Words of Faith: God’s temple is His people

Last year during my vacation, I traveled to Italy. We had a day touring the center of Rome. It seemed that at every turn our guided was saying, “And this was a Temple to a god.” We even visited the Pantheon, which originally was a temple to many of the Roman gods.

It was believed that the god lived in the Temple – it was the god’s domain. And if you wanted to please the god, you would make sacrificial offerings at the temple.

In the seventh chapter of the Old Testament book of Second Samuel , we hear that King David wished to build a temple to the Lord. Many of the nations around Israel had their own gods who they worshipped and these gods had temples. I’m sure it seemed right to David that his God should have a temple also.

Having a Temple was a comfort to the people. It provided them something to touch. It gave them a way to understand their God. It may also have given them a sense of control over God. But God tells David “no.”

“Are you the one to build me a house to live in?” God asks.

You can hear the irony in the question. The idea of confining God, the creator of heaven and earth, to a building was ridiculous. But the Lord does have a plan. Instead of his temple being a house made with bricks and mortar, the Lord desires to dwell among his people. The people of Israel will be his temple – they will be the house of God.

Sometimes though – like with David – it’s tempting to focus on the physical building.

Many years ago – long before I went to seminary, I was a member of a congregation that was just starting. We were a community of people. We didn’t have a building. Instead we borrowed a building from another denomination on Sunday afternoons. Eventually we saved our money and did build a building. After we dedicated that building, lots of new people came to join us. I remember hearing one new person comment, “I’m glad they decided to build a new Episcopal Church here.” Though I wasn’t very theologically informed at the time, I knew this statement wasn’t correct. Even before that building was built, we were the Church of Jesus Christ.

The dwelling place of God is not the brick and mortar structure. Instead the dwelling place of God is his people.

When the Holy Spirit of God dwells among his people, they are bound together into community. The Greek word for Church – “ecclesia” – means community. We see this community starting to be formed in the Gospel of Mark (Mark 6:7-13, 30) Jesus’ followers were coming together. Jesus taught them. He fed them with the presence of God. Then he sent them out. Here the followers are called apostles. This term means one who is sent by another with a message. These apostles are sent out. They take the message of God’s kingdom out into the world through their words and deeds. They proclaim and teach. They anoint and heal. They bring the life and love of Jesus to his people. This is what it means to be the dwelling place of God. This is what it means to be the Church.

This is our inheritance also. We also are the dwelling place of God. So what does this mean for us today? First it means being a community – pulling together the people of God into one. It involves a recognition that we are interconnected, a realization that we depend on each other. As we live in this community, we are shaped and formed as God’s people. We learn from each other. We hear God speak through each other. We know God’s love through each other. Second, being the community of God means inviting others in. It is not a closed community.

Instead, it is a place where others are invited in to meet Jesus – to be formed themselves as his disciples. Finally, being the community of God means being sent out to do God’s work in God’s world.

When we live this kind of community, God’s life will be evident. God’s life will be visible to all. When we live in this kind of community, God dwells among his people and we are the Temple of the Lord.

This story was originally published May 25, 2016 at 1:18 PM with the headline "Words of Faith: God’s temple is His people."