A number of years ago, at the beginning of some Long Service Leave, we had been invited to a barbecue tea with friends in Stanthorpe. But we had left Brisbane later than anticipated and realised along the way that we needed to let our hosts know our expected time of arrival. We stopped at Fisher Park, just the other side of Cunningham's Gap - we knew we would find a public phone there. But we arrived to find a sign, "THIS TELEPHONE HAS BEEN VANDALISED. Service will be restored as soon as possible."
It was no cheap piece of paper with a handwritten message, "OUT OF ORDER", but a professionally produced stick-on label - that's how common the vandalism of telephones has become. The phone had only been vandalised (for the purpose of removing its cash box) within the past week, so we were told. But the sign almost suggested a permanent problem. In a location like this, perhaps they needed a hand-written sign from time to time - "THIS PHONE IS IN ORDER"!
And what's normal for God's people? In Solomon's vision of the Lord after the dedication of the Temple, there was both promise and warning.
God knows what he is doing. When he picks out a group to be his own chosen people, he knows that they are human, liable to fail, liable to sin against him. So this new Temple has great significance. The Lord says, "I accept this Temple as the place where sacrifices are to be offered to me" (2 Chron. 7.12). In other words, this is to be the place of restoration, forgiveness and reconciliation, a place where there can be true repentance and a new beginning. And why? Because it is "a temple for sacrifices", a place where an acceptable offering is made for their sins, for their rebellions great and small.
So if the land is suffering because of their sins - perhaps because they have been neglecting to repent of their daily sins and be restored into the favour of God - if they are suffering drought, locusts or plague - then "if [my people] pray to me and repent and turn away from the evil they have been doing, then I will hear them in heaven, forgive their sins, and make their land prosperous again" (v. 14). In the words of the NIV, "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
What a promise!
It is a serious matter to turn away from God - whether in ways we choose to call great or small. God in his great love and mercy calls us to turn from our wicked ways, to turn back to him in humility and repentance. "But if you and your people ever disobey the laws and commands I have given you, and worship other gods, then I will remove you from the land that I gave you, and I will abandon this Temple that I have consecrated as the place where I am to be worshipped" (vv. 19-20).
Solomon's temple lasted only four centuries, and, for the major part of that time, they were centuries of dishonour and disgrace. Shortly after Solomon's death, Shishak of Egypt plundered it. At least six times during its existence it was despoiled and robbed. Its sanctity was polluted: Ahaz provided the temple with a Syrian altar while Manasseh placed an idol in it. It was destroyed by the Babylonians, but not until it had been degraded by the Israelites themselves.
"I have chosen this place for myself," the Lord was saying, but, if you turn away, "People everywhere will ridicule it and treat it with contempt" (v. 20b).
What a warning!
A couple of years later while I was in theological training, I went for a drive along that road. Nearing that church I spotted a couple of broken windows and went to investigate. To my horror, I found the door broken down, every window broken and litter everywhere. The old reed organ had been the subject of vicious attack, the top of it smashed, keys broken, reeds scattered...
It was a shocking sight and greatly angered me. What had happened? Who had dared do such a thing? And what about the people? How had this affected them? Had services still been held there?
The question, of course, is not what others may do to the building, but what happens to the people who worship there. Have the people of God themselves been vandalised? their faith in ruins because of surrounding unbelief? their lives adjusted to the relative morality and values of their time? their religious practice an empty shell couched in wholesome words but devoid of real reaching out to the living God?
God who called us into his family knows what he is doing. He knows our weaknesses, knows our liability to sin. But he has called us on the basis of the forgiving and cleansing work that he has done in his own Son, Jesus.
But what is normal for us? As Brisbane prepared for Expo 88, car stickers carried the slogan, "Let's Show the World." At that time our previous parish adopted the theme, "Let's show the world Jesus". But we are all in so many ways unlike Jesus. When people see us "warts and all", there is the very real possibility that's all they will see - the "warts and all"! So it is important to ask, Is it normal for us to humble ourselves and pray and seek the Lord's face and turn from our wicked ways? Or should we carry a sign that says, "He/she/this church has been vandalised - Service will be restored as soon as possible"?
The issue before us is the integrity of our life before God - as it was in Ezekiel's time. "Mortal man," the Lord said to him, "tell the Israelites that their land is unholy, and so I am punishing it in my anger. The leaders... kill the people, take all the money and property they can get, and by their murders leave many widows. The priests break my law and have no respect for what is holy. They make no distinction between what is holy and what is not. They do not teach the difference between clean and unclean things, and they ignore the Sabbath. As a result the people of Israel do not respect me... The prophets have hidden these sins like those covering a wall with whitewash. They see false visions and make false predictions. They claim to speak the word of the Sovereign Lord, but I, the Lord, have not spoken to them... I looked for someone who could build a wall, who could stand in the places where the walls have crumbled and defend the land when my anger is about to destroy it, but I could find no one..." (Ezek. 22.24-30).
In the book of Revelation John hears a crowd saying, "Praise God! For the Lord, our Almighty God, is King! Let us rejoice and be glad; let us praise his greatness! For the time has come for the wedding of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself for it. She has been given clean shining linen to wear." (The linen is the good deeds of God's people.) (Rev. 19.6-8).
That's not a picture of the church at the present time. We are somewhere between the picture of Ezekiel and that of Revelation. But as the lift man says, "Going up or going down?"
Let us reflect together on the promises of the Lord to Solomon, "I have heard your prayer, and I accept this Temple... I will watch over this Temple and be ready to hear all the prayers that are offered here, because I have chosen it and consecrated it as the place where I will be worshipped for ever. I will watch over it and protect it for all time."
Let us hear too the Lord's warning if they turned away, "I will abandon this Temple that I have consecrated as the place where I am to be worshipped. People everywhere will ridicule it and treat it with contempt. The Temple is now greatly honoured, but then everyone who passes by it will be amazed and will ask, 'Why did the Lord do this to this land and this Temple?'"
Then let us gladly respond to the Lord's gracious call, "If
my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and
pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will
I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their
land" (NIV).
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