Tuesday I heard my friend and colleague Tony Jones speak at Princeton’s Institute For Youth Ministry. Tony began with some reflections on the story of the Transfiguration found in Mark 9. When Peter suggests that shelters ought to be built for Jesus, Moses and Elijah, Jesus ignores his comments. Tony pointed out that this is the only instance in the Gospels where Jesus flat out ignores a comment or request. I think he’s right about this. Tony went on to suggest that the problematic aspect of Peter’s suggestion is rooted in the familiar desire to take a moment in time and capture it. Peter wants to capture and hold on to a revelatory moment that really can only be gratefully received, but never owned. Tony likened Peter’s desire to the universal human desire to cling to the familiar and fear change.
Before Israel inherited the promised land, it worshiped in the tabernacle, not a temple. The tabernacle was portable and could be packed up so that the Israelites could follow wherever God’s glory cloud led. This wasn’t the case with the Temple. It was fixed. It was permanent.
The last words of Jesus in the Gospels and the Book of Acts are “GO”. He sends his people into the world as witnesses in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are called to be a tabernacling people ready to go where God is leading and calling. Tabernacle spirituality allows for this. It allows the church to be flexible and discerning. It allows the church to go. Temple spirituality on the other hand makes the church’s watch word “come”. The church invites the world to come to where it is because its way of life, its traditions, its structures are fixed and not always flexible.
My church just did some rennovations in the sanctuary. Although the process was a relatively short one, it caused frustration, anxiety and sadness for some as any change can do. Some people love the new sanctuary, others are less enthused. But what I really am coming to value about the work is that it serves as a sign to us that nothing is everlasting except the God who alone is worthy of our worship. Visible change like the one that recently occurred in our sanctuary can serve as an ever present reminder that we are called to be a tabernacling community that goes where we’re sent rather than a mere temple which bids people to come. Thank God for change.