God's House

8-23-15 (Proper 16/Ordinary 21 B, Semi-Continuous)

1 Kings 8:1, 6, 10-11, 22-30, 41-43; John 6:56-59

                                                                  “God’s House”

There are places like that are, for one reason or another, very important to each of us spiritually - some people call these “thin places” - places where it’s as if the boundaries between heaven and earth are somehow not as clearly defined, where it is easier to encounter God.  For some, it’s at a church camp, your alma mater, the church where you grew up, got married, saw your first child baptized.  Or maybe it’s in your garden among the tomatoes and zucchini, nose deep in your zinnias and pruning roses.  Or maybe it’s in the misty early morning, huddled under a poncho in your deer stand, or your favorite hunting blind or fishing spot.  Wherever it is, it’s the place that is most sacred to you, that you feel most connected to the Divine, that you feel recharged and ready to go back into the world with new vigor.

This is the kind of “thin place” that Solomon prays God will cause the temple to be.  Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kings, that God’s eyes “may be open night and day” toward the temple, that God’s name might dwell there, and that God will hear Solomon’s prayers at the dedication of the temple, is a prayer that the temple will be a place where people can come and encounter God - even foreigners coming to visit the temple and pray in the hopes that this powerful and foreign God of the Israelites might be gracious and give ear to their prayers, as well!

Solomon’s prayer is heartfelt, and we can see from the presence of God’s glory in the temple in verse 11 that before Solomon even utters his prayer, God is more than willing to answer it and to bless Solomon’s work in the building of the temple.  Unfortunately, as we can discover through reading the further accounts of the history of Israel, the writings of the prophets, and the glimpse of the occupied Jewish people in the Gospels, this sense of the blessing of God’s presence gets lost somewhere.  By the time we come to the gospel era, the temple itself has taken on a level of significance which it was never truly meant to have.  Rather than being a place meant to direct worship to God as the primary source of blessing, it became a badge of honor to a people who had come to adopt the belief that they had the corner on the market of God.  By the time that Jesus came on the scene, there wasn’t even a place for foreigners to come to worship at the temple - it had been taken over by a temple marketplace!

As Christians and human beings, we constantly face the danger of putting too much emphasis on the minor details of our gathering to worship God, while losing sight of the very God who empowers us and gifts us to gather together for His worship.  I’ll even be the first to line up to make my confession -  When I was on camp staff one year, the man in charge of maintaining the camp made the decision to do some “cosmetic surgery” to the rows of pine trees which lined the main entrance road that went past our camp.  What had once been majestic hemlocks with long, graceful skirts of branches hanging all the way down to the ground suddenly became monstrous-looking, gnarled trunks leading up to now less than majestic branches.  I remember getting together with other staff members to gripe about how horrible the decision was - we used to lead bible studies inside of those trees under the canopy of pine needles!  We used to hide in those trees during camp games!  Those trees, to me, were so important because they helped maintain this sense of the camp being a little bit more closed-off and separated from the rest of the world.  They helped to create that sense of the camp being a thin place for me!

As we railed against this decision, someone else came around and pointed out some more humbling positives to the situation.  First and foremost, they made it clear to us that had those trees not been trimmed, the trees could very well have died from lack of pruning!  And then, there would have been nothing along the roadside at all.  Secondly, by opening up the trees and taking out so many branches, people were finally able to see the camp as they drove by.  Cutting those branches helped to ensure not only the longevity of our camp grounds, but also the accessibility and security of the camp.  Pruning those trees was actually a way to encourage other people to come and experience camp so that it could be their thin place, as well.  You could say I missed the forest for the trees...

So reading this passage from John in which Jesus passionately explains to the Judeans that he is the bread of life, that he is their source of relationship with God, and that he is the way by which they will encounter and come before God strikes home for me.  Jesus wasn’t just making a statement about his own divinity here, nor was he simply making claim to being the long-awaited Messiah.  Jesus is saying that he is the thin place between God and humanity - in fact that he is more than that, that he is the bridge between God and creation.  Jesus was correcting a way of thinking among the Judeans, giving them the humbling reality that they needed.  We like to think of the church as the group of people gathered in one specific building - we go to First Presbyterian church, First Methodist Church, or to one specific church or another.  We identify ourselves within the context of some particular worshipping community - in some churches, there are even “family pews,” marked out with plaques engraved with family names, where people up to three and four generations worship together.  Most other churches do this, too - just without the plaques.  People talk about moving from one congregation to another because they “didn’t like the worship style,” or because the pastor isn’t as interesting as they used to be, or for any other number of reasons.  We worry about the state of our churches, the fact that attendance on Sundays is low, that we haven’t had a new member come in in so many months, that our churches don’t meet some particular criteria that we’ve established as a definition of what makes a church successful, vivacious, or blessed by God.  We divide as churches over things as deep as theology or as petty as a brand of coffee.  Jesus’ statements shouldn’t be taken to mean that these kind of concerns aren’t legitimate, or that they aren’t problems that are worth giving thought to, but at the same time we need to maintain our priorities.  When our worries about “earthly” bread distract us from the nourishment we receive in Jesus Christ, the bread of Heaven, we miss out on the greater calling we have as the church - the church universal - the church as the one, whole, indivisible body of Christ.  Jesus’ teaching was difficult for a reason - the Christ often meets us at those places where we are most resistant to being transformed by him.  

     Adopting such a teaching, committing to the call of Christ and to finding our sustenance only in Him, is a call that takes us away from our own preconceived notions, our own expectations, and our own desires for success or prosperity.  It’s no wonder that so many of Jesus’ followers turned back and abandoned him.  It’s no wonder that when a church decides to move away from the expectations of culture and follow the call of Christ, to continue faithfully in its calling despite criticism and opposition from many sides, people find that move difficult.  Some may turn away and go to places that are more comfortable.  But we the church echo Simon Peter - “Lord, to whom can we go?”  Where else could we possibly turn than to the one who loves us so deeply that he gives of his own flesh and blood that we might live?  We have come to believe and know that it is Christ who is the Holy One of God - that Christ is the bread of life who gives us our purpose.  

     Pews change, buildings come and go.  Membership rolls grow and shrink.  Trees recover from pruning.  The church changes and evolves as it continues to participate in the mission of Christ.  But always - always - it is Christ who guides the way in the power of the Spirit.  And as we follow Christ, as we continue to pursue that great calling which we receive in Him, Christ creates thin places in us - places where our own broken and flawed humanity are chipped away and the grace of God is able to shine through.  To God be the Glory.  Amen.