You call that a Temple?
Good
Afternoon. My name is Ray Foss, and I am
a Temple.
You are too. Did you know
you are a temple? What kind of Temple
are you?
Well, we’ll talk about
temples today; but let’s back up a bit, and start at the beginning…
If
we go back to the beginning, at the start, God walked in the Garden, with Adam
and Eve, in the Garden of Eden. That’s
what the book of Genesis tells us. God was with them, really right with them in
the Garden, until the Fall from Grace.
And
God was with them, the Jewish people, starting with Abraham and his
descendants, patriarchs, like Isaac and Jacob.
God
heard their cries when they were in Egypt and God was with them, with Moses,
imparting the law, on the mountain. God was a pillar of fire by night and a
great cloud by day.
They
carried the law with them, the priests of the people; they set up the
Tabernacle, the tent of the meeting.
Here is an image of what
the Tabernacle looked like.
Later,
they had kings, and did not travel around. So they decided to build a temple
where God could dwell with them.
Do you know who built the
first temple?
David
brought the ark with the law into Jerusalem. But it was his son, Solomon, who built
the first Temple on Temple Mount. It was built around 960BCE and destroyed in 587BCE.
Here is an image of the
Temple of Solomon.
We
have the wonderful language in the bible that talks about the presence of God
dwelling in the Ark of the Covenant, in the First Temple. This was hidden in
the Holy of Holies.
Do you know how many
temples there were?
Nehemiah
and Ezra rebuilt the Temple after the Babylonian exile;
Herod
the Great made it larger. (20BCE)
Here is an image of the
Temple of Herod.
And here is an image of
the Temple Mount at the time of Jesus.
Now,
only the High Priest could enter into the Holy of Holies, and only once a year,
to atone for sin, with innocent blood. That was on Yom Kipper.
But,
Symbolically, and literally, the Holy of Holies was ripped open at the moment
Christ died on Calvary.
Matthew
27:51 tells us:
“At that moment the curtain of the temple was
torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split”.
From
then on the Holy of Holies, the home of God, was no longer set apart for the
priests. Christ became the way for people to dwell with God, to enter in.
But
that doesn’t get us to our temple story fully, not just yet.
What happened on
Pentecost?
With
the coming of Pentecost, in Acts 2:1-21, we hear the great wind of the Holy
Spirit falling down from heaven and alighting over each disciple. The Holy
Spirit was gifted to each one.
But,
again, that was the Jewish believers at that point.
With
the story of Cornelius in Acts 10 and Acts 11, we see Peter baptizing the first
Gentiles into the faith. They too received the Holy Spirit.
1
Corinthians 3:16-17 reads, and I’m reading from the English Standard Version (ESV).
Listen for the Word of God for you and me the people of God
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 him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that
temple.
The
Holy of Holies, the presence of God abides in each of us. Not just some, not
only one day a year, for all who believe. That’s the good news.
The
short scripture for today speaks to who and what we are. It speaks to both our
bodies and our souls.
So,
the Spirit doesn’t just land on us, it lives within us. We are to be a Temple
of the Holy Spirit, a living place, the Holy of Holies for the living Spirit.
That is our gift and our responsibility.
How do we do that?
We
abide in Christ. In John 15, English Standard Version (ESV)
15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. …
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the
branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can
you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches.
Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart
from me you can do nothing. …
9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in
my love. 10 If you keep my commandments,
you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and
abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to
you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
We
love as He loved. Again, from John 15,
12 “This is my commandment, that
you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life
for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for
the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have
called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you
that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should
abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he
may give it to you.17 These
things I command you, so that you will love one another.
We
will live in Christ, we abide in the vine. We love as He loved. In this way we
are a Temple of the Spirit, a worthy clay vessel for the treasure we hold. (2
Corinthians 4:7-18)
We live in this purpose, carrying the Spirit of God. We become a
sanctuary for others and we become the church together. (two of my favorite hymns)
hymn Sanctuary:
Lord, prepare me to be a
sanctuary
Pure and holy, tried and
true
With thanksgiving, I'll
be a living
Sanctuary for You
and
hymn: “We Are The Church”
The church is not a
building;
the church is not a
steeple;
the church is not a
resting place;
the church is a people.
Refrain:
I am the church! You are
the church!
We are the church
together!
All who follow Jesus,
all around the world!
Yes, we're the church
together!
That
is really how all of us can be a Temple of the Holy Spirit; by living and being
the church together.
Amen.
====
July
24, 2014
1
Corinthians 3:16-17
Acts
2:1-21
Acts
10
John
15:1-11
John
15:12-17
2
Corinthians 4:7-18
hymn:
“Sanctuary”
hymn:
“We Are The Church”
sermon “You
call that a Temple”
by
Raymond A. Foss
Stetson Memorial United Methodist Church
Monthly
service at Mt. Heights Health Care Facility
Patten, ME
July 25,
2014
All
of my poems are copyrighted by Raymond A. Foss, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,
2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014. All rights
reserved. Contact me at Ray Foss for usage.
See all 31,320+ of my poems at www.raymondafoss.blogspot.com
Poetry Where You Live.
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