Why Temples?

 Intro:....

And that ties right into what I want to talk about this morning. The Unknown, the Beautiful, and Home, but not my home, God’s home-the temple. I believe the importance, the meaning, the why of the temple can be found in its beauty, in the rituals and covenants found there, and in the mystery.

So first let’s talk about the mystery: When Bishop Maughn asked me to speak on temples I immediately thought, what could I even say? I don’t know anything about the temple? 

I’ve often thought that temples and our temple work is strange. On the one hand that’s a narrow, western secular view coloring my judgment. Really, people have built temples since the beginning of time to create a space for awe and worship whether that be in Christianity, Bhuddism, Judaism, etc. And even work for the dead is not a unique idea to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Book of Common Prayer is the manual used for all Anglican church services and Protestants used to use it too. It  included prayers such as, “Grant that at the day of judgment his soul and all the souls of thy elect, departed out of this life, may with us and we with them, fully receive thy promises.” Now in the 16th century the protestants took out any prayers offered for the dead because they quote, “smacked of the old religion in which the living could perform religious acts on behalf of the dead.” So in that light, you couldn’t get more “traditional,” and work for the dead wasn’t always so “peculiar.”

On the other hand, the temple IS strange. The layers of depth and symbolism found in the temple are so rich and it is always in the back of my mind to explore that more, through research, books and attending and experiencing it. So yes, my ignorance is high, and what made me hesitate in saying yes to talking about temples. But where I was wrong was in thinking that this ignorance, this not having it all figured out is a problem or negative thing. There is no such thing as having it all figured out. If there was, we wouldn't need to go to the temple. There will always be more to explore and more unknown.

Temples are supposed to feel mysterious. It shouldn’t always feel like what we already know and are used to. It should feel different and unlike our everyday Earth experience. The door of the temple opens and invites us in to explore the mysteries of God. We are given murals, and stories, and symbols, and promises that we don’t fully understand or know what to do with. This is good. Our outside every day life is usually one of a “get things done” busy life. This in contrast with the stillness of the temple alone makes the temple otherworldly. We like to know things, have all the answers. We like reason and facts and structure. We like concrete facts and want to put life in a box. But the temple has the power to open up that box. To open up our minds. The temple invites us into a world of possibility, of seeking intangible knowledge and inviting revelation. Not from our inward ordered mind, but something higher, outside of us, transcendent. It is a gateway to spiritual ether. In Kings 9:3 the temple was described by Jehovah as a house where  “mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.” As we know, God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, neither his ways, our ways, so of course the temple is strange. Wonderfully strange.

Temples are time machines. We travel back in the past, reaching for and binding ourselves to great uncles born across oceans and aunts whose names we cannot pronounce. We wonder about them, think about them, make promises with them and in this way, connect with them, and invite them to connect with us. The temple is a portal where Time is blurred both forward and backwards. We also travel to the future, sealing our unborn grandchildren and great grandchildren to us. All they have to do is be born. No wonder it feels mysterious. 

And one might, and many have, asked why? Why spend all this time and money on the intangible, otherworldly, the dead, and the unborn, when there is so much to be done in the here and now. Surely, you’ve heard criticisms of how the Church of Jesus Christ, how you, and your tithing goes to an ornate building when we could take that money to feed and clothe people in need. It is a legitimate question.

First, we do take care of temporal needs in our churches and welfare, and education systems. There is a big to-do next Saturday for the RS making food boxes for middle schoolers. And of course the different types of service missions and humanitarian aid. This is not news. But is it enough? Temples are elaborate, perfect works of art with the highest craftsmanship and quality. Who knows how many billions of dollars and tithing money the church has spent on them. Could this be better used for the poor?

When reflecting on this question I think it is important to not underestimate the power of beauty. Real beauty is a window to the Divine. Beauty inspires. Before, I said the temple is a gateway to the transcendent-to surpass the human earthly experience into the otherworldly. Part of this is because of its beauty. In her book, on Beauty and Being, Elaine Scarry said, “Something beautiful fills the mind yet invites the search for something beyond itself, something larger or something of the same scale with which it needs to be brought in relation. Beauty..causes us to gape and suspend all thought.” I would clarify, human, earthly thought. Beauty connects us with Higher, Holier Thoughts and ideas. Beauty reminds us we are finite, limited and largely ignorant creatures but that there is something higher, possibly God, and a pathway towards that God.

