Trinity 10 – A House of Prayer

1 Corinthians 12:1-11       St Luke 19:41-47a

My house shall be a house of prayer,
but you have made it a den of thieves.

We are ascending into the life of God, and as we ascend, heaven and earth are intermingling in our souls.

If you have been following the daily readings, the Old Testament readings this past week culminated in the transfer of power, of kingship, from David to his son Solomon.  You may remember that David desired to build a temple for God, but was told by Nathan the prophet that God appreciated his desire, but that project would be completed by his son Solomon.  David had spent his life battling with neighbours and creating the situation of peace that would enable Israel to flourish.  At the end of his life, David gathered together the materials to build the Temple but it is Solomon who built it.  Last night’s first lesson ended with this:

The word of the Lord came to Solomon:  “As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, observe my laws and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father.  And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel.”  So Solomon built the temple and completed it. [1 Kings 6:11-14]

The next few chapters describe in detail that building and we will read this week about the dedication and a cloud filling the holy place and the priests not able to stand to minister because of the glory of the Lord filling the house.

Do you see the parallels with our spiritual ascent?  After Israel left Egypt, they came into the Promised Land and they had to battle with 7 nations stronger than them before there was peace.  The Fathers saw this as a parallel with our overcoming our pride (Pharaoh) and the 7 principle passions that flow from pride.  The Sunday readings of the last seven weeks have related been related to the eight principle passions of the soul.  And as we come, by grace, to do battle and to master these passions, we will have peace in our souls.  Then we are ready for our souls to be infilled with God.

Our readings in the coming weeks speak more explicitly about this inflow of grace, this illumination, we can expect.  God desires to dwell not only in our midst, as he did in those days in Israel in the Temple, but within us, making our souls and bodies temples of His presence.

Solomon was asked by God in a dream what it is that he desired.  And Solomon pleased God by asking for Holy Wisdom.  What pleased God this request was that Solomon was not asking for personal gain from God, but that he would have a gift that would be helpful for everyone: “give your servant an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to govern this your great people?” [1 Kings 3:9]  ,

Likewise we are to covet the spiritual gifts God promises in today’s Epistle.  And, as we mature, our self centredness shifts.  In today’s Epistle, before St Paul lays out the spiritual gifts that God gives, he begins by saying, “to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” [1 Cor 12:7]  Like Solomon, we receive these gifts not to gain personally, but to take our place in the Church Jesus is building, for the good of all.  And then he lays out for us some of those spiritual gifts: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues (or languages), interpretation of tongues (or languages).  “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.” [1 Cor 12:11]  And God distributes the gifts to different people so that we need one another, we are not an island to ourselves.  There is a body that God is creating, His Church, and it is one.

As our passions are rightly ordered, by grace, that is, as we come to observe God’s laws and obey His commandments, God lives in us.  And He brings spiritual gifts that become visible in our thinking and by our actions.

Do you know your spiritual gift or gifts?  Are you using them?  If you have no idea, take time this week to identify your gifts, ask others who know you well what they think.  Maybe it is some combination.  Read 1 Cor 12 and 13 together and ponder this question; ask the Holy Spirit to show you.

Do you see how our Gospel is so fitting for this stage of the spiritual ascent?

Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’, but you have made it a den of robbers.” And he was teaching daily in the temple.

Jesus entered the temple – our souls are His temple now that we have been baptized.  We are promised the Holy Spirit.  This is the Spirit of Jesus entering the Temple that is our soul.

And Jesus began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’, but you have made it a den of robbers.”

Do you remember last Sunday’s Gospel was about the unfaithful steward or manager who was wasting his master’s goods.  It was to remind us that all that we are and all we have come from God.  We don’t originate ourselves, but all that we are, our souls – with its thoughts, emotions, desires – and our bodies are a gift given to us to use well to God’s glory and the building up of others around us and the wider Creation.

When God comes to our souls, what does he find there?  What is occupying our minds?  Are we robbing God, wasting his goods, by thinking on vain things, or allowing ourselves to be continually distracted from what is highest?

And Jesus was teaching daily in the temple.  So here we have the mercy of God, that Jesus does not despair regardless of what he finds within us.  There is a mopping up operation happening for the rest of our lives.  We are to be attentive to that voice which calls us beyond ourselves to the light and glory of the God who made us.  We are returning to Him, ascending; there is an intermingling of heaven and earth in us.

My house shall be a house of prayer.  That is the function of a Temple, it has always been the function of the Temple – the priests entering in to bring sacrifices, to make intercession, and to hear God speaking, a response, a voice, a word of direction, a word of encouragement, a word of prophesy.  The intermingling of heaven and earth.  We can’t imagine vain or immoral or distracting things being done in the Temple in Jerusalem, but it did happen.  And Jesus wept when he saw it misused.  In his time, the courtyard of the Gentiles, meant to be filled with Gentiles coming to worship the God of Israel, was filled with buyers and sellers.  What is going on in your mind, what are the thoughts of your heart?

My house shall be a house of prayer.  Interestingly, in the Gospel, we are returning to this theme of the centrality of prayer, which we had 7 weeks ago when we heard of the call to humble ourselves under God, when God put us on His shoulders and carried us back to the flock.  The foremost way we humble ourselves is to put ourselves under God by relating to Him, speaking to Him, listening to Him – that is prayer.

The spiritual ascent involves an ever increasing dependence upon God, it is the aligning of our thoughts with the thoughts of God, it is the willing of those good thoughts that come into our mind about how to love our neighbour.  This may seem to be a narrowing, and it is at first as we remove all the distractions, but its purpose is to open our minds into the mind of God.  And that is in no way to be narrow minded.  Imagine beginning to have access to the thoughts of God, the imagination of God, the creativity of God, the profound wisdom and love of God?

This church building that we use for worship, as with every church building and cathedral around the world, is a type of the Temple in Jerusalem, which itself is modelled on the Tabernacle in the wilderness, which itself was a model of heaven shown to Moses on the holy Mountain.  Do you think of your soul as you think of these temples?  We treat these spaces set apart for the worship of God with reverence.  We bow when we come into the sanctuary, I kiss the altar where Christ promises to make Himself present.  Are we treating our hearts and the hearts of those around us, the dwelling places of God, with the same kind, or an even deeper reverence?

This morning, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, is revealing things to us by the Word of God and speaking to us individually to reveal things within us.  This is Jesus coming to his Temple.  Without a doubt, if we are listening, we will feel some conviction about what we are using our minds and bodies for.  But that conviction is not to make us despair.  Jesus didn’t leave the Temple and its worshippers and go somewhere else, he went into the heart of it and taught daily.

This morning, we now have opportunity to confess our unfaithfulness, our misuse of our souls and the way we have hurt, and not held as sacred, the hearts of those around us.  Jesus offers perfect forgiveness and the grace to amend our lives.  Let us receive His Body and Blood, the perfect offering given for us, to wash us and strengthen us and make our hearts more faithful “houses of prayer.”

Amen +