From the bulletin for the Second Sunday of Advent (Dec 08, 2024)
Second Sunday of Advent
According to the Bible, the first enclosed “worship space” that the people of God employed was a tent. And this by divine decree: in Exodus 26-27, God gave Moses some very specific instructions about the “Tent of Meeting” and all of its appurtenances. After Moses and the people carried out those instructions, the tent served to house the Ark of the Covenant and as the site of sacrificial worship for about 300 years… all the way up to the time of Solomon.
You can imagine the constant effort that was required to maintain that tent. Tent cloths of linen and goat hair, wooden poles, etc. Materials that would have been constantly deteriorating and needing to be replaced. In a real way, each generation would have had to remake the tabernacle.
It was certainly an advance when the goat-hair tent was replaced by a temple of stone. That more imposing and permanent structure served as a more fitting dwelling place of the Lord, the eternal Rock. Yet the advance came at a price: Israel would be tempted now to rest on its laurels; to presume that “God is taken care of,” to benefit from the work of past generations and to neglect not only the upkeep of the temple but the true worship of the heart that its many sacrifices and services were only supposed to symbolize.
Of course, if you read the history of Israel after the construction of the temple, there is not a lot of “resting” (on laurels or otherwise). The people were constantly falling into forgetfulness of God, idolatry or irreligion, then into political turmoil or under the thrall of foreign powers, at times hazarding complete destruction. The state of the temple mirrored these foibles. If each generation didn’t quite have to rebuild the temple (some had to; one did), each faithful generation did need to fight for it: to cleanse it of accumulated idols, restore it from past neglect, defend it from would-be invaders, etc. And in the best of times, there was still work to be done to adorn and embellish the temple so that it reflects God’s glory all the more (see 1 Macc 4:57). And so in every generation, the weal of the temple waxed and waned according to the faith of the people.
In fact, the temple serves as an icon of the soul: in this life, we must be constantly working to “guard and keep” that true temple of the Lord, now rescuing it from enemy hands, now cleansing it of idols and money-changers, now defending it from would-be intruders, now adorning it with greater virtues, all so that it might ever more perfectly be the site of divine worship… and that alone.
To our own day, the maintenance of the temple remains the task of the people of God. The restoration of the Notre Dame Cathedral (albeit accomplished by the French government!) is a reminder of this. That cathedral is surely a monument of faith. Only faith can explain the investment of such genius and resources, the work of generations. The quality of its restoration, inevitably, reflects the faith of those in whose control it is now… or the lack thereof.
But we don’t need to look across the pond. We just need to look at our own “cathedral” here in Merriam Park. A monument of faith, to be sure. But also a living reality, whose condition has ebbed and flowed according to the devotion of its parishioners over the decades. Each generation has been called to “rebuild” it in some way, or at least repair and replace the goat-hair, proverbially speaking. And what each generation accomplishes on that front will inevitably be a reflection of faith. An outward sign of the state of the temples their souls are.
We can be grateful that such a beautiful temple has been bequeathed to us. Surely, this community at present would simply not have the resources to build such a house for the Lord. We can be grateful, too, that our task is not to cleanse St. Mark’s of idols or restore divine worship after decades of neglect. But we do have our to-do list of restoration–and, perhaps, beautification–projects. Perhaps we won’t get to it all; surely, the next generation will have its work to do as well. Water seepage is not as bad as attacks from the Assyrians.
But let’s do what we can; let’s do what we are called to: live our faith and show future generations what was most important to us. As they once said in the days of Nehemiah, “Rise up, let us build!” (Neh 2:18). With God’s blessing, let’s knock this phase of the Rebuild My Church Appeal out of the park and protect our interior and our stained glass windows!
From the Heart of the Shepherd: The First Sunday of Advent
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