EVERY BELIEVER A PRIEST.We love our church buildings! I have visited some of the most stunning cathedrals in the world and have been amazed by their use of space, art, and stone to draw those gathered upward in reverence and awe. Still though, I love the simple meeting houses built of wood and stone with spaces designed more for gathering the saints than stimulating the senses. Whether we worship in a cathedral or a clapboard chapel, we tend to carry with us an affinity for our "House of God".
I love the story of Jesus and a conversation he had with an adulterous Samaritan woman that took place at a well sometime around noon in the heat of the day. The woman was suffering from spiritual thirst, no doubt caused by her circumstances and choices in life that left her estranged from her community and alientated from God. At first confused by Jesus' offer of "living water", she began to understand the opportunity for new life he was presenting to her.
Jesus broke down several barriers in his conversation with her that day. He was male; she was female. He was a Jew; she was a Samaritan. He was the Son of God; she was a sinful woman. However, one of the most interesting barriers that Jesus disassembled that day was mankind's attachment to a particular place for our worship of God. He said to her, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem... A time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth..." (John 4:21-23). Prior to this, the Jewish people had been bound to the Temple in Jerusalem for their worship; the Samaritans had their own holy "place" as well.
For many of us, our worship of God seems anchored to our church buildings, and too often the same chains that anchor us to our buildings hold us captive in our pews. Consequently, "church" is where we go to do Christian stuff, where we go to pray, where we go to worship, and where we go to "get fed". "Going to church" has replaced "being the church" in our vernacular. Perhaps, like the Samaritans and Jewish people before us, we have attached the worship of God to a place and called that place sacred.
When Jesus gave us access to the Father and the curtain of the Temple was torn in two, the barrier between the Father and His people was permanently done away with. The Holy Spirit (God's Spirit) is a gift given to all those who follow Christ along with the promise that He is present when even the smallest numbers are gathered (Matthew 18:20). The Spirit of God is not limited to place. He is present at the coffee shop, at the diner, on the mountain, or in our homes.
Where His people gather, the activity of Christ is present.
On more than a few occasions, I have been told "you aren't a real church until you have a building of your own". Somewhere along the line, we have believed that our legitimacy comes from bricks and mortar, and it is hard for us to understand even the concept of church apart from walls and windows, sanctuaries and steeples. After all, how can people find us if there's no sign out front to tell them we're here?
If the church was just meant to be just a gathering place, they might have a point.
"Church" is not a gathering place; it is instead the Body of Christ -- living, active, walking in the world community! Those who follow Christ were not intended to be tied to a building but dispersed instead among all people as the Living Christ. We are not legitimized by buildings or numbers or offerings but by Who we belong to and the Christ we serve.
There is a temple at 1467 Cherry Street. It is the place we call home, and -- apparently -- so does the Spirit of God!
1 comment:
Very cool. I like it.
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