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What does the swastika, a five-pointed star, and an upside down pink triangle have in common? They have all undergone significant symbolic shifts.
The original meaning of the swastika found its origin in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism as a symbol of good fortune and the cycle of life. The 20th century Nazi party adopted it, and over time it became a symbol of hate, fascism, and genocide.
For early Christians the pentagram, the five-pointed star, was a symbol of harmony and health, but over time, it became associated with the occult, witchcraft, and satanism.
The pink triangle had the opposite type of symbolic flip. Nazis used it during World War II to mark gay men in concentration camps. But in the 1970s and ’80s in the face of the AIDS epidemic activists reclaimed this symbol as one of pride, resilience, and resistance.
Symbols change. The second greatest example of this is the cross. I say second because I’ll get to the first in a moment. In Roman times the cross was a symbol of dominance, torture, and terror. But then Constantine, in 325 CE, saw a cross in the sky at a moment when he was under great pressure, and experiencing deep doubt in his capacity to do what he needed to do. There the cross blazed above his head, and he made a vow to adopt it as a symbol of salvation.
Symbols change. We see this in the Gospel today. The people of Israel were under pressure. They were in a state of deep doubt. They were occupied by the dominant Roman military machine, posing as patrons of peace; but, in truth, they were a military industrial economy bent on enriching themselves by bullying the little guy.
Enter John the Baptist. We meet him on the banks of the River Jordan, baptizing. It is his response to the trauma, to the pressure, to the doubt. Something had gone wrong, and he couldn’t quite figure it out. He knew for certain that there was nothing more powerful than God, and that the Jews were the people of God, and yet, they were occupied, they were the little guy, they were bullied. \
Something was not right. So, he called them to return to God, to return to the faith, to create unity through participation in baptism. And since this was the community in which Jesus lived, he showed up. John baptizes him, and as he came up out of the water, the sky tore open, and there was a loud sound. Some said it was thunder, others heard: “This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I’m well pleased” (Lk 3:22).
Then Jesus retreated to the desert, a place that symbolized isolation and desolation. People were exiled to the desert. It was dangerous and hostile, and yet, Jesus chose it as the place to go to commune with God.
The devil showed up, temptation incarnate, to do battle with Jesus over symbols of power. First it was bread. In Rome there was a subversive saying: “Panem et Circenses” (which is Latin for “Bread and Circuses”). It was a critique of how the Roman government kept the population passive by providing food and entertainment to prevent uprisings.
The devil tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread–to own the power of food as leverage over the masses. Jesus rejected the temptation instead offering bread as a sacrament, a symbol of communion between God and humanity. Today we call it the Eucharist.
Which brings us to the most significant symbol. The symbol that is sitting in the pews today, right here right now…the symbol of the Temple as the place where God resides. The devil took Jesus to the top of the Temple, and he offered him the opportunity to use it to manipulate humanity’s experience of God. Jesus put a hard stop to that.
Then, from this point on, as laid out in the Gospels, Jesus takes great pains to reorient the symbol of the Temple from a place of economic power where human bodies were brought to feed a hungry God; to humanity itself being the Temple in which God resides.
Did you hear me? You are the Temple! The most important symbol of all. You are a symbol of the living God. And while that reality is divinely determinative, still the delusion of small-minded men continues to try to feed human beings to false idols, as bodies meant solely for the service of their self-centered purposes.
And so, the question remains to this day: are you a temple of the living God, or are you a tool for lesser things?
Jesus had an opinion. It begins in the Gospel of John chapter 2 where he goes into the Temple and chases out those who were using it as a place to make a profit (Jn 2:13-16). Then he says: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (Jn 2:19) Here he articulates the shift from the Temple as a physical building to himself as the true dwelling place of God.
Then, later in the Gospel of John, he shifts again talking about how he needs to go away, so the Holy Spirit can come and reside within the disciples (Jn 14:15-19). And what he means here is reside in the hearts of the disciples, and not them alone, but all humanity as well.
We see how this plays out later in the Book of Acts (Acts 2:1-5) when, at the Feast of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes to reside in the hearts of all humanity, including you all.
In the desert, Jesus begins the shift from temple as a place in Jerusalem, to temple within the human hearts. And still, since God is love and love is chosen, so we remain free to decide: Am I food for some Temple upon which someone else feasts? Or am I a temple for the living God? Every generation has to answer this question for themselves.
It is a question that each one of us is invited to consider. Are we, that is you and me, going to own the fact that we are God’s temple, and, if so, own that the world will know something about God because of who we are, and how we are in the world?
And that can feel like a lot of pressure, or, (and this is what I’d like to argue), it can actually be the easiest, most joyful way in which to live. Because if there is a God, and God did designed us to be temples, then when we own this reality, life will feel more like floating down river, than rowing upstream.
But, if you’re like me, here’s the tension: I don’t feel like a temple for the living God. And if I am a temple for the living God, it is a very messy place. Maybe Jesus kicked over the tables, but no one ever came by to pick up the junk on the floor.
Because, I do what I do not want to do, and so, it’s easier to not think of myself as a place where God lives, for why would God want to live in such a ramshackle house as my life? And if that is a question you are asking yourself, I can’t help you because I really do not know why God would want to reside in these ramshackle houses, but for some reason, it’s exactly where God wants to be.
The Apostle Paul acknowledged this tension. He writes of himself that: “He does what he does not want to do” (Rom 7:15-20) but he also writes: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16) And again he writes: “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you.” (1 Corinthians 6:19)
I can assure you, knowing you (even knowing you), that you are exactly the place where God wants to dwell. You are designed to be the temple of the living God. And while, when you hear this you may say to yourself: that can’t be true, because I don’t feel like a temple of the living God: I do bad things, I have bad thoughts, I lash out at people. I’m tempted, I sin.
O.K.–you’re not perfect, But everyone already knows that. But you are loved. You are beloved to God. Our purpose, universally, is to house this love, and let it be lived out in our current relationships; in our current jobs; in our current residences; even in our current church.
You are exactly where you need to be to be a symbol of the living God. But remember, be alert, there’s a battle going on for the symbol that is your body. The question remains: are you a cog serving a temple for some other god, behind which others pull levers to manipulate how you act? Or are you a temple that acts because God acted first? Are you a temple that acts because God designed you that way? Are you a temple that acts in love, knowing that God is love, and you were put here to be a love spreading difference maker, because it is love, only love, that will save the world?
Today there is a war over the symbol that is you. Look in the mirror, you are perfect, even in your messiness. You were made exquisitely to be a temple of the living God.