Jesus grew up in the small village of Nazareth on top of a craggy mountain in the northern part of Israel. Like the vast majority of the people of his day he lived in a small house with a lower space where animals were brought in at night and a raised portion at the rear where the family lived, stored their meager possessions and slept on mats. There was no middle class. It is recorded that Jesus traveled several times to the grand and elaborately furnished Temple in the walled city of Jerusalem. He saw the excesses of wealth and power and he realized they were not what God desired to honor him. He taught us that people who love God, and who love and are responsible for themselves and others, are the true Temples that give honor to their God who created them. The Temple and the City of Jerusalem would be destroyed by Titus and natural disasters. But the disciples of Jesus who try to imitate him are Temples of the Holy Spirit that no natural disaster or powerful army can destroy. Are we such a temple?
