11 February 2014 - border disputes

11 February 2014 - border disputes

“Can it indeed be that God dwells on earth?

Solomon knows that if the heavens can't contain God than the temple which he built certainly can't.  Until Jesus the answer to the question is no.  God does not dwell on earth.  He is infinite and cannot be contained in created things.  Yet the temple is a place where people can uniquely experience God's presence.  And this experience of his presence is far better than anything that can be found anywhere else in the whole world.

And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth

We ask again, "Can it indeed be that God dwells on earth?" The answer is now an unqualified, 'yes.'  If the temple, a mere shadow of his presence, was so great we can only begin to imagine the glory of his presence with us.  His glory is indeed so great as to blind us.  It can be a little bit like staring into the sun.  We are reminded of a quote from CS Lewis:

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

Sometimes his presence is so bright that we can't see him and we begin to question and doubt.  The Eucharist sits before us so plainly, we almost can't help but begin to take it for granted and underestimate its glory.  Yet if we are attentive we will recognize the light that it casts into our lives and hearts.  We see that our lives are vastly different after he enters into us than they are before, even day to day.

The New Jerusalem has no temple because the temple points to Jesus.  Like the law, it is only a prelude of the good things to come (cf. Heb 10:1).  We read that the earthly temple in which the people worship is "a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary" (cf. Heb. 8:5).  Jesus himself is the full realization of the idea of sanctuary, the place where God's presence can be most perfectly found.

Yet it cannot stop here.  It cannot be that God is merely among us.  He cannot be something external, merely impacting us on the surface.  If this is all he is to us we will hear him say the words he speaks to the Pharisees.

This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
In vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.

He wants to be within us.  This is the whole point of his coming.  He loves us and wants to be fully engaged in relationship with us.  And so we cannot just look at him.  Gazing upon him in worship is meant to lead to the communion we have in receiving him more and more into our hearts (and indeed, into our mouths and bodies).

Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord 
in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.  

As we invite the LORD to dwell in us the words which the psalmist speaks we speak with even greater sincerity and devotion:

Blessed they who dwell in your house!
continually they praise you.
O God, behold our shield,
and look upon the face of your anointed.

So we must let go of the "traditions" with which the world tries to keep Jesus at arm's length.  We must instead hold fast to the traditions from God which point us toward his heart (cf. 2 Thes. 2:15).  The traditions from God remind us of the full glory that is within the Church.  The light of faith is the seed (cf. Mat. 13:31-32) which enables us to find our place within, where even "the sparrow finds a home".