In a small country town in Victoria…

roughly halfway between Ballarat and Colac…

the last remaining church––

a one-hundred-and-fifty-five-year-old bluestone building––

was recently sold to a private buyer.

The decision to sell it was made by the Uniting Church in Victoria…

following a lengthy consultation process… 

after the congregation had declined to less than five regular worshippers.

But the decision to sell it provoked anger in the local community––

even though few of them ever attended services there––

with about two-thirds of local residents signing a petition… 

calling on the state government to acquire it compulsorily… 

and gift it to the Presbyterian Church…

in the hope that they would renovate it and continue services.

The Presbyterian Church of Victoria…

however…

stated that it wasn’t interested…

claiming that it would cost them fifty thousand dollars a year to run it.

 

Trying to maintain an historic church building… 

with a dwindling and ageing congregation…

is a real problem––

as we well know!

Two years ago––

when we last celebrated our Church Anniversary together––

we were just beginning to realise the magnitude of the problems that we faced with this building…

and that was before COVID hit us!

And although the process we went through left many scars…

or even open wounds…

gifting this property to the National Trust of South Australia… 

saved this church building as a church.

And yet, as important as this building is…

and has been… 

for many of us in our faith journey…

one of the things that has always impressed me about the North Adelaide Baptist Church…

is that the Church Anniversary dates from the formation of the congregation…

not the erection of this building.

This Church has understood…

and it continues to understand…

that the church is, in the truest sense, people.

We––

not this building––

are the church.

It is in our gathering together––

and in our going out to live as people of God––

that we are church.

And that–– 

we would certainly hope–– 

would continue in some shape or form into the future.

But…

as Paul reminds us in our reading this morning from the so-called Second Letter to the Corinthians…

we are mortal.

Our bodies are decaying.

The span of our life is finite.

And that’s also true of all material, physical,

and worldly things.

That’s even true of the church––

certainly conceived of as a material building…

but even conceived of as a group of people.

Who we are, as church, is not who our spiritual forebears were, as church;

who we are, as church, is not who our spiritual descendants will be, as church.

Nothing on this earth…

nothing of this earth…

is permanent––

not in the grand scheme of things;

not when seen from the perspective of the God who is not bound by time;

who is always in the process of becoming;

and who is above, and beyond, and beneath all that we experience.

Thus, Paul urges us to see beyond the limitations of our existence…

and our experience…

and even our conceptualisation…

and to focus upon that which is eternal.

 

Many people, of course, interpret Paul’s words here in an individual and individualised sense.

They assume that he’s speaking of our individual human existence;

that he’s speaking of our individual life experience.

They assume that he’s urging his readers to be strong—

to endure the trials and tribulations that they experience now––

because of the ‘glory’ that they will experience hereafter.

In other words, most people assume a sort of pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die theology.

But that’s not Paul’s point here–– 

at all.

It’s significant that he uses, here, the image of a “tent”.

Although it’s the only time that Paul uses this term in any of his writings…

elsewhere in the New Testament, it always refers to the tent or tabernacle…

that is…

the place of worship of the people of Israel in the Wilderness.

And he speaks, here, of the tent, singular…

in which we, plural, dwell.

The image is intentionally corporate and collective.

Similarly, he suggests, that…

in contrast to this earthly, temporary place…

there is a solid, permanent, eternal place of worship in which we will dwell.

The image is subtle but evocative.

It’s an image that draws upon an idea from Plato’s philosophy;

the idea that…

for everything that we see and know here on earth…

there is, in heaven, a perfect model… 

or ideal…

of which the earthly is but a pale and poor copy.

And Paul suggests that church…

as we know it now…

is but a pale and poor copy of the heavenly, universal church.

In a way…

it’s not unlike the imagery that we find in the Book of Revelation––

that is…

the idea of a heavenly new Jerusalem… 

a realm where God’s love, and peace, and justice will reign…

and in which God’s people will dwell, permanently…

having unfettered access to God’s presence…

and reflecting God’s glory.

That, for Paul, is the perfect church––

of which the church, here and now, is but a pale and poor copy.

And yet, he claims…

“We do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day”.

In effect, Paul suggests that something of what church ought to be…

can be… 

even now…

whenever we, as church, reflect–– 

even in some small way–– 

something of the nature of the church eternal;

whenever we, as church, manifest the loving, peaceful, justice-filled reign of God.

 

Now…

while the philosophical and metaphysical underpinning of Paul’s thought here…

is not one that we would share today…

nevertheless… 

it’s helpful metaphorically.

As this community of faith so rightly recognises…

the church is not a building.

But the church is also not just a community of faith that gathers for worship.

Rather, the church is an in-breaking of the eternal into the temporal.

The church is an in-breaking of light into darkness…

of hope into despair…

of compassion into hard-heartedness.

In the end, the church is a mortal manifestation of the person and nature of God.

That is who we are, as church.

That is what we are called to be––

regardless of where and how we gather for worship.