Psalm 84
Psalm 84:1
How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!
David was probably marveling at the magnificence of the Temple, the opulence of the gold and fine cloth and incense and towering walls.
There are beautiful churches throughout the world - great architectural wonders of stone, brick, steel, glass and marble. Flying buttresses, vaulted ceilings. Biblical stories expressed in huge panels and minute shards of glass. Portraits of Our Lord and St. Mary the Virgin in handmade mosaic tile, textiles, carved in local and exotic woods.
It is all breath taking. We find comfort in church. In a place. In a building.
It was a bit unnerving recently to have gone to my diocesan cathedral, St. John the Divine, only to see a fraction of the magnificence due to cleaning and renovation after fire damage several years ago. Blue painted plywood 10 feet wide and 10 feet high surrounds you as you journey down a make shift hallway with the famous brass inlay shields in the floor - the only tangible evidence of something more grand. Only after you round a bend to you enter a piece of the nave and see the great choir and high altar. No view to the west is available, no rose window, no expansive vaulted ceiling.
This deprivation of what had become familiar to me drove something home. It remains our challenge as modern Christians to have church and to be church. To have a place geographically set aside and at the same time to know that each of us is church, is a vital part of the body of Christ that is and goes and does. It remains our challenge to experience the loveliness of Christ's dwelling within us, in the world - even in our perceived enemies.
How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!
How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!
David was probably marveling at the magnificence of the Temple, the opulence of the gold and fine cloth and incense and towering walls.
There are beautiful churches throughout the world - great architectural wonders of stone, brick, steel, glass and marble. Flying buttresses, vaulted ceilings. Biblical stories expressed in huge panels and minute shards of glass. Portraits of Our Lord and St. Mary the Virgin in handmade mosaic tile, textiles, carved in local and exotic woods.
It is all breath taking. We find comfort in church. In a place. In a building.
It was a bit unnerving recently to have gone to my diocesan cathedral, St. John the Divine, only to see a fraction of the magnificence due to cleaning and renovation after fire damage several years ago. Blue painted plywood 10 feet wide and 10 feet high surrounds you as you journey down a make shift hallway with the famous brass inlay shields in the floor - the only tangible evidence of something more grand. Only after you round a bend to you enter a piece of the nave and see the great choir and high altar. No view to the west is available, no rose window, no expansive vaulted ceiling.
This deprivation of what had become familiar to me drove something home. It remains our challenge as modern Christians to have church and to be church. To have a place geographically set aside and at the same time to know that each of us is church, is a vital part of the body of Christ that is and goes and does. It remains our challenge to experience the loveliness of Christ's dwelling within us, in the world - even in our perceived enemies.
How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!
posted by Joanna Depue | 10:39 PM
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