In today's first reading, an angel gives Ezekiel a vision of what the people of God can be: a river. "Wherever the river flows," we're told, "every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live, and there shall be abundant fish, for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh. Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow; their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail."

In the second reading, the Apostle Paul tells the church at Corinth that their community is like a building. "You are God's building," Paul says. "You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you."

The message is clear. Our parishes and our global church are to be sources of life and strength and support for our communities and the world. We can, as parishes, be places where anyone can prosper and grow, like the banks of a river. And we can also be a place where people find God, like a strong building.

Indeed, together we are God's temple. It is a staggering and humbling thought that a group of flawed people can be given such a lofty designation. The Spirit of God, Paul tells us, inhabits and animates our communities.

I don't know about you, but I tend to think of my parish as a place I go to get something rather than as a place I go to become something. While it is nice to receive the inspiration, challenge and consolation that the liturgies offer, today's reading suggests that when we gather as a community we become something far greater than we are as independent individuals. We are the temple of God.

This is not something to be taken lightly. In today's Gospel, when Jesus finds people blithely doing business in the Jerusalem temple, he turns over their tables for money changing and challenges them to do more worship and less business. "Take these out of here," Jesus says of the tables, "and stop making my Father's house a marketplace."

Of course, Paul does not mean that we become a physical building, but a dwelling place for the Spirit of God. When we gather for worship, service and the sacraments, we are more than the individual parts. The Spirit of God is with us and in us. If we start to take that grace for granted, we might find that Jesus decides to turn our lives upside down just as he turned the tables upside down at the Jerusalem temple.

God has high expectations for what our spiritual communities might become. They are to be like mighty rivers giving life to all living things - fish and animals and plants and birds. They are to be like temples, where people can come and experience the living God. They are not to be mere businesses, where programs run and profits are made in the name of religion. They are to be places where we can be and feel the presence of God in this world.

Bill Peatman writes from Napa. He may be reached at bptidings@yahoo.com.