Throughout my childhood and young adult years,
my family worshipped in a suburban church in Fayetteville, NC. That congregation proudly claimed their Scottish heritage by naming
their church “Highland Presbyterian.” My grandmother and her children
had been charter members of that church, and it was located only a block from where my grandmother lived.
Sometime during my childhood, the older sanctuary had been demolished. And, for several years during my early teens,
the congregation was seeking to raise the money to build a new sanctuary. During the interim time, we worshipped in the multi-purpose
fellowship hall. However, we all knew that this worship space was temporary. One day we knew that we would have a new sanctuary
in which to worship God.
Finally, the day came when our church started building the new sanctuary. We watched as the concrete flooring was
being poured, the walls were erected, and the roofing took shape. Moreover, I can remember, when I was still a young teenager,
how my mother and I had walked over to the church to look inside of the new sanctuary. The hardwood floor had not yet been
laid, and so there was only the concrete foundation. The workers’ scaffolding
was still up, and sheets of clear plastic were spread around the building. Yet even in its unfinished form, I was awe-struck
by its beauty and grandeur. I can remember how very proud I was that we could have such a beautiful building in which to worship
God.
You likewise have good reason to be very proud of this sanctuary. It is a beautiful building. Moreover, you have lovingly
maintained it. For decades, you have gathered in this sanctuary, young and old, and have faithfully worshipped—you have
gathered and God’s Word has been faithfully preached and heard, and the sacraments have been properly administered.
You have gathered and babies and adults have been baptized into the faith—you
have gathered and couples have pledged their love for one another—and when in the midst of grief you have gathered,
the promise of the resurrection has been proclaimed. This sanctuary is an important holy space and place.
King Solomon likewise knew the importance of holy spaces and holy places in his peoples’ lives. Therefore, Old
Testament lesson for today is the story of the dedication of Solomon’s new Temple.
The time was about 950 BC in late September or early October. The temple had taken some 7 years to build. It was a
grand and elaborate structure. It had been built of the finest cedar, olive wood, stone, and gold leaf. There were massive
carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers throughout the temple.
The temple in Jerusalem actually had been finished a year earlier. Its dedication service
however had been delayed for a year, so that it could be celebrated during the “Feast of Tabernacle.” The Feast
of Tabernacle was an elaborate week-long fall harvest festival. During such festivals there was much feasting on exotic foods,
music, and a multitude of sacrifices. The festival was a celebration of God’s Covenant with the Israelites. There would
be a large crowd in the city for the dedication, which would include a number of local dignitaries, and leaders from throughout
the nation. This harvest festival therefore seemed to Solomon to be an ideal
time for the dedication of the new temple.
When it came time to dedicate the temple, Solomon had planned a production that could have rivaled anything that the
movie producer Cecil B. DeMills could have ever have dreamed up. The stage being set, all the people gathered together at
the temple—the Priests in a great procession, with drums beating, horns playing, and animal being sacrificed along the
entire processional route. Then specially chosen priests carried the “Ark of the Covenant” into the temple on
long poles. The Ark of the Covenant was an ornate long box, which symbolized God’s presence with the people. It contained
within it the tables on which the Ten Commandments had been written. The Israelites had carried the Ark of the Covenant with
them during their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.
Now it was to finally rest from its travels in this new temple. At the conclusion of the process, the Ark of the Covenant
was placed within an inner elevated room, called the Holy of Holies. Unexpectedly, a massive thick, dark cloud began to emerge
from the Holy of Holies and began to fill the whole temple. The cloud was understood as a cloak wrapped around God, concealing
God’s physical presence from the people, lest any of them dared to look at God and die. The cloud was so thick that
it claimed all of the space within the Holy of Holies. Therefore, the priests could no longer stand within the Holy of Holies
to conduct the service.
King Solomon then stood before the altar. He told those gathered that the dedication of this temple was the fulfillment
of a promise that God had made to David. After which, Solomon then led the people in a lengthy prayer, a prayer in which he
prayed that God would bless King Solomon and all his royal descendents who would continue to rule over Israel.
