Text: 1 Corinthians 6: 19-20
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
What happens in a temple? What was the Temple in Jerusalem all about? The Temple was for prayer, praise and thanksgiving. The Temple in Jerusalem was for sacrifices for the atonement of sin and wrong. The Temple in Jerusalem, the first one built by King Solomon, was the place of the Ark of the Covenant, that is, the Temple in Jerusalem was for the Word of God: preached and taught. The Temple was for the Word of God that is central and crucial: God’s Name. As the LORD said, the Temple was the place of God’s Name so that many would call upon the Name of the Lord and be saved. The Temple, the place for the Word of God, was the time and place for saving doctrine making saving faith. So the Temple was for the building up of God’s people in faith toward God and in fervent love toward one another. The Temple was God’s plan for Israel as God has planned the Temple not made with human hands, Jesus Christ. “…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?
The number one sense organ for the Lord’s Temple are our ears. When Hannah’s prayers were answered for a child, as she prayed at Shiloh where the Ark of the Covenant was at that time, she rejoiced when she knew she was with child. Because the Lord heard her, she named her son, Samuel, literally God hears. And God hears was in the Sanctuary at Shiloh, assistant to the priest, Eli and one evening he hears a voice. As we heard in today’s Old Testament reading, he had heard the Lord and His Word to him. Eli said, when you hear, say, “ Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.” Eli was right: the only way that Samuel did know the Lord until the Lord revealed His Word to Samuel. The Word made flesh, His epiphany has been revealed to Jew and Gentile: Jesus Christ. He revealed His Word, His Name to you when pastor a poured water over your head and said, You are baptized in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Your plural bodies are just like the Temple in Jerusalem was: the place for His Name. We trace the Cross over these Temples at the Name of the Holy Trinity, we are reminding ourselves we that our selves are not our, you were bought for a price. What price? Millions and millions of dollars, no! You were bought by the holy, precious, innocent sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, God in man-made manifest. And the Corinthians were selling out their temples for the price of a one night stand. “…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?
How do you build a temple? When it comes to building a mortar and bricks temple, I would not know where to begin, but I do have darn good idea of the ways to desecrate and destroy a temple. For instance, synagogues spray painted with swastikas and Torah scrolls defiled. Religious leaders preach hatred and violence in their temples, against gays, women and the infidel, in the name of their deity. Ministers preaching same sex marriage, abortion from the pulpit, and the congregation giving the Amen or shrugging their shoulders with the “whatever” attitude. When the greed of the so-called prosperity gospel is preached, but not the Lord who prospered us with His blood for our eternal salvation, money becomes the idol. The hot theological issue in Corinth was that since the body does not matter, and Jesus has saved us and we are very spiritual, it is okay to hook-up with a prostitute. In response to the Corinthian Christians immorality, the Apostle Paul wrote to them the Gospel: “You are a temple of the Holy Ghost”. The church, the Temple of the Holy Spirit, in Corinth, the house of the Lord was fast becoming a whore house, but the Lord had claimed the Corinthians as His House, in His love poured out through His only-begotten Son. “…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?
The priesthood at the time of Israel was hereditary. Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phineas were priests in Shiloh like their father and the Word of the Lord was rare in those days. Why was the Word of the Lord rare in the days of Samuel? Hophni and Phineas were stealing from the sacrifices from the people and laying with the women who came to worship at Shiloh. It’s hard to hear the Word of the Lord, when ears are filled with wickedness. Hophni and Phineas had turned to their own way. It’s hard to hear the Word of the Lord when the ears are filled with clamor and dispute. You are a temple of the Holy Ghost. The temples of fame, wealth, personality, power cost a lot: our own souls. This Temple is bought with price of Jesus’ blood, His sacrifice once and for all,not in the temple but for the Temple, for us. . “…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?
The Lord wants it be known we are a temple of the Holy Ghost within you. He saved what He created and will bring it to fruition in the kingdom come. He loves mankind. He saves His creation, it’s worth saving, after all it is good, and man and woman. As in Psalm 8:
what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor. Ps. 8
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. Ps. 139
The Lord made human nature for Himself in faith and love. He restores us in His reconciliation upon the Cross. God made us in His own image, in His own image He made us. Man’s natural habitat, his nature, is not sin. It is faith.
Jesus said to Nathaniel that he would see heaven opened. The allusion in seeing heaven opened is the Patriarch Jacob’s dream on his way to Haran. The dream is commonly called Jacob’s ladder but what he saw in his dream was more like a temple and the Lord stood next to him on the road and the angels ascending and descending…but this is key: heaven opened. Heaven opened when Jesus Christ was baptized and heaven opened when the Cross is lifted high, the mark of the true temple, of heaven come down in a Man, Jesus Christ for our forgiveness. Truly, greater things will Nathaniel see: the epiphany of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. Clinging and holding to Jesus Christ in His promised Presence in the Holy Spirit in Word and Sacrament is the reception in faith of His forgiveness. The angels are messengers of God, bringing God’s Word to His people. The Lord promised Nathaniel He would see the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. He would see the many messengers of God’s Word proclaiming, teaching and living the Word of the Promises of God fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Our ears hearing the Gospel and faith clinging to the Savior in His love of mankind. . “…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?
In the Gospel, one to one John the Baptist told his disciples, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, then one to one , then Andrew tells Peter, then Philip tells Nathaniel. This is how the faith was spread throughout the Roman Empire under persecution, no church buildings but the temple of the Holy Ghost was there and the church grew exponentially. Today’s is also the Confession of St. Peter. The Church held and holds to the confession of Christ. Bonhoeffer:
Peter’s church, that does not mean a church of opinions and views, but the church of the revelation; not a church in which what “people say” is talked about but the church in which Peter’s confession is made anew and passed on; the church which has no other purpose in song, prayer, preaching, and action than to pass on its confession of faith…
You could be and maybe have been part of a neighbor, friend or family members’ divine and eternal joy in Christ by confessing Christ is your Lord. You are the Lord’s talking Temple. The place with His people receiving the fruits of Jesus’ sacrifice, once and for all, for prayer, praise and thanksgiving, the place of His Word, His Name. His Temple is all gift. “…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?
I conclude with a quote from Luther’s Sermon on today’s Gospel:
“…what Christ cannot abide is if I assume that His kingdom is built on my wisdom and riches and that it cannot stand firm and endure without the protection, counsel and service of kings, princes, and lords. Christ can very well dispense with all this. He wants it clearly and definitely understood that all who seek entry into His kingdom must seek it by nothing but grace. Christ has regard for no one because of his pile of guldens (money), his beauty, his wisdom, his golden hair, or because he wears a garment embroidered in gold or silver, or a gray coat. No, it is grace alone that counts. His is to be a kingdom of grace, belonging to those who are wretched and poor, whether they be men or women, rich or poor.”
The peace of God which surpasses all human understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Concordia and Koinonia 
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