WEBVTT 00:00:00.783 --> 00:00:01.104 Amen. 00:00:01.104 --> 00:00:12.608 Actually, before you sit down don't sit down just yet I want to read you just a couple of passages before what we just heard Michelle read, and this comes just a few verses earlier. 00:00:12.608 --> 00:00:16.687 So this is like the prequel to what she just read, and again, it's by. 00:00:16.687 --> 00:00:19.000 Marcia Faulk is the one who did this translation. 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:20.245 It's just beautiful. 00:00:20.245 --> 00:00:28.748 This is the Song of Songs, the poems found in the ancient scriptures of the Hebrew Bible, and this is what the writer of the Song of Songs says. 00:00:28.748 --> 00:00:30.585 You can close your eyes and read it. 00:00:30.585 --> 00:00:33.000 Just close your eyes and imagine whatever comes to mind. 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:36.000 Let the images and the sounds and the thoughts just rise up. 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:38.969 This is how it was meant to be read, this ancient Song of Songs. 00:00:38.969 --> 00:00:42.549 It's meant to be read out loud and to enjoy it as one long, flowing poem. 00:00:42.549 --> 00:00:50.950 Here's what the writer of the Song of Songs says you can close your eyes Until the day is over, the shadows gone. 00:00:50.950 --> 00:00:54.409 I'll go up to the hills of fragrant bloom. 00:00:54.409 --> 00:00:56.604 How fine you are. 00:00:56.604 --> 00:01:15.712 My love, my perfect one With me, my bride of mountains, come away with me, come away, come down from the peaks of the mountains, from the perilous Lebanon caves, from the layers where lions crouch hidden, where leopards watch nightly for prey. 00:01:15.712 --> 00:01:20.046 Look down, look down and come away. 00:01:20.046 --> 00:01:22.284 Ah man, you can be seated. 00:01:22.284 --> 00:01:25.608 Would you give Michelle some love this morning? 00:01:29.563 --> 00:01:33.000 Reading the Song of Songs out loud in front of your peers is not an easy task. 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:37.950 I leaned over to the doostrum and said it's not too erotic or essential, is it? 00:01:37.950 --> 00:01:40.959 Then we began to notice the words like thrust and dripping and soaking. 00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:42.506 Oh, maybe it's a little. 00:01:42.506 --> 00:01:46.325 There's a ladybug up here too. 00:01:46.325 --> 00:01:48.716 I don't know where it went, but I don't want to step on it. 00:01:49.180 --> 00:01:52.686 Anyway, welcome to Central. 00:01:52.686 --> 00:01:53.206 My name is Ryan. 00:01:53.206 --> 00:01:53.748 I'm the pastor. 00:01:53.748 --> 00:01:58.123 We are in our third week of our Song of Songs series, which you're like. 00:01:58.123 --> 00:02:03.168 Why on earth are we doing this series through a book of erotic poetry, which is what it is. 00:02:03.168 --> 00:02:10.669 If you haven't noticed, or if you're just joining us and we've got a few guests here this morning, which is wonderful Welcome to Central, where we talk about erotic poetry every week. 00:02:10.669 --> 00:02:25.370 We don't normally do this, but there is this ancient text wedged in between the book of Ecclesiastes and the book of Isaiah, this great prophet, that's called the Song of Songs and it's this book of poems. 00:02:26.641 --> 00:02:39.748 It's quite amazing If you read it, and if you're shy, you can read it quietly by yourself or put it out in the car as you're, but it's this book about a man and a woman and their love for each other, their desires for each other, how they long for each other. 00:02:39.748 --> 00:02:42.527 There's this absence and presence of each one. 00:02:42.527 --> 00:03:00.671 There's a third set of voices that are a mixture of voices, that kind of chime in here and there, and there's this story between these two lovers and it's in the Bible and it's meant to be read, this book, the Song of Songs, out loud, and it's meant to be read as poetry out loud, not to be dissected or taken apart. 00:03:00.671 --> 00:03:08.389 If you've noticed, I haven't done a single sermon on like a deep dive on verse 5, or chapter 7, verse 2, because that's not how you read this book. 00:03:08.389 --> 00:03:20.550 What I've tried to do is do a whole sermon on the whole book each time, because this book is meant to be read and studied and just enjoyed out loud as one long, flowing, overall book, and we enjoy it as such. 00:03:21.420 --> 00:03:27.000 The question then still stands how should we interpret this ancient book of poetry? 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:32.326 And if you're like maybe someone was in here like I don't really get poetry, I don't really understand, I'm not a poetry guy or woman. 00:03:32.326 --> 00:03:34.521 I'm not my bag, fair enough. 00:03:34.521 --> 00:03:36.909 Thanks for bearing with us and just sort of coming along for the ride. 00:03:36.909 --> 00:03:39.169 But even for you, how can we read this? 00:03:39.169 --> 00:03:42.000 What does it mean that this Song of Songs is in the Bible? 