Building the
temple
11 Now the word of the Lord
came to Solomon, 12 ‘Concerning this house that you are
building, if you will walk in my statutes, obey my ordinances, and keep all my
commandments by walking in them, then I will establish my promise with you,
which I made to your father David. 13 I will dwell among the
children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.’
1 Kings 6
In the
readings set for tonight’s Evensong we have a story of a temple and a story of
a prison. The building of a fine temple and the escape from a prison, a dark
and unpleasant place. We have two places as far apart as you could imagine.
Each man made, each at opposite ends of the scale of desirability. We would
like to visit a temple, we do not want to be in a prison.
Buildings
have been very much part of my ministry here. They continue to be a big matter,
perhaps the biggest concern for the PCC. Just a couple of weeks ago lead was stolen
off the roof and so much work has gone into emergency repair, insurance claim,
CCTV, Police and the like. Buildings take time and money. It must be nigh on two
hundred thousand that has been spent on repairs to walls, the roof, heating,
organs over the last 7 years. And then there are the routine running costs of
maintenance - heating, insuring, etc.
Many would
say it’s worth it. The young couple who come to St Mary’s holding hands and
gaze in wonder up to the rafters. The many who want their family funerals to be
here, because they say it looks like “a proper church”. A Diocesan group has
looked at churches in the dioceses and considered what might be the criteria to
be used by PCCs and others as to whether that Church should be closed. Up the
top of the list is keeping what they call “Iconic Buildings”. St Mary’s is surely
an iconic building.
But what
does the building mean? What does it signify or represent? Buildings always say
something. We can think what they mean to us - we should also consider what
they mean to others. For many of us this
building we are in tonight says come and wonder before God, and share in the
meal that our Lord Jesus gave us, come to the table. You are welcome.
But I remember
seeing a play at The Everyman Theatre a few years ago when someone referred to our
Anglican Cathedral as “A big F*** Off Cathedral”. I don’t like to think about
it but it is surely true – at times in the past and perhaps even in the present
Church people and Church buildings have said to the outsiders you are not good
enough and have said to the insiders – we are the elect, the chosen.
St Mary’s is
a fine building - not quite as fine though as Solomon’s temple. What a fine
temple it was. There was a lot of gold!
21 Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold, then he drew
chains of gold across, in front of the inner sanctuary, and overlaid it with
gold. 22 Next he overlaid the whole house with gold, in order
that the whole house might be perfect; even the whole altar that belonged to
the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold.
The Old
Testament scholar Ceresko[1]
tells how with the death of David, Solomon moved ruthlessly to consolidate his
power and establish a firm grip on the apparatus of government. He introduced
new taxes and conscripted workmen from all over Israel. He consolidated his
power. The temple and his palace were extremely luxurious. Ceresko says this
was consolidate Solomon’s monarchic power and it represented a concrete visual
statement of the shape and strength of the new socio-economic, religious and
political order which Solomon had established.
If we agree
with that then Solomon’s temple is like the Shard or Canary Wharf. It says that
someone is very rich and wants to make a statement. If you are a feminist or a Freudian
you may have something else to add about who has built it and why….!
Yes, I think
we must be suspicious of the way human power and earthly empires become gods in
their own right. We have seen with horror the human propensity to stake out our
territory and to deny others entry. It happens in Israel/Palestine/Gaza. It
happens in local communities. But this is I fear too cynical.
The giants
have been in Liverpool and Grandma has been sleeping in St George’s Hall.
Buildings, perhaps funded by the fruits of slavery are redeemed by the public
uses they are put to.
When the
people fill the building, and the people’s praises lift the roof, this Church
is a temple where the living God is worshipped. The dead are remembered but
this is not a mausoleum because the ways of Jesus are talked about and stories
and liturgies shape lives in the here and now. Things happen here; people talk,
sing, lament, laugh, and cry. People hear the word of God and share the sacrament
of Holy Communion. In a place of beauty, God’s beautiful people gather to remember
and to commit afresh to do what Mother Teresa called “Something Beautiful for
God”.
Another Old
Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann has another take on Solomon’s Temple.[2]
He says that from Sinai on Israel anticipates a full and rich life with their
God, Yahweh. Buildings like Solomon’s temple are a theological statement that
Yahweh will be with Israel in all circumstances. There is an accent on the
visual – the whole system of tabernacle, priesthood, mercy seat and sacrificial
system is both visual and material. You can see it, perhaps smell it. He says
that worship that was visual, active dramatic and all-comprehending was a thing
of joy for Israel.[3]
Yes there may have been a source of power for the Jerusalem political establishment
– but that was never the whole story.
Buildings
are on my mind as I prepare to go to Rochdale where I shall have two churches
in my care – St Chad and St Mary in the Baum. I shall be living adjacent to
another, redundant, church, St Edmund’s. There is some fine architecture in all
three.
When we
worship and sense our freedom to respond to God’s call to us, we cannot but remember
those who are in prison. As part of the disproportionately high UK prison
population or, in these days, the urban war-zone prison of Gaza. We pray that they
may know the beauty of God, somehow.
I hope that
our Churches in Rochdale and Liverpool may be places which draw people in to
worship that is engaging and transformative. I hope that we facilitate wonder
and express welcome. I thank God for all our Architects and musicians which
assist people to grow in the love of Jesus and to live lives that are Jesus
shaped.
[1] Anthony R. Ceresko, Introduction
to the Old Testament: A Liberation Perspective (Maryknoll, N.Y. : London:
Orbis Books, 1992).
[2] Walter Brueggemann, Theology
of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy, Pbk. Ed., with CD-ROM
(Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 2005).
[3] Ibid., 669.