Start a Riot
Every time we do something “feasty” at St. Patrick, I inevitably hear someone say something like, “This is amazing; we should do this more often.” I love that response so much. This weekend, when it came up around the fire pits of the Men’s Retreat, I told the fellas that I personally do this all the time. They were a bit surprised, but it’s true. For one thing, the guys in my community group get together for “Smoking Club” several times a semester. Now, this is not a church program. It wasn’t my idea, I don’t have anything to do with organizing it, and it happens whether I can make it or not. A couple of our guys just caught the vision for gathering around fires for better food and deeper fellowship, and they started living it out for themselves. They didn’t ask permission; they didn’t wait for me to plan an official church event; they just set the table and extended invitations.
Let me ground this in the Text.
Not long before the first Temple of Artemis was built at Ephesus, (more on that this weekend), another temple was in its development phase. David had already established his kingdom capital and now dreamed of building a worthy house for the worship of his glorious God. But Yahweh told him, it doesn’t really actually work that way. I’ll make you a house, He said. A thousand years later, Paul was drawing on that legacy when he told the Athenians that the one true God doesn’t dwell in temples made by human hands. Rather, humans are the temples made by God’s Hand. The Lord doesn’t need us to build him a house for the same reason he doesn’t need us to make images of Him: He already has them. Humans are the dwelling place and representatives of God’s presence in the world.
That makes those who are in Christ an all-in-one complete package of temple, image, and priesthood. So, it’s our job to take whatever Heaven we’ve had access to and make it as local as we can, to whoever will accept the invitation. What we’re doing in the gathered church around Word, Sacrament, and Prayer is a model and an invitation: for true disciples to go and do likewise as scattered houses of the holy. When we worship and feast as a wider church body, we’re attempting to set a pattern for you in what it means to hallow our parties, swing open the doors, and let gracious love be the order of the everyday.
- js