Body of Christ; Temple of the Holy Spirit

3 Lent B      March 11, 2012

Exodus 20:1-17  Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 1:18-25   John 2:13-22

 Lectionary Link

  What is the United States of America?  Is it a geographical location?  Is it the citizenry?  Is it the sum total of the historical events of all of her people?  Is it the flag and all of the symbols of this corporate fiction?  America is nowhere specifically but everywhere in general and as such is a mystical body.  How do mystical or corporate groups come into being and become even more than the sum of their parts?

  The earliest writings of the New Testament are the writings of St. Paul.  In his writings one can find the development of the symbolism of the “body.”  For St. Paul, the individual body of the believer is the Temple of the Holy Spirit.  Remember St. Paul’s writings were written before the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in the year 70.  St. Paul also wrote that together, the followers of Jesus were being built as a holy Temple unto the Lord.  St. Paul also wrote that the church is, “The Body of Christ.”  The Eucharistic bread is the body of Christ, and when we partake of the Eucharistic bread we are participating in the dynamic process of mystification whereby we constitute the continuing body of Christ.  The symbolism of Paul and Peter and other

Christians were then placed into narratives of the life and sayings of Jesus of Nazareth.  This narrative or story was an effective way of teaching the beliefs of the early church about Christ and about the identity of the church.  These teaching narratives are what we call the four Gospels.

  This is but a prelude for understanding our Gospel reading from John.  The Gospel of John was the last Gospel to be written with portions of it coming from perhaps as late as the first two decades of the second century.  Since it is the latest, one can expect that the theological reflection and symbols of John’s Gospel are most highly developed.  The writer uses the same technique as a historical novelist; the writer writes later practices into a former narrative as a way to illustrate and explain the origins of certain practices.  The writer of John’s Gospel already knows what has happened in the 6-8 decades after Jesus lived.

  What did the church of John’s Gospel know?  They knew that the temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed.  They knew that Christians had separated from the synagogue around the year 80.  They knew that their community consisted of both Jews and Gentiles.  They knew that they could no longer see and touch Jesus, but they were fascinated and baffled that his teachings and his Spirit could still be a current reality in their lives.  They were trying to make sense of how Jesus, who had died and could no longer be seen, could be such a vital part of their experience.  They were trying to teach and explain why the reality of Christ was so real even though Jesus of Nazareth could no longer be seen.  So they used the narrative and the sayings of Jesus as a way of teaching about the reality of their current experience of the risen Christ.

  The temple in Jerusalem was the sacred dwelling place of God.  If God resided anywhere on earth, in the Hebrew religion, God resided in the holiest of Holy in the inner sanctum of the temple.  But God’s people had to face a rather stark question?  Why would God let the residing place of God on earth be destroyed?  Why would God not protect the divine place of residence on earth?  The answer to this question had been given before by the prophets.  They said if God’s priests and people profane God’s house then God would not honor them with the divine presence.  In some way, when an old paradigm in religion does not work, then an explanation must be given for a new vision of faith, a new vision of what God is now doing in this world.

  So how do we understand the symbolism in the narrative of Jesus cleansing the temple?  The Body of Jesus of Nazareth was the place where the fullness of God’s dwelling could be found; and when this body was destroyed, it was rebuilt in three days.  The body of Jesus was resurrected and became known in the experience of each follower of Jesus, who knew his or her body as the temple of the Holy Spirit.  And collectively, the early followers of Jesus knew their gathering as the continuing presence of Christ on earth, because he was resurrected and alive in their midst.  Is this myth or fiction?  I would say it is mystification.  No less than the fiction of the reality of our country, but this is the spiritual reality of the church.  How can one deny the reality or the realness of this experience if we and billions of others throughout the age have partaken of this reality of the risen Lord?  If this is but myth and fiction, then it is pretty powerful stuff.  There has been no more powerful trans-historical reality than what we have called the body of Christ.  One may deny its relevance but it is sheer denial, because one is born into the reality of risen Christ whether one knows it or not.  Two thousand plus years of the realness of Christ in the lives of people from all around the world cannot be dismissed simply by personal denial.

   Today, you and I may not teach the reality of the risen Christ in our lives in the same way in which the early church did.  And we are free to look for new metaphors and new language to tell about the reality of how God’s presences have touched our lives.  Some people use the Bible to limit how we can talk about God and Christ; I believe that Bible provides us with early models of how to talk about the reality of Christ in the hope that you and I will be inspired to find the reality of Christ in our lives within the very tapestry of our history and life experience in our time and place.

  If this Gospel teaches us anything, it teaches about God doing new things.  The temple building may have been destroyed, but God’s residence within human experience did not pass away with the destruction of temple building.  The body of Jesus was crucified on the cross and placed in a tomb; where did God reside more intensely than in the body of Jesus?  But when the body of Jesus was taken from this life, did God lose the divine residence in life forever?  Indeed not, in fact a new understanding of God was born and in that understanding God resided everywhere but especially intensely in the lives of those who intentionally invite God to be found and known in their lives.  And so God dwelling in the temple in Jerusalem, gives way to God residing in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, gives way to God residing everywhere but especially in hearts that wish to overcome estrangement from God.

  I believe that this new teaching was the old teaching; why?  Because God’s residence with us has been from creation; it has just taken a very long time for us to come to know it.

  Jesus Christ made this intention of God from creation fully known and that is our Gospel truth.  God wants to make the divine reality known in each and everyone of us.  Let us today in this Eucharist be renewed in being the body of Christ, the continued presence of Christ in our time and place.  Amen.