Solomon has completed the temple, and chapters 6 & 7 record a long prayer that Solomon makes, with God then speaking back. We should note how Solomon seems to know that the people will mess up, for he prays 'when' and not 'if', and furthermore God's reply seems to reflect this certainty! So Solomon prays 'when they mess up' ... they can look to this Temple, confess and pray to be restored. In other words the Temple is now a physical focal point, a reminder of the faithfulness of God, somewhere they can look to in order to reconnect with God.
In this prayer at verse 18 is a golden nugget: 'But will God really dwell on earth? The heaven's can't contain you so now way this Temple can!'. Solomon is again bang on - he understands that there is no way a physical building can contain God. At Countess Free Church we don't believe our building can contain God either, for technically you can encounter God anywhere. Yet we (the people, i.e. the church) do choose to make this building a special place, a place to be together with God. We know the benefit of physically being together (at some reasonable frequency) - and from lockdown we also know Zoom to be workable and yet a poor second best in comparison! We also enjoy the bonus of newcomers telling us that they discover our building to be a place of peace.
Back to that nugget question 'Will God really dwell on earth?', we also know the answer. John records in his gospel (chapter 1 verse 14) 'The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us'. Jesus was born - God with us! That is fundamental for us: meet Jesus and you will encounter God wherever you happen to be. This is why when we reach out to people our primary strategy is to 'take people to Jesus, not to church' - making meeting with Jesus the starting point.
Now Jesus himself visited the physical Temple, on the same site as where Solomon built. It had undergone a few building projects since Solomon's day, and thanks to one of the king Herods had alot more splendour. In that context Jesus says 'Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in 3 days'. Those with him were incredulous - they know that churches & building projects involve timescales taking years not days! But Jesus was not talking of the physical building. He was executed on a Friday (day 1), the Saturday was quiet (it was sabbath, day 2), and on the Sunday the women went and discovered the tomb was empty - Jesus had risen. That was day 3! So Jesus was talking about himself. He is the Temple, He is the focal point, the one believers can look to. When they mess up, get into a scrape or need forgiveness ... it is to Jesus they can go to, and He will be faithful and hear them.
This is Christian "Temple Theology" - and is why buildings for us are always secondary or mere utility, the primary is always Jesus. It is also mind blowing - we can often get our heads round a physical building or space, but for that to be replaced by Jesus requires a whole new way of thinking.
But we can go even further. Jesus knew he wasn't to stay physically with the disciples - for that limited him to one place at one time. He knew he was returning to the Father, but he said to his followers: 'Don't worry, for the Father will send another ... the Holy Spirit'. And not long after Jesus left them that is what happened, the Spirit poured out on the believers. It was not a one off experience - the disciples discovered they can live with and by the Spirit. So much so that Paul, writing some years later to believers physically distant in Corinth, would say 'your bodies are Temples of the Holy Spirit'.
So now we, as followers of Jesus, become the Temples - the place where God can be found! See how Christian theology takes us on a journey - from physical Temple ... to Jesus ... to us!
Finally as a church we have looked more than once at Ezekiel 47. It is a wonderful image of a river (God's flowing presence) trickling out of the original physical Temple. We love the image because as the river flows away it becomes deeper and deeper, encouraging us to discover the blessing of God moving the more we venture outwards in mission ... to places where we are forced to swim because we are out of our depth!
But now consider that if your body can be a temple of the Holy Spirit, is it possible the river can flow through and out of you?!! That is the picture for us to conclude with. As we learn to live lives of worship, can we be conduits of God's presence flowing through of us and out to others? Remember worship is way more than the songs we sing together, it is our whole lives lived for God whether we are with work colleagues, in school or college, or amongst friends. In each scenario we can learn to be worshiping, so that we are open conduits for the presence of God to flow ... leaking out of you, trickling from your feet. And in God's grace, actually getting deeper and deeper as it flows from you towards others.
Let's make that our prayer!
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