00:03:42.902 --> 00:03:52.074 Well, week one we talked about maybe we read it literally that for some reason, there's a book between a man and a woman and their desires for each other. 00:03:52.074 --> 00:04:01.000 Literally, this man and woman, they write back and forth about how much they love each other and how much they long for each other, and they talk about these things in very sensual ways, and that's in the Bible. 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:14.156 Then, last week, we talked about maybe it's an allegory and we shared how the Jews oftentimes actually not right away, but later on in history began to use this book, the Song of Songs, in all kinds of ceremonies and rituals, certainly in weddings. 00:04:14.156 --> 00:04:15.000 They would read it at weddings. 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:17.411 It's a great wedding book. 00:04:17.411 --> 00:04:21.247 Also, they would read it at Passover, like Passover, this festival of Passover. 00:04:21.247 --> 00:04:21.970 Why would you read it then? 00:04:21.970 --> 00:04:32.000 Well, it's the story of God and how God loved Israel and refused to give up on them and promised to save them and redeem them, that he'd be their God and they'd be his people. 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:33.605 He won't let go of them. 00:04:33.605 --> 00:04:38.000 So they began to read this book as an allegory between God and Israel. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:42.000 And this is love poetry, back and forth between God and Israel, which is a little bit weird if you think about it. 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:47.923 Some of the more anthropomorphic parts, which is where God becomes sort of like a human, those are getting a little bit weird. 00:04:47.923 --> 00:04:53.918 But they sort of soften the edges and you say it's a story between God and Israel or the modern church. 00:04:53.918 --> 00:05:04.369 Many of them read it as a story between Jesus and the church, which is not how the original author would have intended that, because that hadn't existed yet, of course but between God and Israel. 00:05:04.369 --> 00:05:06.000 So it was literal or allegory. 00:05:06.321 --> 00:05:11.980 Today I want to offer maybe a third way to look at this book and why it's in the Bible at all in the first place. 00:05:11.980 --> 00:05:17.089 Why is a book about erotic poetry in the Bible, our sacred holy scriptures? 00:05:17.089 --> 00:05:17.812 Why is it in there? 00:05:17.812 --> 00:05:31.512 I think, at least in part it could be because this book offers us maybe a peek behind the curtain or really just a glimpse, a clear glimpse, a focused glimpse, although just a snippet of life. 00:05:32.620 --> 00:05:40.543 This is a book about life and what life might entail, and all the layers and the nuances of life and the human experience. 00:05:40.543 --> 00:05:41.625 I mean. 00:05:41.625 --> 00:05:51.288 This book is full of emotions, ups and downs love, desire, longing, loss, grief, even the absence and presence of the beloved one. 00:05:51.288 --> 00:05:56.000 It's about romance and sex and wonder, and even nature. 00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:58.295 You heard this nature mentioned throughout this book. 00:05:58.295 --> 00:06:00.644 The song of songs like why is it wild? 00:06:00.644 --> 00:06:05.000 It's all in there, and it's all in there because it's all part of the human experience. 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:22.980 These are all elements of life as you live them, as I live them, as just ordinary moments of life that somehow, because they're in this book, might speak to this sort of like the sacredness of human life and even the more I don't know ordinary, everyday parts of human life. 00:06:23.461 --> 00:06:29.793 The song of songs, I would argue, maybe because it's in there, and I have no idea why the original authors wrote the book. 00:06:29.793 --> 00:06:34.247 They didn't say greetings 2024 readers. 00:06:34.247 --> 00:06:37.333 This book was written because they don't say that. 00:06:37.333 --> 00:06:42.851 Now, I don't know why the sages thought it was good to put it in the canon of scripture and the holy, you know. 00:06:42.851 --> 00:06:44.564 I don't know why they didn't say that. 00:06:44.564 --> 00:07:07.908 Either there's some dialogue around it and it's all really good stuff, but I think the fact that it's in there does give us an idea or a picture that this book affirms what it means to be a human, like all the bits and pieces and the nuances of what it means, that these are good and beautiful longings, desires, loss, romance, nature, absence, presence. 00:07:07.908 --> 00:07:14.449 These are all beautiful and good things because they're a part of life and they're mentioned as such in the Bible. 