Temple or Tabernacle?

Temple or Tabernacle?  This week I will be covering the seventh chapter of the book of Acts. The whole chapter is dedicated to Stephen’s speech before the high Jewish council known as the Sanhedrin. One of the chief responsibilities of this council was the managing of the temple in Jerusalem. This temple was rebuilt after the exiles came back from Babylon in the sixth century before Christ. It was the center of Judaism in Israel.  For several hundred years this institution preserved the religious life for the people of God. This temple was built after the pattern of Solomon’s temple which was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.The new temple never measured up to the old temple.

In John’s Gospel, when Jesus cleanses the temple, he claims his authority by claiming to destroy this temple and raise it in three days. John comments that Jesus was referring to his own body. In essence, Jesus embodies God’s presence and with his death and resurrection, the temple and it’s institution will not be necessary for the people to live in God’s presence.

In Stephen’s speech, he is reacting to the charge that he is preaching that Jesus will destroy the Jerusalem temple and it’s customs. Stephen draws from the Scriptures in the Old Testament concerning the Tabernacle and the Temple. His point throughout his speech is that God is present everywhere and that the Tabernacle, which was moved throughout the land, best represents the religion of Israel.

I believe he is saying that this “Jesus movement” is in line with the biblical tradition of God’s presence as moving and dynamic among the people. Jesus is God’s tabernacle in the flesh. This is in line with the narrative of John’s words of incarnation in chapter one of his Gospel.

What does all this have to do with my initial question? I think Stephen’s speech and the biblical tradition of the Tabernacle remind us that

God is wanting us to be a movement of His Spirit and not a preserving institution. Too often God has raised up “Stephens” in the church and her leaders have accused them of destroying the church.

Read your history and look at the lives of Martin Luther, John Wesley, the Ana-Baptists, and other more modern radicals and you will see what I mean! I am presently sitting in a “church office” and am honored to be a pastor of a local Christian community. This wineskin that we call the church is only a structure that hopefully facilitates the true tabernacle, which is Christ’s body, the church.

We are not “preserves” to be contained in jars of institutional structures, but are to be like “salt” that is poured out into the world to help heal and enhance this lost and suffering world! I confess my own struggle in being more like salt than preserves in a jar of religious structures.

We need more Stephens in this world!

God bless, Pastor Fred.

 

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