In this passage Jesus addresses a common misconception of ours as we view Christian community. For the Samaritan women the pressing issue was where (what location) and what (what kind of stuff do we have to do). Worship was an issue of circumstance an issue of the external and location. Jesus shows the woman that Christian community and all that it entails is not so much about what or where but about who. Who is God and where He is, is …every time our church community changes in what (externals) or where (this place or that time) we are reminded that our community transcends and goes beyond what or where and remains fixed in the great and grand Who!what is all defining! The Father is looking for those who worship Him in spirit and truth. This means that our community is defined by having an intimacy with God, Himself, in a manner consistent with who He is.

So anyway, how does all this relate to our church recently moving to a new location (from conducting services in a house) and now moving to a new time slot on Sunday mornings? Are you just taking us on another theological rant, you ask? The relation to our situation as a church is simply this: every time our church community changes in what (externals) or where (this place or that time) we are reminded that our community transcends and goes beyond what or where and remains fixed in the great and grand Who!

It is amazing as to how distant stories—seemingly distant—hit so close to home. King Jeroboam had set up his own temple and worship system to worship God and here we have the confrontation by God’s prophet about that system. We all do this, we all are setting up altars and temples and sacrifices to worship God that are about what our hands have made.

Too often Christians come to social issues with a mindset that they must rectify that social issue, and set the record straight. Although this can have its benefits, what we see Jesus do in this passage is what should be the aim of all Christians.

So often I see people lost and wandering the world in the midst of their Christian walk. They do not know what is wrong but know that something is wrong. Here in our verse the Psalmist gives us a simple yet clear answer to our seemingly empty and sad Christian life. The first thing we see here is that Christianity must be and needs to be in Christ. You may say, “Where did you get that from?” Simply said, the rest of the bible and in places specifically like John 2:19-21, we know that Christ Himself is the temple. You see, Beloved, we cannot seek to have a Christianity which is outside of Christ; it is within the temple that is Christ that we are able to contemplate the goodness of God. What does that mean practically?

Our Lord has a way of saying things which are clearly not found in the human mind. He opens his public sermon by basically saying that people who realize that they have nothing good in themselves at all to make them in any way acceptable are blessed people who possess the kingdom.So what is Christian good, beloved? Christian good is having a regular and ongoing and continuous sense that you are unrighteous, undone, unworthy, and in need of a righteous substitute, a doing for you, a worth for you. Our Lord here clarifies what Christian goodness is really about and simply said Christian goodness is having a deep sense of our badness before God. Let us notice something first, where does spiritual poverty come from? How do we live as people who see no good in them at all and only see good in Christ being good for them? Well our text says that the poor in spirit are blessed not those who are poor will be blessed. Being aware of sin is not some man-made product, it is not some effort of man’s will to be poor in spirit; spiritual poverty on earth is the result of sovereign blessing from heaven. So let us be clear, God’s blessing by grace makes us have this Christian goodness of knowing and embracing our absolute badness. We must not make poverty of spirit some moralistic product of self-effort.