Bible Text: 1 Kings 8:22-30, 41-43; Psalm 84; Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69 | Preacher: Reverend Helen Dean

A sermon for the 14th Sunday after Pentecost
I know a builder. Let’s call him Bob. Before I knew a builder personally, I had a mental picture of builders hearing from someone who needed some building work done, and they would go and do it. The builder would be paid for their time, skill, experience and labour on this particular project, and the client would have the thing that they wanted to have built, whether it was a house, an extension, a kitchen or bathroom, a staircase, or something quite different.

I now know that while that may occasionally happen, the reality is often quite different. I will come back to this.

In our Old Testament reading, we hear from Solomon. Solomon is devoted to God. He wants to serve God and rule his people well. You heard last week of how he asked God for wisdom, just so that he could be a wise, just and Godly ruler. Solomon praises God’s faithfulness, and affirms that God’s covenant with David was one pledging mutual faithfulness. Solomon anticipates that he and his descendants will indeed be faithful servants of God.

Solomon has built as a house for God, a dwelling place that he knows cannot contain God. Not all of heaven and earth can do that, but this place will house the name of God. It will be a reminder of God, a place to remember God and to worship God. People will pray, not just in this place but towards this place.

Sometimes we may feel distant from God. We know that God is with us, but the cares of life can make us feel that we are not in a particularly holy place. Like those who faced the temple to worship, we can turn our backs on all that keeps us from God and we can turn our faces and our lives towards the holy.

Bob’s clients do not always know exactly what they want, so they often need to sit down with him, consider the options and possibilities, and cross off all that they do not want in their homes or in their lives. This can help them to discover what it is they truly do want. Have you had this discussion with God? It can be helpful, even if your prayer is simply, Not this, Lord. I don’t know what, but not this. Please help me to find another way to live.

Bob’s clients sometimes want something to impress the neighbours but their basic desire is to be able to live well in their house. Solomon also wants to impress the neighbours in the best possible way, so that they will say, I want what you have.  They will not envy the temple building (or not only that) but the presence of God in the lives of God’s people. Solomon asks that whatever impresses them, they may know that it is on account of the power and presence of God.

Have you heard the saying, Be careful what you pray for? Bob’s clients can be capricious. They describe what they want. He builds it exactly as they ask. And then they decide that that is not what they want. It all needs to be re-built differently. If you find yourself in a place that you prayed for but it fails to satisfy, then that place is not the true dwelling place of God.

Our psalm confirms that the dwelling place of God is not a place that fails to satisfy. It is lovely, infinitely desirable, a place to be happy and to grow strong. A better place than anywhere else, a place that is safe and trustworthy. It is a place that satisfies all our desires.

The dwelling place of God in your life does not have to be a physical building. Indeed, that is the least likely dwelling place for God. We heard last week about abiding in Jesus and he in us. Jesus the Christ is the ultimate dwelling place of God and we can make our home in him and he in us.

You will be familiar with the image of the body as a temple.

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6. 19)

Today in Ephesians we have another image of also being within the protection of God. We are armoured by God through steadfastness and truth, through righteousness and proclamation of the gospel, through faith and salvation, and the very Word of God. If we stand in such a strong fortress, we are strengthened in faith and in how we handle the inevitable difficulties of life.

This brings us to 3 verses that were the final verses of last week’s Gospel reading and the first verses for this week. They are repeated as they link the continuing message of this chapter.

Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever. (John 6. 56-58)

The manna in the wilderness was the feast within the wilderness in which God dwelt, leading and feeding God’s people.

Jesus spoke of his flesh and blood being the bread of life and then he said, It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

To eat the flesh and drink the blood is to dwell within the life and teaching of Jesus. This is not always an easy thing. We often hear that Jesus is the way to the Father. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him. (John 14. 6-7) But here in chapter 6 of that same Gospel, we hear no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father. These 2 messages, in chapter 6 and chapter 14 reinforce for us that Jesus and the Father are one. No one comes to the Father except through me. and no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.

Coming back to the words of Jesus as the bread of life, finally we hear Jesus ask if his remaining disciples wish to leave him. Peter replies with one of my favourite scripture passages, Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

This is a beautiful image of Jesus as the Bread of Life, of Jesus’ words as the flesh and blood that is the bread of life that feeds the faithful that they might have eternal life. Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

May we always feast upon the bread of life, the true bread from heaven, the one who has the words of eternal life. Amen.