demolition

Today there's been a demolition job going on outside the window where I work.

Not that I noticed at first! It didn't cross my mind that all the rumbling which I heard was that. Mainly because the word we'd had was that the work wouldn't start 'til next week.

So I wasn't exactly expecting it today. Even though I knew it was coming.

A bit of a shock to the system, I have to say, when I went outside and saw just what was going on.

It was really rather personal. I used to live there!

The building's been there for 150 years and more. A lovely, stone-built building which has stood the test of time. And then, in a single day, it's gone. Reduced to a pile of rubble.

It crossed my mind that this in fact provides a very graphic picture of what's going on among us here right now.

Demolition. That's putting it really pretty starkly. But I guess that that's the truth of it.

I'm referring to what the Lord is intent on accomplishing here in our midst in these days. Re-forming, from the ground, just what it means for us to be his 'church'.

We, too, are pulling down a framework which has stood there like some fine, impressive mansion, over very many years. And here we are, effectively knocking it down.

The builders are not vandals. And neither are we!

The builders will transform that space and build there something new. But the old must come down before the new can emerge.

I mean, they've been waiting for something like 20 years for this. Preparing and planning and waiting until the moment was right.

And then today the fateful day arrives, the action starts, and a big deep breath all round - because from here on in there is no turning back!

The process we're involved in is the same. We've known, I think, for long enough, that things will have to change. We've known that God's intent on his rebuilding our whole life here as the followers of Christ.

And so for us, as well, there comes that fateful day when all the action starts. And .. well, there's then no turning back.

As I say, it crossed my mind that these are days when just exactly that is going on.

For many, I guess, it looks and feels a bit like demolition. And I guess it is just that.

And I know that people aren't that comfortable with that. In the same way as I felt a measure of discomfort when I saw the house demolished in a day.

What was wrong, after all, with that fine, old building that they knocked to the ground today? Nothing much with the shell of stone, for sure.

And what is wrong with the way it's always been in our life as the church of God? Well, again, nothing much, in some ways.

So I know that many surely think, 'Well, why starting knocking the whole thing to bits and pulling the whole thing down?'

If you'd asked the builders that today, they'd have said it's because the've planned on something better in its place. They couldn't simply leave the shell and renovate inside. The sort of work required inside would have rendered the shell unsafe. And the roof was rotten, anyway.

So they really had no option, I suppose. To build they first required to knock the whole thing down. Another sort of building will emerge from out the rubble of the past.

It'll be different, for sure. But good, I have no doubt.

A series of buildings in place of the one. Community in place of solemn isolation. Geared for the present and future instead of a stately reminder of days that are past.

A bit like it is and will be with the church of Christ. We're seeing some demolition in these days because of how the Lord now longs his church should be. A community of believers. Living in the future tense.

That put a fresh perspective on the work I've done today! Mainly preparation. Preparing the word God brings to his people these days.

A word which in many ways dismantles, first of all, the framework which has hitherto been all that we have known.

A word which sees the dust start to fly. A word which reduces to rubble so much that the past has built up.

It's a daunting thing being the driver of that demolition digger here today!