In today’s Readings we are presented for one of the many changes that the new covenant God made with us through his son, Jesus Christ, meant for us.
In the Old Testament Reading we find praise given to the Temple of the Lord. Praise given to the earthly dwelling of God. But in the Epistle Reading the praise is no longer to such an earthly building. Rather, the praise is given to how God dwells within us. In our hearts.
The effect of this change is further illustrated a little: As members of the body of Christ – his spiritual church – we should ‘present our bodies as a living sacrifice…’ We should ‘be transformed by the renewing of our minds…’ we should ‘not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to…’
This – with the new covenant – seems to be of more importance than the earthly dwelling places or buildings of God: Temples and churches, cathedrals and sanctuaries.
As we read the Biblical Readings for this Sunday during our first Bible Study of the year, we talked a lot about how well we are – or how well we are not – at remembering how faith through the new covenant is linked more closely to us than to any kind of building.
We started to wonder: How much time do we spend talking about the maintenance of the church building. And how much time do we spend talking about the maintenance of us as spiritual churches?
Do we talk about how to give ourselves as a living sacrifice? Do we talk about how faith transforms us? Do we remember to never think more highly of ourselves than we ought to?
Now the later got us talking a lot about politics, but that I do not want to do during my sermon today. Rather, I would simply ask the question: How are we aware of us being living stones – the spiritual dwelling of our Lord?
Well, I would argue that it is something that we are quite good at. Not that we do not talk a lot about the physical building of the church as well. Both on a board level and in the awareness of the congregation, the physical building will always be an important topic.
But beside talking about the physical building, we are taking care of ourselves as spiritual dwellings as well: We offer Bible Study. We offer sermons – both in-church and online. We offer community. And we offer social aid in various ways.
That we offer all the above is good. Because it means that we truly are – not just an earthly assembling place – we are the living body of Christ as well.
In the Gospel Reading we heard about Jesus visiting the Temple for the first time. And in that story, I believe we somehow are told that we as a church always should remember to maintain both the physical and the spiritual body of Christ.
We are to maintain the physical churches – after all it was in a church the 12-year-old Jesus started giving lessons. Hence, if you do not feel the presence of Jesus within you, you should always be able to visit a place, where the presence of Jesus – the Word – is maintained.
At the same time, we are also to maintain the spiritual churches – at least if we are to follow the new covenant. Because the actual church buildings are of no importance if they lack what can be shared everywhere – the Word.
Hence, the Word is what makes the church. The Word that should be offered at certain locations. But also, the Word that we take with us out into our everyday lives and share with one another creating a spiritual bond between each other and God.
During our Bible Study we discussed the importance of the Word being presented to us in both ways. We talked about the above. But we also talked about how the world currently is on fire.
Wars are destroying dwellings, making deserts of places that used to be filled with love and laughter – filled with places where the Word could be shared.
In California, a fire is raging in Los Angelas doing just the same. I saw an interview with a 92-year-old who lost everything in the fire. Everything he said, despite himself and his wife, meaning that they – as he explained – despite it being hard will be able to rebuild.
The interview with the 92-year-old is a good picture of how important the spiritual maintenance of us is. He could rebuild because he had not lost himself in a spiritual way. With his physical dwelling gone, he needed his spiritual dwelling to be intact.
It works out the other way around as well – I guess: If you have lost yourself, find someone or a place that can assist you. For instance, find a church, enter, and the Word will find you.
Some years ago, a new part of Copenhagen started to develop: Sydhavnen. It is estimated that what started some years ago – and what is still underway – will eventually create room for around 40.000 new residents of the area.
As the City of Copenhagen started this development, they of course reached out to a lot of entrepreneurs who would like to develop the area. The City of Copenhagen forgot to talk with the bishops of Denmark though.
And so, an area with 40.000 new people to it started to take form, but with no church! Now this could of course be a biblical emphasis of the body of Christ not needing more than its spiritual vocal point, but it is probably more correct to call it secular forgetfulness.
The local pastors acted though. With so many people moving to their parish, they were overloaded, and through the bishops they reached out to the City of Copenhagen.
Now, a church is planned to be built as well. And in the meantime, the city has allowed a ship – a church ship – to be permanently anchored in the harbour of Sydhavn making sure that if anyone is spiritually ‘lost’, they will have a physical place to be ‘found’.
I am happy that our Bible Study have started the Spring seasons. It means I have a place to go when I need inspiration for a sermon. But more importantly it also means that we as a church for sure are offering our congregation and community both a spiritual and physical body or temple in which we can connect with the Word, with Jesus, with our Lord.
God bless all of you. God bless all churches – physical and spiritual. God bless.
Amen.