Will the “Samaritans” rebuild the Temple?

I am conscious that my blog has been very church-o-centric. This is because I am in transition and am working through the implications. Please bear with me, after all the dear old Church of England do pay me a stipend and provide a house for me to live in. I have not been told to walk away from this, instead my focus is to be the Kingdom of God. There is still a place for the mother church within his purposes.

A few years ago the Lord gave me a picture of his plans for St. Mark’s. The old tree was once very splendid, but is now just a stump. But it is not dead yet, it has a few living branches. In the middle of this stump is a sapling with all the potential to grow and become as splendid as the old tree once was. For a while the two trees grow together in the same place. By the time the old one dies off completely the new tree will be mature and fruitful.

So what of these Samaritans? In one of my earlier posts I suggested that the Samaritans are the people who come to church for baptisms, weddings, and funerals. They expect the church to be there, but they don’t worship with us except at Christmas (occasionally) and they don’t contribute financially. At St. Mark’s we have formed a “Friends of St. Mark’s” organisation to invite folk to share in the upkeep of the Victorian building. We are looking for 100 people who will contribute £10 a month to help pay the insurance, heating, lighting and repairs (about £10,000 p.a.).

When the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70 it was not rebuilt, and as far as I am aware the Samaritans did not see it as their responsibility to help. Will our “Samaritans” help? Or will they allow the church buildings of our land to fall into disrepair?

And what of the Gentiles? If the Samaritans are reluctant, how much less likely that the Gentiles will come up with cash? And yet I was reading Acts 11 this morning. The church in Antioch was a mixture of Jews and Gentiles – a real first century “Fresh Expression of Church”. This church heard about the famine in Judea and sent money to help the disciples in the mother church. In the DNA of a true Christian church is generosity and a sense of being part of the Body of Christ. So who knows what the future holds if our Fresh Expressions grow strong?