The Cost
Propers: The Twenty-Fifth Sunday After Pentecost ( Lectionary 32 ), AD 2024 B Homily: Lord, we pray for the preacher, for You know his sins are great. Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The Temple in Jerusalem was a wonder, one of the grandest religious edifices across the eastern Roman Empire. It had been constructed on a 36-acre artificial mountain, with single stone blocks weighing well over 600 tons. Columns of smoke continually rose from the sacrifices of the faithful. Priests, scribes, animal inspectors, even a cadre of quasi-nuns labored daily in the administration of the sacred. And all of this cost money. Large containers collected the Temple tax, half of which went immediately to sacrificial purchases, all of the beasts and grain and incense necessary for ritual Law. A second portion of the proceeds paid the Temple staff, those women weavers, pious priests, and scholarly scribes. Surplus funds then served to cove
