In this week’s passages from the Gospel of Luke and First Kings, two things are very obvious:
First, Luke’s passage is about infrastructure. Certain foundations can support different kinds of structures. Mix the wrong foundation with the wrong structure on top and you have a disaster. Secondly, the Hebrew scripture is about form and function. What is the purpose of the building? What do you store in the building? What does the building hold? In the case of the temple, it is the Ark of the Covenant, the home of God. How does it support the functions of the culture that will use the building? In the case of the Temple, it is theologically understood as the home of Yahweh. And the home of Yahweh is massive with a foundation appropriate for the form and function of the building. That form and function added to the City of David, a beautiful city of God.
We find this form and function in the musical we celebrate today in two of our three services and particularly at the 8:00am worship service. The musical Godspell was originally created as a Master’s Degree project by the writer John-Michael Tebelak while he was a student at Carnegie Melon University in Pittsburg. Tebelak, who became captivated by the parable of Jesus in the late 1960’s, adapted those stories in the musical. He even named the show after an old English adaptation for Good News, which also is the definition of Gospel. The show is set in the streets of New York City. As Jesus moves from street to street, from parable to parable, we discover a diverse group of followers, rolling into a wonderful piece titled Beautiful City.
What makes a beautiful city? During the preaching moment I will be offering thoughts to push us from thinking about the “skyline” or the “surface” things. It is the notion, “As long as things look good on the outside, it must mean everything is okay on the inside.” Such a notion is not helpful and it is rarely true. Foundations hold up buildings, values hold up communities. In the few minutes we have together this week, let us ponder how we can create a Beautiful City with God’s help.
Todd D. Anderson