Scripture: 1 Kings 5:1-5, 8:1-13; John 2:19-22
I am sure most of you are aware of the movement across the country that says “I love Jesus, but not the church.”
It's a movement that says they like the Jesus of the Bible and his teachings, but that we Christians are a bunch of hypocritical, homophobic, judgmental people that are always asking for money. That the “church” as an institution is broken and sometimes corrupt.
And they’d be right. The church… as an institution… is all that, and more. It’s full of broken people who make bad decisions, have misunderstandings, are selfish… in short – the church is full of sinful people.
So why do we bother? If we’re so broken, why do we keep insisting on coming together every week?
Whether you’re Lutheran, Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, E-Free, Assemblies of God, even non-denominational… why do we continue, as Christians, to come together, to be organized, to be willing to put up with the fact that not a single one of us lives a perfect life or that “the church” as an “institution” sometimes does things we don’t like or agree with?
When we fight over interpretation and start accusing one group of misunderstanding scripture, so therefore they’re not the true church, declaring them heretics, saying they’re not really Christian… I mean what's the point?
Well, let me start explaining why we bother by going back to the scripture lesson we heard today. We heard snippets of the story today about Solomon building the Temple.
Years before Solomon embarked upon this building project, his father, King David, wanted to build a Temple, too. God told him not to do it. Told him he didn’t need a house made of cedar to reside in because he preferred to just be among the people.
This is actually what he told David: “the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” (2 Samuel 7:11-13)
Understandably – Solomon thought this meant him… he was David’s heir, his offspring, and therefore, he was supposed to build a “house” for God.
Now as Christians, with a few thousand years of perspective and history behind us – we get that God was not talking about a brick and mortar “house.” That the everlasting Kingdom that would be established would not be established by Solomon – but by another heir of David’s – Jesus.
But can we really get upset with Solomon for misunderstanding what God meant here? That he didn’t see the big picture? Solomon used this quote from God over and over again to justify building the Temple – he repeats it at least three times in 1 Kings in order to make his case. He quoted God. He had an argument.
Someone misunderstanding God's word. Shocking.
So he built it… even though God wasn’t real keen on the idea.
Now there are a lot of reasons God did not want this structure built. Aside from the fact that the Temple would eventually be abused and become a corrupt institution, one of the primary reasons he did not want it built because building it would require the use of forced labor. The Bible tells us that Solomon used over 210,000 slaves to build the Temple. God’s House was built – on slave labor.
That means it shouldn't have cost that much, right? Free labor? Well, there were still a lot of material costs that went into the building – cedars of Lebanon were used for the wood, he covered much of it with gold – so Solomon had to finance it somehow.
How did he go about doing that?
He exploited the people and heavily taxed them in order to pay for his building project.
In fact, he would tax them so heavily, that when his son, Rehoboam, takes over and says he is not only going to continue taxing the people but that he’s going to increase their taxes – the united kingdom of Israel splits in half as ten of the Northern Tribes of Israel revolt against the southern Kingdom and from that time on, these two kingdoms live as enemies. The north rejects the Temple. This will come into play much later in the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. She is a remnant of these northern tribes that revolted and rejected the Temple system.
So one might say the building of the Temple was the catalyst that divided and broke God’s people apart after a hard fought unity that had occurred under David. Imagine that – a building project that caused strife and disagreement.
Go figure.
Seeing that this is Reformation Sunday, this story might sound somewhat familiar. There was another building project a few thousand years later, in Rome, called St. Peter’s Basilica – which many of you may know as being home to the Sistine Chapel.
You know, that beautiful chapel with all of Michaelangelo’s paintings on the walls and ceiling? Nothing wrong with wanting to build a beautiful place of worship that would glorify God.
The problem was, Pope Leo X was broke. Like Solomon, he needed money to fund his building project as well. So he started charging what was known as “indulgences.”
He, too, exploited the poor people on the outer-reaches of the Roman Empire, threatening them with the fires of purgatory, unless they paid the Church money in order to knock a few years off that fate.
This practice of exploiting the German people is what lit the fire under Martin Luther to begin criticizing the Roman Church’s practices – and is what eventually led to the Reformation and the splitting of the Church into different denominations.
Another church building project gone bad – all because people were trying to build a “house” for God.
