After Jacob awakened from his amazing dream that we hear in our reading from the Hebrew scriptures today, he realized that he was in "the House of God". . . "the gate of heaven". His dream encounter with God opened his eyes to see that this isolated place was indeed holy ground, that, in spite of his past foibles, God was with him. We know the rest of the story, how God continued to work in Jacob's life and finally brought his body back to the Promised Land for burial with his forebears.

Today we often call our churches the House of God, and leave it at that. But as God showed the Israelites throughout their history, the Holy One cannot be constrained in special buildings nor in certain places. As the Apostle Paul pointed out to us through the Corinthians: "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?"(I Cor.3:16) Sit with that for a bit. Paul's letters repeatedly remind us of this truth. "But you are not in the flesh, you are in the spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you." (Rms.8:9) "For we are the temple of the living God." (II Cor.6:16b) "It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me." (Gal.2:20a) And in the epistle of James we find: "God yearns jealousy for the Spirit that he has made to dwell in us" (4: 5) Also in I John 4:13, "By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit." Jesus in John's gospel also speaks of abiding: "Abide in me as I abide in you." (15:4a) Yet we too often seem not to realize what that means for us in the here and now.

We are each and all, throughout the world, houses, dwellings, temples, abiding places for the Holy One who is the source and essence of all that is. May we come to know that wherever we are is "the gate of heaven", and may we so live that God's love will shine forth in all that we say and do, encompassing all we encounter with compassion, mercy, justice, respect, and love.