God's House
Sermon
Although church attendance is down dramatically compared with fifty years ago, there is one sure way to fill the church, at least for a few weeks. If the Parochial Church Council (PCC) decides that there are so few attending church regularly that it has become inviable to keep the church open and puts in motion moves to close the church, a miracle usually happens. All sorts of people who rarely attend services turn out to protest against closure and some of them even begin to attend church.
This is particularly true in rural parishes and shows the importance of the church building. It also shows the way in which villagers "own" their parish church and regard it as "theirs" even if they don't attend services. The fact that it is there for them regularly offering prayers and worship on their behalf and that they are entitled to be baptised, married or buried there, is very important to many villagers.
It seems that in some way the actual church building speaks to people of God and it would be a real loss to them if the building was no longer active as a place of spirituality.
In Ezekiel's day, around 593-571 BC - so six centuries before Jesus - the temple was even more important than the parish church is to people today. The temple was regarded as the actual dwelling place of God, God's home. God lived in the temple. His home was in the "Holy of Holies" which only the priest could enter and where the "Glory of God" was to be found. The "Glory of God" was so radiant and so holy that it would be dangerous for mortals to gaze upon it. Anyone who saw God would die. Therefore only priests with suitable protection could enter the sanctuary on certain occasions during the year, on behalf of the people.
This created a huge problem when the people were taken off into exile in Babylon in 605 BC and 597 BC, for God was left behind in his temple.
Ezekiel was taken to Babylon with the second wave of deportations, and the whole of his prophetic career, lasting more than twenty years, took place amongst the exiles in Babylon. It was here that Ezekiel had his vision of the Jerusalem temple, part of which was read today. Chapters 40-48 of the book of Ezekiel look forward to the restoration of the land and of the temple in Jerusalem.
At the beginning of chapter 43, Ezekiel sees the Glory of God returning to dwell in the midst of his people. This is the tremendously important sign of God's return to Israel, which He had left throughout their captivity in Babylon. When God left, the Jews ceased to be God's recognized people, but now they are accepted again and Ezekiel sees the Glory of God come back. "The priests shall offer upon the altar your burnt offerings and your offerings of well-being; and I will accept you," says the Lord GOD in today's reading.
In his vision, Ezekiel is then taken to the East gate of the temple, which is shut. This again is significant, for it shows that God is in his temple and will not leave it. God says, "This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it; for the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it shall remain shut." Then the glory of the LORD filled the temple of the LORD; and Ezekiel fell upon his face.
Ezekiel has a phrase in today's reading about a prince. He hears God say, "Only the prince, because he is a prince, may sit in it to eat food before the LORD; he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and shall go out by the same way." In light of the New Testament, this could be interpreted as a reference to the Christ and ties in with today's New Testament reading where Jesus is presented in the temple by his parents. Jesus was certainly recognised by the two elderly people who had been steeped in the spirituality of the temple for many years, Simeon the priest and Anna the devout widow. According to Luke, they both recognised in this baby the Messiah, the Saviour.
Throughout the history of the Jews, from the time when the first temple was built by Solomon, the temple had been central to the Jewish faith, because it housed God. It was a vitally important sign of the divinity of Jesus that he should be recognised in God's house in this way.
But after Jesus died, St Paul took the imagery of the temple as the house of God one stage further. He reminded his listeners that God dwells within human beings through his Spirit and said that therefore the human body is a temple and should be maintained as somewhere which is fit to house God (1 Corinthians 3:16).
We still consider our churches today to be the "house of God". But we no longer believe that God is confined to just one area by time or space. God is within every human being by his Spirit and this indwelling Spirit can make any human body a temple of God. Churches which are full of God's Spirit are not museum pieces but are living units which reach out to the whole population with the love which overflows from them. And human beings who are filled with God's Spirit reach out to other human beings with the love which overflows from them.
When churches and human beings work together as places where God dwells, the Glory of God is again experienced on this earth.
This is particularly true in rural parishes and shows the importance of the church building. It also shows the way in which villagers "own" their parish church and regard it as "theirs" even if they don't attend services. The fact that it is there for them regularly offering prayers and worship on their behalf and that they are entitled to be baptised, married or buried there, is very important to many villagers.
It seems that in some way the actual church building speaks to people of God and it would be a real loss to them if the building was no longer active as a place of spirituality.
In Ezekiel's day, around 593-571 BC - so six centuries before Jesus - the temple was even more important than the parish church is to people today. The temple was regarded as the actual dwelling place of God, God's home. God lived in the temple. His home was in the "Holy of Holies" which only the priest could enter and where the "Glory of God" was to be found. The "Glory of God" was so radiant and so holy that it would be dangerous for mortals to gaze upon it. Anyone who saw God would die. Therefore only priests with suitable protection could enter the sanctuary on certain occasions during the year, on behalf of the people.
This created a huge problem when the people were taken off into exile in Babylon in 605 BC and 597 BC, for God was left behind in his temple.
Ezekiel was taken to Babylon with the second wave of deportations, and the whole of his prophetic career, lasting more than twenty years, took place amongst the exiles in Babylon. It was here that Ezekiel had his vision of the Jerusalem temple, part of which was read today. Chapters 40-48 of the book of Ezekiel look forward to the restoration of the land and of the temple in Jerusalem.
At the beginning of chapter 43, Ezekiel sees the Glory of God returning to dwell in the midst of his people. This is the tremendously important sign of God's return to Israel, which He had left throughout their captivity in Babylon. When God left, the Jews ceased to be God's recognized people, but now they are accepted again and Ezekiel sees the Glory of God come back. "The priests shall offer upon the altar your burnt offerings and your offerings of well-being; and I will accept you," says the Lord GOD in today's reading.
In his vision, Ezekiel is then taken to the East gate of the temple, which is shut. This again is significant, for it shows that God is in his temple and will not leave it. God says, "This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it; for the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it shall remain shut." Then the glory of the LORD filled the temple of the LORD; and Ezekiel fell upon his face.
Ezekiel has a phrase in today's reading about a prince. He hears God say, "Only the prince, because he is a prince, may sit in it to eat food before the LORD; he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and shall go out by the same way." In light of the New Testament, this could be interpreted as a reference to the Christ and ties in with today's New Testament reading where Jesus is presented in the temple by his parents. Jesus was certainly recognised by the two elderly people who had been steeped in the spirituality of the temple for many years, Simeon the priest and Anna the devout widow. According to Luke, they both recognised in this baby the Messiah, the Saviour.
Throughout the history of the Jews, from the time when the first temple was built by Solomon, the temple had been central to the Jewish faith, because it housed God. It was a vitally important sign of the divinity of Jesus that he should be recognised in God's house in this way.
But after Jesus died, St Paul took the imagery of the temple as the house of God one stage further. He reminded his listeners that God dwells within human beings through his Spirit and said that therefore the human body is a temple and should be maintained as somewhere which is fit to house God (1 Corinthians 3:16).
We still consider our churches today to be the "house of God". But we no longer believe that God is confined to just one area by time or space. God is within every human being by his Spirit and this indwelling Spirit can make any human body a temple of God. Churches which are full of God's Spirit are not museum pieces but are living units which reach out to the whole population with the love which overflows from them. And human beings who are filled with God's Spirit reach out to other human beings with the love which overflows from them.
When churches and human beings work together as places where God dwells, the Glory of God is again experienced on this earth.
