Whose house is this

Whose house is this?

by David Philippart

Whose house is the church building, God’s or ours? The answer is yes! Both!

Our church is God’s house because it is the house of the body of Christ, the church. We cannot contain God. We cannot imprison God in some structure made of human hands. But when we who are made holy by baptism, confirmation and Eucharist gather together, then God chooses to live here in this place, among us. When we who are God’s church gather together, with our bishop (or his delegate, the priest) and the deacon, around our book (on its stand), at our font (and its water), and especially around the Lord’s altar (which is a dining table set in the shadow of the cross), God chooses to dwell here, too.

The God who wove the night time sky and buttoned it with stars, the God for whom the Rocky Mountains are naught but a bit of mud squished between divine toes, and for whom the oceans are but puddles—this God does not need a temple. But the people whom this God loves from before time began do need a place to gather, and to remember in sacred rites that the church is made of flesh and blood before it is made of brick and board. Our church building is that place! So it should be simply beautiful, and we should care lovingly for it. It isn’t any old meeting hall. It isn’t any old living room. It isn’t a museum or a classroom, either. It is a holy place, a holy land right here in our neighborhood where the body of Christ is joined, where the voice of Christ rings out, where the sacrifice of Christ if offered and shared.

It is good to show reverence in and to the church building. But reverence is not ignoring one’s neighbor as a distraction. Reverence is the wonder that we experience and the love that we show when we realize that each one of those here gathered around the Lord’s altar is a living stone that builds a spiritual house, and it is here that God truly lives among us.