Dr. M. Taylor Bach I Corinthians 3:10-17 Matthew 7:24-28

Do you all remember the childhood story of the three pigs that built homes  one out of straw, one out of sticks, and one out of bricks? Did anybody tell you that story when you were a child? Apparently, there are multiple versions. The one I was taught was that the big bad wolf came to the first home made out of straw. He knocked on the door because he wanted a nice ham dinner. He said, “Let me in! Let me in!” And the pig said, “Not by the hair on my chinny chin chin.” So he huffed and he puffed and he blew the straw house down. One version says that the little pig escaped. Some versions say that he didn't escape and was immediately eaten. But I'll go with the version that he escaped and ran to the next house. The next house was built with sticks and the wolf saw him escape and went running after him. The little pig barely got inside the door of the next house when the door was slammed shut in front of the wolf. The wolf said, “Let me in! Let me in!” The pigs inside said, “Not by the hair on our chinny chin chins.” So the wolf huffed and puffed and he blew the stick house down. They ran out the back door and escaped to the brick house. The wolf came to that house and he wanted desperately now to have a ham dinner. So he knocked on the door and shouted, “Let me in! Let me in!” And all three of them said, “Not by the hair on our chinny chin chins.” So he huffed and he puffed and nothing happened. The version that I heard of this story was he climbed up on the roof and started to come down the chimney. The pigs created a fire and as he came down the chimney, he fell into a big kettle of boiling water and he burned to death. That was the end of the wolf. Is that the version you heard? All that by way of introduction to the meaning and importance of buildings in the life of the church.

We want our building to stand. We want our building to be strong and special. And yet, in the light of the epistle that we just read, we understand that the church is really the people. “You are the temple,” Paul said. You are the church. If we register that, we know that if a tornado came through here and destroyed our Pilgrim Church, we would be sad, but it wouldn't be that significant if none of us were injured. We would reconvene the church because we are the church.

What then is the significance of the building? Why do we keep it in good repair? Why is it important to us? There are Biblical clues to why we do that. We can look in the Old Testament when Solomon, the son of David, built the Temple. We find this incredible description& “So Solomon built the Temple and completed it. He lined its interior walls with cedar boards, paling them from the floor of the Temple to the ceiling and covered the floor of the Temple with planks of pine. He partitioned off 20 cubits at the rear of the Temple with cedar boards from the floor to the ceiling to form within the Temple an inner Sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. The main hall in front of this room was 40 cubits long. The inside of the Temple was cedar carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar. No stone was to be seen. He prepared the inner Sanctuary of the Temple to set the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord there. The inner Sanctuary he overlaid with pure gold and he overlaid the altar of cedar. Solomon covered the inside of the Temple with pure gold and he extended gold chains across the front of the Sanctuary which was also overlaid with gold.” (I Kings 6:14-22) So he overlaid the whole interior with gold. He also overlaid with gold the altar that belonged to the inner Sanctuary. You can see that Solomon created an incredible place because where the Ark of the Covenant was was thought to be, that was considered, the seat of God. This was where God dwelled. It had to be of the finest of everything. You are that Temple now. So you are to be the finest Christian possible. Yet, at the same time, we have buildings like our church building here. It represents us  our Christian community. We make it beautiful. I love when I have weddings because people come in here and they “ooh” and “aah” over our church and tell me how wonderful it is. Brides love to walk the red carpet and feel so special while they are here. What is it about church buildings? Is it within God's plan to have the buildings? I believe that it is. It doesn't negate the fact that the building is of lesser importance than each individual, but it still is of great importance. The building is a place of possible encounter with God. God does dwell here. As you enter, you can experience His presence. Any place where two or three are gathered in His name, He is present. I have no doubt of His presence here because we gather in His name. I experience His presence daily!

The building is also a place of possible personal consecration. When we come here, we are motivated to give our life to God, and therefore, commit to Him our whole life, our whole being. In that sense, it is a very important place. An atmosphere of prayer needs to always be created so that we are uplifted and moved to consecrate our life to Him as we enter our church building.

