Things that really matter

On April 15th the world watched as Notre Dame Cathedral burnt in Paris. The loss of this architectural piece of history seemed to hit a lot of people hard in a number of different ways.

it had become more than just a building.

A quick search turned up these facts about the Cathedral.

1. The Cathedral is the most visited monument in Paris

with over 13 million visitors a year, that is roughly 35 thousand a day.

2. The Cathedral was build on a sacred location

The location was dedicated to religious activities many pagan since the Roman ages

3. The Cathedral is a measurement reference : the overlooked “Point Zéro”

Located right out front on a small ground plaque This is the point where every distance to and from in Paris is measured

4. The Cathedral’s bells have had a life of their own

The original bells placed over 600 years ago are not the bells that would have been ringing in early April. In 1791 the origial bells were taken down and melted to make cannon balls and were not replaced until the mid 19th century

5. The Cathedral’s chimeras are not so-Medieval

The are a major part of Gothic art but their main function is to serve as water spouts.

6. The Cathedral was saved by Quasimodo

It entered the 19th century in a much degraded state, and almost fell into oblivion, being used as a storage place instead of a religious one.

In 1831, Victor Hugo’s masterpiece, the Hunchback of Notre-Dame, set in mid-15thcentury Paris with Notre-Dame de Paris as its central location, brought an unprecedented fame to the long-forgotten church.

7. The Cathedral is home to a Forest

Notre-Dame de Paris measures 127 meters (length) by 48 meters (width) and the main nave is 43 meter-high under the roof.

With such dimensions, it may come as surprising that the roof structure is entirely made of wood, dating back from the 12th century. The wood-timber frame is made of more than 1300 trees, each beam being made from one tree.

The roof structure is commonly nicknamed “the Forest” due to its massive dimensions!

8. The Cathedral was a place of beheading

On the main façade of Notre-Dame, the revolutionaries took off the heads of twenty eight statues in a gallery, thinking they were statues of French kings. However, they were mistaken, for these statues were actually representations of the kings of Judah.

9. The Cathedral follows the Golden Ratio

In architecture, the golden ratio is visible in any shape composed by a square and a rectangle whose combined dimensions roughly correspond to a 1:1.61 ratio. This ratio is known to be a dimension of perfection in art.

10. The Cathedral is home to the Holy Crown

At last, Notre-Dame is home to a priceless treasure among which are the Holy Crown worn by the Christ, a piece of the Cross, and a nail. If the rest of the treasure can be admired year round, you may see the Holy Relics every first Friday of the month during the dedicated worship ceremonies, as well as for Lent and Good Fridays

You know what amazed me most about that list from discoverwalks.com?

It was how little of that had to do with a place to Worship God.

It seems to me the Notre-Dame Cathedral had become a tourist trap, and quite possibly an object of peoples worship.

At least that would explain peoples reactions to the loss of this building.

Within 24 hours something like 600 million dollars were donated by some rich folk to see the building rebuilt.

Many criticized that money could and should have been used to to help the poor, although that response to extravagant giving sounds a lot like Judas when Mary Anointed him with perfume.

Others criticized the Catholic church for not putting up some of their billions to restore the Cathedral.

Whatever peoples thoughts it was all over the news and social media and people crying, wailing even as if they were mourning a building.

Please do not misunderstand my tone, I know the building had been there for 600 plus years, and that it will be rebuild preserving as much of the original as possible. I also understand peoples emotional attachment to things.

It just seems to me that, like many things we build to honour God, it became an idol in and of itself. 13 million people a year, yet I wonder how many of them went to worship God. 35,000 a day yet I wonder how many of them live a life that honours God and how many of them attend a worship service regularly.

I wonder how many of them that is the first church the stepped foot in in years and it had absolutely nothing to do with God. Shoot for a lot of visitors it seems it had more to do with Quasimodo the hunchback from Notre-Dame.

I have attended many churches in my life granted none of them were 600 years old, all though parts of this one are 130 some odd years old, and one thing I have noticed in just about all of them is a desire to keep the buildings special and set apart from all the other buildings in the world.

To be clear I am not saying this is a bad thing, although I have personally seen it taken too far. What I am saying is...

Is the Building the most important thing?

I have been in some churches so highly adorned you wouldn’t dare sneeze out of fear of defiling the building and as much as I appreciate the people’s dedication to keeping God’s house in good order I have to wonder…

To which I think we all know the answer is....

No

so...

What is the most important thing?

we are going to look at . but first let me give you a little background.

2 Chronicles 7:11–22 NLT

So Solomon finished the Temple of the Lord, as well as the royal palace. He completed everything he had planned to do in the construction of the Temple and the palace. Then one night the Lord appeared to Solomon and said, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this Temple as the place for making sacrifices. At times I might shut up the heavens so that no rain falls, or command grasshoppers to devour your crops, or send plagues among you. Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to every prayer made in this place. For I have chosen this Temple and set it apart to be holy—a place where my name will be honored forever. I will always watch over it, for it is dear to my heart. “As for you, if you faithfully follow me as David your father did, obeying all my commands, decrees, and regulations, then I will establish the throne of your dynasty. For I made this covenant with your father, David, when I said, ‘One of your descendants will always rule over Israel.’ “But if you or your descendants abandon me and disobey the decrees and commands I have given you, and if you serve and worship other gods, then I will uproot the people from this land that I have given them. I will reject this Temple that I have made holy to honor my name. I will make it an object of mockery and ridicule among the nations. And though this Temple is impressive now, all who pass by will be appalled. They will ask, ‘Why did the Lord do such terrible things to this land and to this Temple?’ “And the answer will be, ‘Because his people abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and they worshiped other gods instead and bowed down to them. That is why he has brought all these disasters on them.’ ”

What is the most important thing?

We are set apart!

Me: I have to be honest with you I love the renovations we are doing around here, and the plans we have for the near future because as a church we have a commitment to maintaining and improving on the facilities God has blessed us with. But a part of me is always scared when we do new things.

Because I have been a part of church’s whom I will not name who went through some renovations and the building became so nice the people didn’t want anything to happen to it. They restricted its use, and the building became to them the most important thing.

More important than loving others for sure, more important than seeing the Kingdom of God advanced, more important than honouring God.

We: We have an obligation to take care of that which God has blessed us with, but more importantly we have an obligation to God to honour Him with it all.

We do not Honour God by making the building an idol. We honour God by using the building to share the truth and worship God together.

God: In this Passage God is pleased with the building. Up to this point all they had for offering sacrifices was a tent, but as pleased as God was to dwell in this building God made sure Solomon knew He would not hesitate to destroy it if the people turned from Him and started worshiping false Gods.

And we know the rest of the story. That is exactly what Happened, and much like Notre-Dame will be it was eventually rebuilt. But .........

God wants us to be Holy not these timbers....

You: Honour God with all your life.

We: We will take care of this building but God dwells in us so if we are going to make sure anything is set apart for God let it be our lives.