1 Chronicles 29.6-19
Ephesians 2. 19-22
John 2.13-22
Today is the day on which we remember the building and dedication to God of this church. If we were to follow biblical precedent on this occasion I would now read out the details of who gave what in the 1740ies to enable the construction of this church; which residents of Hampstead contributed the bricks and stone work, the wood and paint and glass and in what quantities. And I’m sure that would strike us as being rather odd just as our first reading’s emphasis on talents and darics and special stones and the quantities of each, may strike us as a rather materialistic attention to detail. As one of our Sunday school teachers commented to me – ‘Doesn’t it all sound as though they were buying God’s favour – wouldn’t a plainer temple have been more sincere?’
And the answer to that perfectly reasonable question lies in the spiritual belief which David then spells out. Whenever the building of the Temple is described in the Old Testament there is almost always a concentration on all the materials used – almost a fascination with them. And that seen in the best light is because they were fascinated by all that God had created. They believed everything came from God. They believed that everything they dealt with on a daily basis from the earth they tilled, to the food they ate, to the materials they built with, came from God. It was not that they believed that God was in all these things – that would be what we call pantheism. They believed that all these things were gift. And if you want to know what God is like you study his gifts carefully, you learn about God through what he has given you, you feel closer to God the more you discover the truth and beauty and usefulness of his creation. And because all this comes from God you honour him by giving back to him the best of what he has given you. So if there is a Temple to be built for God then naturally it must be covered in gold! And David sums this up in the simple prayer, ‘All things come from you O Lord, and of your own have we given you.’
Now clearly there is a potential danger in all this – a danger that was familiar even in David’s day – the danger of idolatry, which is why some people were doubtful about building any kind of Temple. Simply put idolatry means becoming obsessed with the gift and neglectful of the giver. The temple could become a way of taming God, you build a temple, forget how much greater God is than anything you can build, and then you start restricting people’s relationship with God to a relationship with a building and the people who run it. You give to the Temple and forget that you are really giving back to God what is already his.
And Jesus was, it seems, especially sensitive to this problem, though the prophets before him had also seen it. Thus the prophets had raised the shocking possibility that God might bring about the destruction of the Temple to set himself free. That is probably the meaning of what Jesus did in the Temple. – he wasn’t primarily objecting to a market economy – however relevant that would be to our times – he was enacting the possibility that everyone would be driven out of the Temple as indeed happened when the Romans destroyed it in AD 70. And when he speaks about the raising again of the Temple in three days – his disciples subsequently interpreted this as a reference to the resurrection. Which in turn meant that the body of Jesus’ disciples wherever they gather would be the new holy people. And their focus would no longer be on a building but a person. The followers of Jesus would no longer identify themselves with a building or a city or one important place; for wherever they went Jesus would be there and so God would be there. They had become citizens of the world and patriots of the kingdom.
In what therefore does our Christian citizenship reside? What is expected of us as Christian citizens? And the answer is simple: to give ourselves back to God. David spoke as we have seen in material terms and they still apply; but St Augustine went one step further in describing what happens in this Eucharist; ‘It is the mystery of yourselves that is laid on the Lord’s table; it is the mystery of yourselves that you receive; to that which you are you answer, ‘Amen’.
How do we place ourselves on the altar? We do so in part by giving back to God the gifts he has given us whether they be financial gifts, or gifts of time and talent, gifts of pastoral sensitivity and a listening ear, organisational gifts, or the gift to teach or to serve; we give them back to God that he may use them to transform the life of the community. That is what this stewardship month as we call it is all about; what begins today as we dedicate the gift of ourselves to God, is a time of learning anew about the life of this church and the possibilities within it; we adopt what we call a ‘Mission Action Plan’ – which is in its own small way a guide to the citizenship of the kingdom in this place. We learn and we pray and we respond; we give ourselves back to God; for all things come from you O Lord and of your own do we give you. Amen.