The building is also a place where the family of God gathers. In the Old Testament it was called the “Quahal Yahweh”, the Assembly Place of God. In the New Testament, there is no word for church except the word Assembly. It wasn't until the church membership grew large and persecution ended that the early fathers felt that they needed buildings. When they needed buildings, they tried to build the best, the most beautiful buildings. Some still stand today  centuries old. Those of you who have toured Europe are aware of seeing some of the fine art and beauty. I am reminded of the Sistine Chapel that I've only seen pictures of with the paintings by Michelangelo on the ceiling. A story that I heard about Michelangelo when he was a little boy goes like this. His art teacher whose name was Bertinelli de Giovanni walked in one day and saw Michelangelo making an inferior art project. He immediately picked up a hammer, walked over to it and smashed the thing and said, “Talent is cheap but dedication is expensive.” It was at that moment, it seems, that Michelangelo made the decision that he would be the finest artist that he could be and his art would give glory to God as it decorated the churches of his time.

We are to maintain that kind of an attitude, that the church is such a special place that only our finest and our best can be here in the church. It is the finest and the best of our heart and soul, our talents, our abilities that we bring to this place.

As I thought about this, I had a great sense of gratitude to all those who went before us here at Pilgrim Church for creating this wonderful edifice. I don't know whether you know the history of the early Pilgrim Church, the first building that sat here. It was hand built by members. They actually carved stone out of a rock quarry, put it on wagons and sleds and drug them to this location. With their own hands, they assembled that first church. They took a great deal of pride in it. It reminded me of the Biblical story of Nehemiah and his restoration of the Jerusalem Wall. Do you remember Nehemiah in the Bible? Do you remember what happened? It was during the Diaspora, the dispersion where the community of faith had been dispersed by the enemies of the Jews. Nehemiah went back to look at Jerusalem and when he saw Solomon's temple with all of its finery which I just described to you, he found that it had been destroyed. He looked at the wall of Jerusalem. It was crushed and laying in pieces on the ground. The Bible says that he wept. He wept great tears in seeing this horrible destruction of what he loved so much and what he knew was the place where God dwelled and the Jews found their identity. He went to the King and asked permission to rebuild all the walls first, and ultimately to rebuild the city and the Temple. He had found favor with the King so the King said, “Go ahead.” Nehemiah created a vision for the Jews in the Diaspora, the dispersion, to come back together and rebuild this sacred place. In the first twenty six days, they completed a great deal of the wall. But the people then began to grumble. They lost their vision. Then he actually had to give them a pep talk. He had to pray and fast. He had to convince them that creating the place that was God's place was of most importance. It needed to be done. Then they managed to finish the great wall around Jerusalem in fifty six days. From this we get some interesting lessons that apply to churches.

First of all, the place where God dwells and the place where people gather is of high importance because it gives people their identity. We have churches because the churches give us our identity as Christians. When we look at the cross out in the front, when we look at the bell tower, when we look at the sign that says, “Pilgrim” on the side, we know that we are members of a Christian place dedicated to Christ. That is important for each and every one of us. We are grateful to those who paid off the mortgage. They made sacrifices. Many of you gave money to pay for our new roof and to pay for our new furnace recently. We are so grateful because people really value not just the building but what happens inside this building. They said to themselves, “I am taking care of it. I am paying for it because it is so important in our community.”

The church I believe is the world's last great hope of conversion. I believe that the church in Christendom in the United States has become weakened. It is not any where near the power it used to be. At one time, we considered this a Christian nation. I am not sure that is true any more. I am not sure that Christians feel the commitment to stand up and not be pushed around and not be pushed out by legalistic arguments that say to take God out of schools and legalistic arguments that say we can't express our religious agenda. What is our religious agenda? Our religious agenda is to bring people into our buildings, introduce them to our Lord Jesus Christ and see that they receive salvation, that they get to heaven. This is our work in these sacred places. It is an extremely important job, an extremely important challenge that each of us have. The world needs our churches and the work that goes on in them.

I am also grateful to those of you who maintain this place now. Our Monday Crew repairs it and each year saves thousands of dollars by the work they do. I'm grateful to the people who keep it clean, the volunteers who straighten the books after services and each person who values this place. When you walk in here, I hope that you look around and make sure that everything is tidy so it will be a place that is respectful and worthy to be called the House of God, and so that it appeals to seekers, people walking in and saying, “Oh, this place is loved. This place is cared for.” It is that valuable to the people who use it and who are involved here.

Recently, we received information about our insurance coverage. The information was that our building is now worth $ 1,036,000. As I thought about that, I took some pride in it. I also thought, “OK. This gives us our identity. It is a place of protection of the faith. It is a place where children learn. It is a place where the choirs sing and the bells are played. It is a place where the Bible is taught. It is not worth a million dollars. It is priceless. We can't let the wolves of the world “blow” it down.