spiritual foundation – Rev. Tim Ehrhardt

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Watch out that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by the removal of the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it. (New Revised Standard Version)

On the television gameshow “Let’s Make a Deal,” selected members of the studio audience are offered something of value, and then given a choice of whether to keep it or exchange it for a different item.

The game’s drama is that the other item is hidden from the person until that choice is made. The participant does not know if the alternative item is of equal or greater value; or an item purposely chosen to be of little or no value.

The “deal” with Christianity is that Christians already have something of significant value. But they often lose it by going after something they aren’t even sure they actually want, or not.

Followers of Jesus have been given a valuable gift. And the Apostle Paul’s exhortation to the Church at Colossae was to go ahead and keep going with the prize you already possess.

Believers in Jesus have received him. Therefore, the believer is not to trade the words and ways of Jesus, and the redemption secured in Christ, for something else.

Instead, the Christian is to do their best to live into those words and ways, right now in daily life. Christians are invited to explore the vast spiritual resources of their gifted redemption.

Having been redeemed by the Cross of Christ, believers are deeply rooted in Jesus. They are on a firm foundation of faith. Christians possess a faith full of hope and love.

So then, believers are encouraged by the Apostle Paul to take everything they have been taught, and everything they have received, and run with it.

It doesn’t matter what is behind another door, or what is on the other side of the curtain; grab ahold of what you possess in Jesus Christ. Stop considering a better way to live, and start living the life that’s been given to you.

Allow gratitude and thanksgiving to arise within you, and to come forth out of you. Quit looking how much greener the grass is on the other side of the fence. That pasture isn’t really greener; and there is not really a better way.

Many people have become disillusioned with institutional religion. They’ve had it with church. So, some of them end up throwing out the baby with the bath water, entertaining all sorts of ideas and approaches other than the grace-filled Christianity they once received.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of spiritual charlatans who seek to bedazzle people with fine sounding words. But it’s all nothing but a bunch of pseudo-intellectual philosophical babble.

Yet, because the messenger appears confident and makes grand pronouncements, they let themselves be captured, and go with it. And there are others who become enamored with endless theological talk, that has neither any real effect on one’s daily life, nor eternal life.

The Apostle was warning the Colossian believers about getting lost in the myriad traditions and superstitions that have an absence of Christ in the middle of them.

The way of Jesus has Christ directly and purposefully at the core of one’s life. Anything less is to make a deal and see what is behind another door.

The way of Jesus has very little to do with a particular theological tradition about the end times, or a certain literal interpretive stance, or a liturgical or non-liturgical approach to the Christian life.

Everything of God is right, just, and good. And according to Christianity, it comes through the person and work of Jesus, through Christ’s words and ways as expressed in the New Testament Gospels.

It seems to me that the Apostle Paul would be aghast today at how many supposed Christian believers worship him and his epistles! Instead of giving their full adoration to Christ.

The last word doesn’t come from Paul, but from Jesus. Keep in mind that Paul worshiped Christ, and did not point people to himself as the be-all-end-all of any philosophical approach.

Everything the Christian needs is within the fullness of Jesus Christ.

All things are empty without Christ, including the vast universe. The power and authority of Christ extends over all things and all people everywhere. Paul was insistent on this in all of the churches he established.

Thus, Christians must enter into the fullness of their Lord Jesus.

You can spend a lifetime, even an eternity after death, trying to figure out how God works, but you will never get to the end of it. God’s arm has that long of a reach. The fullness of Jesus is that big and filling. The strength of the Spirit is that powerful.

The heart and center of Christianity has nothing to do with circumcision, modes of baptism, keeping long lists of laws, or maintaining multiple spiritual practices. Because the Christian is already in, and already united with Christ.

This is why Paul prayed for believers to explore and realize what they already have in Christ, so that, with the eyes of their heart enlightened, they may perceive what is the hope to which God has called them, the riches of God’s glorious inheritance among the saints, and the immeasurable greatness of divine power for those who believe. (Ephesians 1:18-19)

The Christian has been spiritually raised from the dead, just as Christ was physically raised from death to life. And believers will also be physically raised, as Jesus was, if they have the spiritual eyes to see it.

Think of all those times in the past when you were stuck, and living a dead-end existence. Remember how God made you alive in Christ. All of your guilt and shame forgiven. All the stuff that kept you down and out, all that kept you from God, was nailed to the Cross of Christ.

The malevolent forces of this world have been stripped of their power, and can be seen as the sham they actually are.

The Christian is delivered from sin, death, and hell. There is, therefore, no need for the believer to trade what they already have for whatever the heck is behind door number two.

It will not be nearly as valuable nor practical – not even close.

Being grounded in the person and work of Christ is where it’s at, my friend.

Watch out that nobody comes along and tries to sway you from Jesus. Don’t make any deals. You and I have Jesus. He is all we need.

Lord Jesus, you are worthy of our adoration, affection, and allegiance. Because of you, we don’t have to guess what God is like; there is no need to create our own image of God. Everything we need to know about God is revealed in and through you. Along with the Father and the Spirit, you have always existed in perfect relationship and unimaginable wonder.