Then Solomon made a statement that expressed how the God of Israel was different from all the other gods in the world.
For he said, “…will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and
the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built.” The Hebrew language further verbalizes
this assertion. For the verb used for God’s dwelling is not one typically used for someone living in a house “ya-sab,” meaning “to sit” or “to live.” Rather, the verb used is “tabernacle,” meaning
“to stay over.” The Temple therefore will be neither God’s residence where he can be confined, as were the other
gods of the region; nor is it a place where the petitioner can summon God as one might summon a servant. Rather, the temple
will be that place where the needs of the people, and God’s willingness to respond to their needs would intersect. The Temple is a place
where the God that even the heavens cannot contain, “stoops down to earth” to hear people’s prayers.
Anyone that has been married for a number of years knows an important truth. That is, that there needs to be those
regular times in a marriage for the couple to be together, away from the children, away from work, away from all the other
demands that seek to have priority in their lives. Moreover, such couples that
have loved one another for years, they know that such great love takes a great commitment to one another—commitment
that can only be nourished by spending regular scheduled times with one another.
It is like that in our relationship with God. We likewise need regular
scheduled times to spend with God. In faith, we therefore come in worship. We come for we know that we live our daily lives
not by grand ideas—but by touch, and taste, and sound, and sight. We come for we know that we need time, and space,
and rituals to keep alive that relationship. Therefore, we come for we know in faith that God bends down to us to commune
with us in this special place.
There is one other important thought for us to consider today. This week
Mountain State University
will welcome new students as well as receive returning students. During their college careers, most of them will make many
of the major decisions of their lives. Most of them will decide what occupations they will pursue; they will decide the crowd
they want to run with; they will decide what values they will live by; and perhaps some even will decide whom they will marry.
Some of them will come to this university seeking to have their previous world-view and values reconfirmed. Others
will come seeking to test out a different way of life—and some will mistakenly be thinking, “What happens in Beckley stays in Beckley.” These life decisions are at their very core—faith decisions. It is therefore important for us as Presbyterians that we be a part of their faith
journey. As Presbyterians, from our beginning it always has been important for
us to be a part of the academic experience. John Calvin freed the sciences from the control of the Church. He established
free public education and a university of higher learning in Geneva. Even the robes that Presbyterian ministers wear are copies of the robes that university
professors wore in that day.
In addition, Calvin saw that faith was a part of the dialogue. As a part of the academic process, the students that
come to MSU need to keep open and inquiring minds to the vast knowledge that they can learn from the sciences and the arts.
They also need to be able to discover that faith is not something that one must fearfully hold onto, as if one can lose it.
Rather, they need to discover that faith is God’s gift to us—given by the same God who has given us minds to discover
more about God’s creation. It therefore is vital that we are located in
downtown Beckley, and near the university campus. It also is vital that we have Janice
to help us to be increasingly engaged in dialogue with the university community.
I hope that at some point that you will have the opportunity to visit the Union-PSCE campus in Richmond. At first glance, the quadrangle of the Union-PSCE campus in Richmond seems constructed in a Jeffersonian architectural style. There is one building at each end
of the rectangular stretch of lawn, and on each side of the lawn there seems to be an equivalent number of buildings. However,
on closer examination, one notices that the front door of each of those buildings does not face the lawn, as in the Jeffersonian
architectural style. Rather, each of the front doors of the building faces the surrounding streets. The campus was designed
to signify that one comes from the surrounding world to that place of discernment, reflection, and worship. Then they must
leave that sanctuary to engage the world with God’s love.
Likewise, we come from the surrounding world to this sanctuary. We bring here our deepest concerns and cares. However,
one does not live in this sanctuary. We come here, we worship here, and then we leave here. We leave hopefully knowing that
we are forgiven, restored, and with the resolve to reenter the surrounding world—to reenter the surrounding world with
Christ’s love in our hearts, our hands, and our heads. Thanks be to God. Amen.
