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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
1 Kings 8:6-13
Romans 12:1-5
St. Luke 2:42-52
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. (Eph 1)
Jesus speaks to you on this the day of His Epiphany from His Gospel heard today, saying:
When the protestors went into the capitol building last year on January 6th, they did not find democracy, or liberty, or justice for all. It was an empty building filled only with empty promises, with not even an ear to hear their complaints. Truly, there is nothing sacred about the US Capitol.
So it is that the Lord knows that in order for words and promises to be worth anything, someone needs to be there to back them up and keep them. His presence is HIs glory and His glory is His presence. When we hear our Old Testament reading talk about the presence of God’s cloud and His glory filling the Temple, we know these two terms to be interchangeable and are proof of God’s faithfulness.
When Moses asked God, “Please, show me Your glory”, the Lord did nothing more than come close to Moses, literally, making all His goodness pass before him while Moses was on the Rock, present and accounted for (Ex 33:18-23).
Likewise, Psalm 26:8 confesses, “Lord, I have loved the habitation of Your house,
And the place where Your glory dwells” because “there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters…” (Deut 12:11-12)
In Jerusalem, in the Temple, God promises His habitation and in this way keeps His promise when He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you, when you have brought the people out of Egypt: you shall serve God on this mountain” (Ex 3:12)
God’s Word makes very plain the eternal importance of God’s Temple, not only so that God has a fitting house for Him to dwell with His people on earth, but so that His people can find Him and fear, love, and trust only in Him.
Unfortunately, before Jesus is born, something devastating happens. When Babylon comes to Israel, the people are taken into exile and the Temple is destroyed, razed to the ground. Not one stone is left upon another and all the sacred vessels are taken into Babylon, including the Ark, sorry Indiana.
As abominable as that is, it doesn’t compare to the utter sorrow and disappointment felt by God’s people when the Temple is rebuilt, after the Exile to Babylon ended. Such wailing could only be trumped by the wailing of Rachel for her dead children.
Ezra 3:12 records the event: “But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes.”
Whereas the First Temple was inaugurated in this way: “Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house” (2 Chronicles 7:1), the Second Temple had no such divine fanfare, even though everything was done exactly the same, according to God’s Word.
The prophet Haggai says, “‘Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing?” (2:3)
This 2nd, “disappointing” Temple is the Temple that is still around for Jesus to walk into, from today’s Gospel. And by this time, the dominant denominations at the time, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the scribes had all been teaching a doctrine that did not involve God being present in His Temple.
This is why the Pharisees didn’t need any other authority other than their own. This is why the Sadducees did not need a resurrection with God. This is why the Scribes needed only their knowledge and interpretation of the Law and none other, because God had left. It was up to them. This is why Jesus coming into the Temple was such a surprise.
Repent! What did you come here, today, to see? A reed shaken by the wind? A God Who has so little power in the world that He is reduced to one church in a tiny town? A God who needs our worship and prayers or He will disappear?
What did you come here to see? A man in soft clothing? Pampered by riches he did not work for and reaping where he did not sow? Just a crude kind of pyramid scheme, where the man up front gains riches, and fame, and glory???
What did you come here to see? A Temple. Yes, much more than a temple, for someone greater than the Temple is here (Mt 12:6). A Temple that time, spear, or nail cannot destroy. A temple that does not fail in glory and a temple that eternally contains the presence of the Almighty God, regardless of time, place, or person.
The world then looks for divine brick or mortar, but God only gives heavenly mettle, for “He was speaking of the temple of His body” (Jn 2:21).
So Jesus asks, “why were you looking for me”. Did you not know that “the Lord:
…will bring back the captivity of Jacob’s tents, And have mercy on his dwelling places”? (Jer 30:18). Did you not remember that “’The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’” (Hag 2:9)?
When Jesus presents Himself for circumcision, when Jesus comes in front of the teachers of Israel, when Jesus displays Himself in front of His Temple, in front of His city, for the world to see, the Greater Glory of God has returned to His Temple and fills the Temple, and heaven and earth once more.
In the body of Jesus, God’s glory now resides, as it has done for all eternity. There is no other place it has been. It did reside with the Temple of old, but that was just a shadow of things to come. The OT Temple pointed to the NT Temple of the body of God.
“But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Rev 21:22) and “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Heb 1:3).
When you look for God’s presence in your life, you do not have to rely on a building, much less on emotions, in order to at best pretend that God is with you. He is going to be here as HE promised, with or without your prayers.
He was there of old and He is here today. As ST. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:9-11,
“For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.”
And the Lord Jesus Christ remains. His presence is so permanent, that not even death can remove it. He just comes back, never to die again. Kicked out of His own Temple, Jesus tears the curtain in two, promising Word and Sacrament presence, wherever 2 or 3 are gathered.
But this is nothing new. The Word has been since the beginning and the Bread of the Presence and the Wine of gladness have ever been with God wherever He has gone, in Temple and on mountains.
For though the revelation that the true Temple is the Body of Christ is new, the Plan to make it so was the plan from the start. Just as God was, is, and will always be the true King over His people, even though they beg for an earthly one, so too will He also be their true Temple, even though we build false temples for ourselves.
If we are in the True Temple of God, where is our glory cloud that fills this place, that external proof? Rest is your proof. the very fact that you rest in God’s Divine Service is proof of His Glory being present among you.
Read your Old Testament again. Verse 11 explicitly states, “that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.”
When the priests can do no work, God is doing the work. When houses and institutions of men become empty shells and crumble to the ground, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. “When other helpers fail and comforts flee”, the Help of the helpless abides with me.
Not just in platitudes or high octane emotions, but in Word and Deed. You see Jesus as He wants to be seen in Word and Sacrament. God’s Glory fills this house when He washes, comforts, and feeds you and you receive it in Faith.
