The music is modern, meaning loud, amplified electronically, the words are on a screen generated by a computer, as is the music, the dress is casual – sneakers, jeans – no hats or high heels here – all this perhaps incongruous with the high, vaulted ceiling, the rows of wooden pews, and the tall stained-glass windows on both sides of this sacred space we call a sanctuary. Time has brought about many changes, but this old church building still stands despite more than a century of changes and challenges all around her.
Today, we tend to worship in auditoriums or auditorium like buildings, perhaps making us feel more like spectators than participants in worship. However, this old church’s sanctuary lives up to its name. Typically, a sanctuary is a place set apart as sacred or holy. It is a place where we come together to worship God. A sanctuary is a safe place, a place of refuge and rest, a place of protection and peace. A sanctuary is the place we go to meet with God.
Such is the sanctuary in this church built in the 1890’s. The neighborhood surrounding the church has changed often, but the church still stands, a constant in this ever evolving culture. As I sit in the pew, I find myself wondering about the people who occupied these pews a century ago. Who were they? What were their lives like? Do they know their legacy of faith continues to this very day?
I found some clues in the writing on some of the stained-glass panels. There are names and dates such as – “World War Heroes 1917-1919, Company 128th Infantry A.E.F.” (interesting that it doesn’t say “World War 1”, but at that time people did not foresee that there would too soon be another world war). Another pane contains “Mr. Campbell W. Parker and Mrs. Mary M. Parker and daughter Nettie”, while another reads, “Rev. and Mrs. John Bushong/ Rev. and Mrs. David O. Darling” and another with the names “Rev. and Mrs. Charles T. Price”.
These people and so many others have passed on years ago, but they left us a legacy that lives on in this sanctuary, a sanctuary which today is a place of hope, of protection, of safety, peace and worship. This century old sanctuary is truly a place set apart in this world full of despair, violence, worry and chaos.
However, I think the world today is not so different as I imagine it to be from the world the people who worshiped in this sanctuary before us inhabited a century or half a century ago. At least in regard to those things that truly matter, I don’t think all that much has changed. As King Solomon correctly observed –
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look! This is something new’? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9-10)
So true! The human drama that is this life really hasn’t changed, even though clothing styles, music, food, pastimes, modes of travel, ways of earning a living, and so on have changed over time. However, we still face the same struggles that those before us faced, such as having to deal with crime and violence. The first murder happened quite early in human history, in the first family actually. It took place between brothers. Cain murdered his brother Abel out of jealousy, because Abel found favor with God, while Cain did not.
“Nothing new under the sun.” We human beings continue to deal with jealousy, greed, selfishness, pride, comparison, hatred – all of which lead us down a path that too often ends in violence, crime, harm and hurt, and sometimes murder. We deal with the hurt of broken relationships, whether that be within marriages, families or friendships – the pain is real. Ever since sin severed our relationship with our Heavenly Father, our other relationships have been subject to fracture as well.
Our human quest for identity, meaning, purpose and value in this life hasn’t changed with the centuries. We still want to know that we matter. We still search for a place to belong. We still desire connection and acceptance. We find these things in the sanctuary of God’s house when we come together to meet with Him there. This has not changed over time.
Perhaps it is only the outward form of things that has changed. A century ago, among those who entered the sanctuary there might have been blacksmiths, pony express riders, newspaper reporters, – instead of today’s car mechanics, mail truck drivers, podcasters. Jobs may have changed, but our need to be productive through meaningful work remains unchanged. Likewise, our need to connect with and to know our Creator God remains constant throughout our human history. King Solomon described it in this way –
“He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
Created in God’s image, we were made to know and to worship Him. To this end King Solomon built a temple for God to inhabit and we are told – “the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God.” (2 Chronicles 5:14)
For centuries men have been building churches, cathedrals, sanctuaries – places where God’s people could gather together to worship Him. As I sit in this particular sanctuary Sunday after Sunday, I am grateful for the people who built this sacred space over one hundred years ago and for those whose faithfulness has preserved this old sanctuary even as all around it, buildings have deteriorated with the passage of time.
Those whose names are mentioned on the stained glass and countless others whose names I do not know, have left us the legacy of this sacred space, a beautiful space, still standing in the middle of a profane world, a world that desperately needs to meet with God. I am thankful for the legacy their faithfulness has left to us today – this space in which to worship God.
Someday, when we are worshiping God together in that sanctuary not built by human hands, I will get a chance to meet all those who have worshiped in this sacred sanctuary over the past century. I will get the chance to thank them for their faithfulness in preserving this sacred space and passing it down through the generations. I will thank them for leaving us this legacy.
sincerely, Grace Day
m to the 5th 