The commentary on fading faith and state of faith at the temple led me to think about struggles in the church, past and present. John’s Gospel is all about keeping all eyes and hearts and minds on Jesus! We tend to turn our eyes toward the shiny things in the water, and mount a crusade against them, instead of Jesus’ Way of “fishing for people.
I was also led by your writing today to get the referenced Barbara Brown Taylor’s book “The Preaching Life.” As of now, the first chapter is holding me captive! Wow!
I had not thought about this before your post here, Scot. For some time, I've made the point to other Christians that God's people before Jesus believed that the locus of God's presence was the temple. And in 1 Corinthians, Paul makes the point that there's been something of a shift: <our bodies> are now "the temple of the Holy Spirit." There's a different locus of God's presence. That's a huge shift from place to people. I probably shouldn't make too much of this, and I'm pretty sure that it's not original with me, although I don't see many references to the shift: and people seem surprised when I mention this shift to them.
But your post today leads me to think that the shift is perhaps to be seen in this way: physical tabernacle/temple (before Jesus) --> Jesus (in his own words) --> all of God's people (Paul), perhaps as the body of Christ.
I'd welcome correction or amplification or even "this is pretty commonly understood and you've just missed hearing it." Whatever!
yes, on the second paragraph. Revelation's ending has Jesus as the temple. NT Wright talks of Jesus being a "mobile" temple, I think. I'd connect temple in the NT to Spirit, to Jesus, to saints.
The commentary on fading faith and state of faith at the temple led me to think about struggles in the church, past and present. John’s Gospel is all about keeping all eyes and hearts and minds on Jesus! We tend to turn our eyes toward the shiny things in the water, and mount a crusade against them, instead of Jesus’ Way of “fishing for people.
I was also led by your writing today to get the referenced Barbara Brown Taylor’s book “The Preaching Life.” As of now, the first chapter is holding me captive! Wow!
Thanks for the enrichment!
I like this turn of phrase: "faith is a journey, not a sip of water or wine before the journey begins."
And yes, cool cover. ;-)
I had not thought about this before your post here, Scot. For some time, I've made the point to other Christians that God's people before Jesus believed that the locus of God's presence was the temple. And in 1 Corinthians, Paul makes the point that there's been something of a shift: <our bodies> are now "the temple of the Holy Spirit." There's a different locus of God's presence. That's a huge shift from place to people. I probably shouldn't make too much of this, and I'm pretty sure that it's not original with me, although I don't see many references to the shift: and people seem surprised when I mention this shift to them.
But your post today leads me to think that the shift is perhaps to be seen in this way: physical tabernacle/temple (before Jesus) --> Jesus (in his own words) --> all of God's people (Paul), perhaps as the body of Christ.
I'd welcome correction or amplification or even "this is pretty commonly understood and you've just missed hearing it." Whatever!
Thanks!
yes, on the second paragraph. Revelation's ending has Jesus as the temple. NT Wright talks of Jesus being a "mobile" temple, I think. I'd connect temple in the NT to Spirit, to Jesus, to saints.