Church Building

The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

1 Corinthians 3:9-11,16-17
We are fellow workers with God; you are God’s farm, God’s building. By the grace God gave me, I succeeded as an architect and laid the foundations, on which someone else is doing the building. Everyone doing the building must work carefully. For the foundation, nobody can lay any other than the one which has already been laid, that is Jesus Christ. Didn’t you realise that you were God’s temple and that the Spirit of God was living among you? If anybody should destroy the temple of God, God will destroy him, because the temple of God is sacred; and you are that temple.

Today we celebrate the church of St John Lateran in Rome. When we were a fledging church we met in houses and small groups but once the Roman Empire took us under it's wing, we needed a temple - a real church and St John's is it. It is the Mother church of the Church.
Not often we celebrate a building, although that's actually nonsense - very often we think more about the building than the people in it; which Paul reminds us today not to do - the Temple of God is actually each and every one of us and we should celebrate that every day.


Church

For Your Glory, stone is unhomed,
And sent, gravity defiant, towards Heaven.
Oak and elm are torn from earth’s grasp,
Then set to guard sacred space.
Earth’s treasure is drawn, twisted and bent:
Compelled to meet our will.

For Your Glory, saints are called here
Held within, named and known.

Arrogant children,
We think ourselves creators,
Innovators in texture, form and colour.
We imagine we encompass You
within our ambitions,
Within these walls.
Yet remain ignorant of Your Presence,
Of Your design in our daily lives.
How do we not see that
You have built Your church;
We are living it,
We are its stones.

wordinthehand2008

Comments

Bea said…
I appreciate your insight on the topics you bring up in your blog. All faith related, all Christ related... I had not heard of this celebration of the Church of St John before... interesting... a building... I love the metaphor of being the stones of the church!! loved it!
9 November 2008 at 18:23
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