Excerpt from "Concept of the Holy"
A sermon by Bishop James Parker Dees
God has chosen certain places and things and people and
days to be particularly holy in order that He may speak through them to the world. He has set up holy places in which we worship. We believe
that God is everywhere, but we believe that He has particularly set aside His Church,
our church, as a place in which His children may come and find Him and find
salvation. A church building is not just something of boards
and bricks or mortar, an organ, and pews, and so on; it is a holy place,
dedicated to the Holy One who makes it holy by His Presence. And His children know He does. And that is why we kneel when we come into
church--not simply because it is the practice of the Church, but because we are
in the House of God, and in His presence, the presence of Him who sanctifies
the Church and His people. This is why
we don't play light or unseemly music in Church—because it has been consecrated
to God and is consecrated by His Spirit.
That is why we don't talk about unseemly and frivolous things in church
-because reverence and worship are fitting in His presence. This is why we bow
our heads when we pass in front of the Cross, recognizing the presence of Christ
Jesus. The Church is a holy place; it is a holy place because it is dedicated
to the worship of God and is blessed with His Spirit. When we come into church, we should be reminded
of the words of God to Moses: "The
ground whereon thou standest is holy ground ...
God has also called a people to be a holy people,
and out of this holy people, He has called a sacred ministry. He has called men into Holy Orders, His
ministry, to make Him known to the world, and He gives to them His Holy Spirit.
He has called them to mediate his Divine Grace which is able to save souls. His
ministers are called by God for a special task, and have a special task, and
are endowed with His Holy Spirit for that task. Their task is to bring God to
man and to lead man to God. Ministers should be called of the Lord, and should
be considered to be holy to the Lord, and they should consider themselves to be
holy to the Lord. God's ministers are called to mediate God's Holy Spirit through
the Holy Sacraments, through the Sacrament of Baptism, in which we are born
into God's Holy family, and through the Sacrament of the Holy Communion, in
which we are spiritually fed with our blessed Saviour himself for the
strengthening and nourishing of our souls. Jesus said, in the sixth chapter of St. John,
"Except a man eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, he hath no life in
him."
