August 15, 2024 - Good Morning! It's Thursday, August 15.
In Cologne, Germany, there stands a magnificent Gothic cathedral. It is the number one tourist attraction of that large city, attracting more than six million tourists each year. It boasts distinctive twin steeples, or spires, that rise over 500 feet above the ground. That makes it the highest structure of its kind in the world. And on this day, August 15, in the year 1248, the cornerstone of the Cologne Cathedral was laid.
It's not surprising that work began on this great church in the 13th century. That's the time called the Medieval Period, or the Middle Ages, a time when the Gothic style of architecture reached its peak. What is surprising is that the final stone of this huge place of worship was not laid until the year 1880, more than six centuries after work began. Great things take time. Great things are worth waiting for.
The Cologne Cathedral, during World War II, was hit 16 times by Allied bombs, but the battered church remained standing, standing in a devastated city where few other buildings were left intact. Restoration work began shortly after the war, and in 1956 the cathedral was completed a second time. When it was first finished it was the tallest structure in the world. Four years later that honor was given to the Washington Monument.
But I wondered if this great church was more than just an architectural marvel, more than just a source of historical trivia. I wondered if this great church... was still a church. I went to its website and found that the Cologne Cathedral offers multiple services each day of the week. But my eye was drawn to the details about the Sunday morning service, and the language that was used for it. Germany, like America, is a multi-ethnic country, a country with many different people groups, with many different languages. And though the German language is used for every other service, the great cathedral employs another language on Sunday mornings, a language intended to bring all these different people together.
Did you guess that the language was English? You'd be wrong. On Sunday mornings at 10:00, the worship service at the Cologne Cathedral is conducted in Latin. Latin, the language that the Catholic church exclusively used in 1248. Latin, a so-called "dead" language now, used only as a vocabulary resource for other languages. And so, in this ancient church, they reach back to an ancient language, to give the worshippers a connection. A shared language of worship. A common ground. I believe that there are two primary purposes for worship. One, of course, is to give glory to God. But worship should also bring us together, in spite of all our differences. As we gather in His presence, we are connected by His love. We find a common ground through His grace.
Gloria in excelsis Deo!
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
