Idea Transcript
Rev. Joyce Parry Moore Sermon 8/26/12 – Proper 16, 13th Sunday after Pentecost St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, Livermore, CA
How Lovely is your Dwelling Place: at home in the Lord In the name of God, who is over all, in all, and between all. Amen. How Lovely, how dear, is your dwelling place – these words are distinctive, not used in the same way in other psalms or scriptures. Lovely: a place of great beauty to the poet who wrote the Psalm. And “dwelling”: not simply somewhere that God spends the night, or Sunday morning at 8 and 10:30, but rather the place where God remains always. Where is that? Can it be in only one place? “My Soul Longs”– a kind of homesickness, that makes us all lean toward Zion, toward our home in God. Where can that be? The “courts” to which the Psalmist refers are likely the courts surrounding Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. In these courts, worshipers gathered and created joyful memories of God’s presence in sights, and smells, and sounds.1 Like our own beloved St. Bartholomew’s, that begins its 60th year today, these courts held countless happy memories of celebrations, replete with music, incense, and the taste of bread and wine. And like us, Solomon held quite a capital campaign! He made relationships to do this: King Hiram of Tyre donated cedar and cypress timber (in exchange for food and shelter). Also a craftsman, Hiram created bronze pillars with elaborate designs and symbols such as palms, cherubim and pomegranates. These symbols were familiar to the many persons still practicing household religions in Israel at the time, and helped them feel welcomed at the Temple. There were giant basins for cleansing of the priests, and altars for incense, and even “bread of presence” which was laid upon the golden table in front of the Most Holy Place, with golden lampstands for the Light in the Temple. It took over seven years to complete the Temple. And it took seven days for Solomon to celebrate the Feast of the Tabernacles, the festival of God’s light. This festival commemorates the forty year period when the Israelites lived in the wilderness of Sinai. During that time the people sensed the Presence of God dwelling in their midst, taking care of them. The Feast of Tabernacles conveys other meanings as well: by building a tent, or Sukkah, and dwelling in these temporary “booths” during the festival week, people reflect on the lack of permanence in this world. This is a feast in the fall, a time of preparing for harvest, and planning to give a part of what we receive from God to help build God’s dwelling on here Earth. Solomon’s prayers extended another seven days to dedicate the newly built Temple. Solomon prays to God for forgiveness of the people’s sins, and he makes special notice of the importance of hospitality in the Temple – of the way this lovely place was able to communicate the presence of God to “foreigners”, welcoming the stranger.
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New Interpreters Study Bible (Nashville: 2003, Abington Press) Pg. 827
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Rev. Joyce Parry Moore St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, Livermore, CA
Sermon 8/26/12 How Lovely is your Dwelling Place
How does our church welcome newcomers? The banner beside me – a reminder of our past, successful capital campaign – pictures the wide open doors that let in new worshipers and the Light of God. Whenever someone enters our unique, round sanctuary, they are enveloped in peace, like entering a womb, or a ship, with beautiful banners and luminous carvings. We hope they can experience God dwelling here. How do we, as people, welcome the stranger? How do we live as dwelling places of God? For the earliest Jesus followers, worshiping in the time before Roman mansions became large and stately church buildings, the Christians themselves maintained a sense of being the dwelling places of God. By the time of the letter to the Ephesians, probably not written by Paul but quoting many of Paul’s letters and written later in the 1st century, Christians would have begun to be persecuted by the Romans, such as the infamous Nero around 65 CE. Today’s reading mixes military images with the idea of Peace. Rulers and authorities might have referred not so much to a faceless “Satan”, but rather to the unjust rule of the cruel Roman emperors. Then, in 70CE, the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. The very Temple that Solomon built over those years was burned down by soldiers in an attempt to squelch the Jewish rebellion. First century Jewish historian, Josephus Flavius, records it this way : As the flames shot up, the Jews let out a shout of dismay that matched the tragedy; they flocked to the rescue, with no thought of sparing their lives or husbanding their strength; for the sacred structure that they had constantly guarded with such devotion was vanishing before their very eyes. The work that Solomon had accomplished was destroyed. Or was it? Was God manifested in the building, or in the people? Incarnation, God expressed in the living Christ, is the central idea that makes the Gospel of John unique: the Logos – “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. John