You Are the Temple of the Lord
Sermon preached by Subdeacon JD Swartz on Sunday, August 2, 2026
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
In Orthodoxy we love to use that famous line by Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “Beauty will save the world,” and using this statement, there are many who wish to build great buildings in honor of God and others who think that God will be exalted when the Church and the state operate together to establish Christian rule on the earth and live in a kingdom for God. But our parishes and our cathedrals are not the temples of the Lord, as St. Paul reminds us in today’s Epistle, “Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?” And the Messiah whose triumphal entry into Jerusalem was on the colt of an ass likened His Kingdom to a mustard seed, to yeast within dough, to seeds scattered on the ground, to a hidden treasure, to a pearl, to a fishing net, and it exists not within legislation and law and it does not reside in politics, national interests, in earthly might or in war – the kingdom of God, Christ said, is within you. How do we enter that which is already within us? And if the way lies with the beauty which will save the world, then we must ask ‘what is beauty’ and ‘how will it save’?
Will the well-painted icon save the world? Will the well-rehearsed choir save the world? Will the shining vestments, the gold cupolas, and the jeweled Crosses save the world? And if not, do these constitute beauty? And if they are not beauty, then what are they?
St. Paul writes that our one foundation is already laid, which is Jesus Christ; and St. John Chrysostom says that this foundation is in place “and no one can change it. Let us therefore build on it and cling to it in the way that branches cling to the vine.” If beauty will save the world, then beauty is but one thing: the revelation of Jesus Christ. And if we are going to participate in that beauty, it begins within us, in His Temple and in His Kingdom. In our hearts, in our souls, we labor, we gather our supplies of gold, silver, precious jewels, or of wood, straw, and hay, and we set to work. Though we are each our own house, each a Temple, we are all joined on the one Foundation and united in the one Kingdom.
If we are the Temple of God, what is all of this with which we surround ourselves? These are our tools to accomplish the work which must take place within. The icons of wood and paint are here to train us to see the world as it truly is and prepare us to interact with those icons who wake and rise, who move and breath, speak and confound – those living images of God who, if we allow them, will challenge us to love them and will shine a light on those aspects of us which need to be refined. Crosses, those symbols of death, are transformed with jewels that we are reminded to have no fear of death, the hymns embed the Gospel and the truth in our hearts, the vestments remind us of the works of the Lord, the incense of the sweet prayers of the Saints, our liturgical form ties us across generations and continents, reminding us that our community extends beyond those who we see around us; our community is from the beginning of creation and continues beyond its end. And with these tools, we work to build God’s temple, the temple that we each are, using the materials we have gathered and developed within through prayer, meditation, revelation, participation in the Church, and most of all, through love.
How do we know the materials with which we have built our temple? I tell you – if we would pass by the beggar on our way to venerate a myrrh-streaming icon, our structure is one of straw and it will not withstand the fire. If the grieving tears of another do not move us toward them, then our baptismal waters will not put out the flames as they burn away our temples of hay. If we shut our ears to cries for help, our confessions will not be heard over the roaring flames as they burn away our buildings of wood. Truly, if we cannot offer food to the hungry, then the Eucharist will not feed us amidst the ashes of our souls.
If we close the door of our heart to another, we break the communion of creation, we perpetuate the fallen world, and we live contrary to the prayer that Christ taught us, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This prayer is a call to action, it is a demand that we who name ourselves Christians, we who are meant to have built temples of gold, silver, and precious stones within us, we must open the doors of those sanctuaries and share the wealth which we have gained, and serve as another entry point for the bountiful Kingdom of God to pour out into the world; we enter His Kingdom on the day of judgment by enacting His kingdom on earth now. “Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’”
Chrysostom tells us, “Share what you have, lest you lose what you have. Spend what you possess on the needs of others in order to keep what you possess. Do not cling to what you own, lest it be taken away from you. Do not hoard your treasures, lest they rot and become worthless.” And while the Saint was speaking of material wealth, this principle holds true for the spirit as well. Pray all you will, fast resolutely, learn all that there is to know of spiritual matters but if you cannot enact the truths that you uncover, they will rot away inside you, and if you cannot share them with love, then your words will be but noisy brass and a clanging symbol, your actions will be a talent buried and unworthy to offer the Lord at His return.
The work of the Lord is not gilded domes or walls muraled in iconography, it is not placing crosses in every open space, nor is it attendance of the Divine Liturgy, these are actions that we take, and offerings that we make, these are the tools that we use to keep God at the forefront of our lives and to tie us to one another in community as His Body. The work of the Lord is revealing His presence within you and through you; and if we respond to Him, that response is not only to His presence within us, but to His presence in everyone who bears His image, no matter what materials we think they have built their inner temples with. For many who would have us think their souls are full of gold and rubies are but piles pyrite and rhinestone, and some left to lie in ditches and hedgerows shine like the sun.
In today’s Gospel, Peter did not seek to do the miraculous when he walked on the water; he sought the Lord. He found Christ in an impossible place and asked to meet Him there. There is nowhere that the Lord may not be, and the temple which has been prepared to greet Him will find Him everywhere. Peter wanted Christ, nothing more; and in reality, there is nothing more, nothing greater, nothing beyond. And He is within you. He is the Beauty which will save the world. Let us ask to meet Him in impossible places and share in His work that the Father’s Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Amen.