G. K. Chesterton published “Orthodoxy” in 1908. Who was G. K. Chesterton? A brilliant, rotund, witty, insightful Catholic English man-of-letters. Before C. S. Lewis captured the popular imagination for Christian thoughtfulness, G. K. Chesterton made people chuckle with his shambling but sharp Christian apologetics. [Oh, and BTW, Chesterton was the inventor of the “Father Brown” mysteries still popular on British television.]
Chesterton provides an entrance into the next series of posts on worship: “What’s In A Place?”
The quote below comes from chapter 5, “The Flag of the World” in “Orthodoxy:
“This, as a fact, is how cities did grow. Go back to the darkest roots of civilization and you will find them knotted round some sacred stone or encircling some sacred well. People first paid honor to a spot and afterwards gained glory for it. Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved her. ... Morality did not begin by one man saying to another, “I will not hit you if you do not hit me”; there is no trace of such a transaction. There is a trace of both men having said, “We must not hit each other in the holy place.” They gained their morality by guarding their religion. They did not cultivate courage. They fought for the shrine, and found they had become courageous. They did not cultivate cleanliness. They purified themselves for the altar, and found that they were clean.”
Chesterton has a wonderful way of saying what is self-evidently true yet, probably, before he pointed it out, you hadn’t quite realized how true. The point Chesterton makes is that the pursuit, or the protection, of what is sacred is primary. Being changed to become like God is a process which will not end on this side of eternity. We are being changed. We are always becoming. “We press on to make [perfection in Christ] our own because Christ Jesus has made us His own.” (c.f., Phil. 3.12). To acknowledge and actively revere what is holy shapes us towards holiness. We do not become holy by following ourselves. We become holy – over a lifetime – by following the One who IS holy.
The next post will begin to apply the pursuit of holiness to worship.