00:07:14.449 --> 00:07:16.298 It's life. 00:07:16.298 --> 00:07:16.759 I mean. 00:07:16.800 --> 00:07:19.754 The Bible, after all, is a book, among other things. 00:07:19.754 --> 00:07:21.822 It's a book about what does it mean to be a human? 00:07:21.822 --> 00:07:23.216 I mean, think about it. 00:07:23.216 --> 00:07:26.646 Why does anybody care what the Bible says in 2024? 00:07:26.646 --> 00:07:28.901 Well, some people don't care, so fair enough. 00:07:28.901 --> 00:07:30.526 But why do any of us care? 00:07:30.526 --> 00:07:32.197 Why does it matter? 00:07:32.197 --> 00:07:33.019 Why do we still read it? 00:07:33.019 --> 00:07:39.007 Why is it the most widely read and produced, printed, sold book of human history? 00:07:39.007 --> 00:07:40.978 And it's super old. 00:07:40.978 --> 00:07:42.141 It's very antiquated. 00:07:42.141 --> 00:07:44.819 You read some stories in there, like what in the world? 00:07:44.819 --> 00:07:49.158 There's a story about a guy who gets stabbed and his belly's so big the sword gets swallowed in his belly. 00:07:49.158 --> 00:07:51.165 Why are we reading that today? 00:07:51.165 --> 00:07:51.747 It's weird. 00:07:51.747 --> 00:08:01.334 Well, because the Bible speaks to and addresses what it means to be a human, and most of us in this room, most of us, are first and foremost human. 00:08:01.334 --> 00:08:04.745 There's a couple of you I'm not so sure about, but we can chat later over coffee. 00:08:04.745 --> 00:08:06.476 And we're human. 00:08:06.476 --> 00:08:09.024 We're asking ourselves what does it mean to be a human? 00:08:09.024 --> 00:08:10.961 What do I do with my life? 00:08:10.961 --> 00:08:13.834 How do I live like the fullness of my humanity? 00:08:13.834 --> 00:08:15.723 What does it mean to be a human? 00:08:15.723 --> 00:08:21.625 And the song of songs speaks, I think, to that, at least in part, what it means, after all, to be alive. 00:08:21.625 --> 00:08:28.257 See, these are, I would argue, god-given expressions of what it means to be a human and to be alive, and they're good. 00:08:28.257 --> 00:08:30.685 Which now brings me to my title. 00:08:30.685 --> 00:08:31.867 You ready for my title of my sermon? 00:08:31.867 --> 00:08:38.840 Today, we're going to talk about these three things temples, erotic poetry and why all things are yours. 00:08:40.024 --> 00:08:45.865 So God comes to Moses and then, at the end, I'll tell you why all this has to do anything with why this is in the Bible. 00:08:45.865 --> 00:08:57.120 God comes to Moses in the book of Exodus and he tells Moses Moses, I want to live with you, I want to dwell with you in your midst, which is not like what God's would say or do. 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:05.792 And he says Moses, you're going to build me a tent and I'm going to tell you exactly how to do it and when you do, make it this big and this tall. 00:09:05.792 --> 00:09:07.578 He tells Moses this is in the book of Exodus. 00:09:07.578 --> 00:09:08.802 Look it up if you don't believe me. 00:09:08.802 --> 00:09:12.467 He says this is how tall you'll make it, how wide it will be. 00:09:12.467 --> 00:09:15.698 These are the colors and the fabrics you'll use for this tent. 00:09:15.698 --> 00:09:18.746 This is working way better than the service in the last one. 00:09:19.695 --> 00:09:21.558 It was a bit of a disaster at the first gathering. 00:09:21.558 --> 00:09:30.368 And God says here's how, here's the cubic feet and the kind of materials you use for this tent called the tabernacle. 00:09:30.368 --> 00:09:39.744 And then God tells Moses and, by the way, you're going to take this tent with you wherever you go, because they were kind of a roving, roving roaming band of people. 00:09:39.744 --> 00:09:43.355 They traveled all over and they didn't have a permanent home just yet. 00:09:43.355 --> 00:09:48.910 And God then said, most importantly then, I'm going to dwell in that tent. 00:09:48.910 --> 00:09:50.535 When do we make it? 00:09:50.535 --> 00:09:50.956 You're dead. 00:09:50.956 --> 00:09:52.660 Okay, share all your in charge of that part. 00:09:52.660 --> 00:09:57.662 I'm going to live in that tent and you'll bring me with you wherever you go. 00:09:57.662 --> 00:10:00.715 I will be your God and you'll be my people. 00:10:00.715 --> 00:10:03.461 Do us your man's, don't muck us around. 00:10:03.461 --> 00:10:04.625 All right, bert. 00:10:06.350 --> 00:10:11.581 And then, years later, when the people of Israel find their promised land, you know, maybe you know the story. 00:10:11.581 --> 00:10:19.658 God gives them a bit of land and tells them that'll be your land, you can move in there permanently and I'll fulfill my promises to you in that land. 00:10:19.658 --> 00:10:21.503 How are we doing over here? 00:10:21.503 --> 00:10:22.746 Good to see you. 00:10:22.746 --> 00:10:26.317 And God tells them I'm going to dwell with you. 00:10:26.818 --> 00:10:31.514 And then a king comes along whose name is Solomon, and Solomon says you know what? 00:10:31.514 --> 00:10:35.403 That tabernacle, that tent, that's temporary, it's not good enough. 