and comfort so well:

	I have set the Lord always before me
		because he is my right hand I shall not fall.
	My heart, therefore, is glad, and my spirit rejoices;
		my body also shall rest in hope.
	For you will not abandon me to the grave,
		nor let your holy one see the Pit.
	You will show me the path of life;
		in your presence there is fullness of joy,
		and in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.

Amen.

References:

1. Mark 13:2