The Holiest of Places - 1 Kings 8:1, 6, 10-11, 22-30, 41-43

It’s back to school time, and I find myself mystified by pictures of college dorm rooms. To this day I’ve not spent as much time, care, or money, on my own bedroom as some 18-year-old women who manage to turn a 250 square foot box into a luxury suite complete with a faux fireplace and ambient lighting. 

Some of the examples I’ve seen take the decorations a little too far in my opinion, especially considering how quickly those first few semesters of college flew by and how little time I actually spent in my first dorm. But I understand the impulse to make that cinderblock room as homey and familiar as possible. We all want the spaces we inhabit to feel like home, and we want our homes to represent the very best parts of ourselves. 

In this morning’s Old Testament passage, Solomon’s temple dedication leaves all of our best decorative efforts in the dust. The lectionary comes in at chapter 8 of the first book of Kings, but I highly recommend taking peek at chapter 7 if you get a chance. It is 51 solid verses of decoration descriptions, from the height of the bronze pillars to the handles on the water basins. 

Solomon’s vision for his people’s house of worship was extensive, and the temple took 13 years to build. But you can’t argue with the logic. If this was to be God’s home, the resting place of the ark of the covenant, which had been moving around in a tent for generations, then no expense would be spared. As we approach the next steps after our master plan project here at Christ Church, I imagine we will hear and feel a similar sentiment: Christ Church is our spiritual home, it’s where we come to meet God, so let’s not skimp on the details. 

King Solomon, the highly skilled college freshman DIY-ers, and our own master plan are all pointing us to an important truth, which is that there is a difference between a house and a home, between a location and a place. Jennifer Allen Craft says that “places are the ground of shared human experience, as well as the product of shared human experience.... place is not just a piece of ground - it is the undeniable fact of our existence in relationship with the whole of creation.” In other words, a place, and in our context, a holy place, is not just an environment in which holy things happen, but an enlivened co-creator in that holiness. 

Christ Church is so much more than just a container for our spiritual growth, it informs it, nurtures it, and is in turn, impacted by it. When our holy place is not well, neither are we, and when we are not well, neither is our holy place. How often have we struggled to function in the world because our homes are a mess? How often have we let our homes become cluttered and dirty when we are suffering from physical, emotional, or spiritual distress?

Theologian Kyle Craft sees this idea at work in today’s temple dedication from 1st Kings. He says that “without question, the temple building held symbolic significance. Yet, it was the gathering of the people, the movement of the priests, and the weight of the Lord’s glory that turned the edifice into a holy place. Brick and mortar, timber and stone: they offer structural reinforcement but not substantive relationship. The latter emerges when God, humanity, and creation gather together in living, moving agreement.”

This is precisely the work we’re embarking on at Christ Church. We are investing our time, talent, and resources to make Christ Church more than just a symbol but a place in which God, the people, and the environment are in living, moving agreement. This is holy work, indeed. But our relationship with God and with the physical structures of our spiritual lives cannot end there. The act of making a home for God among us is a lifelong effort that extends beyond the walls of any church. 

Solomon understood that God cannot be confined, not even by a massive, elaborate temple. In his speech at the temple dedication, Solomon declares, “Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built!” Solomon goes on to say that not only will the temple be home to the ark of the covenant, it will be a home to the stranger in their land, and a place for prayers to be heard. God will be present in the temple not because the ark will be there, but because the people will be. God desires a home not just in our physical holy places, but in our very hearts. 

When we talk about our own hearts, we’re talking about the space within us that is our spiritual core. This space comprises the body, the mind, and all the unnamable parts of us that make up who we are in living, moving agreement. So how might we talk about that spiritual core of our being in terms of a holy place. How can we make our hearts places that God can call home? 

Instead of geometric rugs and string lights, could our hearts have an open and welcoming posture towards God and our neighbors? Instead of linen closets and file cabinets, could there be room in our hearts for new understandings of the world and how God is at work in it? Instead of paintings and mirrors on the walls, could our hearts hold a treasured catalog of memories and experiences that make up our life with God so far? 

Just as Christ Church is more than a container for our common spiritual life, we are more than just containers for God. We are not meant to carry around the message of love in a sealed compartment, to call on when we need it but to keep mostly separate from the rest of the world. We are called to be co-creators of holiness with God, who reveal the message of love to anyone and everyone we meet. That is the sign that God is at home in our hearts. 

Although marbled contact paper and a dozen throw pillows on a twin-sized bed are not my particular style, I do love that so many young people are determined to make the spaces they inhabit extensions of their own inner lives. We could learn a lot from them about the importance of a place that is set apart as sacred, with adornment that reveals something about the people who call it home. 

Our lives have been set apart as sacred, and we must adorn them in ways that reveal to the world that God resides within us. Even without the pageantry of endless halls of bronze pillars or coordinating sheet sets, our hearts are the place God desires to call home. As we make plans to give our best efforts to the revitalization and decoration of Christ Church, let us not forget to give as much care to the revitalization and decoration of our spiritual core, that space that is so much more than just a location or a container, but indeed the holiest of places. Amen.