00:10:35.403 --> 00:10:39.378 I want to build God a house, a permanent dwelling place. 00:10:39.378 --> 00:10:41.802 So he builds God a temple. 00:10:41.802 --> 00:10:43.046 You've ever heard of a temple? 00:10:43.046 --> 00:10:46.919 Okay, good, god says I will. 00:10:46.919 --> 00:10:52.475 Then I'll dwell in that temple, in that space, in this building. 00:10:52.475 --> 00:10:58.332 And Solomon spends lots of money and energy and human hours and effort. 00:10:58.332 --> 00:11:05.011 This is an extravagant temple, stones are bigger than automobiles and they build this house of God. 00:11:05.011 --> 00:11:17.835 And God says I'll dwell in that place, like I did in the tabernacle, in the tent, and you'll come there and you'll worship me in this space, in this sacred space, this holy and divine place that we call. 00:11:17.835 --> 00:11:19.498 That we call now the temple. 00:11:20.660 --> 00:11:24.668 And for thousands of years people did this, not just the Jewish people. 00:11:24.668 --> 00:11:39.673 Lots of folks built tents or mosques or teepees or prayer closets or sacred spaces to then go and sort of house the divine and to go and meet with the divine and dwell with God in that space. 00:11:39.673 --> 00:11:43.908 And that space was holy and sacred and the divine dwelled there. 00:11:43.908 --> 00:11:48.658 And so people then would gather there in these religious communities with their faith people. 00:11:48.658 --> 00:11:51.943 They would gather and they would have practices there and they would meet with God there. 00:11:51.943 --> 00:11:59.048 They would have all kinds of fellowship in these temples and these tabernacles, in these places, and they would go there to meet with God. 00:11:59.048 --> 00:12:02.606 And they did this across culture and across time. 00:12:02.706 --> 00:12:10.956 I think for this reason, because people intuitively sense that we're not alone in the universe, that we're somehow an echo of a larger sound. 00:12:10.956 --> 00:12:13.548 Our sound is like an echo of something larger, more grand. 00:12:13.548 --> 00:12:19.734 There's something bigger than just us going on, and I know that reductionist materialism says, oh, you only need to. 00:12:19.734 --> 00:12:21.861 You know your meaning is found inside of yourself. 00:12:21.861 --> 00:12:27.120 But I think we intuit there's something more and deeper going on, that we're part of some. 00:12:27.120 --> 00:12:30.307 My story is a part of a bigger and grander story. 00:12:30.307 --> 00:12:31.894 Are you with me so far? 00:12:33.354 --> 00:12:48.495 And so then they build these places where the divine rests and lives and dwells, and they go there and meet with God and in doing so they learn that this is what it looks like for something or a space or a place to be holy and to be sacred. 00:12:48.495 --> 00:12:57.437 They can conceive of it, because God says I will dwell in that place, I will live in that space, that space is dedicated to me. 00:12:57.437 --> 00:13:05.581 And so now you can kind of have an idea, a concrete idea, if you will, of what it means to be in a sacred or holy or divine space. 00:13:05.581 --> 00:13:14.100 And they would go there and they would have all kinds of faith practices and they would have this physical space and they understood what it meant for a thing to be holy. 00:13:14.100 --> 00:13:20.933 How else could they have otherwise known the ethereal or the divine, the transcendent, which is entirely other? 00:13:20.933 --> 00:13:30.400 How would they ever know unless that ethereal or divine became practical, became concrete, became particular, specific? 00:13:30.400 --> 00:13:38.009 How could we know what a holy thing means unless we had a concrete example of like oh, that's holy, right there. 00:13:38.291 --> 00:13:42.836 So Leviticus if you've ever read Leviticus, it's riveting nighttime reading. 00:13:42.836 --> 00:13:49.658 Leviticus is all about how to live and behave and relate to God in that space. 00:13:49.658 --> 00:13:55.360 So, like you wanna know how to relate to God, who's divine and transcendent and ethereal and other. 00:13:55.360 --> 00:14:03.918 Well, okay, I'm gonna give you a very detailed book about how to then operate in this space that's sacred and holy and divine. 00:14:03.918 --> 00:14:06.370 That way you'll know, because how else would you know? 00:14:06.370 --> 00:14:08.414 We don't know how to relate to the divine unless someone tells us. 00:14:08.414 --> 00:14:10.610 So the divine tells us here's how you're to operate. 00:14:10.610 --> 00:14:11.895 So we get Leviticus. 00:14:12.270 --> 00:14:32.839 Rituals are simply a concretization of the ethereal, so it has everything to do with goats and blood and crops and sprinkling stuff and drama and a priest who wears all kinds of clothing, and these practices are a concrete picture of what it means to live with the divine and the other. 