Ecclesiastical Narcissists

The church which I attend (and pastor) is a modestly-sized newish Anglican congregation.  We have been meeting weekly for five years now.  We are ecclesiastical bedouins. Having originally met in homes we moved to rent space from a Greek Orthodox Church and are now renting from a community center on Sunday mornings.  The homes were warm and hospitable, the Greek Church beautiful, and the community center clean and bright.  In different ways each has met our changing needs.  I am thankful - but troubled.

When I was a kid I remember that the church was always referred to as "God's house".  To be more accurate, even in the small village in which I grew up, one would have to say "God's houses" as there were several.  God appears to be well-heeled - the cattle on a thousand hills and any number of pied-a-terres scattered across the globe.  The original temple built by Solomon but envisaged by his father, David, was clearly understood to be the dwelling place of God.  David's distress was that he had a beautiful home in which to live but the ark of God - the mercy seat where his presence was understood to dwell - was housed in a tent. (2 Samuel 7:1-2)  It seemed to David, well, unseemly that God should be so poorly housed.

I was reading Ezra this morning on the rebuilding of the temple and was struck by this passage:
Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem. (Ezra 1:5, ESV)

The people and priests, and Cyrus king of Persia to boot, were interested in constructing a house for the Lord.  For his Name, for his honor.  Stirred up. And here is where I began to be troubled.  I stated above that all the places in which we have worshipped as a community have, in their turn, met our needs.  But as I read Ezra, I realize that our needs are really not the first thing.  Our congregation has not had the luxury (or burden) of building a church structure.  But I have seen the result of many such projects.  I compare the great cathedrals of Europe or even the small community churches of years gone by to the common modern expressions.  And I am troubled.

Help me understand: Why does the Lord needs a gas fireplace, comfy chairs and a coffee bar in the foyer?  All such things exist in some, admittedly beautiful, new churches.  We are concerned that there be ample and easy parking.  God forbid that we might have to hoof it a block or two to come to worship the Living God.  Our focus is on whether the buildings meet our needs and preferences - not that they are a fitting place for his dwelling.  I said we were ecclesiastical bedouins.  I fear that we are ecclesiastical narcissists.

The soaring vaults of the great cathedrals, while both beautiful and awe-inspiring for us, were not designed for us and our appreciation, but for the glory of God and the honor of his Name.  The builders of Solomon's temple and the second temple were concerned that the place be fit for the dwelling of the LORD.  We want to make sure it is comfortable for us.

I do not begrudge beauty and elegance in church architecture.  But I am troubled by its pandering to our tastes (because we are no longer talking about needs) and cultural expectations.  A church is God's house, a place for his dwelling.  This is perhaps a simplistic Sunday-school understanding.  But at least it reminds us that the temple is for God not for us.