Rebuilding the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd

(Presented at the Cathedral through live audio by the Patriarch, 30 June, 2019, from his manse at Ten Oaks Farm in Chelsea, Oklahoma, USA.)

Good Morning, Worshipers!  Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

I am very happy to have been asked by our Provost, Archbishop Hartley, to say a few words, and he stressed, "a few words!"  He knows how I like to write and talk and I suppose he is worried I might deliver an entire book today.  So I will try very hard to stay within my time constraints, just in case he takes the microphone away from the phone and lets me just keep talking!

Today, I will be sharing with you some of my thoughts on rebuilding the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd.

When I first heard about the terrible damage done to Good Shepherd by the storms this year, I was saddened.  Not only because of the water that ruined carpets on the floors, paint on the walls, and finishes of our beautiful furnishings, but more because of the harm brought into the House of God--the cathedral where I found inclusion into the Apostolic Succession of the Ancient Church of God.

The storms that tore away parts of the roof on that day tried to tear away our hearts and souls from our place of solace.  From the very place where we come to find strength and comfort from God among our fellow worshipers.

In ancient Israel, the children of God woke up one morning to see the total destruction against their house of worship.  Unlike the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, their Temple was destroyed because of their disobedience to God.  But like our cathedral, it was, for a period, unsafe and unusable as a house of worship.

In the book of Ezra, beginning with chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, we read  Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying,

Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah.

It goes on to say that King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the Temple, that Nebuchadnezzar had pilfered and he gave them to the prince of Judah.  Then Ezra 3:7 says, They also gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre to bring cedar logs from Lebanon…

Yes, when the time was right—when the debt had been paid for their disobedience, God moved on the heart of good king Cyrus to give the Judeans the freedom and the wherewithal to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their Temple.  And they returned with joy in their hearts and songs of praise to God.  I can imagine that, if they had known the words to "The Church's One Foundation" by Samuel John Stone, that they would have been singing it as they mixed mortar and nailed Cedar beams together.

Of course, that beautiful hymn is not talking about a building, but what goes on inside that building.  And in the case of the Temple and our cathedral, what goes oninside the building is what is most important.  But while we should never let the beauty of our edifice overtake the important life-saving and soul-saving endeavors inside, we should all want to help dip a paint brush or swing a hammer or push a mower to keep our place of worship in a good, safe condition.  And some of us who can’t do the heavy work will want to bring coffee and tea and sandwiches to the ones that do.

The most vibrant churches I’ve attended in my life have all had a day or two in each month when the men and women of the church could come together for a little breakfast or lunch and work on the church building.  Whether it was a scuff mark on a wall that needed painting, a tree over the parking lot that needed trimming, or just a dining hall that needed the tables and chairs rearranged, we all jumped in and had a great time.

As we move forward from this repair of our cathedral, let’s look forward to keeping it a place that is inviting to the members of our community and to envoys of Christ from around the world, to come together for the enrichment of their own souls and for the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the entire world.

May God grant you the strength and stamina, and food, drink, and oil, as He did for the Children of Israel, to rebuild our Temple—our Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, for His glory and honor.

In the name of +God the Father and His +Son our Lord Jesus Christ, in the presence of the +Holy Spirit.  AMEN!