Deconsecration

On an evening several weeks ago, I met up with a friend to have dinner, and to use the popular Christianese-Americanism; to "do life" (i.e. to talk, share, pray, listen and to seek to speak wisdom into each others situations; what a privilege).  

As each friendship has its own inimitable, un-replicable and often undefinable identity; so does ours, and in an act of pathetic fallacy so did our location. The location in question was a relaxed cafe-come-bar based in a converted or "deconsecrated" church now called Frevds (pronounced Freuds) in the Oxford district of Jericho.   

As we sat in this place, my apologist friend and me -the prospective ordinand- I couldn't help but think about the heritage of the building, once a church and now a bar, and the notion of "deconsecration". 

Just yesterday, I was reading an article defining priesthood from a Catenian perspective which notably mentioned: 

"Once [they] have been ordained... there is no turning back; the obligations of ordained ministry are part of [their] life."

As the interior of Frevds continues to bear stained-glass windows, pews, and an altar (visual signifiers pertaining to organised religion and in this context very ostensibly to christian "church") I was struck by the life applications it represented, especially in relation to those in -or perhaps- (contrary to the above quotation) newly "out" of ministry. 

The image that most "caught" my heart from within Frevds, was the altar, no longer bearing materials for sacraments, scriptures, or vestments; instead bearing a banner reading "Frevds" and yet still unequivocally, unignorably an altar. 

I came to this conclusion: each one of us has an altar in our lives;  somewhat like an empty table at the very centre of our heart. The table is always an altar, no matter what your beliefs are, from which the living God who knit us together in our mother's womb (XXXX) designed us to receive "our daily bread" (XXXX) and before which we are to lay down our sacrifices of praise.

In our faith, we are placing subjects on the altar that govern us, become the subjects of our affection and attention, and often the defining forces of our lives. 

Here's the key: though we can put on the altar whatever we like; though we can dress it how we please, with the banner of another faith or none if we so wish; the altar is always God's because He put it there in the first place. It is symbolic of the eternity that He has placed within the heart of every man (Ecclesiastes 3:11). 

Who do we put on our altar? 

What do we leave before it? 

How does this define and change the way we live life?

Are we consecrated to Christ?  

NB: For anybody wondering; I have no idea if the Freud in question is Lucian, Sigmund, or some other Freud altogether. I like his paintings though.