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October 29 2017 I Kings 5:1-5, 8:1-13
The True House of GodJohn 2:19-21
By Rev. Dr. Janet Macgregor-Williams
West Milford Presbyterian Church
This week is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther posting his 95 thesis on the door of the church in Wittenberg Germany. His actions were the birth of the Protestant Reformation, a reformation that is still going on today. Luther did not set out to start a new church or a new denomination; instead his hope was to reform the Catholic church, to call it back to be faithful to God. But one of the principles of the reformation is that the church is always reforming, and so 500 years later, we are challenged to look at who and what we are as a church and see the places we need to reform, the places we need to be called back to God.
Let us start, by looking at our lessons and seeing how the church was built and reforming in the Old and New Testament. First Kings tells the story of Solomon building a temple / a house for God. Up until this time, the people had carried the Arc of the Covenant with them as they moved from one place to another. When they set up camp, the Arc was always in the center of their encampment. It became a reminder that God was to be at the center of their lives, both individually and as a community. As our reading opens we find a time when they were enjoying a relative peace with their neighbors, and so Solomon sets out to build a permanent home for the Lord.
Even in the story of the building of the first temple in Jerusalem, we get an inkling of the need for reformation. Solomon’s intentions may have been good, he wanted to build a permanent home for God. The temple would be a place where the community could gather, it would be a constant reminder that worshipping God was at the center of their life together. But the way he went about it was not good. The temple is built with forced labor and a heavy tax imposed upon the people—does it sound familiar? From the slave labor that built the pyramids of Egypt to the American revolution which started with complaints about unfair taxes. The story of the Old Testament is one of God calling the people back again and again, as prophets call the people back to God and the walls and temple are rebuilt.
We hear this story and it is a reminder that the true house of God is not made with human hands, but by God. The true house of God is made by God, as God dwells in each and every one of us. God cannot be contained by the glorious temple of Solomon. Instead we hear God’s call for justice. Remember the words of the prophet Micah,
With what shall I come before the Lord,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with tens of thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
We may build glorious temples, but the true house of God is lives of justice and kindness.
In the New Testament, we again hear God’s cry for reformation in the house of God. The temple had become a commercial market, it was corrupt, and so Jesus calls for reformation. He turns over the tables of the money changes and calls them to return to God. He says that they will destroy this temple and three days later he will raise it up again. Just after his first miracle in John we find Jesus talking about his death and resurrection. Christ came into the world to reform it, to call us back to God, to seek justice and show us a better way. 1,500 years later, Martin Luther would also call for reformation, as he sought to call the church back to God.
So, I would like to leave you with 4 principles of the reformation, because I believe they were relevant in Solomon’s time, in Jesus time, in Luther’s time and in our time.
- The first one I have already mentioned—worship is at the center of our life together. Worship isn’t just an hour out of our week on Sunday morning, worship is at the center of who we are. Luther, in his catechism said “the chief end of man is to glorify God.” Our purpose, is to worship God, with all that we do and all that we are.
- The second is the Priesthood of all Believers. Over the last two weeks we have heard the story of Samuel’s call and David’s call. They have reminded us that we are all called to live lives of service to our God. We have sung “Here I am” and answered “Send Me.” But the truth is that we need to do more than sing these words, we are called to live them out each and every day.
- The third principle is really four in one, it is what I would call centering. Back at the beginning of September as I talked about the key to happiness I mentioned four Solas or alones that were at the center of Luther’s theology, they are:
- Scripture alone
- Faith alone
- Grace alone
- Christ alone
When we keep these ideas at the center of our lives, as we seek to live lives ordered around God’s word, living each day in the grace of God’s love poured out for us in Christ, then our lives are centered upon God.
- And the fourth principle is that the church is always reforming. Reformation is not a one-time event that you do it and then you are done. It is an ongoing journey, a process. We are called to be examining our life on an ongoing basis, so that we might better serve God.
Remember the song the children sang in the children’s sermon—
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.