Faith and being the Temple of the Holy Spirit

Father, Son, Holy Spirit, glory to Jesus Christ.

Let me bring three circumstances to your mind,

two from the Gospel and one from the Epistle.

I'll try to be brief. I say that frequently and

frequently am not brief. Those who are eloquent

have the gift of being brief. Those who speak

in a halting, unclear way necessarily go on and

on. As we look for that right word, the brilliant

can find the gem right there and give it out,

but the rest of us are not like Archbishop Alexander,

for example, who preached last night four minutes

and it was soul -stirring and beautiful. Three

circumstances. You heard the gospel from the

14th chapter of St. Matthew. The apostles in

a boat, they had been sent over to the other

side of the lake, and Jesus went to pray. When

Jesus prayed, it wasn't just a lot of words,

O God this, O God that, O Father whatever. It's

communion. It's silence. It's being with God

in a quiet place, the still small place. Jesus

teaches us in that act that we should do that

too. The disciples, on the other hand, were in

a boat. It was a storm, the Sea of Galilee about

the size of Lake Tahoe. But the storms are terrible

because of the winds, the way it whips up there.

Water's coming over the edge. They're crying

out. They're crying out. And the Lord comes walking

across the sea. This is not what I want to talk

about today because, of course, he's the Lord,

the creator of all things. For him to walk across

the sea is not some circus trick. It's to get

to his apostles that are crying out in fear.

And Peter comes to him. He sinks. You know the

story. What does Jesus say? Oh, you of little

faith. Why did you doubt? He could have gone

on and said, you just saw 5 ,000 people fed in

the wilderness with a little bit of food and

a great amount left over. You saw demoniacs being

cured. of their demon possession. You saw people

being healed, lepers being healed, the deaf hearing.

Why did you doubt? A view of little faith. In

the eighth chapter of St. Matthew, the second

circumstance I'd like you to think about. Jesus

is in the boat, and the boat is being tossed

in the storm, and once again, they are fearful

for their life. And Jesus is asleep. And there

he is, and they're crying out. Again, they had

seen so much. And he comes awake, and the storm

is stilled immediately. Storms don't do that,

right? The waves keep moving for a long time.

No, with Jesus, the master of all things in heaven

and earth, it became still. This is a lesson

for us to come to Christ. Is somebody singing

outside? Can you? Yeah. It's, yeah. Like, I'm

talking stillness here. Where was I? What does

Jesus say to them? Same thing. Oh, you of little

faith, why do you doubt? In both circumstances,

what is the problem Jesus is addressing? Lack

of attention to him and what he is and who he

is. This is the problem. You know, if I'm driving

a car, if I don't pay attention, I'm going to

crash. People with their cell phones now texting.

There's more auto accidents. People are getting

killed. People on their bicycles with cell phones,

not paying attention to what they do. In church,

we bring our attention to the hymns, to stillness,

away from our own thought. If I go to a concert,

I need to pay attention if I'm going to get anything

out of it from what those performers are doing.

If I go to a ball game, it's going to be boring

unless I pay attention. If I... I'm with my family

and my wife, and I'm wrapped up in my own cares

and problems and issues. Love is going to grow

cold because I haven't paid attention. It's no

different with our life with Christ. Now let

me give you the other circumstance. You heard

it in the epistle today. St. Paul is talking

about building. On either gold or silver or hay

and straw. Because the day of the Lord, when

he comes, will reveal what's there. Why is he

saying this? Is it just some kind of interesting

thought that he has about the second coming?

No, he's addressing a problem. It's the same

problem. Attention. The beginning of chapter

3, he says, brethren. I could not speak to you

as to spiritual people, but as to carnal. They're

wrapped up in their own passions and to babes

in Christ. He's calling them babies. He says,

you people are babies. You're arguing with one

another. There's envy. There's strife. There's

divisions. You're carnal. You're not like people

that are spiritual. I can't give you spiritual

knowledge because you're babies in the faith

and emotionally and spiritually. They took their

eyes off of the goal here. And the Lord ends

with what we need to remember. And this is for

us the point today that I'd like to make. Do

you not know, St. Paul writes, That you are the

temple of God. An astounding sentence. Because

the only temple there was for the Jewish person

was that one in Jerusalem. Where forgiveness

would happen. Thanksgiving sacrifices would happen.

Feast days would happen. And the encounter with

the living God would happen. St. Paul is saying

you've been given the Holy Spirit. Start building

a spiritual life. Take your attention away from

the troubles and the difficulties, the strife,

the anger, the disagreements, whatever it might

be. God is not going to save us, brothers and

sisters, from the travails of the world. We know

that. But St. James tells us this. Count it all

joy when you fall into various trials, knowing

that the testing of your faith brings patience.

That when we bring our attention back to Christ,

no matter what the circumstances are, that when

we remember we are temples of God and the Spirit

of God dwells in us, then we won't defile that

temple because the one who defiles the temple

of his body St. Paul says God will destroy. Temple

defilers. We don't want to be that. There's all

kinds of things we might get excited about in

our world. Frustration. You don't like this governor.

You don't like this president. You don't like

this situation. I don't like this one. I don't

like that one. I'm frustrated about whatever

it might be. But brothers and sisters, if we

are the temple of God, then we can't just come

to the table of societal complaints and add our

angry voice and our frustration. If we are going

to be a little leaven in the whole lump, if the

gospel is going to be preached and people rejoice

at their salvation, then this means that we take

seriously that we have to build upon gold and

silver of the faith, that we have to keep our

eye on Christ as Peter didn't do when he fell

into the water. His name is Peter the Rock. What

do rocks do when they hit water? Unless you throw

them hard, they go right down. Our task, brothers

and sisters, It's focused here on the gift of

the life of the Holy Spirit in us. Don't be taken

away by other things. If you have to add your

voice to the chorus in society, make sure it's

a voice that is inspired by the grace of the

Holy Spirit, by holiness, by apostleship. by

support of one another, by worship and prayer.

Yes, we have extremely weak faith, but the Lord

saves even us. He said to the apostles, O you

of little faith, why did you doubt? But he saved

them from the storm. So I think we're in good

company. Amen.