With all the mistakes and blunders and in-fighting that the people of God have committed over the years, it’s really quite amazing we’ve somehow managed to last in any form for the past 2000 years.
But that’s what we do. We make mistakes. We get off track. This is why we say that the church is always reforming. Always changing.
But here is the amazing thing about this story – about this “mistake” that Solomon makes regarding building the Temple.
Despite his misunderstanding, despite building a house for God that God really never wanted in the first place… God still agrees and promises to meet the people in the Temple. He blesses it and says, “Yes, I will dwell here and be the place that I will meet the people.”
He works within the mistakes. Within the misunderstanding. And thank goodness He does or God would never have much to do with us.
Now I will grant you – the Temple was eventually destroyed because that was not the means through which God was ultimately planning on dwelling with His people. It served a purpose for the time being and God allowed it to stand and worked within its structure – but He had a different idea that wasn’t going to be thwarted.
Rather than having a brick and mortar structure, God chose to dwell among humanity in a different type of Temple. He came and dwelt, instead, as a human. And as we heard from Jesus in our John reading from today, Jesus declares that if the temple is torn down, he will raise it up again in three days – only not as a structure, but as Himself. (John 2:19)
Christ becomes our Temple. Christ becomes that place where God meets us.
So where do we find Christ?
Oddly enough, Jesus actually makes a few promises about where He will meet us and where he will show up. That’s not say that you can’t experience or find God out on a mountaintop, or out in the field, in the woods, at home, wherever you are… God of course meets us in all those places as well – but there are some specific places God through Christ has PROMISED he will be.
First and foremost – he has promised to be with us when we gather together and worship in His name. “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, I will be there also.” (Matthew 18:20)
He has promised to come to us and be present in the sacraments – communion and baptism. He promises that whoever partakes in eating the bread and the wine will share in His eternal Kingdom. That the Holy Spirit works in and through our baptisms – joining us to the promises of Christ’s death and resurrection.
As is human nature – we have created a form and structure around how we go about doing these things, about how we gather, how we worship, how we administer the sacraments – and we of course then have to fight over how that form and structure takes place. Because we’re human, and that’s what we do.
The Church may be a broken institution, because it is filled with broken people. But in the midst of our brokenness, God still promises to meet us when we come together as His people – no matter what that looks like, how messed up we are, how wrong we get things sometimes. Despite our mistakes, misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and blunders – God has promised to be present when we come together, like we have today, no matter what our differences or disagreements.
It's a movement that says they like the Jesus of the Bible and his teachings, but that we Christians are a bunch of hypocritical, homophobic, judgmental people that are always asking for money. That the “church” as an institution is broken and sometimes corrupt.
And they’d be right. The church… as an institution… is all that, and more. It’s full of broken people who make bad decisions, have misunderstandings, are selfish… in short – the church is full of sinful people.
So why do we bother? If we’re so broken, why do we keep insisting on coming together every week?
Whether you’re Lutheran, Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, E-Free, Assemblies of God, even non-denominational… why do we continue, as Christians, to come together, to be organized, to be willing to put up with the fact that not a single one of us lives a perfect life or that “the church” as an “institution” sometimes does things we don’t like or agree with?
When we fight over interpretation and start accusing one group of misunderstanding scripture, so therefore they’re not the true church, declaring them heretics, saying they’re not really Christian… I mean what's the point?
Years before Solomon embarked upon this building project, his father, King David, wanted to build a Temple, too. God told him not to do it. Told him he didn’t need a house made of cedar to reside in because he preferred to just be among the people.
This is actually what he told David: “the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” (2 Samuel 7:11-13)
Understandably – Solomon thought this meant him… he was David’s heir, his offspring, and therefore, he was supposed to build a “house” for God.
Now as Christians, with a few thousand years of perspective and history behind us – we get that God was not talking about a brick and mortar “house.” That the everlasting Kingdom that would be established would not be established by Solomon – but by another heir of David’s – Jesus.
But can we really get upset with Solomon for misunderstanding what God meant here? That he didn’t see the big picture? Solomon used this quote from God over and over again to justify building the Temple – he repeats it at least three times in 1 Kings in order to make his case. He quoted God. He had an argument.
Someone misunderstanding God's word. Shocking.
So he built it… even though God wasn’t real keen on the idea.
