Sometimes I Need a Cathedral Experience

The Christian church calendar, a calendar that reminds us of the significant events in the history of the faith. By setting aside a particular day and season, we lift up truths that are true all the time. Although we understand everyday that God visited his creation as a human being, the church calendar sets aside a Christmas season to drive the point home.

In the same way, forty days not counting Sundays are designated as Lent so we can prepare for the events leading up to Christ’s crucifixion and be ready for his triumphal and life extending resurrection.

I am glad we have Christmas and Easter on the calendar. On those days I am reminded that because of the events they commemorate these Holy days are not just like all the other days. They are special. They awaken convictions that have cooled. They force a new look at truths taken for granted. They give root to what has become a cut-flower existence. They reset me in starting blocks so I can run the race again, better motivated, stronger, and more determined to finish the race.

I need holidays!

In a similar way, I need a cathedral experience in my life.

When worship becomes routine, predictable, and ordinary, it isn’t worship. It isn’t helpful. It doesn’t bring any kind of meaningful praise to the Almighty. And, I think it doesn’t please God.

The little brown church in the vale may be good enough for Mother’s Day but ….

One’s home church may be quite suitable for the funeral of a longtime pew sitter but ….

Weddings are appropriately celebrated in the church building where the bride attended Sunday School but ….

Almost any kind of church structure can make a great place to have a pot-luck dinner but ….

New churches with their worship centers, stages, enlarged seating capacities, and state-of-the-art sound systems may appeal more effectively to the generations born after 1960 but …

But sometimes we need a cathedral.

A place unlike any other. A place with tall spires straining to reach heaven. A place with cast iron bells, Gothic arches, and thick walls. A place with a ceiling high enough to make you want to look up. A place with stained glass windows that illustrate some Bible story. A nave with a long center aisle, a pipe organ good enough not to embarrass J. S. Bach, and little plaques recalling the generosity of people no one remembers. A place that welcomes silence and demands reverence. A place that sets the standard for words like awesome, breath-taking, grand, stunning, sacred, and holy.

Of course, even cathedrals can become ordinary ‑ familiar, routine, taken-for-granted. Stained glass windows block sunlight, high ceilings run up the heating bill, pipe organs are more expensive to maintain and replace than guitars, and silence stifles fellowship.

But that is only if you are being literal. When one gets beneath the literal and physical perspective, he might find a spiritual lesson applicable to life. I have.

Visiting a Mercedes dealer’s showroom can be inspiring to a Chevy owner. A live concert or basketball game adds a dimension unavailable to television watchers. Reading one good book beats reading a thousand billboards. A few hours fishing sustains us more than a day spent at the grocery.

Yes, I am going to take another look at my life and see where I need a cathedral experience.