Many of you will have seen in the news about the fire that recently destroyed the
Kashmir Sufi Shrine. It is sad news for many Muslims and Hindus who worshipped there frequently, as well as the fact that it is the loss of an historic building. However, as devastating as this occurrence is for some, it did make me think a bit. Many world religions put great importance on shrines and buildings as places of worship, prayer, etc, as well as physical relics. I was reminded of the words of Jesus, when he is speaking to a Samaritan woman, having stopped by at a well. He asks her for a drink of water - as Jews did not associate with Samaritans at the time, this was a preposterous thing to ask - and she tells him so.
Jesus replies:
"If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
The woman is clearly confused by this, assuming he is talking about physical water. Jesus goes on to tell her:
"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
The spring of living water that Jesus refers to is the Spirit of God, who is given freely to those who ask... (see
Luke 11:9-13 and
Acts 2:38-39)
The conversation continues, and Jesus finishes by saying to her:
"believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth."
You can read the full story in
John 4. The thing is, as Christians we don't need shrines, buildings, or any other physical objects to worship God. As Jesus said, all that is required of us is that we worship him in Spirit and in truth...no more, no less. Buildings and man-made objects will fade or be destroyed over time, whatever we try and do to preserve them. These things are ephemeral. As David the psalmist so aptly put it in
Psalm 103:
"As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him..."
What a wonderful truth.
Shalom,
RJ