00:14:32.839 --> 00:14:35.554 So now we have this idea. 00:14:35.554 --> 00:14:43.177 Okay, then that means this, that, okay, god is in there, this is the house of God, the dwelling place of God, and fair enough. 00:14:43.177 --> 00:14:48.177 And so all the things that belong in there are sacred and holy and divine. 00:14:48.177 --> 00:14:48.895 Are you with me so far? 00:14:48.895 --> 00:15:10.696 And that means then, perhaps, and that things that are not in there, well, out here, if God is in here, then perhaps we could conclude that God is not out here, that out here are, like the things that are not holy or not sacred and not divine. 00:15:11.230 --> 00:15:37.360 No offense, everybody here, I'll join you that the things out here are just things that are, I don't know, ordinary, secular, profane, and so we have to get the secular or the sacred and the divine lives in here and the secular and the profane and the ordinary lives out there, and we get this idea and this picture throughout all of the Hebrew Bible and scriptures. 00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:45.397 This is holy and sacred and divine, and that is not holy or sacred or divine. 00:15:45.397 --> 00:15:46.019 Does that make sense? 00:15:46.019 --> 00:15:55.715 So, over the course of years, you have this divine, which raises a good question though what things belong in here? 00:15:55.715 --> 00:15:57.813 What things don't belong in here? 00:15:57.813 --> 00:15:59.251 So I need your help. 00:15:59.251 --> 00:16:08.658 So this is, of course, not Solomon's temple, but what might belong in this temple, in our temple, and here the space that's sacred and holy and divine. 00:16:09.169 --> 00:16:11.116 How about holy and sacred scriptures? 00:16:11.116 --> 00:16:13.254 Okay, that was an emphatic. 00:16:13.254 --> 00:16:13.855 Yes, I heard. 00:16:13.855 --> 00:16:16.576 Yes, all right, conviction, I like that. 00:16:16.576 --> 00:16:18.654 Right or wrong, we're gonna just say it loud. 00:16:18.654 --> 00:16:20.832 So, presidents deal. 00:16:20.832 --> 00:16:25.378 By the way, okay, how about this? 00:16:25.378 --> 00:16:30.254 Oh, hang on, hang on, lynn's trying to steal my thunder. 00:16:30.254 --> 00:16:35.238 How about the ordination certificate of pastor Ryan Allen Brailey? 00:16:35.238 --> 00:16:39.216 This is holy, sacred. 00:16:39.216 --> 00:16:40.855 I had to dust this baby off too. 00:16:40.855 --> 00:16:43.457 It was down on the bottom shelf of my office. 00:16:43.457 --> 00:16:49.855 Yeah, okay, the order of the pastor, the office of the pastor, maybe a sacred, holy, divine thing. 00:16:50.730 --> 00:16:58.758 I'm not a priest, but one time when I was coaching baseball, our good friend Quinn I'm looking at Garrett and David or Garrett and Hayden my good friend Quinn. 00:16:58.758 --> 00:17:00.596 It must have been like 11, 12 years old. 00:17:00.596 --> 00:17:02.657 Quinn was like he didn't grow up in the church. 00:17:02.657 --> 00:17:06.056 But Quinn was like, hey, coach, he had an idea of what I did for a living. 00:17:06.056 --> 00:17:07.796 He goes hey, coach, how was preaching today? 00:17:07.796 --> 00:17:12.712 Ah, preaching was good, quinn, thanks for asking. 00:17:12.712 --> 00:17:15.349 Preaching was good. 00:17:15.349 --> 00:17:17.434 How about the holy meal, the communion meal? 00:17:18.798 --> 00:17:26.897 By the way, just so you know, when you gather around the table at Central, if you're a new guest or a first time, kind of checking it out, we always say all are welcome at the Lord's table. 00:17:26.897 --> 00:17:34.618 If you wanna come forward to me, you coming forward and putting your hand out as an act of faith, and I will give you a wafer and juice and wine. 00:17:34.618 --> 00:17:42.057 You don't have to be a member here, you don't have to be a Lutheran, you don't have to confess all the right things, you don't even have to know what you're doing. 00:17:42.057 --> 00:17:45.294 If you come forward and hold out your hand, we'll serve you. 00:17:45.294 --> 00:17:46.718 It's just so you're always welcome at the table. 00:17:46.718 --> 00:17:48.836 Okay, yeah, I heard yes, so we'll put that up here. 00:17:51.369 --> 00:17:59.250 All right, now it's Sunday, so football? 00:17:59.250 --> 00:18:02.799 I heard A-no a few times. 00:18:02.799 --> 00:18:03.990 Where's Darryl? 00:18:03.990 --> 00:18:04.532 I thought I saw him. 00:18:04.532 --> 00:18:06.839 Oh, did he leave? 00:18:06.839 --> 00:18:08.689 Oh, that's gonna throw him the ball. 00:18:08.689 --> 00:18:10.396 What about football? 00:18:10.396 --> 00:18:14.452 Okay, but you're gonna hold that for me? 00:18:14.452 --> 00:18:18.799 Fine, we'll put it outside the box, outside the temple. 00:18:18.799 --> 00:18:21.037 There was no football in the temple in the ancient world. 00:18:21.970 --> 00:18:22.792 How about, though? 00:18:22.792 --> 00:18:28.772 I mean, come on my record collection Now, before you sit, let me just show you what I've got, because this might belong. 