It's Not the Size of the Building

 

Then I was given ma measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” (Revelation 11:1-3 ESV).

 

St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is the largest church building in the world. The dome itself rises into the sky over ten stories as it dwarfs all of the buildings surrounding it. To walk down and back on the main aisle you will travel nearly ¼ of a mile. The main worship area holds nearly 80,000 people. We have skipped ahead in the Revelation with our reading today. The apostle John is told to measure the temple of God and to count the worshipers. Perhaps the point of this exercise had to do with how many people could come into the temple courts to worship. Would the old temple in Jerusalem be big enough so that the people of God from all nations could worship there?

 

Our reading today got me thinking about the church buildings I have visited and preached in through the years. Some have been small and others large. In fact my first church, Reid’s Prairie Baptist, located just out of College Station, Texas, was the smallest of those I actually preached in. It would seat less than 100 people, though the heart of the people was much larger than that size would indicate. I’ve also preached in other places, some across the globe. One of those was located in Odessa, Ukraine. It seated over a thousand. I’ve preached in stadiums and auditoriums larger than that. All of them were different in architecture and décor. None of these can compare with the size of St. Peter’s.

 

But God’s church is not really about buildings, is it? What counts is not the size of our church buildings or how many worshipers gather there. What matters to God is that we are faithful witnesses where he plants us. A child in one of my former congregations once said some wise words to her neighbor who struggled with life’s hardships. In the simple wisdom of a child, she said, “You need Jesus.” Her small voice was a faithful witness that God used to shine his life-giving light into her neighbor’s darkness. It is not the size of the building that matters… it is the size of the God who is worshipped there! Our God is HUGE… tell that truth!