You are a Temple

 Read 1 Corinthians 3

 A local farmer had a situation and asked if I could help. I said, maybe…

I’ve got this small load from cleaning out the stables but I have to use the trailer to move my mother-in-law’s classic white sofa across town right now. I just need a place to park my load. Could I use your fellowship hall?

So, beginning tomorrow, watch your step in the fellowship hall. But on a high note, the youth group might get a $20 donation for camp.

It will be fine.

There’s a group that wanted to do an art display in the church building. They wanted to feature artistic and educational material on the 247 genders.

The session will probably have to vote on that one.

We don’t have the vaulted ceiling of sanctuaries of old, so I was thinking of cutting a big hole one each side of the sanctuary and making two skylights. We will cut the holes in them this year and make some glass coverings for them next year.

We might get a little snow, hail, rain, leaves, or stray cotton bolls until we make the window coverings, but it will work out.

Some of you are wondering what this has to do with Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth. Others are thinking, are we going to do that show-of-hands thing about who read their chapter?

What is the connection?

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?  If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

So now, Tom says, DON’T DO DRUGS. That would be fitting.

Or, don’t eat so much processed food. Be careful choosing what you consume. Some junk is masquerading as food is out there, so look out.

How about what we see? Be careful, little eyes, what we see.

How many sets of eyes here are glued to your phone's screen for hours each day? Visual stimulation is powerful. I remember coming into the Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, California, after 10 days in the field.

I was in a group of about 100 Marine officers. We came into the theater and sat on a real seat for the first time in a couple of weeks. As we waited for the commanding officer of the training center to come to say a few words to us, a lance corporal turned on the two big-screen televisions. Instantly, the whole audience was immersed in MTV.

We sat there and were mesmerized by it. Marine officers typically do not spend their time with MTV and music videos, but we were glued to the images on the screens. Images are powerful.

If you have lived long enough, you have some imagery in your mind that will never go away. I hope it’s not all traumatic.  

An image of Jesus embracing you in heaven would be a good thing to have stuck in your mind.  Maybe the image of the cross would be a good one to protect from being deleted in your mind’s next update.

And what we hear is as powerful and sometimes more subtle than we realize.

Who wants a Coke? What kind?

Dr. Pepper.

We can argue for days over whether it’s soda or pop or a soft drink or something else but the Coca Cola Company already did a job on us decades ago. Who wants a Coke?

Our bodies are temples. God calls us out of the world, sets us apart, makes us holy, and then sends us back into the world to share his love and good news.

Our very being is to be a holy place. We need to be careful about what comes in to this holy place. Elsewhere, we will read to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. The same applies here.

And we must pay attention to what we hear, not just what’s up front and obvious but the background conversation or music. Is it wholesome? Is is beneficial?

And what we eat and drink and otherwise consume for whatever reason is on the list.

Our bodies are not our own. They were bought with a price. They are now God’s temples and we are to keep them holy.

Amen.