Blessed Holy Trinity, the God whom I serve, may your divine dance of Father, Son, and Spirit pulsate within me, and flow out of me in a trust that you are enough. Then I will know that I, too, am enough as I avoid the false philosophies and promises of this world.

Almighty God, you fill the center of my being, so that I can let You be You, and so, be content and at peace, despite the alternative voices that chatter constantly around me. May your will be done, today and every day, to the glory of Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.

Four hundred and eighty years after the people of Israel left Egypt, during the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the second month, the month of Ziv, Solomon began work on the Temple. Inside it was 90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 45 feet high. The entrance room was 15 feet deep and 30 feet wide, as wide as the sanctuary itself. The walls of the Temple had openings in them, narrower on the outside than on the inside….

The inside of the Temple was covered with gold, and gold chains were placed across the entrance of the inner room, which was also covered with gold. The whole interior of the Temple was covered with gold, as well as the altar in the Most Holy Place. (Good News Translation)

The first major accomplishment – and the crowning achievement – of King Solomon’s reign was building the Temple in Jerusalem. His father, King David, had it in his heart to erect a great Temple for God as both a place of worship, and a permanent place for the Ark of the Covenant to rest. However, the Lord clearly instructed David not to build the Temple, but stated that his son would do so. (1 Chronicles 28:1-21)

Solomon spared no expense for building the Temple. He ordered vast quantities of cedar wood from King Hiram of Tyre, and had huge blocks of stone quarried for the building’s foundation. In order to complete the massive project, Solomon imposed forced labor on all his subjects, drafting people for work shifts that sometimes lasted a month at a time. (1 Kings 5:1-18)

And there was the gold – lots of it! The inside of the Temple was completely covered with gold. Gold is physically and metaphorically one of the most malleable metals on the planet: one gram of gold can be beaten into a 1-square meter sheet, and gold has been used as a symbol for everything from religious devotion to great wealth and immense power.

As glorious and elaborate as the Temple was, the most important room was perhaps the greatest theological statement of all; it contained almost no furniture. Known as the Holy of Holies, it housed the two tablets of the Ten Commandments inside of the Ark of the Covenant. The unseen and almighty God of the universe doesn’t really need a house, and most certainly cannot be contained within one.

Only once a year, on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) the High Priest entered the most sacred Holy of Holies and pray to God on behalf of the Israelite nation. God’s world and God’s word are holy. It was understood that the Ten Commandments are very holy words, with the name of God being the holiest word of all. The Temple – by its sheer architecture – communicated what was most important about God.

*Model of the Tabernacle in Timna Valley Park, Israel*

Yet, the way in which the Temple was constructed was very different from how the earlier Tabernacle was built. The Tabernacle was a sort of mobile temple for the wilderness journey. The entire community worked together in giving their possessions and services in order to make the Tabernacle a reality.

Without the contributions of the people, the project probably would not have happened at all. But the chance to help out in all the myriad ways of making things for the sanctuary, pulled everyone together in a high degree of compliance. (Exodus 36:1-6)

Indeed, the building of the Tabernacle was a consensual enterprise; the people’s faith was the wellspring of their philanthropy. Yet, in contrast, the mode by which Solomon carried out the construction of the permanent Temple was by sheer wealth, forced labor, and strong administrative business deals.

There was no community participation in the form of voluntarism in Solomon’s financing of the Temple build. To pay for the cedar and cypress wood provided by the King of Tyre and to quarry and transport the building materials, Solomon issued a massive levy. In other words, there wasn’t any free labor and no robust public spirit animating the construction.

The Tabernacle for which the people volunteered wholeheartedly never fell victim to evil. The Temple, however, eventually and certainly did – in large part due to the evil of the kings who presided over the theocracy.

The fate of any institution is determined by how it is created in the first place. No matter what the polity and organizational structure is, it cannot long survive without popular support. Solomon’s Temple, despite all of its grandeur and gold, rested on a shaky foundation and sandy soil.

After the Temple was constructed, the sacrificial system was authorized only in Jerusalem and at the Temple. Everything was centralized under the behemoth of Solomon’s system. What’s more, practices like volunteerism and community participation were largely replaced with systems of heavy taxation and a large debt. That’s one reason the kingdom immediately split apart after Solomon’s death.

Perhaps if the selfless ethos that went into building the Tabernacle was utilized by Solomon in the building of the Temple, maybe the fate of king after king in Israel would have been quite different. For it is in the spirit of volunteerism and a concern for the public welfare that governments attentive to the common good of all persons are built. How something is built matters.

Almighty and gracious God of all, we humbly offer our gratitude for the blessing of selfless volunteers and those who participate freely in ministries of justice and service. Thank you for their tireless dedication and benevolence.

May your Spirit bless them with continual guidance as they faithfully serve others. Give them resilience, daring, and fortitude. Let joy, peace, and satisfaction be upon the good work that they do. Inspire and motivate them to persist through trying circumstances, steadfast in their dedication to aiding those around them.

Help us all to reflect the profound beauty and compassion of your divine love. Amen.

Rev. Tim Ehrhardt

Tag: spiritual foundation

Filled with Divine Fullness (Colossians 2:6-15)

How It’s Built Matters (1 Kings 6:1-4, 21-22)

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