Daily Dose of the Word of God - John 2: 19-21

Erin Pacheco, Director of Worship

Transcript

Erin Pacheco  0:06  

Welcome to Elmhurst CRC’s Daily Dose of the Word of God.  It’s Friday, October 24, but Sunday is coming. I’m Erin Pacheco. Today’s reading is from the Gospel of John, as we journey through the Bible this year with the spotlight on Jesus and with the Apostle John as our guide.  Here is John 2:19-21.

Erin Pacheco  0:27  

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body.

Erin Pacheco  0:46  

Have you ever thought about where God lives? Is he close by? Or far away? Maybe somewhere up in the sky? For centuries leading up to Jesus’ time, ancient Israel thought of the temple in Jerusalem as the place where God lived. They remembered how Solomon built a house for God, and how God’s shekinah glory – his visible manifest presence – came to rest in that holy place. God lived in the temple. But then Jesus shows up – and somehow his body is the temple. The new place where God lives. Walking, moving, breathing. There’s a Bible Project video that depicts heaven and earth like a Venn diagram. Mostly they’re separate dimensions. But throughout the Bible, there are places where they overlap – first Eden, then the temple, then Jesus. Jesus lived on earth and in the heavenly dimension at the same time. Wherever he went, God’s presence was there. I love that idea of heaven, not as a place far away, but as a different dimension that can, and does, overlap with our earthly experience. Because the crazy thing about Jesus is that his Spirit is still with us — an ongoing experience of heaven, here and now.  Which means you are never alone. That temple Jesus talked about? It was indeed destroyed, mere decades later, and it was never rebuilt. Its function was complete.  But the church? We (the people, not the building) get to live in the overlap between heaven and earth, now, by the Spirit. And one day, Heaven and earth will come together again – God dwelling with us, fully, finally, in all his glory. 

Erin Pacheco  3:03  

Let's pray. Come Lord Jesus. Come Holy Spirit. Into my life and heart today. Help me to know and experience your presence, not as something far away, but right here with me now. Amen.