Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness Part 1 - June 2024
St. Mary's Cathedral, Erfurt, Germany
Photo credit: Pastor Nathan D. Hooks, 2017
“Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.”
1 Chronicles 16:29, Psalm 29:2, Psalm 96:9
Part 1
In the year 987, Russian emissaries of Vladimir the Great sent to Constantinople reported back concerning their experience in one of the world’s most well-known churches there named, Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom):
“We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. For on earth there is no such beauty, and we are at a loss how to describe it. We only know that God dwells there among men...”
Hagia Sophia is a massive structure that stands to this day in the city now known as Istanbul. It has been a church, then a mosque, then a museum to both, but in recent years has been re-consecrated as a mosque by the Islamic authorities. We will likely never see it as those Christians did who worshiped there in earlier centuries. Islamic rule long ago purged and covered up the majority of the paintings, icons, mosaics, and Christian symbols.
The quote from those Russian emissaries in 987 about the beauty of the place, and feeling as if they might be in heaven, reminds me of the scripture quote at the top of this column: “Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.” The words themselves are beautiful, but what does this mean? Many English translations say, “Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness,” while the King James and our translation in the Lutheran Book of Worship have “beauty of holiness.” The Hebrew word there means adornment and glory. So this beauty is a physical thing to enhance public worship. Often this refers to holy attire, that is, the garments one wears to worship such as the pastor’s vestments. But it can also be extended to other material objects in a worship space that are for the purpose of beautification; surrounding us and pointing us to heavenly realities while we worship the Lord.
Those Russian emissaries said that they could not tell whether they were in heaven or on earth. Indeed this is a truth of worship. Worship is a thin place where the veil is removed; the tension between the now and the not yet is eased, and we participate in heaven on earth. We take seriously the proclamation in the Communion liturgy that says, “…and so with the church on earth, AND the hosts of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn.” In worship, the church on earth, the church triumphant, and all angels and archangels join voices in song before the throne of God.
It is important, then, that we make our worship spaces as beautiful as we can, because those precious, holy adornments and symbols teach us, lift our eyes upward, and help us think about the things of God and the things that are above. Why does the pastor wear vestments? Why does the choir wear robes? Why have stained glass windows, banners, icons, paraments (altar cloths), candles, and symbols? It is because all these things help us in our worship to participate in heaven here and now in this present life. And while no object on earth can fully display the holiness of God, they do help us participate in physical ways in the beauty of the Lord’s own holiness, which by his grace he has bestowed upon us.
The peace of the Lord be with you,
Pastor Hooks