In This Week's Captive Hearts...

Here you have a group of people trying to rebuild the High Temple in time for the Festival of Faith and the High Priest's marriage. When one of the windows breaks the night before the wedding, the master craftsman is devastated.

Lars studies the High preist intently, "We will pick up and move on." He says, echoing Ashton's words, "But you'll have a window before I leave. I just wanted to have it perfect for you... for Solarus, on the wedding day."

Ashton smiles and looks up at where the others are picking up the pieces. "You know... you'll think me crazy, but I wonder if it isn't better this way."

Lars blinks, "It... better?" He is almost shocked.

The High Priest chuckles. "Yes. To make our vows before the gods in a sanctuary that isn't quite finished. It should remind us that our work, our lives, are never quite finished. It's that unfinished corner of our lives that gives our lives purpose, and gives us room to grow."

These scene nigged at me for a bit. Even though I was playing the High Priest, I felt like I wasn't quite expressing the gut that I was feeling. I imagined a new church being built. In one possible scenario, you have the church built, finished, polished and presented for the perfect grand opening. The congregation steps in, ooh and ahhs and the church is chistened. In another scenario, you have the congregation coming together in a church that isn't quite finished. They are meeting outside or in the fellowship hall until the sanctuary is complete. Am I the only one for whom the second scenario feels... more wholesome? More right? And why?

This question took me some time and contemplation to address, but I think part of the difference is where the focus is. In the first scenario, you picture a church being built, and then calling the people to it. In the second, a congregation are coming together, and in their presence, the church is built. Where's your focus, the building or the people in it?* When you "christen" the sanctuary, are you bringing people in to express awe for the beautiful construct that you've built, or are you bringing together the congregation whose hearts and hands and money have helped build the building?

Anyway, just a little musing that I felt like posting. Reply if you feel like it, or if you have another take on it.

*The first focus should, of course, be God, but who is going to worship God? The people or the building?