The Sanctuary Lamp

Clarification: I have no objections to reserving the consecrated host or using a sanctuary lamp to announce the fact.

Below is a reproduction of the type-written mimeograph printed for the consecration of our sanctuary lamp that has been hanging in our chancel for 37 years as a memorial for my deceased uncle, who died the year he would have been confirmed when I was four years old. Perhaps our then-pastor wrote it or maybe the publishing house editors; I don't know:

+ + The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out. Lev. 6:13

+ + I will not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. Isaiah 62:1

THE SANCTUARY LAMP

The sanctuary lamp is one of the many outward things the church uses to express the more important inward things of spiritual life. The book, the cross, the altar, the candles--all have become beautiful and meaningful only because of the spiritual values they portray.

The sanctuary lamp comes from the altar fire of the tabernacle, which by God's command was never to be put out. It was to remind man of God's gift of fire for the light and warmth of man. He must not forget how closely life is bound to his Maker.

Abiding Life

The lamp in the church tells of an abiding life, a life before our life and beyond our life. Only by reason of this life do we have life at all. We are not just accidents. Behind our life is something better than a fate or a force. Behind our life is a Father in whom we live.

Abiding Love

The sanctuary lamp also stands for the love of God immanent in His creation: God abiding in His world. If God would not be, there would be no world; and we would not be. We believe in the One God who contains all things in Himself, and gives us life. As He once said, "Let there be light," and lighted the world, so as we light the lamp which came into the world with the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We have a light within our souls, and that light is the presence of God. We may think of ourselves as lamps of God bearing about the light of Christ shining within us.

Abiding Purpose

The sanctuary lamp also stands for the abiding purpose of God. It is kept burning constantly because it declares that "Love never faileth." Our love will fail Him, but we can go to His outstretched hands and every time be caught to his heart, even though we break that heart with our sins. The lamp bears witness to that. It never goes out.

Such is the meaning of the sanctuary lamp. It is not just another pretty thing. It represents the abiding life of the life and love of the living Christ. Sometimes the church is empty, sometimes it is crowded with people. Sometimes it is filled with light and sunshine, sometimes it slumbers in the dark of night. But always the light burns there. It symbolizes the light of God out of whose hands we can never fall, whose "love never faileth" no matter what darkness may be around.

+ WE CONSECRATE +

The sanctuary lamp

in

Zion Lutheran Church

Poplar Bluff, Missouri

This day

March 25, 1973

+ TO THE GLORY OF GOD +

and in loving memory

of

JASON WAYNE SCHOLL

who died on March 22, 1972

at the age of thirteen

"IT IS WELL WITH THE LAD."

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