In John’s Gospel he tells us about the day when Jesus went into the Temple, the house of God, to celebrate the week long festival of the feast of booths. The background to this festival is important here. Amongst other things the feast marked Ezekiel’s vision in Ezek chapters 43-7. The account starts with a thin place encounter with God where his glory prevails and then God tells Ezekiel what the measurements and rules of his new house should be. But then in chapter 47 the vision changes to the back door of the Temple where Ezekiel sees water flowing from the East of the Temple which itself faced East. The water goes into the Kidron valley and gets deeper and deeper until we read:

And he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he led me back to the bank of the river. As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. And he said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh. And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. Fishermen will stand beside the sea. From Engedi to Eneglaim it will be a place for the spreading of nets. Its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt. And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.” Ezek 47:6-12

At the feast of Booths the Jews rehearsed this scene each day. The priest would fill a golden pitcher with water and pour it into a channel on the altar which would flow out of the Eastern side of the temple and into the Kidron valley where it would evaporate... On the last and greatest day of the feast the priest wouldn't reenact the scene, because the people hoped that God would bring it about to fulfil Ezekiel’s dream. And so we read what happens next in John’s Gospel:

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”

Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Jn 7:37-39

This gets even more interesting when we find that the word Jesus uses, here translated as ‘heart’ is the Greek word ‘koilia’ which strictly translated would be bellybutton or navel. If you were to look at a map of the world drawn by Jews at the time of Jesus, you would find that rather than being geographically accurate, the map would depict the Jewish beliefs. Israel was in the centre of the map with Jerusalem in the centre of Israel and the Temple in the centre of Jerusalem and the Altar in the centre of the Temple. The Altar was known as the koilia, the bellybutton, the place where God cut the umbilical when He created the world!

In effect Jesus is telling the Jews and us, that we, His followers, will be the people who have the Holy Spirit pouring from us, the House of God, the thin place, the gate of the Kingdom of Heaven.

This is very different from the church being a group of believers who come together to be the body of Jesus or the called out to be holy ones. We are so much more than a holy huddle. We have the Holy Spirit. In our cities we have real authority, real power, we are the light, the gate, salt, etc. Perhaps this is what Haggai was prompted to write:

The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the LORD of hosts.

Hag 2:9 

Next time I want to start a whole new section looking at what the flipping church is meant to do.