00:18:28.772 --> 00:18:33.317 I've got Money Jungle, duke Ellington and Charlie Mingus and Max Roach. 00:18:33.317 --> 00:18:34.159 Have you heard this album? 00:18:34.159 --> 00:18:38.233 This is a baller album, you know you guys. 00:18:38.233 --> 00:18:39.137 Okay, how about this one? 00:18:39.137 --> 00:18:41.317 Oasis, the greatest album of all time. 00:18:41.317 --> 00:18:43.095 What's the story of Morning Glory? 00:18:43.095 --> 00:18:47.680 I said, maybe it's a great song. 00:18:47.680 --> 00:18:51.021 We should play it right now. 00:18:51.021 --> 00:18:51.306 I'm kidding. 00:18:51.306 --> 00:18:54.980 Okay, how about Sam Cooke, greatest hits? 00:18:54.980 --> 00:18:58.252 You're a yes or no? 00:18:58.252 --> 00:18:59.518 Daft Punk? 00:18:59.518 --> 00:19:01.076 This is the homework album, mind you. 00:19:01.076 --> 00:19:02.796 This is around the world. 00:19:02.796 --> 00:19:05.936 Only three songs, or three lyrics in the whole song. 00:19:06.710 --> 00:19:07.653 What Taylor Swift? 00:19:07.653 --> 00:19:08.336 How did that get in there? 00:19:08.336 --> 00:19:12.272 Oh, my gosh, oh, no, that must be my daughter's. 00:19:12.272 --> 00:19:14.997 Fine, I listen to it all the time. 00:19:14.997 --> 00:19:21.547 It's a good album, okay, fine, where does it go Out there? 00:19:21.547 --> 00:19:23.114 Okay, fine, I'll put it with you, claes. 00:19:23.114 --> 00:19:26.711 Oh wait, taylor Swift outside of the temple. 00:19:26.711 --> 00:19:34.529 Oh my gosh, is this a plumbing wrench? 00:19:34.529 --> 00:19:41.386 In case you've never used one or seen one, where does it go, trevor? 00:19:41.386 --> 00:19:42.109 I'm gonna have you hold it again. 00:19:42.109 --> 00:19:42.612 Pass it to Trevor. 00:19:42.612 --> 00:19:44.089 Trevor is our resident plumber. 00:19:44.089 --> 00:19:53.807 Okay, well, of course, the quintessential church debate Drums. 00:19:53.807 --> 00:19:59.251 Oh, now you're drawing your line in the sand. 00:19:59.251 --> 00:20:00.094 Where's the in or out? 00:20:00.094 --> 00:20:01.787 Which generation are you? 00:20:01.787 --> 00:20:03.613 Okay, pete, you can hover them over. 00:20:03.613 --> 00:20:06.612 Okay, how about erotic poetry? 00:20:06.612 --> 00:20:12.348 Ooh, a bunch of teenagers we are. 00:20:12.348 --> 00:20:13.050 Listen to us. 00:20:13.050 --> 00:20:15.969 Oh, my gosh, I'll leave it there for now. 00:20:19.326 --> 00:20:26.612 This is sacred, holy, divine, which maybe makes us think that out there is not sacred or holy or divine, it's the ordinary, the mundane. 00:20:26.612 --> 00:20:34.904 But then God tells Moses, hey, moses, just so you know, I don't have any boundaries or edges. 00:20:34.904 --> 00:20:44.904 Unlike other divine beings in the ancient world, I'm not confined to a statue or a building, I'm not confined to time or to space. 00:20:44.904 --> 00:20:48.101 Those things are like, those don't characterize me. 00:20:48.101 --> 00:20:48.944 They're not really what I'm all about. 00:20:48.944 --> 00:20:50.893 You can't do that with me. 00:20:50.893 --> 00:20:55.236 Huh, there's no edges to this God. 00:20:55.236 --> 00:20:56.904 This God has no boundaries, no borders. 00:20:56.904 --> 00:20:58.904 What does that even mean? 00:20:58.904 --> 00:21:02.635 Can that kind of a God go inside of a temple? 00:21:03.445 --> 00:21:12.412 And then Solomon, after he spends all this time, energy, money, manpower, womanpower, by the way he builds the temple. 00:21:12.412 --> 00:21:14.904 This is one of the greatest kings of Jewish history. 00:21:14.904 --> 00:21:17.596 He builds the temple using slaves. 00:21:17.596 --> 00:21:22.335 He's from the kingdom or from the family of Israel. 00:21:22.335 --> 00:21:24.932 This guy among everybody should know better. 00:21:24.932 --> 00:21:28.884 He was delivered from slavery, not personally, but his people were delivered from slavery. 00:21:28.884 --> 00:21:32.944 And here he is using slaves to build this temple, the house of God. 00:21:32.944 --> 00:21:33.268 How ironic. 00:21:33.268 --> 00:21:34.944 But that's another sermon for another day. 00:21:36.532 --> 00:21:38.944 But here, at the dedication of the temple, they're going to pray over it. 00:21:38.944 --> 00:21:40.974 Here's what Solomon says. 00:21:40.974 --> 00:21:47.454 Praying over the temple, he says but God, will God really dwell in there? 00:21:47.454 --> 00:21:52.494 The heavens, even the highest heavens, can't contain you, god. 00:21:52.494 --> 00:22:02.924 How much can this temple that I've built, that I've spent hours and millions of not dollars, but monies and people, and I recruited slaves. 00:22:02.924 --> 00:22:06.233 This temple can't hold you. 00:22:06.233 --> 00:22:10.944 Now, if I'm one of those people, I'm like what are you talking about? 00:22:10.944 --> 00:22:12.550 Excuse me. 00:22:12.550 --> 00:22:14.944 We just spent years building this thing. 