4-16-19
THE CHURCH HAS NOT BURNED! # 997
The church that met in the Notre Dame Cathedral
did not burn,
only it's building.
As every Sunday School child knows -
the Church is not the building
or its steeple.
The Church is the people.
Across our land in the USA,
the buildings of African American
congregations are burning.
Muslim mosques are destroyed.
Jewish temples are vandalized.
Rural churches are closing
by the thousands,
but the Church lives on!
It lives on in the living witnesses
of those who affirmed their faith
in that building.
It live on in the mission dollars
sent to meet the needs
of God's "least of these."
It lives on in the lives
inspired to be loving, kind,
caring and sharing.
It lives on in the memories
of funerals, of weddings,
and of church dinners
held within its walls.
It lives on in the friendships
made and held togather
by the bonds of faith.
In Paris a lovely building has burned,
and much of its art and its organ.
Years of loving and skilled labor,
have gone up in flame and smoke.
But the Church lives on!
The Rev. Mel West is a retired clergy member of the Missouri Annual Conference. This post is republished from his Facebook page.