Scripture: Matthew 7:26-27
And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!
Thought for the Day: On this day in 1990, the Leaning Tower of Pisa was closed to the public because of safety concerns. In the years that followed, work was done to reduce the weight of the building, firm up the foundation, and decrease the lean from 5.5% to a little less than 4%. These structural improvements resulted in the building being reopened in 2001. Initially, it was declared safe for another 300 years, but seven years later it had to be closed and re-stabilized before reopening again. It’s fascinating that community leaders debated about how much lean should it have to maintain tourism. What percentage would be good enough to keep people coming back. To me, it feels a little fraudulent to do what they did. It is one thing to have a structure do it on its own, but now it feels as if it is nothing but a gimmick to perpetuate the flow of sightseers’ dollars (or in this case, Euros).
I wonder if the church is maintaining any specific leaning as a means of keeping the people and the dollars coming? Are we propping up something that wouldn’t otherwise stand? Have we built our churches on sand, and then done a lot of creative engineering to maintain their look…while always knowing that the foundation is only an illusion? Do we let the whole thing collapse and begin over again? There are some who would suggest it to be so. Just something to ponder…
Prayer: Lord, it is hard to be the church. There are so many things that look religious or holy, yet are shallow and flimsy in the face of the Jesus-message. Keep me struggling with what it means to love you, love my neighbor and even love my enemy. Amen.
Don’t Miss This!
Christian Piatt
at
Cypress Creek Christian Church
This Friday at 7pm
