Building faith; faith buildings

Back in the early '60s, Cardinal John Wright presented us seminarians with an interesting scenario. "What do you think would happen," he asked, "if at the same time, all over the earth, every Church-owned building would be destroyed? How would we practice our faith?"

Whenever we Christians commemorate the dedication of a building, even a building used for a particular church's celebration of the Lord's Supper, we're walking a tightrope. On one hand, we rejoice in having a "sacred place" in which we can pursue "sacred actions." But on the other hand, our earliest traditions remind us such structures are unnecessary.

Outsiders

Jesus' first followers quickly found themselves "outside, looking in" after His death and resurrection. It wasn't long before mainstream Jews excluded "Messiah-Jews" from the local synagogues. (John the Evangelist refers to this practice when he explains why the man-born-blind's parents refuse to testify about their son's pre-miracle condition: "If anyone acknowledged Jesus as Messiah, he would be expelled from the synagogue.")

Meanwhile, Gentile Christians were automatically forbidden to enter the Jerusalem temple; and after 70 C.E., when the Roman army destroyed the structure, not even Jewish Christians could worship there.

Our Christian ancestors had no sacred buildings.

We're not certain which came first -- the exclusion or the theology which explained why Christians shouldn't worry about exclusion. But in Sunday's second reading (Eph 2:19-22), Paul emphatically assures his readers: "You form a building which rises on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the capstone. Through Him, the whole structure is fitted together and takes shape as a holy temple in the Lord; in Him, you are being built into this temple, to become a dwelling place for God in the Spirit.

What others expected to receive from worshipping in a special building, Christians receive from their following of Jesus, including that which sacred buildings most guaranteed; God's special presence in their lives.

Yet because our roots are sunk deep in Jewish faith, it's good to listen to Ezekiel -- prophesying during the Babylonian Exile when the Jerusalem temple was in ruins -- spell out what people of faith expected to receive from partaking in the worship services held in such a structure (Ez 47:1-2, 8-9, 12).

"I saw water flowing out from beneath the threshold of the temple," the prophet announces. "It (the water) empties into the sea, the salt waters, which it makes fresh. Wherever the river flows, every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live, and there shall be abundant fish, for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh."

Faith and worship revolve around life, the kind of life that makes even the Dead Sea flourish, the kind of life Yahweh had promised to those who dared enter into the sacred covenant at the foot of Sinai. The Jerusalem temple, in which Yahweh was especially present, was both a symbol of and a help to achieving that life.

Building faith

But buildings don't guarantee life, a point which the four Gospel accounts of Jesus' "cleansing" of the temple emphasize. Sometimes, as we hear in Sunday's Gospel (Jn 2:3-22), life is the last thing flowing from such places.

Jesus shouts, "Stop turning my Father's house into a marketplace!" People had turned a conduit of life into a structure where people went to earn a living. Though the building remained the same, its function had been drastically changed.

Then, paralleling Paul's theology, which taught that the Christian becomes a temple of God because of his or her faith in Jesus, John has Jesus announce that He's the temple par excellence. "Destroy this temple," Jesus promises His adversaries, "and in three days I will raise it up." Lest there be any confusion, John goes on to explain, "He was talking about the temple of His body."

As far as I can tell, no reform movement in the Church has championed Cardinal Wright's idea. Yet one haunting fact remains: Christianity's greatest growth and deepest faith happened when it owned no buildings.

(11-06-97) [[In-content Ad]]