Dedication of the Church and Altar
St. John the Evangelist Parish
Severna Park
August 20, 2025
Heaven and Earth Are Joined
Many of us followed the renovation of St. John the Evangelist Church on-line. We rejoiced to view electronic images of this church’s transformation. Yet nothing quite prepared us to walk in and witness a church renewed. The words of the psalmist express what we felt as we saw for ourselves the completion of a project we eagerly anticipated: “How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord God Almighty!”
How lovely indeed. It is the same church building in which you have worshipped for years, but thanks to the vision and leadership of your pastor, Fr. Eric Arnold, it now shines forth with new beauty and splendor. Let us thank him! So too must we thank the architects, artisans, and builders whose skill turned concept into reality and reality into joy. Yet none of this would have happened without the leadership, support, and participation of you, the parish family of St. John the Evangelist – and for that I truly do thank you!
In this moment of great happiness, let us go to the Source of our joy. For we come to this moment, not as builders of empire or devotees of art, but rather as men and women of faith, and thus do we look upon this beautifully renovated church with the eyes of faith. The visible beauty we can see lifts our mind and heart to the breathtaking beauty of the God we cannot see. The glorious work of architects, artisans, and builders reflects something of the unseen glory of God and the splendor of the worship of the new and heavenly Jerusalem. Gazing at the dome above us, we cry out with all the angels and saints, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!”
Visible Beauty, Unseen Glory
The visible beauty of this church sets the stage, so to speak, for us to participate in the unseen beauty of God. While we employ the precious materials of this earth in our craft, the glory of God exceeds anything we could ever ask or imagine. For the glory of God is not a matter of silver or gold but rather the self-giving love of the Persons of the Trinity. The Father loves the Son and hands everything over to him. The Son perfectly reflects the wisdom and love of the Father. And the bond of love between the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit. This is the glory, the holiness, the beauty of the God who is love.
Yet, God’s love is like a river that overflows its banks. In his overflowing love, God freely created us, for, “in the beginning was the Word.” When we sinned, “the Word became flesh” to redeem us, and it is in this house of prayer that the Incarnate Word dwells among us. God ardently desires that ‘we be saved come to a knowledge of the truth.’ Indeed, his all-consuming passion is that we freely accept and return his loveand in the process become pure and radiant with glory of his self-giving love. Thus, at the dawn of salvation history God communicated with Jacob in a dream establishing a ladder between heaven and earth with angels as messengers. When Jacob awoke, he understood that God was present in that place and the stone on which his head rested became an altar.
Just as God communicated with Jacob, so too does Jesus converse with the Samaritan woman at the well. She is thirsting for water; Jesus is thirsting for her faith. She is looking to ease her burdens; Jesus desires that she become ‘a worshipper in spirit and truth.’ Yet for that to happen, Jesus knew, he would have to do more than to reveal this woman to herself. He would have to do for her what he has done for us – to suffer, to die, and to rise from the dead to save us from our sins. For that reason Jesus mounted the gibbet of the Cross and, reflecting the self-giving love of the Father to the fullest, he laid down his life for us ‘while we were yet sinners’.
The Blessing of the Altar
The heart and center of this beautifully renewed church is the altar. It is upon this altar that the drama of our salvation will unfold day after day, Sunday after Sunday, for untold years to come. Yet this drama is unlike any other: we come here not for theatre but for reality – the truth and reality of God’s sacrificial love for us. For whenever the Eucharist is celebrated on the altar we are about to dedicate, the Paschal Mystery, Christ’s saving Death and Resurrection, become present so that you & I may share in it, & thus become ‘worshippers in spirit and truth.’ What unfolds on this altar is not something we produce but something we receive – ‘grace following upon grace’ (Jn 1:16). It is here where we actually encounter the God who died to save us, where we are actually saved of our sins, where heaven’s gates are actually opened to us. And from this altar we are truly fed with the Bread come down from heaven: the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ, given for our salvation.
Since the altar and this very church are where the work of God occurs, it is right to dedicate them to the glory of God…but what does this mean? In this liturgical rite, we do more than bless church and altar. We will consecrate them, i.e. to say, give them to God as his own possession. It’s not that God needs yet another altar or yet another church but he desires nothing more than that we would have a place on earth where work of our redemption is accomplished – where we are caught up in the great drama of our salvation, and where we can join our daily toil to the work of our redemption. That is what draws us to the altar God, the God of our gladness and joy.
Ultimately, we are drawn to this place of beauty, seen and unseen, so that we ourselves might be transformed, from sin to grace and from grace to glory. St. Paul reminds us that we are God’s building and that our foundation is no one other than Jesus Christ. As we dedicate the altar & then celebrate the sacrifice by which we are saved, let us beg for the grace to be joined to Christ as branches to a vine, and thus to be for all eternity the worshippers whom God desires. May God bless us and keep us always in his love!