The following post is from February 16, 2009. As you know the
Washington National Cathedral and the Washington Monument were badly
damaged in an earthquake in August of 2011. Was that earthquake a message to us? I think
it may very well have been. I love America and that sentiment is written
throughout these posts but I love it as the gift that has been given to
Americans and to the world. It is the Gift-Giver that deserves our
adoration! God will either save America for His purposes or He will let
us fall in our own delusion. He will not be mocked nor can we convince Him to see it our way. We will either prostrate ourselves before Him or
He will prostrate us before our enemies. I bring this post back today as the Washington D. C. area is in the news as a blizzard bears down on it.
Memorials
I visit Washington D.C. occasionally, even though it is essentially a giant Masonic symbol complete with an Obelisk in the middle. There is a similarity here with the temples of ancient Athens. As you walk up the steps to the Lincoln Memorial, Abe's eyes stare down at you. In fact, written above President Lincoln's marble statue are the words "In this temple, as in the hearts of the people, for whom he saved the Union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined..." I'll walk slowly and reverently in the "V" shaped Vietnam War Memorial. There was controversy with this architecture at first, for being cut into the ground seemed to give an aura of defeat to it but there is no defeat at that memorial, the defeat in Vietnam is in the halls of Congress and universities. I'm solemn when I walk around the new WWII Memorial and currently I'm having a difficult time reading through a book on the Bataan Death March...man's inhumanity towards man! The Korean War Memorial is also a favorite.
My father is buried across the Potomac in Arlington National Cemetery. When there I also visit Robert Dean Stethem's grave site. He was the heroic young Navy diver that terrorists murdered during a TWA hijacking in 1985 and then threw his body out of the plane and onto the tarmac. I also find myself looking up at Robert E. Lee's home that was confiscated during the war and think of those who lost their lives in that conflict.
The Apostle Paul walked among the temples of Athens and came upon an altar with the inscription..."To the unknown god." He then said to the Athenians..."what therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you." Our temple to the unknown god is the Washington National Cathedral, the site of state funerals for Presidents Eisenhower, Reagan and Ford. Congress had designated it a National House of Prayer. Our memorials of brick and stone have a place but it is in front of our pulpits where we should worship. Should we ever realize this, the Washington National Cathedral would become an oddity with more relevance to ancient Athens than the founding of the United States of America.
Memorials
I visit Washington D.C. occasionally, even though it is essentially a giant Masonic symbol complete with an Obelisk in the middle. There is a similarity here with the temples of ancient Athens. As you walk up the steps to the Lincoln Memorial, Abe's eyes stare down at you. In fact, written above President Lincoln's marble statue are the words "In this temple, as in the hearts of the people, for whom he saved the Union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined..." I'll walk slowly and reverently in the "V" shaped Vietnam War Memorial. There was controversy with this architecture at first, for being cut into the ground seemed to give an aura of defeat to it but there is no defeat at that memorial, the defeat in Vietnam is in the halls of Congress and universities. I'm solemn when I walk around the new WWII Memorial and currently I'm having a difficult time reading through a book on the Bataan Death March...man's inhumanity towards man! The Korean War Memorial is also a favorite.
My father is buried across the Potomac in Arlington National Cemetery. When there I also visit Robert Dean Stethem's grave site. He was the heroic young Navy diver that terrorists murdered during a TWA hijacking in 1985 and then threw his body out of the plane and onto the tarmac. I also find myself looking up at Robert E. Lee's home that was confiscated during the war and think of those who lost their lives in that conflict.
The Apostle Paul walked among the temples of Athens and came upon an altar with the inscription..."To the unknown god." He then said to the Athenians..."what therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you." Our temple to the unknown god is the Washington National Cathedral, the site of state funerals for Presidents Eisenhower, Reagan and Ford. Congress had designated it a National House of Prayer. Our memorials of brick and stone have a place but it is in front of our pulpits where we should worship. Should we ever realize this, the Washington National Cathedral would become an oddity with more relevance to ancient Athens than the founding of the United States of America.