Now there are a lot of reasons God did not want this structure built. Aside from the fact that the Temple would eventually be abused and become a corrupt institution, one of the primary reasons he did not want it built because building it would require the use of forced labor. The Bible tells us that Solomon used over 210,000 slaves to build the Temple. God’s House was built – on slave labor.
That means it shouldn't have cost that much, right? Free labor? Well, there were still a lot of material costs that went into the building – cedars of Lebanon were used for the wood, he covered much of it with gold – so Solomon had to finance it somehow.
How did he go about doing that?
He exploited the people and heavily taxed them in order to pay for his building project.
In fact, he would tax them so heavily, that when his son, Rehoboam, takes over and says he is not only going to continue taxing the people but that he’s going to increase their taxes – the united kingdom of Israel splits in half as ten of the Northern Tribes of Israel revolt against the southern Kingdom and from that time on, these two kingdoms live as enemies. The north rejects the Temple. This will come into play much later in the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. She is a remnant of these northern tribes that revolted and rejected the Temple system.
So one might say the building of the Temple was the catalyst that divided and broke God’s people apart after a hard fought unity that had occurred under David. Imagine that – a building project that caused strife and disagreement.
Go figure.
You know, that beautiful chapel with all of Michaelangelo’s paintings on the walls and ceiling? Nothing wrong with wanting to build a beautiful place of worship that would glorify God.
The problem was, Pope Leo X was broke. Like Solomon, he needed money to fund his building project as well. So he started charging what was known as “indulgences.”
He, too, exploited the poor people on the outer-reaches of the Roman Empire, threatening them with the fires of purgatory, unless they paid the Church money in order to knock a few years off that fate.
This practice of exploiting the German people is what lit the fire under Martin Luther to begin criticizing the Roman Church’s practices – and is what eventually led to the Reformation and the splitting of the Church into different denominations.
Another church building project gone bad – all because people were trying to build a “house” for God.
With all the mistakes and blunders and in-fighting that the people of God have committed over the years, it’s really quite amazing we’ve somehow managed to last in any form for the past 2000 years.
But that’s what we do. We make mistakes. We get off track. This is why we say that the church is always reforming. Always changing.
But here is the amazing thing about this story – about this “mistake” that Solomon makes regarding building the Temple.
Despite his misunderstanding, despite building a house for God that God really never wanted in the first place… God still agrees and promises to meet the people in the Temple. He blesses it and says, “Yes, I will dwell here and be the place that I will meet the people.”
He works within the mistakes. Within the misunderstanding. And thank goodness He does or God would never have much to do with us.
Now I will grant you – the Temple was eventually destroyed because that was not the means through which God was ultimately planning on dwelling with His people. It served a purpose for the time being and God allowed it to stand and worked within its structure – but He had a different idea that wasn’t going to be thwarted.
Rather than having a brick and mortar structure, God chose to dwell among humanity in a different type of Temple. He came and dwelt, instead, as a human. And as we heard from Jesus in our John reading from today, Jesus declares that if the temple is torn down, he will raise it up again in three days – only not as a structure, but as Himself. (John 2:19)
Christ becomes our Temple. Christ becomes that place where God meets us.
So where do we find Christ?
Oddly enough, Jesus actually makes a few promises about where He will meet us and where he will show up. That’s not say that you can’t experience or find God out on a mountaintop, or out in the field, in the woods, at home, wherever you are… God of course meets us in all those places as well – but there are some specific places God through Christ has PROMISED he will be.
First and foremost – he has promised to be with us when we gather together and worship in His name. “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, I will be there also.” (Matthew 18:20)
He has promised to come to us and be present in the sacraments – communion and baptism. He promises that whoever partakes in eating the bread and the wine will share in His eternal Kingdom. That the Holy Spirit works in and through our baptisms – joining us to the promises of Christ’s death and resurrection.
As is human nature – we have created a form and structure around how we go about doing these things, about how we gather, how we worship, how we administer the sacraments – and we of course then have to fight over how that form and structure takes place. Because we’re human, and that’s what we do.
The Church may be a broken institution, because it is filled with broken people. But in the midst of our brokenness, God still promises to meet us when we come together as His people – no matter what that looks like, how messed up we are, how wrong we get things sometimes. Despite our mistakes, misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and blunders – God has promised to be present when we come together, like we have today, no matter what our differences or disagreements.
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