Safe Sanctuary

           

When our boys were little they were allowed to take one of their first bike rides by themselves.  They were in elementary school and I let them ride up and around the block.  As I waited anxiously for their return home, I saw them come down the road and I could tell from their approach that something was amiss.  As they got off their bikes Nate shared that Chris had fallen off his bike and was bleeding.  I looked at Chris’s patched up knee and asked who took care of him and Nate replied “The church ladies.” 

The “accident” had happened by the church we attended and Nate saw the door open and brought Chris in for help.  There were several women in the parish hall cleaning and of course when they saw our boys they stopped everything and patched up the wounded knee.  Nate saw the church and knew it would be a safe place to receive help and the door was open.

What does it mean to have a safe sanctuary?  I think for many years it was just assumed that a sanctuary would be safe, but we have come to realize that this is not necessarily the case.  It is not in our best interest or in the interest of children to assume that they or we will be safe anywhere without guidelines and built in plans of protection.

One of the ways in our church to assure safety is to change our locks and issue new keys.  And after a recent theft we even had to lock our sanctuary.  A locked sanctuary—who’d thought it?  Gone are the days when a church was open all day and even all night, gone are the days when a homeless person slept in a pew and snuck out in the morning, gone are the days when most pastors lived next door to the church and were available any hour of any day.  Gone as well though are the community’s desire to stop in and talk to the pastor or to seek comfort in the sanctuary.

            At first all this talk about locks and keys can make one feel unsure about what we are doing as a church, it can make us feel sad that we cannot leave our doors open to the public on the other hand it may move us outside of our church into the community.  Maybe now is the time for us to go into the community, to move outside the comfort of the church into the places that can make us uncomfortable.

            I love that our sons knew the church was a place for them to go for help, I love that they knew the women that assisted them.  I also know that if they knew where each  of the 5 or so women lived they would have had that many more places to go for help.  Change can be difficult, but so often it is just what we need, it can be the springboard to increased courage and strength.  Change allows us to rethink old ideas and embrace traditions like they are new again. 

            Ephesians 2:19-22
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

            Walls cannot contain the Spirit and locks cannot keep the Spirit out.  Our sanctuary will continue to be a place of worship, a place where we are strengthened on Sunday mornings.  Our children will be taken care of responsibly and parents will know that we consider ourselves blessed to help their children grow in faith.  And yet the message will be the same, the same one that Christ hit the road saying “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 

            So on Sunday morning look around the sanctuary, really look, who is your neighbor?  And then when you shut and lock the door look again at the world around, really look, who is your neighbor?