On this Lord’s Day, as worshipers around the world gather to sing praises to our God and to offer our petitions, we can’t help thinking about the Church universal in Los Angeles. Today, her people have no place to gather, for they are scattered into shelters, hotels, with family, or who knows where. Their churches are mere shells of what used to be, yet they are learning a lesson I learned at age eighteen when my beloved First Reformed Church of Hudson, New York was destroyed by fire. As we stood there, tears running down our faces, my father held me close to his smoky wool coat and taught me a lesson I hope people are repeating today as they grieve. “The church is not a building; the church is its people who can worship God anywhere they are.”
It is especially troubling that authorities will not let the people gather at the sight of the rubble. They’re afraid of looters and the others who would take advantage of the situation. They are also warning about toxic chemicals from the plastics and other materials which have burned and left lethal debris behind. it is a clash of rights and wrongs. At any rate, the people cannot gather in one place, and that adds to the tragedy. They cannot jointly remind each other of events that took place in those hallowed places. They cannot hug and console each other to remind that places can and will be rebuilt, hopefully. If, and probably it will be, its members may scatter to other states, to other neighborhoods, and they, as corporate, loving bodies of believers, may never worship together again. And that is a cause of grief.
We, as the church universal, need to gather in prayer for our brothers and sisters. We will meet each other at Jesus’ feet someday, but for today we can meet in prayer for the churches, for their mission, and in their sadness, meet them at the throne of our Savior. We can pray for the “things” of this world they’re facing. Financially, they will struggle for sure. They are traumatized. They have been divorced from their neighborhoods, scattered, and are deprived of the things that bring their heritage and memories to the forefront. They have lost children’s photographs, their Christmas presents so lovingly purchased and made so recently. They have lost the ability to care for themselves and others. Some have lost loved ones and pets and neighborhoods and schools and businesses. We can only imagine the bowed shoulders and heads and the tears which the Bible says are held in bottles. God grieves when we do.
I would hope the Church Universal will step in and help people rebuild their lives. We at Covenant Palm Bay know the feeling of being displaced. Our building program took three years. We now worship in a sanctuary and building which took a great deal of planning and will not be fully funded for years. We know the costs of today and what it will take Californians to rebuild. In addition to people having to shelter their individual families, there will be few resources to rebuild schools, businesses, and church facilities. Yet, the human spirit is strong and can accomplish much through hard work and discipline. I would hope that those who belong to Jesus can help the process along. They may not have large cathedrals like the notable Notre Dame in Paris, but if they can gather together and sing hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs together, and read scripture together, and embrace each other at the foot of the cross, they will know the true meaning of the church.
Where Christians gather this morning in house churches, in shelters, in the middle of forests, in borrowed buildings, in secret places where persecution threatens, in nursing homes, in prisons, or livestreamed from elsewhere, may they know that God is in their midst, that He is mighty, and that His will is that people worship wherever they are, and call on His precious Name for what joy really matters in this mortal life.
I pray for His provision on this Lord’s Day, that He will meet the needs of His people, and that we will gather wherever we worship in gratefulness for what He is about to do for His people. May it be so. Amen.
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