emphasizes the in-dwelling God, the God that lives not only in a particular place, but dwells everywhere with all of God’s people: God who is everlasting, even though physical buildings, and physical bodies, are not. Now, believe it or not, not everyone was down with this idea. As we heard today, some people simply walked away from this teaching. Perhaps they wanted a God that they could pin down, could place, in order to feel more in control. After all, we don’t like to be reminded of the actual impermanence of life, to remember our own mortality and the constancy of change. It is tempting in our worship of God to begin a subtle worship of the particulars: the building, the bulletins, the books can become the central point of our comfort, of our inspiration, and of our focus, and not God. Let me tell you the story of a little church, nestled in the shadow of a mountain. Like many Episcopal churches, this small, wooden and slightly dark sanctuary had been built in the late 1800’s, in the Victorian style. Many people were baptized there, married there, and buried there. One generation Page 2 of 4
Rev. Joyce Parry Moore St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, Livermore, CA
Sermon 8/26/12 How Lovely is your Dwelling Place
later, a woman in their community who was a passionate painter rendered several religious paintings – the Nativity, the Last Supper – and placed them in what was at the time the small chapel. As years went by, the paintings began to go unnoticed, situated where they were in the darkest part of the little church, ignored as the sanctuary was expanded. They began to crack and fall into disrepair. One hundred years later, a group of faithful people decided to do something about that. They wrote a grant to a local foundation; they involved people from the community in writing the grant. Funds were awarded to have the paintings refurbished. One woman said, “I wish we had more light in here so that the people could better see the paintings when they are restored.” One morning during that holy week, at the break of dawn, fire trucks rushed to the little church, and tried desperately to put out the flames set by a young man angry over being ousted from a party next door. The entire little church was engulfed by the fire, and every bit of it – the pews, the hymnals, the Books of Common Prayer, the Godly Play materials, the costumes and masks of their resident theatre company – were destroyed. Later that morning, many of them still weeping and leaning on one another for support, the parishioners gathered in the fellowship hall of the Catholic church one block up the hill. From the large window, they could see down the hill to the smoke rising from where their beloved sanctuary once stood. And still they sang, “Glory to God in the Highest! Sing, Glory to God!” They realized, painfully, and clearly, that their “church” was in their relationship with one another, and God dwelled with them, now that they wandered in diaspora. They realized something else that was wonderful: their beloved paintings were safe in Denver! As years have passed, they have built a new sanctuary, with more help from that same foundation that helped refurbish the paintings. The community, having realized what a center the church had been, with its concerts and plays and celebrations, came together and helped raise the money to build a new space, with a new theatre. The paintings are on display, with new light shining on them, and in the hearts of the people worshiping there. As we enter upon the third phase of our Capital Campaign, and discern which improvements to make to our “temple”, what can we learn from these lessons today? How is God present in both place and people? Already God has been at work in these projects, even before they have come to fruition. Just Friday – on the feast day of St. Bartholomew – a landscaper who knows of our parish and work, and who is a faithful man himself, came forward and offered his services for free! Other craftsmen, inspired by the beauty of our sanctuary, and by our work with the Food Pantry, designed a labyrinth and courtyard to attract community members and help them feel at home on our campus: to sense God dwelling here. The designer of the labyrinth who is, coincidentally, named Solomon (I’m not making this up) envisioned a design with wide pathways, allowing access by those of many ages and abilities. He created benches Page 3 of 4
Rev. Joyce Parry Moore St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, Livermore, CA
Sermon 8/26/12 How Lovely is your Dwelling Place
where visitors can sit and contemplate God’s goodness. And he included three entries to the labyrinth, for what he viewed as the “three ways we come to the Lord: through his Word, through his Servants, and through his Spirit.” At the very center of the labyrinth he placed a star, inspired by the star in our Advent banner, with lights embedded in the stone, to light the way of those traveling on its paths. How lovely! How dear! Wie Lieblich, are the words used by Brahms in his Requiem. “Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen” . Let us live into the beauty, the love, and the community that unites us as fellow dwelling places of God. AMEN.
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