Year A
Rebuilding the Temple of God
Y’all are the Temple of God, yes I repeat, y'all are the Temple of God. The temple has a crucial role in God's plan to dwell with humanity. We see the intial glimpse of temple language in the creation of man. Humans as the image-bearers in the Garden of Eden (cf. Genesis 1:26-27). That was not all, there is a strong language associated with this in the sense that God walked with them as they walked through the Garden.
Let's use African Traditional religion shrines as an example. The images of the gods are in the form of Idols placed there as a sacred place where they dwell with their people. So from the understanding of Imago Dei, it is clear God created humanity to dwell with him and thus be his temple by bearing his image in the world. Here Humans were in union with God, and all creatures.
Rebellion sets in (cf. Genesis 3), Humanity is exiled from the Garden of Eden, that implies been separated from God and all of creatures, including been separated from each other. Unity is no where to be found, everyone is blaming the other.
The Exodus story comes to the scene, after the slavery of the Israelites, God still wanting to dwell with his people, usually comes in the form of a cloud and fire. He however requested through Moses to his people that a tabernacle be built and serve as a place of his dwelling (cf. Exodus 25:8). King Solomon later built in Jerusalem the temple of God to replace the tent and God promised that his temple will become a house of Prayer for all nations (cf. Isaiah 56:7). Thus through the temple God is restoring what we destroyed in the Garden.
However the leaders of Israel also rebelled against God like Adam and Eve, killing Prophets who spoke against them like Isaiah and stoning some like Jeremiah. God's glory leaves the temple(cf. Ezekiel 10: 18) and the temple is destroyed (cf. Jeremiah 52:12-13). The temple is rebuilt many years later (Malachi 1:6-10).
However there is a third temple from the vision of Ezekiel (40-47) with living water flowing from its side. This temple puts a question mark on the previous temples and shows that the living water like the river that flowed from Eden to water the garden and was divided into four streams as Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates (cf. Genesis 2:10ff), it will flow from the temple of God to water the tree of life which bears 12 crops of fruit in a year (cf. Revelation 22:1).
So when it seems the story was coming to a tragic end, God tents among us (cf. John 1:14), and Matthew makes this clear by quoting Isaiah 7:14 about Jesus as Emmanuel meaning "God is with us." John (cf. John 2:19-21), clarify the temple language recording that Jesus referred to his own body as the temple. At Jesus's death on the Cross, the curtain that shielded the holy of Holies of the temple is torn (cf. Matthew 27:51). Thus through his sacrifice, he made way for God to dwell in us and not only with us.
The temple language continues but no longer about a building, but to the beginning idea of the Imago Dei , so when the New Testament writers talk about the temple, they talk about the people of God. In this sense, been part of the body of Christ Jesus means been also the temple of God with God's Spirit Dwelling in you (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:16) and thus each individual in Christ is also part of his body ( cf. 1 Corinthians 6: 15).
In Jesus Christ's person, Divinity is United with Humanity. Thus through him the former union is restored.
But why am I saying all these while today's readings are mainly about vineyards and the second Reading is about freedom from anxiety?
Let me give my reasons, beginning with the Gospel and ending on the first reading to show why I am talking about the temple.
Jesus Christ's discuss for today's gospel is taking place in the temple, talking with the chief priests and scribes directly who are workers in the temple. Jesus Christ also gives a key to the understanding of the gospel with the end of the Halel chanting Psalm 118 from which he quoted the statement "the stone which the builders rejected has become a corner stone." This Psalm is about the Messiah who through him God has done a marvelous thing in our eyes by not turning his back on us.
In the second reading, Paul asks that we should be free from anxiety by making our petitions know to God through prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. Where else can we do this if not in the temple.
In the first reading, although the setting is like a court case, the beginning phrase about singing draws attention to singing in the temple and the responsorial Psalm affirms this.
With this Let's look at how God has cared for us as his temple and why we are not yielding heavenly fruits. By even reflecting on the name God, we see that God has done a lot for us. No creature can deny the immense generosity of the Creator who made us. He is our life, when we fall he always pick us up, and yet we continue to rebel against him.
Even when we rebel against him, he always finds a way to redeem us. And always in his redemption act, he give us his always, just to remind us that we should give him our all. God loves us to the extent that he does not only give us his image and likeness, but also put his name on us, like how a husband puts his name on his wife. This is our God.
To say something small about the second reading, I remember a famous WhatsApp video where a guru simply asks; Do you have a problem? Can you solve it? If Yes then why worry? and again Do you have a problem? Can you solve it? If No, then why worry?
Today Paul give us a more Christian approach to this by saying since you are the temple of God, don't worry about anything but make your petitions know to God through prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving.
The Thanksgiving in Greek as Eucharistia draws our attention to first time in the New Testament where the word the New Testament was mentioned which was Holy Thursday. This is the first time also that Jesus asked his disciples to gathering and celebrate the Eucharist in memory of him.
In short, we should not worry but always give thanks to God who has chosen to make us his temple and dwelling place so that we will not want anything by having Him who is the source of all things.
By Sylvester Amakye-Quayson
Comments
Post a Comment