A Mighty Fortress Is The Church?

Oct 21, 2024

Bill and I had an opportunity to travel up the Rhine River through western Europe to celebrate our 45th wedding anniversary. One day of our tour saw us sailing past a series of medieval castles strung like stone pearls along the steep gorges of the middle river. The 40-mile stretch is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Castles are the stuff of fantasy and fairy tale for us moderns. But at the time they were built, these muscular structures served a strategic defensive purpose for the privileged, powerful landholders who lived in them while they ruled over the farms and towns that existed outside their gates. Castles were a physical expression of political and military power.

We also had an opportunity to visit breathtaking stone cathedrals in Strasbourg, France and in Speyer and Cologne in Germany. I honored the work of thousands of anonymous-to-me (but not to God!) craftspeople who cut stone, carved wood, and wove the beautiful tapestries and altarpieces. I could sense the longing of the faithful who’ve gathered for generations in these spaces to pray.

But I also found myself unsettled in Strasbourg’s Notre Dame cathedral by the juxtaposition of stained glass windows that depicted Biblical stories alongside windows featuring a series of powerful medieval kings from the era in which the church was constructed. It was the throw-away comment of our tour guide that day that helped me make sense of what my eyes were seeing. He said, “These churches were designed to be fortresses of faith”. Cathedrals were Christendom’s castles.

Though I’ve previously seen memorial stained glass windows in churches in other places, I saw the images of medieval rulers in light of the unsettling trend in some quarters of the American church that have embraced Christian Nationalism by affirming one candidate is anointed by God to make America great again are updating the ancient doctrine of the divine right of kings for a modern audience. You don’t need to build a soaring stone cathedral to believe the church’s identity in the world is as a social, political, and religious fortress or as a bastion of Our Way of Life. You don’t need to enshrine a leader in stained glass to believe that leader’s message is part and parcel of the gospel.

While Scripture highlights the reality that God himself is our refuge and sanctuary, it is worth remembering that hours before he was crucified, Jesus told Pilate that his kingdom wasn’t anything like that of the world. I can’t escape the fact that Jesus didn’t leave his followers with a set of blueprints to construct a castle of faith but instead sent them into the world as pilgrims tasked with the mission of making disciples. Pilgrims don’t live in fortresses.

I understand the longing for security and the desire for power that fuels those who embrace the promise of security within spiritual castle walls. I recognize those desires within my own soul. But I recognize they can’t be satisfied in a Christian castle or authoritarian-led political structure, but in Jesus the Messiah, who calls us to follow him into the world he loves.

Stepping Out of the Fortress

If you are pondering what it means to be a pilgrim in the year of our Lord 2024, my book Born to Wander: Recovering the Value of Our Pilgrim Identity was written to be a helpful companion for your journey. It traces the themes of exile and pilgrimage through Scripture and contemporary story. Thoughtful reflection questions at the end of each chapter make it a great book study for groups, too.

I will be happy to send a complimentary copy of the book to the very first person reading this newsletter who sends me a request via this contact form. Please include your mailing address (U.S. addresses only, please).

Fill In The Blanks, The Hurricane Edition

How would you fill in these blanks?

Hurricanes are: _______

My answer: If your name is Jim Cantore, the risk-taking storm chaser featured on the Weather Channel, your answer might be “My reason for living!”. But I think my answer is representative of most: Hurricanes are traumatic and life-altering. We’ve been hit with four hurricanes in the five years we’ve lived in Sarasota, including two major ones (Helene and Milton) in the last month. Category 3 Milton made landfall in our community while we were on our trip. We live in a vintage mobile home, so we wondered (as we do every time there’s a hurricane) if we would have a home waiting for us when we returned. I am grateful to report that our home is still standing, albeit with some small but survivable damage. That is not the case for many in our community, who are faced with rebuilding….again…and wondering what a future in this wild climate will look like.

One new thing I’ve tried: _______

My answer: Our trip took us into Germany’s Black Forest, where we were able to try a piece of Black Forest cake. Previous to this, I’d only had a sickeningly sweet American version of this classic dessert, which was made with canned cherry pie filling, Cool Whip, and boxed chocolate cake mix. I’ve never been a fan. It was a revelation to taste a version made with small sour cherries, beautiful homemade chocolate sponge cake moistened with Kirsch, and held together by plain, freshly whipped cream. My husband is planning to create this version at home sometime soon.

An article I read recently that’s still haunting me: _______

My answer: “What I Saw in the Darien Gap” in The Atlantic. This long read by Caitlin Dickerson about the journey taken by desperate migrants through the harrowing Central American passage straddling Columbia and Panama will probably haunt you, too. The piece illustrates poet Warsan Shire’s words about the migrant journey: “No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark”. The story of the Darien Gap is that of fleeing one shark’s jaws, only to discover that another ravenous shark is waiting for you on your journey.

Transforming Words

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