Steeple Beacons - What is Church?

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. Matthew 16:18 

What is Church?  It has been a challenging three months since the days we closed the doors of the church building.  Mothering Sunday - 22nd March 2020 the Session Clerk and I closed the doors and each wondered what would happen next.  Her frontline role gave her a perspective that was more realistic than my optimistic outlook.  She knew we were closing for months not weeks, and I wonder now at how she felt as she walked away in that knowledge.  

I live in the grounds of my church and opening my bedroom curtains each day I see the steeple stretch high into the heavens.  Church buildings were designed to dominate the landscape so that they would give glory to God, taller and grander than the buildings that surround.  As we glimpse the steeples on our way to work or to the shops we would remember and worship God. They served not just as places where the faithful gather to worship as one family, but as beacons of light into our societies.  How easily we forget God.  How quickly we dismiss Him in our busyness, in the demands of day to day living, in the prevalent need to consume, to hoard, to control. The steeples served like lighthouses guiding us back to sharing, to generosity, to letting go and letting God.  The steeples punctuating the horizon like exclamation marks point us to a higher way of living, out of the gutters of greed and selfish ambition. Now we build Towers of Babel, each one vying for that title and status.  And I wonder what they point us towards - lives of attainment and achievement, always striving and never getting there.  For there will always be another who builds a taller tower and so we go on. 

Unlike these show pieces, upon many a church steeple sits a cross reminding us that the way they point to is blessed by love, borne of partnership between God and people.  For Jesus gave his life for all, willingly and graciously to show that hell itself cannot defeat the Church, which is the Bride of Christ.  He is the cornerstone of the Church, and Peter, a human being with failure and success, with passion and a gob, is the rock upon which the Church is built.  So guess what, the church isn’t going to be perfect. Thankfully! 

But we are beacons in our world, even as the world tries to dwarf us, even silence us.  We don’t need steeples if our lives point others to God.  John reminds us that the light came into the world and the darkness could not overcome it.  Whatever happens with the church buildings, when the doors open or don’t, you are the church, I am the church, we are the church together.  Be a beacon where God has put you and give him the glory. 

And take a moment to look for the steeples and give God the glory, no matter the denomination! Pray that the light of Jesus would shine into these dark days and guide our way.  

Love Sarah