Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Do Not Profane His Temple - The Backwards Standard

Walk into church sometime with shredded shorts, a tank-top, and some flip-flops. Make sure they flip and flop a lot. Or, better yet. walk into church in your pajamas. In fact, why not go all out? Wear something "worldly." Sound like a safe plan?

No. Not really. Chances are, you'll be chewed out, scorned, gossiped about, and looked down upon. Why? I believe it's because Christian Antichrists have this really bad habit, and it has leaked down through the generations.

This habit makes me angry. In fact, it makes me want to grab a whip, and set myself upon the congregation, flailing and screaming in mighty, righteous anger. I might be exaggerating. But maybe not. You see, this habit is the false, perpetuated belief that a church building is "God's house." This is rubbish. Let's take a look at something many of us have hypocritically forsaken in our rush to be more righteous and pure: the Holy Bible.

Matthew 21:12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a den of robbers."

This passage conveys to us the incredible reverence with which we are to treat God's temple. Perhaps we have used this passage to excuse the inexcusable. We sinners judge other sinners for their outward dress, perhaps inwardly telling ourselves that this building must be revered. This is God's house! It must be respected! Perhaps we truly believe this. Perhaps we have forgotten the scriptures altogether. It isn't a temple though; it's a church. If sinners' imperfections, crudeness, and impurity profaned the place, what right do we have to be there? If that were the case, the building would have to remain empty in order to remain unblemished by humanness and sin.

1 Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells within you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.*

This is wherein the problem lies. We have confused the temple with the church building, and in so doing have created a mortifying courtroom, and we members have assigned ourselves to the jury. "Welcome to worship" means "Order in the court." This worship of the building is idolatry, and the judgement of others - hypocrisy. It is disdainful how quickly we want to resort back to rules and regulations, Pharisees that we are, but we are told over and over that while "Man looks at the outward appearance, God looks at the heart."

The clincher lies further, deeper down. In our excruciating regulation of ours, our brothers' and sisters' appearance, in our corpulent cesspool of judgement, in our attention to our own "modest" appearance, we are turning our bodies into capital. Judge, bid, and buy, these are our temples, and we insist on selling here. The more we try to sell ourselves as righteous through our clothing, the more we are turning the Father's house into a den of robbers. The more we are becoming objects of His holy wrath.

I believe that there is a problem when going to church is like going to court. I believe that there is problem when we are so caught up in not profaning a wooden and metal structure that we profane ours, our brothers' and sisters' bodies - Temples of God's Spirit. I believe that there is a problem when our little facades of our goodness are so important that they overshadow the souls of people who are around us, dying of depravity.

We are supposed to be the church. But instead we are too busy being blasphemous and hypocritical judges to love sinners who share in our evilness but lack the grace we have been given. Church was not built upon the Council of Pharisees. It was built on the death and resurrection of Christ, and the grace He gave us through that.

But where is that grace? "Look, you can share in Christ's love, but first, act and dress appropriately." This is today's "church." Court is now in session.




*Okay, so suicide is also out. Damn it!