1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23
10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a
skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it.
Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. 11 For
no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that
foundation is Jesus Christ. 16 Do
you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?17 If
anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person. For God's temple is
holy, and you are that temple. 18 Do
not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should
become fools so that you may become wise. 19 For
the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, "He
catches the wise in their craftiness," 20 and
again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile." 21 So
let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, 22 whether
Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the
future—all belong to you, 23 and
you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been
laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. Do you not know that you
are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
·
I’m about
to say a few obvious things and if I say something that is not factual, I’d be
pleased if one (or more) of you would provide me with the truth.
·
I’ve been
told that this church building was built a few years after the founding of the
congregation in 1946. There are photos of the procession of the congregation
from the pastor’s house to this building. What a wonderful day it must have
been!
·
I’ve been
told never to mess with the statue of Jesus that graces our altar. My first
Lent here, I asked if the statues should be removed for the season or if they
should be covered somehow. I was quickly informed that that was not a good
idea. The statue predated the founding of the congregation when local Lutherans
gathered in various homes to hear the preaching of a pastor who came down from
Kitchener.
·
The altar
vessels go back to the founding of the congregation. There is a small home
Communion kit that was squirreled away in one of the cabinets. The tiny chalice
is engraved with the congregation’s name and the year of its founding. It was
just too nice leave hidden away and not use.
·
Locked in
the safe in the church office are the record books of the church where we
record baptisms, confirmations, and deaths within the congregation. Some are
required by the province of Ontario (the marriage registry) and others are
required by the Synod and the national Church.
·
Look around
you. This building is rather plain and that simplicity and plainness has a
beauty of its own. Some members of the congregation have given me their
theories as to why the sanctuary is the way it is. I must admit they sound good
to me.
·
If we take
stock of all the things that have just been enumerated – the founding of the
congregation, the building of the church building, the value of the implements
we use in our worship and in our congregational life – we’ve left out a few
important points of this congregation.
·
First, this
building is not the church. In the Eastern Christian tradition, this is
made quite clear – the building is referred to as a “temple.” The Church is
something else. In fact, WE are the Church; we happen to gather here for
worship and other congregational events.
·
Paul wrote
to the Christians in Corinth Do you
not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
He wrote that he laid a foundation for others to build on. The growth of the
church in Corinth would be the responsibility of someone else and Paul appear
to accept that. This would only be possible if everyone knows that Paul is not
the foundation, nor is it any specific idea. The foundation is Jesus Christ. He
and he alone is the solid foundation on which Paul’s and the Corinthians’ faith
rests. Our faith rests on the foundation of Jesus Christ as well.
·
Paul make
his point to the Corinthians by reminding them that they are the dwelling place
of God on earth: Do you not know
that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
·
In the understanding
of the Jewish people of the time, the Temple in Jerusalem was the place on
earth where the presence of God was to be found most particularly and most
strongly. For Paul to use that word when speaking of the community of
Christians teaches the Corinthian congregation – and us as well – that God’s
Spirit dwells with them as much as the Jewish people believed the Temple did.
If God’s life and presence were to be found anywhere on earth, that presence
would be found in the Temple. For Christians, the temple is the congregation of
Christians. Each of us is a part of the congregation, that temple. In us, the
presence of God is to be found.
·
Sometimes
we don’t do that so well. We don’t reflect the presence of God or act as those
in whom God dwells. As true as that is on a practical level, it doesn’t make
God’s presence within us – individually and congregationally – any less true.
It obscures it and covers it up. And that’s what daily repentance is for.
·
It is the
nature of grace that it is a free gift. It is the nature of salvation by grace
that it is a free gift that will not be withdrawn, although it might be
rejected. It is the nature of the Gospel of grace that grace and salvation come
to us in most unexpected ways. This leads to unexpected changes in our lives,
as Jesus says in today’s Gospel reading: I
say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so
that you may be children of your Father in heaven…
·
Here are
the word of a extraordinary man of the Spirit in our own day. Archbishop
Desmond Tutu is a retired bishop of the Anglican Church in South Africa, an
advocate for oppressed people world-wide, and a winner of the Noble Peace
prize. On this very subject he wrote: “Each of us is a
God-carrier, a tabernacle, a sanctuary of the Divine Trinity, and God loves us
not because we are loveable but because he first loved us. This turns our
values up-side-down – showing us that the Gospel is the most radical thing
imaginable.”
·
The Gospel is the most radical thing
imaginable. What could be more radical than Love your enemies and pray for
those who persecute you, so that you may be children of
your Father in heaven?
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