Once known as the the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Nativity, the imposing stone structure stands at the corner of 17th and Tioga Sts. in Philadelphia. Her majesty is still evident despite years of neglect and vandalism. There is a faded beauty to be seen under the layers of brokenness and grime. On Saturday, I was part of a team that started to clean out this old church in preparation for the birth of a new church in the building next year, to be named appropriately enough - Resurrection Life Church. Standing in the vaulted room of the sanctuary, I could almost hear faint echoes of past choir anthems raised in God's praise, of weddings, funerals, celebrations of Christmas and Easter, swirling around us. I closed my eyes and 'saw' people dressed in the formal Sunday clothes of the 1930's. I wondered when her roof was first left without repair, when the organ stopped working, when the last members of that congregation turned the keys in the huge wooden doors and abandoned her.
And... I prayed that the building might soon be home to yet another congregation whose voices would fill the neighborhood with glorious sounds of adoration of the Almighty God.
Congregations rise and wane with time. Programs that are started with great fanfare and enthusiasm eventually lose their purpose or context in the world and come to an end. Buildings crumble under the assault of wind and rain. That is why our focus must not be on the super-structures of the Church - those very programs and buildings - but on the heart of the Church - the people in whom God's Spirit resides. Lives that are touched by Him, that are changed by encounters with the Living God, are eternal!
To what are you giving your life? Are they the things that really matter and will they last beyond your earthly passage? To be sure, the temporal world demands our attention. Our bodies must be fed and clothed; our homes maintained, our cars kept in repair, and our lawns mowed. But to make such things the meaning and purpose of living will lead us to share the Preacher's sad refrain -- “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?" (Ecclesiastes 1:2-3, NIV)
Jesus teaches us to adopt an eternal perspective and thus to "Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being." (Matthew 6:20-21, The Message) What does He mean? Make sure that the real focus of your day to day activities has a greater purpose than buildings and programs! You're a spiritual being- first and foremost- so tend the spiritual house with your greatest energies! Love, forgiveness, sharing, caring - really are the choices that matter most. Perhaps you're not finding this TFTD very cheery today, focused as it is on the shortness of our lives here on earth. Maybe pondering your mortality isn't something you do very often. But, we should! Knowing that what we see is not 'forever' helps us to do those things that will last beyond our lifetime.
Here's a word from the Word to take with you today: "For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down—when we die and leave these bodies—we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.... So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. That is why we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord." (2 Corinthians 5:1, 6-8, NLT)
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While we walk the pilgrim pathway,
Clouds will overspread the sky;
But when traveling days are over,
Not a shadow, not a sigh.
Let us then be true and faithful,
Trusting, serving every day;
Just one glimpse of Him in glory
Will the toils of life repay.
Onward to the prize before us!
Soon His beauty we'll behold;
Soon the pearly gates will open,
We shall tread the streets of gold.
When we all get to heaven,
What a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus,
We'll sing and shout the victory.
© Public Domain CCLI License No. 810055
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