As the improvement project for
the exterior of First Lutheran
Church
“Properly
speaking, the church is the assembly of saints and true believers”…..“in which
the Gospel is taught purely and the sacraments administered rightly” according
to Articles VII and VIII of the Augsburg Confession. This assembling of the saints can take place
anywhere, and in the early years of the church it took place in any place that
was available and accommodating. People
remembered the conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well in Samaria
about the right place to worship. Jesus
said, “the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this
mountain nor in Jerusalem ….when the
true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the
Father seeks to worship him.” (John 4:23)
The first Christians knew that the spirit of the people (and the Holy
Spirit!) were more important than the location for worship.
But it was not
very long before Christians began to erect buildings dedicated to the purpose
of sheltering the saints and true believers who gathered around the gospel and
the sacraments. And it was not much
longer before these became sacred places.
People also remembered that when Jesus drove out the moneychangers from
the temple in Jerusalem (the
holiest place of worship of his day) saying, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a market place!”
his disciples applied an Old Testament verse to him “Zeal for your house will
consume me.” (John 2:17) Jesus cared
passionately about the temple as a place which fulfilled Solomon’s desire that
it be a house of prayer for all people. (1st Kings 8)
Here in Karlstad
and Halma those who came before us built houses for prayer and worship which
would be open to all people but whose form of worship and teaching would be
solidly in the Lutheran tradition. Those
early arrivals to our community sacrificed much to build these churches, and it
behooves us in our generation to take good care of them, not as a memorial to
our ancestors but as a place of prayer and worship for us and our descendants. But let us always remember that the church,
properly speaking, is “the assembly of saints and true believers” wherever they
may assemble to worship “in spirit and in truth.”
Nevertheless, as
the years rolled on, these humble houses of worship become very dear to those
who regularly heard the gospel and received the sacraments in them. It is part of human nature to hold some
places as sacred because of what takes place there. Those whose hearts have been warmed by the
gospel or whose consciences have been prodded by the law come to be quite fond
of the places where these things happen.
Beyond regular
worship are the occasional special events that are held in these places. It is true that every culture has some
ceremonial way of welcoming new life into the community, but Christians bring
their children to the font in the church for the Sacrament of Holy Baptism and
later for the Rite of Affirmation of Baptism (confirmation). It is true that people choose special places
to recite vows of life-long fidelity to one another, but Christians come to the
church for a blessing on their marriage by the minister, to be upheld by the
prayers of the people, and to hear God’s word on the subject. It is true that there are funeral ceremonies
in every land, but Christians come to the church to commend the deceased to the
mercy and love of God, to be surrounded by the prayers of the faithful, and to
hear the promise of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. These events, and so many more, make the
church building a sacred place.
Just as 150
years ago next month President Abraham Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address
that “we cannot hallow this ground” (the Gettysburg Battlefield Cemetery) but
the men who fought there did so with their blood, so we today cannot declare a
church building to be a sacred place, but it becomes sacred when the Word is
preached and the Sacraments are administered there.
People have shed
tears of joy in the church, as well as tears of sorrow and tears of
repentance. Vows have been spoken. Sermons have been preached and sacraments
administered. Hearts have been warmed by
that preaching, by the songs of the choir, and by the prayers of the people, to
say nothing of “the mutual conversation and consolation of the saints” (in
Martin Luther’s memorable phrase).
Thus many of us
have said, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the
Lord.’” (Psalm 122:1)