Word to the Wise
Tuesday, October 21, 2008 - Tuesday in the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
[Ephesians 2:12-22 and Luke 12:35-38]So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
It can be an interesting experience to discover oneself in someone else's metaphor! A very large friend of my family once joked to me that if the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, he considered himself a basilica! The image above from the first scripture today seems to combine the dynamic associated both with the house and the household! In either case, the meaning is founded on a newness of identity which comes about through faith. Earlier in the passage, the "alienation" which was considered part of being a "gentile" is shown to be overcome by Christ. All believers in Christ form one family or one temple of "living stones." I have visited some rather grand churches in my lifetime, including St. Peter's in Rome. It is one of those places where the expression, "If these stones could talk......" might yield a very rich narrative. Some of the great medieval cathedrals are referred to as "prayers in stone." In other words, they are more than an arrangement of physical stones. My father was avid about the genealogy of our family and through his work (and my sister's) which built on earlier work by an aunt, I became aware of the living reality that any family represents - a continuing story. We inherit more than a genetic heritage, we inherit a history and a "narrative" to which additional chapters continue to be written through our lives. Such is the household of God. We are all God's children and inherit the love of God poured forth from Christ Jesus through the Spirit, dwelling within us. So we are at one and the same time the household and the house! Who? Me? Yes, you! Yes, me! Stand tall and humble! AMEN
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