At The Altar

 For, passing through and contemplating the objects of your veneration, I found a pedestal also, on which had been inscribed, 'To an unknowable God.'  To Whom then, you are ignorantly devout, this One am I announcing to you. 

Acts 17: 23, Concordant New Testament 

After my mother passed, I contemplated purchasing a plot where she could rest and be remembered.  Fortunately a good friend talked me out of that plan.  For my mother is not only remembered, but her death meant only passing into a new life.  I cannot pin this just on Christians, for it seems that everyone seeks to remember those who have passed before us with some sort of memorial.  I get it.  In my church days I often wondered why it was that they had an altar dedicated to the Lord.  Sure, part of the reason we gather is to remember and worship Jesus.  However, if we have a memorial to Jesus aren't we inferring that Jesus is dead?  I mean, that's why we create memorials right?  Throughout the old testament and into the new as well scripture reminds us of the importance of the altar to the Lord.  Jesus calls on us to leave our offering at the altar and go and make peace with our adversary {Matthew 5:24}.  I would say that the existence of altars in Christianity has a lot to do with the traditions we continue to hold dear.  The apostle Paul, in his travels to Athens, noticed that even the resident Greeks had an altar to the "unknowable God."  Of course, the Greeks were also well known for altars and mythology.  So, do we require an altar in order to worship the Lord?  Is God somehow absent from us if there is no suitable altar of stone dedicated to Him?  Again, I feel that Paul would disagree with that line of thinking.  It was Paul who spoke of the indwelling Christ in all of us {Galatians 2:20}.  What altar do we have that Jesus would come dwell in the Lords children?  I have spoken on a few occasions of the freedom I have found in Christ Jesus.  Part of that freedom is being free of the traditions of the mainstream church.  I do not require a tithe nor worshipping at a man made altar in order to know Jesus as I do.  It is Christ Jesus who lives in me, and I don't need a altar or memorial to convince me of that.  

She said 'Lord my boy was special

And he meant so much to me

And oh I'd love to see him

Just one more time you see

All I have are the memories

And the moments to recall

So Lord could You tell him

He's more than a name on the wall

The Statler Brothers, More Than A Name On The Wall

The first time I noticed it was during a memorial day telecast of a ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans memorial in Washington, D.C....the wall.  As a nation watched, a disabled veteran walked up to the wall and traced the names of his fallen comrades onto a piece of paper.  Since then, I've noticed many veterans and families doing that very same thing.  It's as if seeing the names of loved ones lost keeps their memory alive.  I get it.  Yet if they realized one simple truth, it might make their experience a bit less heartbreaking.  As with my mother, these fallen warriors have not passed away, but passed on.  Passed on to a new reality in the presence of the Lord.  Paul speaks to this in Hebrews as he describes the 'Vast cloud of witnesses' that have passed before us.  Death is not the end, but a new beginning.  The grave could never contain the Lord Jesus, and His death assures us that our passing from this life is not the end for us {Romans 6:9}.  Yet what are memorials but monuments to those who have passed away.  Walk into any Christian church and you will see one of the oldest monuments in human history.  The cross is a memorial meant to remind us of the death of Christ Jesus.  The trouble with that is...Jesus isn't dead.  Would a church devoid of any crosses somehow be without the spirit of Christ?  No!  So, we're left with another yet church tradition.  Now, does seeing the cross help believers get closer to Jesus?  Perhaps.  In these cases I do not see the cross as a negative thing.  The church I used to attend was adorned with a giant cross by the side of the freeway.  Many were the stories of people who, seeing this cross by the side of the road, entered that church and came to know the Lord.  I would not see that cross as a memorial, but a reminder.  

Surely, in consequence, then, we also, having so vast a cloud of witnesses encompassing us, putting off every impediment and the popular sin, may be racing with endurance the contest lying before us. 

Hebrews 12: 1, Concordant New Testament 

~Scott~