Building an Altar

It is looking more and more likely that many of us will be staying indoors, turning our dwellings into our workplaces, restaurants, cafés, studios, and social centers. Social engagement will look more like phone calls than being at church. What will this look like for worship?

This week, our Lenten focus is on worship and as our experience of worship will be different for the next few weeks, it is the perfect time to consider what worship means to us and to God. When we worship, we give adoration and reverence to God. Worship is a time when we attune ourselves to the guidance of the Spirit, lean into the wisdom of people of faith throughout generations, and more fully consider our role in bringing the kin-dom of heaven to earth by our words, actions, and postures.

As we enter into thinking about worship this week, I invite you to find a space in your home that can be your altar -- maybe it’s temporary, for this time, or maybe it’s permanent. Altars are spaces dedicated to the holy, places we can find God routinely. They can be in our homes, in our cars, even in our wallets or our imaginations. In our home, we have an altar that faces the door. Is it filled with photos of our ancestors, sacred texts, meaningful objects, and mementos of cultures around the globe. On our altar are also candles, incense, and sage -- relics of the faith of our ancestors and objects that can bring our senses into worship.

Where is your altar? What is on it? How can you worship at your altar this week?

If you are able, send in a photo of your altar or describe it so we can worship with you.