2024 08 25
proper 16B Pentecost 14B
1 Kings 8:(1,6,10-11), 22-30, 41-43; Psalm 84;
Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69
I’m not a great gardener, but I will often save the seeds of
a mandarin or the top of the pineapple etc…. and plant them… or plan to plant
them and then not get around to it. I
get a huge amount of joy from seeing a seed turn into a plant, but there are
many seeds that don’t grow because I don’t get around to planting them, or I
plant them but don’t get around to watering them, or I plant and water them,
but I don’t get around to weeding and the weeds choke them out. In our lives we get so involved in our
activities. Modern life is busy and
stressful – so much so that sometimes all we can see is “this life”. But this life is only the seed. Today we discover that which is most
important - it is the spirit that is important…. And to walk in the spirit,
dwelling in God’s presence.
Our Psalm today tells us that it is better to spend one day
in the court of the Lord, then to dwell a thousand days elsewhere. Living in the presence of God is where
we find true nourishment and true life – much like a seed that needs to be in
the presence of soil for nourishment.
This spiritual life, where we dwell, or live, in God’s presence, is far
and beyond better than the alternatives.
Our first reading today sets a rather dramatic scene where
Solomon is praying at the dedication of the Temple. Can you imagine going to the dedication of a
building and just as the ceremony begins a thick cloud of the presence of God
fills the place, so much so, that the priests could not minister? The ark of the covenant of the LORD was
brought out of the city of David, and carried to it’s resting place in the
temple, and this is when the cloud filled the place.
It is important that we note that the priests could not stand
to minister. This tells us that there
was no priestly “Magic” involved. There
was no invocation or special actions that controlled our God. In those days, in the surrounding nations’
temples were built for their gods and they believed that the temple would
contain that god, much like putting a genie back in a bottle. But El Shaddai -God almighty, the LORD, can
not be contained, and Solomon acknowledges this in his prayer. Previously, when the Israelites wondered the
desert, the ark had been housed in the tent of meeting. This was designated as a holy place where
people could meet God, but the reality is that God can not be contained..
Can you imagine the glory of that Temple? Throughout time there have been sacred places
and sacred art created as monuments and as an expression of affection and
dedication for God. These things
sometimes come under scrutiny as some will say,
“but look at the extravagance! An
expense wasted that could have gone to the poor”. (and I think we heard someone else say this
once before – it didn’t end well for him! (Judas)) “It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh
is useless.” Jesus tells us. These things, if created out of adoration for
God, created by a spirit in humans responding to the glory of God, are an act
of worship. And Solomon’s temple became
anointed by God’s tangible presence.
An important aspect of our readings today is to remind us to
be in the presence of God. To dwell in
God’s house is not about being in a building, but about being the presence of
God. In the presence of God is to us,
like the soil is to the seed. To be in
the presence of God, is to constantly be walking in the Spirit.
There is a paragraph that I spoke about last week, that I
feel I need to repeat, as it has something important to teach us about the
presence of God; Hebrew4christiains.com explains that the sages link the word
for fear with the word for seeing and they say that when we see life as it is,
we will be filled with wonder and awe of the glory of it all. Every bush will be aflame with the presence
of God and the ground that we walk upon shall suddenly be perceived as
holy. In this sense, fear and trembling
before the LORD is a description of the inner awareness of the sanctity of life
itself.
When we walk in the presence of God, we see things as He does,
and realize the holiness of life around us.
I truly believe, that this kind of seeing would bring about such a sense
of the sanctity of life that we would know the boundaries of some of
those contentious issues that come before parliament. And perhaps, just as importantly, we would
know what God asks of us in these situations. The important prerequisite is to
dwell in God.. Be in HIS presence.
Jesus says to us; “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood
abide in me and I in them.” Abiding is
about being in the presence… Although, this eating flesh and drinking blood
sounded revolting to those who had been taught to treat all life as sacred. It was considered that the “Life” of the
creature was in the blood. In occultic
practises there is a deliberate drinking of blood with the belief that they
receive special life power from that act.
This practise was forbidden for the Israelites. No wonder the followers of Jesus were
offended. But can you see the implication of what Jesus was saying?
Jesus goes on to explain “It is the spirit that gives life;
the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” Which, for us, puts this more into perspective…
Jesus was talking about a spiritual reality.
Last week, I also spoke about how this “partaking of Jesus body and
blood” is about INCORPORATING the life of Christ into our own lives. In fact, the followers of Christ may have
even understood what Jesus was saying, as just this… but still they were
offended.
Are we offended? I
personally don’t like the wording. It
makes me uncomfortable. So why did Jesus
use these words and this analogy? I’m
inclined to believe that it is for this very fact that we need to understand
the difference between a follower and a Christian. A follower is happy to learn all that Jesus
teaches. A follower wants to know the
truth and belong to those who belong to the truth. But to truly be a Christian, like the
apostles, means to actually INCORPORATE the life of Jesus into our own
lives. This week we build on this
understanding and we see that we need to abide in Christ – remain in the
presence of God.
The communion, which we celebrate each week, is to say yes to
accepting the very life of Christ as our own… we desire to, and commit to,
taking the life of Christ and incorporating His life with our own… In doing
this, there is a spiritual reality taking place, where we unite and abide in
Christ, and He in us. Because of His
life, death and resurrection, we spiritually share that Life, death and
resurrection and have eternal life.
Whether we sense it or not, we abide in him and we are in God’s
presence.
We house this reality in our very limited flesh and this
flesh forgets. And so, we need to gather;
to encourage each other and remember who we are… our true identity as the
children of God, who live in his presence.
Jesus tells us that it is the spirit that gives life. Our spiritual life is what we need to
nurture, but there is always a spiritual battle. We can easily see conflicts and obstacles as
being a personal conflict with others, but St. Paul reminds us that our struggle is not against blood and
flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic
powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly places.
It isn’t just personal conflicts where this battle becomes
evident, but when we come across people whose lives are without hope and
burdened by drug use and other vices, we are witnessing the war. When we see a culture of death, where life
is seen as disposable and cheap, we are witnessing the war. Those effected by all these things are souls
for whom Jesus died, loved by God. What
do we imagine that God wants us to do in this?
We are people of the Spirit and there is a spiritual battle
that we can not see… but we certainly come up against the physical expression
of that battle. St. Paul tells us that
we should put on the armour of God.
Since Jesus sent His Holy Spirit, and his spirit dwells in
us, we are now the temple of God. God’s
presence is with us. It is clear that
God’s plan is for the salvation of all, and He never planned for us to simply
worship in the temple that Solomon built, but to walk in the presence of God
always, bringing the good news of God’s saving power to all. So, how are we going with that?
If we are incorporating the life of Christ into our lives … living
in God’s presence.. Taking Christ’s life into our own lives, we need to
complete that action by going where Jesus would go. We are the body of Christ and his spirit is
with us. Let us proclaim his peace out
there… in the world… surely that is why he made us to be a moveable temple
rather than a static one. The difference
is, instead of people coming to a place to meet God, through us and the spirit
of God in us, God reaches out – but, though it isn’t always easy, will we say
“Yes” to being led by God to bring the good news to our community?
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