Worship
Dan Kunz
What is the most beautiful place of worship you’ve ever seen? Just this week, my wife and I were able to see The Chapel of The Christ at Martin Luther College. It is a most beautiful building both in design and finish. The soaring buttresses and intricate altar are impressive. The person conducting our tour explained in intimate detail, the meaning and significance of almost every single aspect of the chapel. The huge supports, a prominent visual display of architecture, are intended to remind one of both the ancient tent-like nature of the Israelites’ place of worship, and the temporary nature of our existence here on planet Earth. The altar contains ten small pieces of African bloodwood to represent the Ten Commandments. Our guide explained that a close observer will see the grain on the first three pieces runs vertically and the grain on the last seven runs horizontally. This detail mimics the nature of the commandments. The first three show our relationship to God, while the last seven reflect our relationship to our fellow man. Amazing!
The world has no shortage of beautiful places to worship. Cathedral of Brasilia, Duomo di Milano, Notre-Dame, St. Peter’s Basilica, and the Cathedral of Florence, are just a few. My wife and I have been blessed to have visited some beautiful churches over the years, and some of the most surprising are found in relatively small villages in Mexico. It’s somewhat painful to think of how many generations of poor villagers and farmers gave all they had to build such awe-inspiring edifices. The maintenance alone of such places must be overwhelming! It’s also sad to think of these beautiful buildings being destroyed. World wars care little for cathedrals and art museums. Even recently, fire destroyed a large part of Notre-Dame. Because of not only its spiritual importance, but the significance of the national pride it fuels, to their credit, the French government have vowed to rebuild Notre-Dame and make it even better!
Over the course of human history, the trillions of dollars spent, the physical labor, and the incredible sacrifice of time and talents, do you know what is God’s favorite place of worship? Your heart! The true devotion of a single human heart beats all the marble, all the gold, all the ornate wood, and all the soaring spires the world has to offer. It’s good to show God and the world how important it is for us to glorify him and magnify his blessings to us, through the buildings and facilities we create for the work of the church, not for the purpose of earning heavenly “brownie points”, but to truly say, “I can’t thank you enough for sending your Son to save me from eternal damnation.”
The dedication of a pure heart, the sacrifice of a selfless act, and unashamed adoration of a Christian’s being, are what really catch our Heavenly Father’s eye. Psalm 51:17 The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. He loves it when we love him. He loves it when we say, “Not me, but thee,” and when we hold our giant foam index finger in the air and proclaim, “You’re Number One! You’re Number One!” Martin Luther, himself, said it best in his hymn, “Ah, Dearest Jesus, Holy Child” = “Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child, make Thee a bed, soft, undefined within my heart, that it may be a quiet chamber kept for Thee. In many cases, it took centuries to complete some of the great cathedrals of the world. In our case, may we never stop building, cleaning, and polishing the most important place of worship, to us personally, our own heart!