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How often have you heard it said, “The church is not a place, the church is not a building, the church is the people of God”? I suspect that this mantra has arisen out of what the late Archbishop Garnsworthy once called our “edifice complex:” too many buildings, too few people.

But today’s readings illustrate quite clearly that the church is both a place and a people. In the Old Testament passage Jacob is a fugitive, fleeing from the wrath of his brother Esau, whom he had cheated out of their father’s blessing (Genesis 27:1-45). Jacob’s abrupt departure from Beersheba for Haran (Genesis 28:10), where he plans to stay with his uncle Laban (v. 2), was not only a matter of personal safety but also part of a larger pattern, in which Jacob functions as the unwitting tool of destiny.

The fugitive is to be given a glimpse of the deeper truth, and Bethel, where he spends the night (v. 11), is a spiritual milestone. After awaking from the dream in which he sees a stairway reaching from earth to heaven (v. 12), Jacob exclaims, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God and gate of heaven” (v. 17). In other words, the place where Jacob slept is a symbol for human efforts to reach out to God.

We Christians call the church building “the house of God.” The prayer for the consecration of a church reads:

Blessed be thy name, O Lord God, for that it pleaseth thee to
have thy habitation among the sons of men, and to dwell in the
midst of the assembly of the saints upon earth. (BCP, page 691)

“The assembly of the saints upon earth” is what Paul is talking about in our second reading (1 Corinthians 12:4-31). The church is not only an edifice; it is also the people of God, the body of Christ. Just as the body consists of many members, each with a special function, so the members of Christ’s body each exercise a special function, for the good of the whole: apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle-workers, healers, helpers, administrators (v. 28).

There is no hierarchy in the communities which Paul founded. No member is more important than any other, just as the hand is not more important than the eye (v. 20). “There are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit, and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord (v. 4). Paul’s insight into the nature of the body of Christ, which is the church, and his recognition of the diversities of gifts within the church has provided the title for a book about the well-known Myers-Briggs test of character and temperament types: Gifts Differing. The recognition that other people need not be like me, in order to perform a useful service is as important for the smooth functioning of the family and society as it is for the church.

The church is both place and people, both building and body. What is common to both meanings of “church” is the presence of God. God grant us a sense of the sacred, so that we can recognize and acknowledge the divine presence, wherever it may be found.

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