Gordon MacDonald, in an article...
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Gordon MacDonald, in an article in Leadership Journal titled "Speaking into Crisis," wrote of German theologian Helmut Thielicke's visit to the United States not long after the Second World War. Thielicke was taken to visit the brand-new United Nations building in New York. The tour included a visit to the U.N.'s interfaith chapel -- a plain, nearly empty room of austere beauty. The only decorations in the chapel were a set of spotlights that shone on the back wall.
Thielicke's faith had been forged in the crucible of World War II. He knew there are some times, difficult times, when you simply need to know what you believe in, and be clear about that. He was appalled at the vague, unspecific religiosity of that chapel. Later, he wrote of what he had seen:
"The spotlights were ignorant of what they were illuminating, and the responsible [people] who were invited to come to this room were not shown to whom they should direct their thoughts. It was a temple of utterly weird desolation, an empty, ruined field of faith long since fled only here, where the ultimate was at stake, only here was emptiness and desolation. Would it not have been more honest to strike this whole pseudo-temple out of the budget and use the space for a cloakroom or a bar?"
Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus "is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being." He is the one on whom the spotlights fall.
Thielicke's faith had been forged in the crucible of World War II. He knew there are some times, difficult times, when you simply need to know what you believe in, and be clear about that. He was appalled at the vague, unspecific religiosity of that chapel. Later, he wrote of what he had seen:
"The spotlights were ignorant of what they were illuminating, and the responsible [people] who were invited to come to this room were not shown to whom they should direct their thoughts. It was a temple of utterly weird desolation, an empty, ruined field of faith long since fled only here, where the ultimate was at stake, only here was emptiness and desolation. Would it not have been more honest to strike this whole pseudo-temple out of the budget and use the space for a cloakroom or a bar?"
Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus "is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being." He is the one on whom the spotlights fall.
