Theology @ Work – Temple

British theologian and churchman N.T. Wright has a beautiful picture of the Temple as the place where heaven and earth come together. If we are (according to Paul) the temple of the Holy Spirit, what does that mean to us in the workplace?

God’s interaction with humans goes full circle in the Bible. It starts in Eden with God walking the garden with Adam and Eve – symbolic of constant, intimate communion. Heaven and earth are originally intended to be completely intersecting with no real differentiation. Then, after Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden that bond, that presence of God, is broken. Later, after God’s call and blessing to Abraham (so much like our own), and later on the call of Moses, He provides for His special people of Israel a succession of ways in which heaven and earth can come together again – places where God will meet with His people. Initially in the Tabernacle, during the wandering of the Jews in the wilderness, it is mostly just through Moses that this takes place – the people are too afraid to draw close. Then after the Temple is built (by Solomon – see 1 Kings) the High Priest is allowed in the Holy of Holies one day a year, but the people know that in some way God’s presence it there – heaven meets earth, if only very partially.

In Jesus, the imagery of heaven’s interaction with earth is made complete as God Himself takes on humanity fully, and in Jesus we see heaven and earth coming fully together – but still His disciples are just observers. The prophets, and Jesus Himself, have talked about a time coming when the original intended relationship between heaven and earth, God walking in Eden as it were, will come to full fruition. When Jesus announces the Kingdom, He is also announcing the beginning of the fulfillment of these prophecies.

The next step is taken at Pentecost, when the church is formed and the Holy Spirit is given to all who believe in Jesus. The Holy Spirit is now what one author calls the “Go-Between God” – the very Spirit of Jesus Himself, given to us so that in us, heaven and earth will be brought together. In fact, Paul picks up the language of the Old Testament when he says “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Do you hear this? When you and I go to work every day, we are the place where heaven and earth come together, God’s temple, a place for others to approach to see and encounter God!

Now we are called to partner together with God in His world, in our everyday lives, in all of our relationships, tasks and calling, as He moves His Kingdom toward the final joining of heaven and earth as laid out in Revelation 21 and 22. As the temples of the Holy Spirit we are increasingly the places where heaven is meeting earth, where God is being seen in action, and where the hope of nations can be encountered.