sermon excerpts: Open House

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We construct bigger and better; although church architecture has changed somewhat. It used to be the steeper, the better; it meant being closer to heaven with the minister in a high tower of preaching. That has faded as people realized that more and more people cannot manage the stairs and that such a simple thing could keep people away from worship and away from their community. We talk about accessibility so that everyone might be able to participate in their faith.

We’ve come a long way because the Temple had an inner room reserved for the Holiest of Holies. It was a room so sacred that only the High Priest could enter it, and even then only for one day of the year. To do so otherwise meant death. What message does that send to the ordinary, faithful Jew about God? God is remote, inaccessible, hidden from view, restricted to those with special credentials.

Thankfully, the expression of faith in the world is changing. Worship in the Temple revolved around the sacrifice of animals that would be slaughtered at the altar in a ritualistic fashion. Not to be too crude or blunt, but the Temple was a butcher shop. I’m sure our caretakers appreciate that they don’t have to clean up blood stains and animal droppings every time we gather in worship.

Before the public dedication ceremony, we learn that a brilliant cloud, the divine presence of God overcame the priests working in the Temple, overwhelmed the entire building. Without the presence of God, the Temple of Jerusalem would be an abattoir and the church, a social club for song and stories. Without God’s presence, our churches, synagogues and mosques would be empty decorative boxes.

So too, for our lives, we are empty and without meaning without God’s presence. Our depressed and despairing world would be unbearable if we were to face life without the face and assurance of grace and hope given us by the promise of resurrection, of eternal bread and life everlasting.

God’s message is for everyone, not just those who enter the holiest of holies, the high priest. The accessibility of faith is more than a minister being down to earth and easy to talk to, it is holding up the conviction that each and everyone of us can make a personal and real connection to the holy, feeling a presence that is bigger and greater than ourselves.

For that reason the community that fills and surrounds the church building is the personality of the ministry, the actual fulfilment of God’s vision. We are the ones to do the work, not the bricks and mortar that sit here week after week, empty except for one morning a week that we can count on some people showing up. The building is a place to gather, a convening place where we would offer our praise and worship. Too easily, it becomes the focal point of worship.
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Back to that wonderful first Temple of Jerusalem: during the ribbon cutting ceremony, as it were, held during the Festival of Shelters, a week-long celebration of thanksgiving, Solomon stood in front of all the people and prayed to God in dedication of the Temple. It was a grand dedication that befitted the occasion. One of the key points of his prayer was that the Temple function as a spiritual home for everyone.

He specifically asks that any foreigners who direct their focus towards the Temple would have their prayers answered. It was an invitation and extension of God’s promises, love and goodwill to all people. Not just the chosen tribe of Israel; any and all who recognize the importance of the spirit and find holiness in the world.

As Solomon prayed about how great and immense and all-powerful God was, how not even the expanse of heaven could contain the holy presence, it really is a miracle and marvel that such a great being could care so fully and compassionately about little old me, my life, my troubles, when the world itself has so much turmoil and strife. And God has this personal investment in every single one of us; no one more or less important than the other.

For all our selfish and self-centred tendencies, we see in the Bible openness and recognition of a world beyond our own circle of reality. Everyone deserves and is entitled to knowing God. The decision for us, the question put to us by Jesus remains: do we receive this gift, participate in this holy relationship, follow in the ways of love and justice? Or do we walk away? The choice always has been and always will be ours to make. And through it all, we are not alone. Thanks be to God.