00:22:14.944 --> 00:22:16.844 Now you're saying that God can't even live. 00:22:16.844 --> 00:22:21.472 That's why we built it to house God, that we could contain God. 00:22:21.472 --> 00:22:28.414 We could go there and visit God, pray, offer our sacrifices, maybe earn some favor or some blessings from this God. 00:22:28.414 --> 00:22:30.789 And now you're saying that God can't even live in there. 00:22:30.789 --> 00:22:34.170 What? 00:22:34.944 --> 00:22:46.839 And then David writes this in the Psalm Psalm 24, says the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, everything in the world and all who live in it. 00:22:46.839 --> 00:23:24.240 What here's what David and Solomon are getting at, that perhaps Moses knew the whole thing is is God dwells on all of it. 00:23:24.240 --> 00:23:27.791 The whole thing is a temple. 00:23:27.791 --> 00:23:33.413 The whole earth houses God, which means the temple. 00:23:33.413 --> 00:23:36.298 Of course God is there and God dwells there. 00:23:36.298 --> 00:23:42.567 And so God dwells out here In your school. 00:23:42.686 --> 00:23:44.251 God is there and dwells there. 00:23:44.251 --> 00:23:48.532 In your workplace, god dwells there and is there and present with you there. 00:23:48.532 --> 00:23:52.814 Dare, I say, in traffic, in your car, god is there. 00:23:52.814 --> 00:23:54.017 That's sort of a temple. 00:23:54.017 --> 00:23:56.993 It's the dwelling place of God is also there. 00:23:56.993 --> 00:24:01.013 When you're at the gym lifting weights, don't forget that God is also there. 00:24:01.013 --> 00:24:04.509 In the theater, God is there. 00:24:04.509 --> 00:24:10.653 There are no sacred and unsacred places. 00:24:10.653 --> 00:24:15.034 There are only sacred places and desecrated places. 00:24:15.034 --> 00:24:25.547 Desecrated means things that were sacred, that have become marred or muddied or used for the wrong purposes, distorted. 00:24:25.547 --> 00:24:31.355 There's no such thing as a sacred and non-sacred place or division. 00:24:31.355 --> 00:24:35.534 Just all the things are sacred, but some have just been misused. 00:24:36.984 --> 00:24:38.308 Years ago I worked with teenagers. 00:24:38.308 --> 00:24:38.830 I loved it. 00:24:38.830 --> 00:24:42.724 I loved every minute of it Well, most minutes of it. 00:24:42.724 --> 00:24:47.036 And what would happen is, when I worked with middle school kids, invariably they'd come into this space. 00:24:47.036 --> 00:24:53.095 A lot of them were not from the church, they were living in the neighborhood and they didn't know all the rules and all the rituals of the place. 00:24:53.095 --> 00:25:01.971 And they would come in here and, in case you didn't know it, middle school kids swear and they would swear. 00:25:01.971 --> 00:25:06.744 They'd come in here and they'd swear, they'd say a cuss word or two, and then they would almost group correct. 00:25:06.744 --> 00:25:08.893 They'd be like yo, you can't swear in here. 00:25:08.893 --> 00:25:10.147 That's what they would say. 00:25:12.005 --> 00:25:12.566 What does that mean? 00:25:12.566 --> 00:25:14.992 That's temple thinking. 00:25:14.992 --> 00:25:19.233 They're thinking this oh well, god is in there. 00:25:19.233 --> 00:25:20.195 We can't swear in there. 00:25:20.195 --> 00:25:21.750 The sacred, the divine, is in there. 00:25:21.750 --> 00:25:22.788 We can't do that in there. 00:25:22.788 --> 00:25:24.032 That isn't appropriate. 00:25:24.032 --> 00:25:27.654 And so I would say to them things like got it, got it. 00:25:27.654 --> 00:25:27.964 Okay. 00:25:27.964 --> 00:25:31.576 Maybe this is not appropriate, things to say, violent language, abusive language. 00:25:31.576 --> 00:25:40.712 But also, if God is in here, that means that God is also out there, which means you shouldn't probably use that language out there either. 00:25:40.712 --> 00:25:46.450 And they would just stare at me with their eyes really big, because the whole thing is a temple. 00:25:46.450 --> 00:25:50.493 God is the same out there as God is in here. 00:25:50.493 --> 00:25:52.171 God dwells out there too. 00:25:52.171 --> 00:26:00.189 So we don't gather in here to get out of the big, bad world and do our things and meet with God in here. 00:26:00.189 --> 00:26:18.133 Instead, we gather in here to together remind ourselves that God can be found wherever we are, whatever our activities, whatever we're doing, that God can be found there, that we can wake up to God in all parts of life. 00:26:18.133 --> 00:26:27.250 So when we build temples, it's important to remember that when you're building them, god can't be housed in a box. 00:26:27.250 --> 00:26:30.330 So we don't really need a temple. 00:26:30.330 --> 00:26:32.309 In fact, the whole thing is a temple. 00:26:34.605 --> 00:26:37.173 Years ago I was at a twins game with my sons, logan and Gavin. 