I Kings 8:22-30
I Peter 2:1-5,9-10
Matthew 21:12-16

Many people, on their first visit to St. Gregory’s, mention how the church seems bigger on the inside than on the outside. Of course, it is the same size inside and out, but even though people realize that, it still looks and feels larger once inside. That illusion of space and importance is sort of a good thing, because it reminds us that what we do in here is valuable. Our task in this building is to acknowledge the centrality of God in our own lives as well as in the functioning of the entire universe.

However, we must never succumb to the conclusion that it is ok for us to be bigger on the inside than on the outside. In other words, we must never live in such a way that our internal relationship with God grows while our external relationships with the people around us stagnate or shrink. Of course, to grow in love for God while not growing in love for the world around us in impossible; just like the church, we cannot be bigger on the inside than on the outside. The two dimensions are dependent on each other. We foster our relationship with God by fostering our relationship with our neighbors, and we learn to love our neighbors as we learn to love God.

Both internal and external growth come solely from God, but it is up to us to take that growth from him and apply it to our lives. Internally, that means being faithful to our task of prayer not only the corporate prayer here in the church, but also our daily private meditation time and daily scripture reading time. Externally, it means being faithful to our daily chores and helping to make the world a better place being where we are supposed to be when we are supposed to be there, and doing as good a job as we can. It is also important to do those things (internally and externally) especially when we do not want to, because learning the fact that our wants are not the driving force behind the universe is one of the most important keys to growth.

Since our growth comes from God, we can never think we have gotten as far as we can go. God is infinite, and we can never reach the end of God’s desire for us. We just have to be constant and faithful in our inner and outer work, never smugly thinking we can rest because we have grown more than others. We must also never despair because we think we are not growing. Only God really knows our progress; our job is merely to be faithful to our work and prayer. We are the temple of God, each of us individually and all of us collectively. May we do all we can to become as strong and as beautiful as we are meant to be, both on the inside as well as on the outside. Neither can be neglected, because both are equally important to God. AMEN