Jesus speaks to you on this the day of His Epiphany from His Gospel heard today, saying:
“Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I
must be in my Father's house?”
When the protestors went into the capitol building last year on January 6th, they did not find democracy, or liberty, or justice for all. It was an empty building filled only with empty promises, with not even an ear to hear their complaints. Truly, there is nothing sacred about the US Capitol.
So it is that the Lord knows that in order for words and promises to be worth anything, someone needs to be there to back them up and keep them. His presence is HIs glory and His glory is His presence. When we hear our Old Testament reading talk about the presence of God’s cloud and His glory filling the Temple, we know these two terms to be interchangeable and are proof of God’s faithfulness.
When Moses asked God, “Please, show me Your glory”, the Lord did nothing more than come close to Moses, literally, making all His goodness pass before him while Moses was on the Rock, present and accounted for (Ex 33:18-23).
Likewise, Psalm 26:8 confesses, “Lord, I have loved the habitation of Your house,
And the place where Your glory dwells” because “there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters…” (Deut 12:11-12)
In Jerusalem, in the Temple, God promises His habitation and in this way keeps His promise when He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you, when you have brought the people out of Egypt: you shall serve God on this mountain” (Ex 3:12)
God’s Word makes very plain the eternal importance of God’s Temple, not only so that God has a fitting house for Him to dwell with His people on earth, but so that His people can find Him and fear, love, and trust only in Him.
Unfortunately, before Jesus is born, something devastating happens. When Babylon comes to Israel, the people are taken into exile and the Temple is destroyed, razed to the ground. Not one stone is left upon another and all the sacred vessels are taken into Babylon, including the Ark, sorry Indiana.
As abominable as that is, it doesn’t compare to the utter sorrow and disappointment felt by God’s people when the Temple is rebuilt, after the Exile to Babylon ended. Such wailing could only be trumped by the wailing of Rachel for her dead children.
Ezra 3:12 records the event: “But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes.”
Whereas the First Temple was inaugurated in this way: “Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house” (2 Chronicles 7:1), the Second Temple had no such divine fanfare, even though everything was done exactly the same, according to God’s Word.
The prophet Haggai says, “‘Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing?” (2:3)
This 2nd, “disappointing” Temple is the Temple that is still around for Jesus to walk into, from today’s Gospel. And by this time, the dominant denominations at the time, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the scribes had all been teaching a doctrine that did not involve God being present in His Temple.
This is why the Pharisees didn’t need any other authority other than their own. This is why the Sadducees did not need a resurrection with God. This is why the Scribes needed only their knowledge and interpretation of the Law and none other, because God had left. It was up to them. This is why Jesus coming into the Temple was such a surprise.
Repent! What did you come here, today, to see? A reed shaken by the wind? A God Who has so little power in the world that He is reduced to one church in a tiny town? A God who needs our worship and prayers or He will disappear?
What did you come here to see? A man in soft clothing? Pampered by riches he did not work for and reaping where he did not sow? Just a crude kind of pyramid scheme, where the man up front gains riches, and fame, and glory???
What did you come here to see? A Temple. Yes, much more than a temple, for someone greater than the Temple is here (Mt 12:6). A Temple that time, spear, or nail cannot destroy. A temple that does not fail in glory and a temple that eternally contains the presence of the Almighty God, regardless of time, place, or person.
The world then looks for divine brick or mortar, but God only gives heavenly mettle, for “He was speaking of the temple of His body” (Jn 2:21).
So Jesus asks, “why were you looking for me”. Did you not know that “the Lord:
…will bring back the captivity of Jacob’s tents, And have mercy on his dwelling places”? (Jer 30:18). Did you not remember that “’The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’” (Hag 2:9)?
When Jesus presents Himself for circumcision, when Jesus comes in front of the teachers of Israel, when Jesus displays Himself in front of His Temple, in front of His city, for the world to see, the Greater Glory of God has returned to His Temple and fills the Temple, and heaven and earth once more.
In the body of Jesus, God’s glory now resides, as it has done for all eternity. There is no other place it has been. It did reside with the Temple of old, but that was just a shadow of things to come. The OT Temple pointed to the NT Temple of the body of God.
“But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Rev 21:22) and “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Heb 1:3).
When you look for God’s presence in your life, you do not have to rely on a building, much less on emotions, in order to at best pretend that God is with you. He is going to be here as HE promised, with or without your prayers.
He was there of old and He is here today. As ST. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:9-11,
“For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.”
And the Lord Jesus Christ remains. His presence is so permanent, that not even death can remove it. He just comes back, never to die again. Kicked out of His own Temple, Jesus tears the curtain in two, promising Word and Sacrament presence, wherever 2 or 3 are gathered.
But this is nothing new. The Word has been since the beginning and the Bread of the Presence and the Wine of gladness have ever been with God wherever He has gone, in Temple and on mountains.
For though the revelation that the true Temple is the Body of Christ is new, the Plan to make it so was the plan from the start. Just as God was, is, and will always be the true King over His people, even though they beg for an earthly one, so too will He also be their true Temple, even though we build false temples for ourselves.
If we are in the True Temple of God, where is our glory cloud that fills this place, that external proof? Rest is your proof. the very fact that you rest in God’s Divine Service is proof of His Glory being present among you.
Read your Old Testament again. Verse 11 explicitly states, “that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.”
When the priests can do no work, God is doing the work. When houses and institutions of men become empty shells and crumble to the ground, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. “When other helpers fail and comforts flee”, the Help of the helpless abides with me.
Not just in platitudes or high octane emotions, but in Word and Deed. You see Jesus as He wants to be seen in Word and Sacrament. God’s Glory fills this house when He washes, comforts, and feeds you and you receive it in Faith.
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