Monuments To Old Men

 

"The true church does not need fine temples or halls, ritual performing priests, Sunday school quarterlies, robed choirs, tax-exempt status, seminaries or denominational hierarchies."

J. Preston Eby 

I have an old church friend who recently traveled with his wife of many years to Europe to visit a few of the old cities of the "other" continent.  Every now and then he would send pictures of one ornate cathedral or another which they visited in their travels.  These man made temples are indeed fabulous examples of architecture and construction from their time.  They are also totally unnecessary in the realm of the true believer.  Having spent most of my life in the church, I get how someone might see the church as the be all end all of the Christian world.  All too often, the focus seems to be on the biggest and most flashy building to draw in a new generation of believers.  All too often, the focus seems to be directed on the next best church program designed to bring one closer to the Lord.  Again, all of this is unnecessary.  Now, I fully realize that I may receive some pushback from those in the church who feel justified in defending their faith.  I get it.  I once counted myself among the zealous defenders of the faith.  It was my duty, so I thought, to set anyone straight who dared question the Christianity I believed in.  Well, the most it ever got me was into my share of arguments.  Is this the way in which Jesus ministered?  By shouting down those who defied the faith of the religious authorities?  No, for Jesus Himself defied the religious authorities of His day.  Jesus knew that the true heart of the believer rests not in ornate monuments to old men, but in Him.  Jesus taught that He was the One true path unto the Father {John 14:6}.  The way to the Father is not paved in the stone arches of man made temples, but through Christ Jesus.  Jesus is the way to God.  All of the rituals and church ceremonies I ever was involved in never brought me closer to Jesus or the Father.  What they did do is give me a sense of guilt that I wasn't doing enough to please God.  Sound familiar?  How many Sunday sermons have you endured where the pastors message was how you could be "like" Jesus?  Have you ever yearned for a closer, more intimate relationship with Him?  The apostle Paul tells us that this is indeed possible.  Paul tells us in Galatians that it is Christ Jesus who lives in us {Romans 6:8, Galatians 2:20}.  I consider this to be the truth of Jesus today.  Yet you will rarely find this truth spoken to in the ornate churches we hold so dear.  Could these indeed be the white washed tombs which Jesus spoke of {Matthew 23:27}?

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 I am announcing to you.  The God who makes the world and all that is in it, He, the Lord inherent of heaven and earth, is not dwelling in temples made by hands, neither is He attended by human hands, as if requiring anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all. 

Acts 17: 23-25, Concordant New Testament 

Ask yourself this question, what is it that you can provide God?  Your attention?  Your faith and belief?  Your undying love?  What ornate building ever brought you into a deep relationship with the Father?  What temple brought Paul, the spokesman for knowing Christ in us, to his own realization?  Well, let's contemplate what Paul recalls of his own conversion.  It is Paul who describes his own realization of the indwelling Christ as "When it delights God" {Galatians 1:15}.  This is the same way in which I realized the indwelling Christ Jesus in myself.  It was not brought about by a church program or ritual.  It was not brought about by my striving to "Be more like Jesus."  No, it was the Fathers intimate timing which brought me to a knowing of His Son in me.  My knowing of Jesus in me had nothing to do with fancy man-made churches or programs.  My own knowing was brought about by others in the one true church of the Lord Jesus.  That is, those who believe and have come to know Him.  As Christians, we all too often get the word "Church" misconstrued.  To many, church refers to the fancy building, the rituals and programs, the loud music and hierarchies of authority all wrapped up into one God approved bundle.  To me, church is the ecclesia, the body of believers in which Christ Jesus is the head {1 Corinthians 12:27, Ephesians 1:22-23}.  Of course, there will always be those within the monuments of old men who vie for attention with Jesus.  

And subjects all under His feet, and gives Him, as head over all, to the ecclesia which is His body, the compliment of the One completing the all in all.

Ephesians 1: 22-23, Concordant New Testament 

~Scott~