Should We Build a House for the Lord?

     When I was little, my neighborhood church announced that they would build housing for low-income single mothers in an empty lot near my home. Soon after the announcement, the neighborhood launched a petition demanding that the church cancel its plans; we were worried what the introduction of low-income people in our neighborhood would do to housing prices and our safety. My parents and many of my neighbors signed the petition. Some people had yard signs defending their right to not live near potentially dangerous people. We even had a meeting at my elementary school about it. It turns out their efforts weren't enough—the church completed its project and built three townhomes for seven families. 

    As I read Armstrong investigate the concept of sacred space during the fallout of the Judah and Israel kingdoms, I was reminded of that story. Armstrong asserts that people's conception of sacred space changes as their situation changes. When the Israelites settled in Jerusalem, they left their nomadic lifestyle, so they built a house for god since he was also no longer nomadic. Armstrong writes that "many of them felt that they had come home when they entered Yahweh’s temple. As a symbol of the sacred, the Temple was also the source of the world’s fertility and order" (Armstrong 52). The physical presence of the Temple gave the Israelites a sense of security. This understanding of the Temple coincides with Jerusalem's period of stability; the city grew into a bustling capital under King David, and King Solomon oversaw the construction of the Temple as Jerusalem expanded.

    However, the stability in Jerusalem ended when the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah split. The people of Judah sensed a growing disparity between the upper and lower class, and the Yahweh prophets shifted their teachings to meet the new cultural feeling. They urged followers to recognize the importance of compassion and social justice. The prophets warned that the Temple could become "an object of false security and complacency." (Armstrong 64). The cult of Yahweh had developed a greater focus on interpersonal and class relations as it adapted to the newly-separated kingdoms and instability. The concept and execution of religious practices is shaped by the religion's context. Maybe when people's lives are relatively peaceful, the simple presence of a Temple assures that god is with them, but during periods of cultural anxiety, god's presence must be expressed in more ways.

Solomon's Temple