An Inkling
Last week Sarah and I spent the week in New York City to celebrate our 35th Anniversary. Go ahead and say it loudly: “she must be a saint!” Indeed, she is.
The sights of New York are many, and particularly so for me, since this was all new to me. I’ll not bore you with a travelogue, but I do have some reflections on the church houses we saw.
One of the most interesting was not a church house per se, but a Hunter College lecture hall, which serves as one of three sites for a very vital church, Redeemer Presbyterian. The hall seats well over a thousand, and it was nearly full for a 6:00 p.m. service on Sunday. Tim Keller, the Pastor, has a national following as a preacher and author, so many of those present were visitors, like we were. This “church house” didn’t look like a church house – just a band on a stage, and a music stand for the preacher’s notes. Yet the worship that evening was truly alive with the Lord’s presence – and it was filled mostly with young adults. Wow!
We also saw St. Paul’s Chapel, across the street from the World Trade Center. We didn’t see an actual worship service there, but were touched by the pictures of what happened there in the days after 9-11. It survived the attack, and soon became the go-to place for relief workers needing solace and prayer. Memorials, pictures, and banners recalled what God had done as people brought their sorrow and were met with his peace. Thousands of lives were changed by those spontaneous services in the fall of 2001.
We also visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The Catholics surely know how to build beautiful church houses! The sanctuary had about 200 people or so at mid-day, a mix of people touring and praying. I was most taken, however, by the sight that faced us as we headed out the door. Directly across the street was the Rockefeller Center statue of Atlas holding up the heavens. So from the doorway, one could look in one direction and see the titan of mythical strength, bearing the heavens, and look in the other direction toward the chancel and see the One who had made those heavens, on the cross, bearing the sins of the world. The muscle bound Atlas definitely suffered by contrast.
Of course God is not confined to any church house. But those places which house his worshiping people often point to facets of his goodness and glory in fresh ways – one of his many gifts.
Blessings,
Keith
