Devotion for Weekend Services

Festival of Restoration

November 1 & 2, 1997

(Pastor Karl Walther)

Saint Mark's, Watertown

Dear members and friends of Saint Mark's:

So far this morning, my friends and fellow pastors have remarked upon the many things that have changed here at church. However, I'd like to conclude this morning with some remarks regarding two things that have not changed about this building.

My friends, the foundation of this building has not changed. The foundation of this building in which you're sitting consists of blocks of solid granite, quarried some miles north of here just off Highway Twenty-Six, blocks five feet by five feet by ten feet each block, stacked two blocks deep in a double layer along the exterior wall of our church building, and with another such block under each of the twelve pillars downstairs holding up the floor. If my calculations are right (and they could be off a few ounces), that makes for some three thousand tons of granite on which this building is built.

We found no need to change all that during the restoration! And that's a fitting reminder that we have no need to change the foundation of our congregation: the bedrock of the Bible, the solid granite of God which is the Holy Scriptures. After all, about them Jesus said: Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

Similarly, my friends, there is another thing about this building that has not changed. It's the cross that stands at the peak of our steeple, that stainless steel cross, eight feet tall by six feet across (and probably only a foot or so smaller in each direction than was the cross of our Lord). During the weeks after Easter this year -- when scaffolding went up in here and the smell of fresh paint was in the air -- that same cross still gleamed with the rising of the sun every morning. During the weeks of summer -- when workers cleaned the brick and our roof was reconstructed -- that same cross still basked in the noon-time sun, day after day. And during the past weeks -- when our pews returned and new carpeting was laid -- that same cross still glowed with the setting of the sun every evening.

We found no need to change all that during the restoration! And it's a fitting reminder that we have no need to change the message of our congregation either: our steeple still points to heaven only through the cross of Christ; our people still direct others to heaven only through the cross of Christ. It's no different than what the Apostle Paul expressed two thousand years ago: When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

God, grant in his grace that the bedrock of the Bible is our foundation and the cross of Christ is our message, personally and congregationally, now and eternally! Amen.