We ponder your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple.
--Psalm 48:1
This is not to say that we can't ponder the love of God away from the temple. We certainly can do that when we sit down to our daily bread. We glance up only to have our eyes drawn to a magnificent sunset. In such a moment, there are vague pieces of thought which combine to ask how we are even able to appreciate such beauty. We see the smiling face of that lady who, day in and day out, cooks the food for the soup kitchen. The love of God can be pondered in all of these instances -- and none of them are in the temple.
But the temple tops them all. For, understood in a Christian way, the temple is where we have been gathered by our Lord to hear His good news and to be on the receiving end of His holy sacraments (Baptism and The Lord's Supper). The Word is read, proclaimed, confessed, prayed, and sacramentally enacted. Through it all, in the temple, we ponder the love of God. We do it corporately too. We are in it -- this pondering of divine love -- together.
PD
No comments:
Post a Comment