Can You Imagine Your Body…The Body of the Christ as the Temple of God?
Good Morning Friends,
Today my family is celebrating the fiftieth year of the founding of Moorings Presbyterian Church. Our family will be playing English Handbells and singing in the choir as part of worship. One of the songs is called Living Stones. And you can liken it to the building of a house or family or ebenezer, and/ or church with Christ as the cornerstone. Interestedly the lectionary for today connects well with the idea of the temple being resurrected in a new body and that brings us to today’s question. Can You Imagine Your Body…The Body of the Christ as the Temple of God?
Scripture: Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?
1 Corinthians 6:19 (NRSV)
As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!’ Then Jesus asked him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’ When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, ‘Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?’ Then Jesus began to say to them, ‘Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.
Mark 13:1-8 (NRSV)
‘At that time Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise. There shall be a time of anguish, such as has never occurred since nations first came into existence. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.
Daniel 12:1-3 (NRSV)
But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.
Ephesians 4:15-16 (NRSV)
Message: There are several ways that Bible scholars interpret the Book of Daniel and his prophecy of the end times… the times of trouble. Some relate today’s passage to the feast days and specifically the Feast of Lights. On a day of remembrance like today it is good to think of how things end as well as begin. I am no scholar on the subject but do find comfort in the message even though I do not yet fully understand with certainty the details of what is to come when Christ returns…when we too embrace the resurrection. We like Daniel are not meant to see it all, be blessed by it all, just yet. As always, our relationship with God requires faith. But Daniel did see what was important from his perspective in the courts of the Kingdom of Babylon. He like Jesus saw where his strength came from, he knew who he was and why he was here on this earth. That helped him to make a difference in a world that wanted to conform him to its less than holy standards. It is important to realize that Jesus wants you to be different too and will help you as He helped Daniel to shine a light in the darkness…to imagine a rebuilding and restoration in a new way like Nehemiah. Indeed, if God’s plan for our lives starts as the lighting of a candle that shows forth the cornerstone, it is designed to end with the brightness of a star shinning in a cloudless sky with a completed structure. Maybe you have as I had a glimpse of it looking up at the night sky and contemplating God and realizing that all the amazing edifices we think of as important are temporary compared to what God has planned. Maybe that is why I would like to hear about the end as much as the beginning in today’s worship. My overall my desire is to be reminded that our faith is oriented toward fulfillment that brings meaning to this moment right now. Friends, though our mundane lives are organized around various concentric and overlapping daily, weekly, and yearly cycles there is direction to all of this. God has a mission that Christ’s Spirit is fulfilling and perfecting. God is shaping the future toward an end that is glorious. So may you rejoice in this day, not for what it was, but for how you might nudge it forward today in a way that would honor God in your life.
Pray Father God we hallow your name even as we pray for the people and place we call Moorings Presbyterian Church. Pray for this place where my grandmother and my parents and now my wife and children have worshipped. Pray with praise and thanksgiving for bringing us this far…together in spirit. Pray we acknowledge your grace and your timing. Pray we trust the future to you even as we anticipate the celebration and prepare. Pray we bring the hopes and requests of our hearts to you. Pray for the members of Moorings both past, present and future. Pray more than any other thing for this body that they would act in unity in pursuing you beyond the walls of what so many think of as church. Pray you turn our trouble into fruits of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Pray that the visions of the future of your Body would be spoken into existence in this body even though they do not yet fully exist. Pray you shake our very foundation with the changes you would have for us and teach us and guide us in your will so we might learn in this season something that will never be forgotten.
Pray you evoke in us an understanding of our calling, enable us to be good at what we do, empower us with a confidence in accomplishing what you would have us do and envision with us a future that would show forth your character to the Glory of God in the process. Pray Lord and Savior that you would bless the generations with a legacy of beauty and missional service and a song sung and music played that brings a little of heaven to earth within our walls and beyond.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 