Jesus Moved In!
John 10:22-30
At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly." Jesus answered, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”
I never knew anyone who was 120 years old before. I once spent time with a centenarian shortly before his hundredth birthday celebration. “Dumbest thing I ever heard of,” he told me, “congratulating someone just for managing to stay alive. How long you live is not what’s important,” he said, “it’s what you do with the life you’ve been given that counts.” That’s the temptation, isn’t it? Sometimes I worry that congregations and other Christian institutions are content to congratulate themselves for surviving, for managing to stay alive, or for what they have accomplished, the things they have built. And, if they reach the ripe old age of 120, they often have lots of reasons to ongratulate themselves.
King Solomon had reason to congratulate himself. Solomon is dedicating the temple to Yahweh. Solomon built the house of God and, standing before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, Solomon spreads out his hands to heaven and invites God to move in. Though even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain God, much less the house that Solomon built, the king asks God to move in to that house so that God might hear the prayers of God’s people when they pray in and toward the Temple. Solomon asks God to move in so that God’s people know that God hears and heeds their prayers and forgives them.
Today, as we recall the house of God that Solomon built, we give thanks to God for this house, and for those generations of saints who, knowing that God is everywhere and that God hears their prayers anywhere, built this house and came to this house to offer their prayers, to hear God’s Word, to receive the sacraments, and to sing God’s praise. And as we thank God for this house, we do not congratulate ourselves that the building is still standing with people inside. We don’t congratulate ourselves for a renovated sanctuary, handicapped accessibility, and other new facilities. No, we are mindful of our debt to the saints who offered their prayers in this house over the course of the last 120 years; we are mindful of our responsibility to the saints who will offer their prayers in this house in the 120 years to come. Mostly, we are mindful that people came to this house, that we come to this house, that people will come to this house, because God is with us, because Jesus moved in.
Today, we thank God that this is a house of God, where we have experienced what Solomon said: “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and steadfast love for your servants who walk before you with all their heart.” We thank God that this is a house where we have experienced Immanuel, God with us.
Today is bigger than a church building. Today is bigger than what we have built and all that we could congratulate ourselves for. For in the portico of Solomon’s temple, on the anniversary of its dedication, when Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly, spread out his hands to heaven and invited God to move in, Jesus tells us that what the Father has given him is greater than all else. Jesus tells us that he gives us eternal life and that we will never perish. Jesus tells us that no one, that no thing, that not even death, will snatch us out of Jesus’ hand.
In Christ God comes to us. In Christ God moves in with us. Christ does not move into a special house where he can more easily hear our prayers. Christ moves into a manger, a cross and a tomb, so that he can truly share our lives. And Christ moves into word, water, bread and wine, so that we can share his life as well.
We do not celebrate this house today. We celebrate Immanuel – Christ’s presence, God with us, in this house. You name ways you experience God’s steadfast love in this house in the Hymn of the Day that you choose to sing today:
When we prayed, “Your kingdom come,”
Christ showed us how God’s will is done.
We see God’s wonders, year to year;
within our loving reach new lives appear.
And so we praise God for this glorious place,
where God transforms us by God’s word of grace,
and where we find rest in God’s sincere embrace. Alleluia! Alleluia!
It’s telling that you comissioned a hymn for this day. As I have told you, when I come to Immanuel, I expect that, sometime as we worship, I will be stopped in my tracks by your signing as Eden’s song re-echoes in this space and joins the song of all the choirs of angels, the church on earth, and the host of heaven. You could rightly congratulate yoruselves for your singing. But in my experience, you’d rather just sing and add your voices to Eden’s song.
For you know that this house is not a shrine. This house is not a mouument. This house is the gathering space of that spiritual house founded on the stone rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight. This house is the work place of that spiritual house made of living stones. This house is the mission base of that spiritual house that worshiped and wittnessed to Christ first in Jacobson’s home, then in rented quarters, then in a wood-frame church building, and finally in this church building. Today we celebrate that the spiritual house called Immanual is bigger than the physical house we call church, and that the spiritual house called Immanuel is but part of the spiritual house that is Christ’s body. For we are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people,” called not to congratulate ourselves, but to “proclaim the mighty acts of him who called [us] out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
Ad so, as even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain God, as the tomb could not contain Christ, we, empowered by the Holy Spirit, will not allow this building to contain us. For, although Immanuel is 120, this house is not a retirement home.
With zeal like God’s, that cannot rest
while anyone is still oppressed,
we cast our nets at Christ’s behest.
Because how long we live is not what’s important; it’s what we do with the life we’ve been given that counts. And the life we’ve been given is eternal; the life we’ve been given is Christ’s.
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