When we were in New York, one of the highlights of our trip was going to the top of the Empire State Building at night looking out over the city. The view was breathtaking! We paid a little extra and got the audio tour: A set of headphones with the voice of a guy named Tony who pointed out all the attractions of the city. It was well done and really enjoyable. At one interval Tony pointed out one of the historic churches in town and stressed how small it is compared to all the commercial buildings. He explained that the reason is because New York, unlike many other historic American cities, wasn't established as a religious center, but as a business center. The comment bugged me a little, but otherwise Tony did a good job and we really enjoyed the tour.
A couple of days later we visited the Tribute Center at ground zero. It was an inspirational tour led by a survivor of the attacks on the World Trade Center. During the tour, he pointed out how every building around the perimeter of the towers was damaged (windows blown out, sides of the building scorched by fire). Every building but one: St. Paul's Chapel (one of the oldest churches in America). It sits right on the perimeter of where the towers stood and yet it wasn't damaged at all. Not a scratch! In fact, it became the staging center for feeding the flood of relief workers who carried out the recovery efforts amidst the wreckage of the fallen towers.
As I heard this, I thought of Tony's comments from the audio tour at The Empire State Building and I thought, "No matter what man's motive in building this city (commerce, trade, materialism) the church stands by the grace of God to accomplish His will and purpose on the earth! When all the business, commercialism, buildings and trade come crashing to the ground, His work continues and nothing can stop it! Jesus said, "Upon this Rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it!" (Matt. 16:18)