00:26:37.173 --> 00:26:39.371 They must have been, I don't know, 10, 11, 12 years old. 00:26:39.371 --> 00:26:46.893 We sat down at the twins game and right next to me there's these two young dudes like in their 20s, and they were two or three, two beers in. 00:26:46.893 --> 00:26:49.631 We had a great conversation almost from the jump. 00:26:49.631 --> 00:26:56.372 We're talking I love talking to young guys and we're chatting away about all kinds of stuff, and then finally they go hey, what do you do for a living. 00:26:56.372 --> 00:27:01.133 I was like, oh man, I don't want to ruin the conversation, gentlemen. 00:27:01.133 --> 00:27:08.153 So I go, well, well, I work at a church. 00:27:08.153 --> 00:27:11.953 And they're like oh man, you are in a pastor, are you? 00:27:11.953 --> 00:27:12.728 And they start laughing. 00:27:12.728 --> 00:27:18.174 Well, yes, I am. 00:27:18.174 --> 00:27:20.028 And they hide their beers. 00:27:20.028 --> 00:27:24.390 No, I'm kidding, that doesn't happen to me. 00:27:24.390 --> 00:27:26.550 For many pastors, that's what happens. 00:27:26.550 --> 00:27:27.628 It doesn't happen to me. 00:27:27.628 --> 00:27:28.647 You know what happens. 00:27:29.765 --> 00:27:33.070 People start confessing their sins to me, or like their darkest secrets. 00:27:33.070 --> 00:27:34.828 It's happened a number of times. 00:27:34.828 --> 00:27:36.452 Like it's odd, my wife laughs. 00:27:36.452 --> 00:27:36.993 You can ask her. 00:27:36.993 --> 00:27:41.450 So they're like you're a pastor At the twins game, middle of the 30 thing. 00:27:41.450 --> 00:27:48.740 Like, yeah, like dude, we've been, we grew up in the church and we walked away from all of it and here's why. 00:27:48.740 --> 00:27:57.608 And they start confessing and like we've been doing all these things these last many years, like, whoa, here we go and they start confessing. 00:27:57.608 --> 00:27:59.128 I'm not kidding, right there. 00:27:59.128 --> 00:28:07.107 And so of course I said to them gentlemen, gentlemen, we're at a twins game, we are in ordinary space, we are not in there. 00:28:07.107 --> 00:28:09.509 Keep your confession for later. 00:28:09.509 --> 00:28:12.050 Some see me on Sunday in the building. 00:28:12.050 --> 00:28:16.551 Sorry, this is baseball time. 00:28:16.551 --> 00:28:25.690 No, I didn't say that, because I think the whole thing is a temple, it says, oh yeah, let's go. 00:28:25.690 --> 00:28:31.330 We're going to have some confession and absolution right here and right now, and my boys get to watch that. 00:28:31.330 --> 00:28:33.488 This is kind of how we do life, it's just part of normal life. 00:28:35.684 --> 00:28:42.169 So, trevor, you got the plumbing stick over there, or the plumber, you can hang on to it. 00:28:42.169 --> 00:28:50.211 Is Trevor's job sacred or divine, or is it ordinary and secular and meaningless? 00:28:50.211 --> 00:28:52.575 How about your job as a teacher? 00:28:52.575 --> 00:28:55.472 Is your job as a teacher a sacred, divine act? 00:28:55.472 --> 00:29:00.474 Many of us would try to prop up the temple and the temple space, which I get it. 00:29:00.474 --> 00:29:02.769 But we ask and he's like well, is this really? 00:29:02.769 --> 00:29:03.652 Is that really Christian? 00:29:03.652 --> 00:29:07.171 Is that book a Christian book or a Christian song, which I get? 00:29:07.171 --> 00:29:10.429 What is that a Christian job? 00:29:10.429 --> 00:29:13.346 A plumber, my job? 00:29:13.346 --> 00:29:17.208 Look, you might say to yourself, my job's not in the temple, my job's out here. 00:29:17.208 --> 00:29:24.676 I'm just a plumber, I'm just a stay-at-home mom or stay-at-home dad, I'm just raising kids. 00:29:24.676 --> 00:29:25.346 It's nothing special. 00:29:25.346 --> 00:29:29.510 I'm just an engineer, married to an engineer. 00:29:29.510 --> 00:29:31.455 That's nothing. 00:29:31.455 --> 00:29:37.174 I just do whatever, my job's not in the temple, like yours, pastor Ryan. 00:29:37.174 --> 00:29:41.112 What do we make of these things? 00:29:41.112 --> 00:29:43.517 What's that? 00:29:43.517 --> 00:29:46.352 Okay, there you go. 00:29:48.307 --> 00:29:50.816 I have two sons and one of them is going to college right now. 00:29:50.816 --> 00:29:52.232 He's a sophomore and he called me and he goes. 00:29:52.232 --> 00:29:54.164 He was studying actuarial science. 00:29:54.164 --> 00:29:54.968 What do you want to do? 00:29:54.968 --> 00:29:57.211 That, which I have no idea what that even means. 00:29:57.211 --> 00:29:58.388 Still to this day, I don't know what that even is. 00:29:58.388 --> 00:29:59.231 Not my lane. 00:29:59.231 --> 00:30:02.244 He's like dad, I think I want to declare my major. 00:30:02.244 --> 00:30:06.664 He's a sophomore and it's not actuarial, it's not math or statistics. 00:30:06.664 --> 00:30:08.551 I go yeah, what do you want to study, buddy? 00:30:08.551 --> 00:30:13.484 He goes, long story short, I love to study religion and double major in philosophy. 00:30:13.484 --> 00:30:16.593 I was like well, all right, let's go, brother, let's go. 00:30:16.593 --> 00:30:18.436 That's one of my lanes. 00:30:18.436 --> 00:30:20.444 I can talk to you about that. 00:30:20.444 --> 00:30:22.530