I believe that something is lost when we gather in our church buildings, temples, mosques, and sanctuaries. I am beginning to believe that we can best worship/revere the Creator when we are in creation. I have wondered if by us gathering with walls separating us from creation, that we actually are elevating our position above that of creation. Maybe that is why children have such a profound experience when they are at camp. They get outside the walls of our church buildings and experience God in God’s natural abode. I remember reading from Ohiyesa’s book, The Soul of the Indian about just such an understanding:
“There were no temples or shrines among us save those of nature. Being a natural man, the American Indian was intensely poetical. He would deem it sacrilege to build a house for Him who may be met face to face in the mysterious, shadowy aisles of the primeval forest, or on the sunlit bosom of virgin prairies, upon dizzy spires and pinnacles of naked rock and yonder in the jeweled vault of the night sky!”
Maybe it’s time to re-think how we arrive at meeting God. There are many contemporary churches that are beginning to look more and more like auditoriums and less like sanctuaries. The challenge is to do away with all that stuff in order that we might be natural/organic in our worship/reverence of our Creator. Think of the vast amounts of money that we dump into the maintenance and repair of our structures. I can think of thousands of ways in which we could better use that money.
May we meet Him in the mysterious and wonderment of God’s creation.
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