A correspondent has written to me recently urging that I identify the Temple of God, so as to be sure I am worshipping God in the right way and in the right place. This struck me as a very interesting concept. Many of my Christian friends find a church building a very worship-inspiring place, and of course in this country of ours there are some architectural masterpieces. The church in my village, for instance, was built in the 14th century, and I grew up under the shadow of what some think of as the finest cathedral of them all, at Durham.

So I was moved to think about the phrase 'Temple of God'. In the Old Covenant which God made with the people He chose to have a special relationship with, there was first a portable temple, because they were a nomadic people. Then they were settled in the land God had promised them, so their king thought it right to build something on the same lines in stone. But even Solomon recognised the inappropriateness of thinking that God could be contained in a building: "But will God indeed dwell on earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain thee: how much less this house which I have built?" (1 Kings 8:27 RSV).

In the gospels we read that Jesus foretold that the temple rebuilt in Jerusalem by Herod would be destroyed, and this took place when the Romans crushed the rebellion of the Jewish nationalists some thirty or so years later.

Christians have always recognised that in the New Covenant, offered to men and women of every race, there is no longer any special priesthood class: 'No longer will a man teach his neighbour, or a man his brother, saying "Know the Lord," because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.' (Jeremiah 31:34 NIV). In fact in the writings of the apostles we are told that we Christians are all priests (e.g. in 1 Peter ch. 2), that we are the very stones of the metaphorical temple of God (1 Peter 2:4), and even that our bodies are the temple of God, since He lives within us through His Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19). Paul puts it very bluntly "We are the temple of the living God." (2 Corinthians 6:16).

If people can get some idea of what God is like through observing my life, my responses to situations, my choices, my words, then I am fulfilling a priestly role in presenting God to those who do not know Him.

This to me is a far more demanding challenge than mere words can express. I know my failings only too well, better than anyone else on earth, and yet I know that God is reaching out to others through me. Phew!

I agree with Solomon about buildings. To suppose God could be so diminished that He could dwell inside something built by men, in a particular location, is to reduce God to something men may control, which is the very basis of all idolatries.