Camping out

 "This is what the LORD says: You are not the one to build the temple for me to live in. . . . I have been traveling around in a tent and in a dwelling. Throughout my traveling around with the Israelites, did I ever ask any of Israel’s tribal leaders I appointed to shepherd my people: 'Why haven’t you built me a cedar temple?' . . . I’ve been with you wherever you’ve gone, and I’ve eliminated all your enemies before you. Now I will make your name great—like the name of the greatest people on earth." --2 Samuel 7 (excerpts)

It's Sunday, and I am thinking about the church. 

I had a professor at Ashland who said, "A church begins to die the day it begins plans to build its own building." In other words, when a congregation forms because the Spirit is at work and cannot be quenched, when the mission and love for the Lord are paramount, a church truly delights the Lord.

But somehow, 'we' have come to believe that a successful church needs its own building. The cafeteria of the local school or the basement of an insurance building is no longer "good enough" for God.

This is a tough idea, I know. After all, we are raised to aspire to own our own home. Why would God not want the same?

Where did we get this idea?

David thought the same thing. David thought that if he were truly a God-fearing, God-honoring man, he should build a temple of cedar for the Lord, a place where all could come to sacrifice and worship and honor Yahweh.

God set him straight on that one, didn't he?

Through the prophet Nathan, God reminded David that he has always travelled with the Israelites. Where they camped, God also camped. God led them through the wilderness in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. 

God's presence was ever with them.

Much later, in his letter to the church at Corinth, Paul puts it this way:

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple. --1 Corinthians 3:16-17

We are the temple in which the Spirit chooses to dwell. 

As Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter has come in Jesus' absence, to guide us, to comfort us and encourage us.

Robert Frost, in his poem, "Mending Wall," wrote, "Something there is that doesn't love a wall." No matter how carefully we construct a wall, over time the moss and the ivy begin their insidious destruction, until the bricks and stones crumble and collapse, and whatever was being walled in (or walled out) is free again to go where it will.

I wonder if it isn't God working at that wall in sneaky fashion.

When we build a church, what is our motivation? Are we seeking to keep someone in (or out)? Is the Lord honored in our plan? Will the building of a church work to carry the Missio Dei forward, advancing the Reign of God in this world? Only you know the answer to this for your church. But it's worth thinking about and praying about.

Heavenly Father, as you choose to dwell within us and among us, help us always to examine our motives. Remind us of the ways you wish to be honored by your children, and of the many ways we are stewards of your Creation. Amen.