Lectionary for 8/25/08

Today's readings are 1 Kings 7.51-8.21 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=1+Kings+7.51-8.21 ) and 2 Corinthians 3.1-18 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=2+Cor.+3.1-18 ).

 

Today we read about the completion of Solomon's temple and the indwelling of the Lord in the temple.  Let's make a few observations and applications about the dwelling of the Lord.

 

1)  Though God is omnipresent, that is, present everywhere all the time, he somehow chooses to "place" himself in certain locations or situations.  So on one level we are speaking correctly when we talk about the Lord coming to dwell with us, living in our hearts, etc.

 

2)  The temple is constructed, prepared, and governed according to God's plan, not according to man's preferences.  The Lord gave instructions for how it was to be built, and only in accordance with those instructions did he come and dwell in the temple.  Likewise, in the New Testament, our Lord and Savior indwells His Church by the Spirit.  But that is a Church not built with human hands or based on man's operations or choices, but built by the Lord in his sovereign good pleasure.

 

3)  The presence of God is known in the temple.  This is so in the Church as well.  It is in the context of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church that we see the Spirit of God operating, giving His gifts and preparing a people for His name.  It isn't anywhere else. 

 

Are we living in the promised presence and fellowship with the Lord?  If not, let us mourn and repent!  We have taken things into our own hands.  We have made our ways in the paths of our own righteousness, paths which lead to death.  We have set up our own little kingdoms and are doing what we can to eke God out of them.  If, on the other hand, we are living in the promised presence and fellowship with the Lord, which is predicated on repentance, faith, and reception of God's Word and Sacraments, let us rejoice.  Let us be partakers of Word and Sacraments in joy, knowing that indeed the Lord has visited us in a special way through the context of His Church, in which He is using us as living stones, selected and fitted according to His divine plan and will.