6/14/64

Scripture: Read Psalm 27

Text: Psalm 90: 17; "Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; And establish thou the work of our hands upon us; Yea, the work of our hands establish thou it."

Have you given thought to the question: What makes a church beautiful? If you have, you probably thought of a building you have seen, or a picture that you noticed. Perhaps you thought of stained glass windows, or an altar, or a communion table. Possibly you remembered a spire or a tower or a fine bit of carving. Some of you have visited in Europe and have seen certain of the magnificent Gothic arches of the medieval cathedrals. Probably you have joined hosts of others in wonder at the vastness; the magnificent and intricate designing, the height and depth of their construction. You have listened to a guide call attention to notable features, or you have read a bit of the history of one of these buildings. And you know that each stone; all arches; every carved figure, has some symbolic meaning. Perhaps the guide has told you that generations of the same family have worked on the building of the same cathedral. The craft and workmanship has been handed down from father to son in successive generations. And you realize that the building you are seeing took many hundreds of years to complete. And you may have thought that the beauty of the church is contained in its construction.

Possibly the Psalmist was making some such observation when he wrote: "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple." That phrase, "the beauty of the Lord," seems to imply all that has contributed to the impressiveness of the temple --- its appointments for worship which give one a sense of the Lord’s presence.

You and I live in a time when new churches are being built at a tremendous rate. When populations shift and new houses go up at a great rate, churches are needed where those homes are established. And their erection is a far cry from the way new churches were built in the Middle Ages. Once it took a thousand years to complete a cathedral. Now it takes only a few months to build a church. Sometimes the labor of a man’s hands, the dedication of his life, the fortune and destiny of his family, and his theology in which be believed have all gone into the erection of a church cathedral. Now it may be that much of these elements go into the building of a church, or it may be that putting a certain number of dollars into a building fund is the part we have in the erection of the beautiful church. But should we go farther than the physical properties and appearance of a building to answer our question as to what makes a church beautiful?

For the church is truly people. The people need a good house in which to meet -- a temple wherein they may worship. But the church is really people. The walls, no matter how beautifully carved, that do not serve as the meeting center for people, are without much meaning. The church’s heartbeat is concern for people. The voices of children praising God; the prayers of people from pulpit and pew; the music of choirs; the devotion of people in the pews as the congregation fills the sanctuary -- these are the church. And the beauty of the church lies in the people of God.

When Paul wrote to "the church that is in Philippi" or "the church that is in Corinth" or "the church that is in Rome," he was not sending a letter to a certain corner of the street where some building had been erected. He was sending a message to people, gathered in somebody’s house, and meeting together for observance of the Lord’s Day or taking the Lord’s Supper together. These people were what Paul called "the body of Christ" in the world. They were all that Jesus Christ had to do his work in the world! They had to be salt of the earth; light of the world. If there were beauty in the church, it was in their lives. How, then, was this beauty characterized?

1) First of all, the beauty of the people of God is revealed in their devotion to Him. This fact had long been recognized among the Hebrew people. The writer of the Psalms acknowledged that God is the dwelling place of his people. He begins what we call the 90th Psalm with the words: "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations." His acknowledgment of God as Father, Creator and Sustainer of life is complete.

If the Psalmist were living and writing today, he would probably be the most avid kind of student of the scientific wisdom that our age has uncovered. He would see back of it the wonder of God’s creation, more splendid than he had ever thought of it before. He would probably still begin his prayers with the same kind of praise that he customarily used.

The ungodly are not so. Instead of centering their thinking upon God, where it belongs, they tend to center it upon themselves as the master of all they plan and do.

The beauty of the people of God is seen in their continual struggle to discover what God’s will is for them, and to do it. And this effort is a struggle. Be a little cautious - even wary - of those who are quickly and easily positive as to what the will of God is. The prophet, Jeremiah, spent his life trying to discover that will. (He spent a good deal of his life trying to avoid it.) The Bible is full of the stories of people who struggled to know what is the will of God for them.

The Christian places himself at God’s disposal, and tries to fit himself into the framework of God’s plan. He does not always know what it is, but he keeps trying, like the mountain climber who keeps trying even though clouds may hide the summit where he hopes to arrive.

Take the best person you know. What is it about that man or woman that makes a great Christian? It is the spiritual beauty that emanates from his or her life that makes the difference. You can not always put your finger on it, for it is not always definable. A combination of faithfulness, loyalty, trust, and obedience to the divine will may produce the effect of spiritual beauty.

A group of children were asked to describe the most beautiful thing they had ever seen. One boy described the view from a hilltop. A girl spoke of the autumn colors on New England trees. Another described the moon rising over the ocean’s vastness as the most beautiful thing. One young lad had seen a picture of Holman’s portrayal of Christ in Gethsemane. And he said, "The most beautiful thing I’ve seen is a picture of Jesus praying in the garden that he would do God’s will." The real beauty of living is in commitment.

2) There is another quality of beauty in the people of Christ’s church. And that is compassion. The Psalmist has said, "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." We see that beauty best in the life of Jesus. Not only was he completely committed to God’s will; he lived the qualities that God revealed to him. Put aside for a moment the other attributes of God --- justice, righteousness, holiness --- and concentrate on Jesus’ thought of God. To him, God is like the father of the prodigal son. The law of kindness is on his tongue. One of Jesus’ biographers wrote of him that: "He looked on the crowds with compassion." [Mark 8: 2]. The "body of Christ" that is the church can not do less today. If we have in us "the mind which was in Christ Jesus" we will try to think as he thought. It may seem well-nigh impossible, but it must be our continuing effort.

Jesus would speak to people with healing for their troubled spirits. He touched them with healing for their bodies. He helped them to a frame of mind that enabled them to be at ease with others. He loved people. This was the most characteristic thing about him. And the gospel points to him, saying: "Be like him!" This is quite a big demand upon us who are called "Christian" -- when we deal with people of other nations, races and cultures; people without our standards of living, without our beliefs, without our sympathies --- to think about them the way Jesus would. The Apostle said: "Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus" --- committed to God, sharing his compassion. [Philippians 2: 5].

Some years ago a group of young boys had spent a week at a summer church camp. They had a lot of fun; they did a lot of thinking. On the closing evening, they had a campfire. Most of them looked around for enough twigs, or other wood, to make a little fagot of firewood. As a symbol of their own commitment to Jesus Christ, each one, when he was ready, put his own faggot on the fire. One of the boys, a lad of perhaps 12 years of age, had a "face that only a mother could love" because he had been painfully disfigured. But, as he put his faggot on the fire, he began to sing a song they had learned at camp: "Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me." And as far as the campers were concerned, his face was perfectly beautiful because of what he was becoming.

The people of God must struggle to know His will. They know that the beauty of God is in their compassion. And one more thing can be observed: They do something about it. The Psalmist says, "The work of our hands, establish thou it."

And so, today, we remind ourselves that the beautiful church is not only a building --- splendid as we hope to make ours in this coming year --- but it is in the lives of all of us who are members of the church -- a part of Christ’s body. And we have a lot of building to do here, as well!

Let us pray. "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. And establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it." Amen,

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, June 14, 1964 [Church School Day].