St. Mary's Orthodox Cathedral, Minneapolis, Minnesota

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The Temple was key to Understanding Creation

The Temple was the key to the understanding of creation. It represented the whole creation, and the whole creation was the Temple. The world itself was the great sanctuary; it was the house of God, his dwelling place. The temple had a great cosmic significance, for the state of the Temple was the state of creation. (Margaret Barker, The Gate of Heaven: The History and Symbolism of the Temple in Jerusalem)

In today's Epistle, the Apostle writes: "For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’" (2 Corinthians 6:16). He draws upon the biblical theme of the Temple as the dwelling place of God, the sacred space in which through His presence the cosmic order is maintained, the place in which heaven and earth co-inhere.

For the Apostle, the human body and the community of believers have become the new Temple. We ourselves, as the Body of Christ, have become that sacred space. This transformation is part of the new covenant, foretold by prophets such as Ezekiel (Ezekiel 37:27) and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:33), where God promises to write His law on human hearts and dwell among His people in a new way.

This new way is actually a restoration of the oldest way, which was devastated by the fall from Paradise. In Paradise - the original cosmic Temple - humanity was meant to live in direct communion with God, embodying His image and glory. But the fall ruined this. Our first parents found themselves in exile, alienated from God, the cosmic order broken. The story of the Old Testament shows God providing a measure of remedy in the sacrifices of the Temple: the high priest would enter into the divine presence once a year to offer a restorative blood sacrifice. But now, through Christ, the true High Priest, the One true and perfect sacrifice, order is restored and that divine presence has been made available to all.

As the Temple was, we, too, have become a microcosm of the universe. We contain within us both the physical and the spiritual, the earthly and the heavenly. The body of the believer becomes a sacred space where heaven and earth meet.

Just as the Temple was a place of worship, sacrifice, and communion with God, so too are believers called to live lives of holiness, dedicated to the worship of God. Our actions, thoughts, and even our bodies become part of this sacred offering, a "living sacrifice" (Romans 12:1) within the larger narrative of creation’s renewal.

The Temple was always under threat from idol worship. Idols represented not just false gods, but a distortion of the divine image and order. To worship an idol was to fracture the relationship between heaven and earth, to obscure the true presence of God. The believer, as the new Temple, must guard against anything that would distort or corrupt the sacred space of God’s dwelling. Idolatry, in whatever form it takes, represents a turning away from the true image of God and a desecration of the Temple. Just as the priests of the ancient Temple had to ensure its sanctity, so too are believers called to keep themselves free from anything that would profane the divine presence.

~ Fr. Andrew

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