02-23-14: We Are God's Temple

Scripture Reading: Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18; 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16 

Self-help books in America are often best sellers. No one seems to be happy about who they are, what they look like, and so on. Low self-esteem is an absolute epidemic. Often, religion reinforces our low self-image by focusing on our failings and our disappointment to God. Here, religion does an extreme disservice to the central teachings of scripture. In today's scripture reading, Leviticus urges us to be holy, for God is holy. In the letter to the church at Corinth, Paul takes this a step further by saying that because God's Spirit dwells within us, we are God's temple. And because God is holy, we are holy temples. We just need to start to acting like it. What if we lived what scripture teaches us rather than what religious institutions have taught us?

See you Sunday.

Yours on the journey,