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The First Sunday In Lent
Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted of Satan; Make speed to help thy servants who are assaulted by manifold temptations; and, as thou knowest their several infirmities, let each one find thee mighty to save; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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The First Sunday In Lent
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Scripture citation(s): 1 Kings 8:6-13, 27-30; John 1:1-14
A Sermon by
The Rev. Preston Gonzalez-Grissom
on
1 Kings 8:6-13, 27-30; John 1:1-14
✛
The Temple - Where God’s Glory Abidith
Part of our Lent 2025 Sunday Evensong sermon series "The Temple of Jerusalem".
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We are beginning an Evensong sermon series on the Temple, for the season of Lent. The Temple in Jerusalem where God’s glory abides, where God dwells. Where God is supposed to remain, to be present, to settle down–that is what abiding means.
The Temple of God’s abiding reflects one of Scripture’s most central themes–that the One Eternal True God does not remain distant, but desires to dwell with us.
And the Temple in Jerusalem was where Israel gathered to dwell with God. The Eternal, omnipresent One made His presence known in a particular place.
Our Old Testament reading reveals a problem formulated as a question. If God fills heaven and earth, why a Temple at all? Who needs a building if God is everywhere?
After having the Temple build Solomon asks this unsettling rhetorical question: “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house, this Temple that I have builded?”
Who needs a Temple, or a building, if God is everywhere?
And God is everywhere. We live in a world of locations, directions, the altar is east-facing, New York City Streets are numbered from right to left, east to west. When we say God is everywhere it does not mean God is everywhere the way air fills a room, or space stretches on seemingly forever, because God is not bound by space. Imagination expanding I know, but this is the God revealed in Scripture.
In Creation, God is not in space but acts upon it. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” We say God is ‘everywhere,’ but what we probably mean is something closer to the title of a recent film: God is in Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.
Solomon builds the Temple knowing God cannot be contained by it. And yet, the glory of God abides there—a meeting place between heaven and earth, God and humanity. The God outside of all Creation longs to be present with within it.
The Temple itself is made to resemble Eden, the original place where God meets with Creation. Just as God created in six days and rested on the seventh, so the Temple was built in seven years. Solomon’s speech, our Scripture reading, is his seventh declaration. The Temple itself is filled with imagery of gardens, trees, fruit—reminding Israel that all of Creation is God’s dwelling place.
It’s as if being in the Temple, it is still reminding you that the God whom you seek is the Maker of Heaven and Earth, you are dwelling in God’s Garden. The Temple stands atop a mountain, visible to all, declaring that the God who is beyond all things has chosen to dwell among His people.
And so the Temple Proclaims God’s Glory…but from a distance.
There are areas of the Temple not everyone can experience, no matter how pious. In our Reading, God descends into the Temple in what Solomon calls “the dwelling cloud of thick darkness” and it drives out even the Priests, it is too overwhelming.
Here lies the problem of God’s proximity. It is dangerous, like a mouse meeting a lion for the first time, it is dangerous.
To acknowledge God’s glory at a distance is safe, comforting even. We may often complain that God seems far away, but how often to do long to keep God at a distance–to know God will not disrupt our lives with His presence. We want the comfort of God to remain but at a distance so I can keep the illusion that I am in control.
But God does not want to be known from afar. God is not interested in simple general revelation. That we may look at the sky or the beauty of art, buildings, music, and think, “what a glorious God to have made these!” God does not want admiration from afar, God does not want to be famous, or generally acknowledged.
The Wonderful mystery is that God wants to dwell with us, to be present, to sit down…with us.
So, how does the infinite, omnipresent God dwell with us without overwhelming us, without driving us away with a thick cloud of unknowable glory?
Saint John tells us in our New Testament Reading, “In the Beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God…and the Word Became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his Glory, Glory as of the only begotten Son.”
That word—dwelt—is the same as “tabernacled” or “templed.” Jesus is the presence of God in human form. The overwhelming cloud of glory that once filled the Temple walked through the world in flesh and blood. Jesus is God’s undiminished Glory made approachable. We dwell with God, or God dwells with us, in Jesus Christ…but Jesus is not here.
He is ascended, he sitteth on the right hand of God the Father almighty. So he left us His Holy Spirit.In 1 Corinthians 3:16 Apostle Paul asks, “Don’t you know that your bodies are the Temple of the Holy Spirit?”
Our bodies, Temples for the Holy Spirit, the place where God dwells, with us!
So, what Good is the Temple building? What use is a church building if God is everywhere and even more, if God is in us?
The answer is in the Pronoun, it is second person plural. Saint Paul does not say “don’t you know that each of you is a Temple of the Holy Spirit?” He does not say you all are the TempleS of the Holy Spirit.” He says “don’t you know that you all are the Temple of the Holy Spirit?”
Y’all are the Temple of God. The dwelling place of God is with human beings, with the Church, the people of God. And the people of God need a place to gather. A place to meet God and worship Jesus who is the glory of God brought near. God has chosen to dwell with us, and we respond by gathering together to dwell with Him. That is why the church building exists, to gather us together to prepare our hearts, to focus our minds, to tune our desires, so that we together might be a worthy dwelling place for God. Y’all, we are a Temple of the Holy Spirit. Where the glory of God abides.
