Losing our "Chapels"

I had heard the news, and thought I had taken it in, but when I reached the top of the hill and saw the charred remains of my seminary’s chapel it was as if the chapel was burning anew.  The chapel, and the fact that the community met each morning for worship, was why I chose this seminary. It provided the spiritual rhythm I craved, the liturgical education I needed, and I have held onto the words from Mark’s Gospel above the altar window, “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel,” every day of my ministry. Standing there, looking at the ruins, I felt spiritually homeless.

It made me think of the Israelites who found themselves in exile. For them, it was more than being in a foreign land. It was being away from the temple, their spiritual home. They felt lost without the place, and I am sure, like me, could remember the smell of the place, the way the light shone through the windows, and how the songs echoed in the rafters. Without it, they felt cut off from God. Fortunately, the loss helped them find an important spiritual truth: God isn’t in any building, more than he is among the trees, on the streets, and in the gutters. Songs can be sung everywhere, when we are in exile as well as home. Sometimes we need to lose something to learn something else.

Soon, the church where I worship will be closing the sanctuary for extensive renovations. The congregation will move across the street and worship in the synagogue, and I have no doubt the change will rattle many people’s spiritual cages. Although they will only be across the street, they will miss their spiritual home. Hopefully, they will learn the important lesson of the Israelites, the graduates of Virginia Seminary, and others who have found themselves spiritually homeless: God’s beside us wherever we worship, sitting beside us regardless of we are going through. It applies to anything that we feel contains God, or anything that gives our spirituality a home. Maybe it's a job, a relationship, or particular person. To lose such a "home" can make us feel spiritually alone, but the loss, no matter how significant, is not a loss of God.