Where to find a holy place

7/31/2019 Where to find a holy place

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in cheek:

I think that I shall never seeA Church that’s all it ought to be;A Church that has no empty pews,Whose Minister never has the blues;A Church whose elders always seekAnd none is proud but all are meek;Where gossips never peddle liesOr make complaints or criticise;Where all are always sweet and kindAnd all to other’s faults are blind.Such perfect churches there may be,

But none of them are known to me.But still we’ll work, and pray and plan

To make our Church the best we can!

The key line in that little ditty is obviously the last. For Psalm84 makes quite clear that the beautiful holy place of God doesnot come fully upon us unless we really want it - really yearnfor it - really thirst for it with every fibre of our being. Put di-

rectly, if we want anything to come of our encounters withholy places then we must obey simple rules. We must be opento the place with absolutely no preconditions. After all if weare willing to be door commissionaires rather high heed yinslike the psalmist suggest- then we need some humility aboutbeing being invited in in the first place. Once through thethreshold it would be outright rude to start trying to shape theexperience for ourselves. Instead, we need to submit utterly to

the greater power we are sensing. Finally, when honoured withthe divine’s call then we must give in to where we are beingled. Since that is the way to the secret garden of the Lord’scourts. That is they way to our pilgrimages end. That is theway to the author of a visions and the giver of all meaning - Je-sus Christ.



If you don’t believe me listen at least to the disciples:

This is what we read in John 6.66

From this time many of the disciples turned back and nolonger followed him.

You do not want to leave me too, do you - asked Jesus.

Simon Peter answered - Lord, to whom shall we go? You havethe words of eternal life.

There is a hoary old joke that have been doing the ecclesiasti-cal rounds for years. You may have heard it already - it’s allabout bats.

Three of the local Minsters met for lunchone day and, as it does, the subject of church buildings came up. The local priestsaid that the chapel was having a problem

with bats in the belfry, and they had triedringing the bells to scare them away butthat didn’t seem to work.

The Baptist Minister said that his churchwas also having trouble with bats nestingin their roof space. They tried to call in aspecialist in the hope that they could havethem removed safely, but were told that

bats were now a protected species andthey had to stay where they were untilthey decided to nest somewhere else.

The Church of Scotland Minister said healso had bats in his spire, but they had alldisappeared.“How did you manage to get rid of them?”



the others asked.“Easy” he said, “I baptised all mine andmade them members of the church...haven’t seen one back since!”

Well that whimsy it told to illustrate the falling away of somany from the church. But they key point - is why do thosewho start out with good even great expectation of their contri-bution to God’s holy place drop away. Probably there are manyreasons. But one of them may be they never found the way tothe holy place in the first place. By that I mean they neverfound deeper sense, they never discovered meaning and they

were never inspired into the better church eternal.

If that was the case, then that is indeed sad. In fact, we mightget round to thinking about that in the weeks ahead. And wecan start at no better a place than in our own holy place. Sincein encountering Christ here - we do so not just for ourselvesbut for others. In being gifted meaning to ourselves then itmust always be in the context of helping others to discover

theirs. And in being lead toward a better place and time, weare encouraged not to travel alone. But instead to invite othersinto the cathedral of the everywhere there to stay for a verylong time indeed!

Why not therefore - just go and call a friend.

Amen

HYMN.....

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Where to find a holy place