This is not news to maybe any of you. Just as a view from a mountain top or a beautiful piece of music elevates you and reminds you, you aren’t alone, so can beautiful works of art or beautiful structures and buildings.

In speaking about this debate and particularly cathedrals, Dennis Prager pointed that, “if all the gold in every cathedral in the poorest Catholic countries were melted, and everything of value in those cathedrals were sold off, with the money then dispersed among its neediest citizens, it would have minimal immediate, and no enduring, impact on poverty. A small percentage of the many millions of poor people would benefit, and only for a very limited period. Then they would be left with no more cathedral in their midst–for most of these people, their greatest sources of communal pride, and a place that brought them closer to God and uplifted their spirits. These cathedrals have given untold numbers of poor (and wealthy) people peace, meaning, and solace. Like the Israelites in the desert, most of these poor people have preferred to establish an enduring connection to God through their gifts than have a little bit of extra gold for a few days or weeks.

A British Rabbi, named Hugo Gryn, told of a story of when he was a prisoner in Auschwitz-the Nazi concentration camp:  “One Midwinter evening one of the inmates reminded us that tonight was the first night of Hanukkah, the festival of lights. My father constructed a little Hanukkah menorah of scrap metal. For a wick he took some threads from his prison guard. Although such observances were strictly forbidden, we were used to taking risks. But I protested at the ‘waste’ of precious calories. Would it not be better to share butter on a crust of bread than to burn it? Hugo, said my father, both you and I know that a person can live a very long time without food. But Hugo, I tell you, a person cannot live a single day without hope.”

Of course, the beauty of the temple is only one way we get glimpses into the divine. The covenants and rituals we perform there also build the relationship with our heavenly parents, and with each other, as mentioned before in creating an ever expansive family tree where all are invited. In the temple we promise to take care of each other- we promise to give MORE to the poor and needy. The temple does push us to take care of the here and now.

 I like to think of covenants as relationships. And a meaningful relationship is not stagnant. It’s not a one hit wonder. You invest in it. You treat it with care, you find ways to connect with each other. You nurture it. And so it only makes sense why we should go back and back and back again to this place of beauty and mystery to connect with our Heavenly Father and Mother. The temple reminds us in it’s rituals who we are and Who our Parents are. Just like a child, we get named and then clothed. And then we feel held in the Celestial room for as long as we need. 

In our faith, ritual is very important. We get baptized, we take the sacrament each week, we do spiritual things in a very physical way. This makes it easier to remember our promises. It organizes the vague longings of our heart into concrete expressions of love and devotion. Every ordinary person needs practice learning to love and practice committing. And we are all ordinary people as Elder Boyd K Packer pointed out, “When you come to the temple and receive your endowment, and kneel at the altar and be sealed, you can live an ordinary life and be an ordinary soul–struggling against temptation, failing and repenting, and failing again, and repenting, but always striving to keep your covenants.” One way we “keep” our covenants is through ritual. In the temple we ritually make promises–seemingly basic ones. To keep the commandments, to practice the law of chastity and live the law of consecration.” But how do we specifically and individually keep these promises? How do we play them out in real life. The temple is beautiful in it’s universality and individualism. We all are asked to covenant, to recommit to the same promises. But the personal wisdom and personal covenants you might need to make will be different than the personal covenants I need to make. By attending the temple, opening your mind and sitting with the mysterious Unknown, the Lord can reveal to you a step or two forward on your own personal covenant path.

Taking the sacrament each week, and prayer and meditation and attending the temple as much as we are able, gives us the opportunity to forge our relationship with God into something beautiful and powerful. It invites us into the divinely Unknown and helps keep the line of communication between us and heaven open and flowing. In this way, with one foot on Earth and one stepping into the Cosmos, we can co-create with God a beautiful eternal life. To remind you how God’s promises are everlasting I’d like to read some promises he made to covenant Israel, promises that are just as much for you and me:

I am with you. I will not leave you. 

I am come to deliver. I will do wonders among you.

I will go before you. I will keep you.

I am for your good, Always.

I will do all I have promised. 

You shall not go empty. 

It will be Well with you.