Shining Like the Sun

Matthew 23:16 – “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing; but if anyone swears by the temple’s gold, they are bound.’”

 

We no longer swear by our buildings or the gold in them. We swear on our holy scriptures, whether that is the Bible, the Koran, the Tanakh, the Heart Sutra, or nothing if we’re atheist. At least in court. I’m not sure this is any better. You see, swearing by these God-created things raises them to a special status. The temple is just a building. The gold is just a metal. The bible is just a book. Sure, it’s an important book, but it’s the subject that's important, not the physical book.

I’d like to say Jesus is against these distinctions, but he’s saying that we don’t value the important things. Here, the temple, being the dwelling place of God, is more important than the gold, which is to honor God. God’s presence sanctifies the temple. There is a difference in importance and the scribes and Pharisees (the blind guides), have made the incorrect distinction. They’ve made money more important than God’s presence.

We in capitalist countries walk a fine line in this regard. Money and the economy are important, but it is easy to take it so far that we forget the system is meant to support the flourishing of people. All people – immigrants, disabled people, Black people, Hispanic people, LGBTQIA+ people, women. Men, too, but it seems to support men – especially ‘white’ men – just fine. In fact, it’s the ‘white’ men in charge, who are currently focused on the fluctuations of the stock market and their own power over the flourishing of the people they are supposed to be representing. Adam Smith, the man who gave us the invisible hand of the market, also gave us this thought: any economy that does not take the welfare of its poorest members into account is immoral. They never quote that because it does not support their ideology or their values.

Currently our leaders value rich, ‘white,’ cis-het men over all others. This is an immoral distinction between those who are “deserving or undeserving.” By ‘deserving,’ they mean ‘white.’ All other are lazy, immoral, criminal, sex-crazed, druggies, or sluts. This is a distinction Jesus would protest, because all of us carry the Spirit of God within us. We are all temples of God sanctified by God’s presence within us. That goes for all of creation – no distinctions. Everywhere we look or walk, everything we hear, taste, smell, or touch was created by God or made with material created by God. We live in a holy world and our original job, which was never taken from us, was to care for it. All of it.

Given that it is God’s Spirit that sanctifies the temple, the bible, the church, our lives, and our world, how can we best honor that holiness inherent in all things? How can our lives and actions honor God’s beautiful creation? How can we open our eyes to the splendor of what God has created in us and in others? We are all shining like the sun from God’s perspective. Let’s honor that in ourselves and others today and every day.