Peter’s Trouble
Yesterday we visited the palace where Benedictine liqueur is made.
It s a bizarre place, built at the end of the 19th century to function as a palace and a distillery. I find it bizarre because I expected it to be a monastery and not a modern palace.
While it houses all the books and artifacts that remind us of the amazing work of the monks who discovered the recipe for this elixir of health turned commercial product, the juxtaposition of the saintly and the audacious is striking.
Even the stained glass windows have modern images, including a bottle of the liqueur.
Also among the artifacts is a sculpture of Peter looking like he is too tired to stay awake.
How many times have we felt that way?
But here it reminds me of Charlie Brown saying “Good Grief.”
Something is wrong with this picture and it makes me wonder if this palace is a metaphor for our churches today.
Are we trying to make our churches like this palace, filled with vestiges of our faith, but focused on something else, like profitability and sustainability, music and the arts?
An interesting thing the guide told us yesterday stuck with me. She was thankful the company was keeping the palace as a meeting place for the company executives from around the world.
Never used as a palace, since the owner died before it was completed, it stands today as a museum and tourist attraction, sitting on a distillery in the basement. I wonder. Would the current owner, Bacardi have built such a place?
Wouldn’t they just build a distillery?
As we made our way to the basement distillery to see the casks, we passed by an art exhibit and posters for a music program. The building needs revenue to stay in operation as a destination. It is not just a distillery at all.
I look at Peter and imagine him troubled by the state of Christianity today, with our churches trying to be destinations as well as places of worship. He is the rock on which the church was built and today so many church buildings are falling apart, with too few attending services to support them.
If we were looking to start the Church today, what would it look like?
Would we need a house of worship? Or would we build mission centers with small chapels?
What do you think?
More to come...