"Sacreding It Up"

I Chronicles 22-25

The reading today tells of all the people who were responsible for taking care of the church.  I have always felt like the church building is a sacred space.   When I was growing up, all my dad’s churches seemed to possess it.  They were old creaky buildings with dark smooth benches worn smooth from decades of poor country folk sliding faithfully in each week.  The tall clear windows painted shut with thick layers of history were always pried open in the summer to cool the Spirit that always seemed to blaze inside.  I don’t have that feeling about my current church and I wondered why.  It’s a new building, "squarish", with no windows.  It is an add-on to another add-on to another add-on.  No steeple and as soft and comfortable as designers can make it.  All the churches of my youth were well-worn gems passed from one generation to another.  Lots of “blood, sweat and tears” are in generational church spaces.  I guess the “newest add-on” that I attend just hasn’t had the time to gather the blood, sweat and tears that wears the soft off and polishes what’s left into a sacred sheen. 

My last thought: will we do our part of bleeding, sweating and weeping upon this space to “sacred it up”

Haleys Grove Baptist Church, Crab Orchard Tennessee.  My dad's church many years ago.
The most sacred space I know.  Painted by Chris Ousley.