Building That House

‘Look, I am living in a house of cedar while the ark of God dwells in a tent.’ David was concerned that God does not have a proper abode among his people. Let the king’s desire to provide God with a Temple, which can express and worship His beauty and power, be our desire, too. On the threshold of Christmas let it be our concern, too. How can we welcome our Creator and Redeemer? 

Is it a physical abode? Partially, it is, as we have to give expression to the Sacred. When we build a church, it is a witness to God’s life-giving power. We need the temple also as the expression of our ability to welcome what is Sacred. The physical building is always a reminder to preserve in us this capacity of welcome.
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Yet, Christmas Eve will teach us, that God shows us the most important way, his way of building the Temple of His presence. God will choose to live and serve among us. To love among us, literally, us. So let us see in the Christmas story not God’s poverty but something even more powerful than his kenosis (self-emptying). It Jesus’ ability to show God as Emmanuel, the Sacred as our companion, and real friend.
 
24.12.2020