Serving in the courts of the Lord

Preached at Choral Evensong as the Minster gave thanks for Denise Mead, Verger and Administrator, who retires at Christmas.

‘My soul hath a desire and longing to enter into the courts of the Lord : my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.’

Psalm 84.2

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Those words are from psalm 84.

It is a psalm that rejoices in the praise of God in his holy sanctuary.

When that psalm was composed the holy dwelling place of God was understood to be the temple in Jerusalem: the place of encounter between heaven and earth, God and humanity.

That temple was an echo of the first ‘temple’, as we might call it, the Garden of Eden, the place of right worship and life with God, which humanity vacated after the disobedience there.

The earthly temple, whose dimensions were given by God, was a vital sign of how things are meant to be between God and humanity (Exodus 40), and this is what that temple in Jerusalem came to be.

But the mission of Jesus expands the vision of the temple dramatically.

The temple is now not the huge stone edifice in Jerusalem, decorated with gold and cedar wood and rich fabrics; it is not solely for the worship of the people of Israel but for all nations, for the temple is Jesus Christ himself.

Remember after he cleansed the earthly temple in Jerusalem at the beginning of his ministry in St John’s Gospel?

Jesus declared:

“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2.19)

Those locked into the ways of the earthly temple replied:

“It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” (v20)

‘But’, St John reminds us, ‘Jesus was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. (vv.21-22)

So, the temple is reimagined, expanded, and is Jesus’ body so that all people can, like the sparrow in the psalm find a house, and like the swallow, nestle and nurture.

And each church building, the sanctuary of God, is an expression in stone of the hospitality of Jesus and the worship of the people of God.

And what a privilege, a ‘duty and a joy’, it is to spend time in God’s house.

The psalm captures it: ‘my soul hath a desire and longing to enter the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God’.

This psalm should be a beloved one to all Christians, expressing the desire and longing we have to dwell in the beauty of the presence of Jesus Christ.

Yet I can’t help but feel that this is a psalm that is especially dear to Vergers.

‘Verger’ is not a word that many people outside the church know.

And it needs to be better known in the church too.

To be a verger is to work day by day in the dwelling of the Lord of hosts, in the courts of the Lord.

Vergers are custodians, with incumbents and churchwardens, of the building set apart for the holy worship of God.

To be a verger is to help order and smooth the way for the worship of the church and her liturgies.

You’re cut out to be a verger if you can say:

For one day in thy courts : is better than a thousand.

I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God : than to dwell in the tents of ungodliness.

Now, a paraphrase of the Bible called ‘The Message’ puts those verses like this:

One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship,
    beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches.
I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God
    than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin.

It’s not a translation, but it captures the sense of things.

Now this isn’t a speech, it’s a sermon, but it is true to say that Denise has exemplified this spirit.

Denise is not to be found on Greek islands in preference to this place – in fact getting her to have a holiday at all is quite a task!

And you can see what this place has over a foreign holiday.

This glorious Minster church: with its still beauty, early in the morning; its intense darkness when locking up after midnight Mass or the Easter Vigil, with only the flicker of the sacrament lamp giving light; with its soaring beauty, filled with music, incense and praise; with its light streaming across from the high south windows during the Sunday Eucharist, baptisms, weddings and funerals; with its simple presence as the doors are opened for the people of the parish to come in and pray during the week.

Here the verger is to be found, nesting in a church, like the swallows of the psalm.

Of course, swallows are migrating birds; they are here for a season and then fly to warmer climes, but whilst they are here it is home, their lodging place.

Soon Denise will fly away from this sanctuary, but will find another: the Lord opens his house to her, as to all people.

The true measure of a verger, as of any Christian, is to cherish the Lord’s house, but to desire and long for something even more precious, and that is life in Jesus Christ.

That is why for Denise, as for vergers through the generations, being a verger is a vocation, a calling from God, a way of loving service in God’s house, with, and for, God’s people and all to his greater glory.

So, the earthly sanctuary points to the heavenly one.

The temple we ultimately dwell in is the life of the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church.

That is the meeting point of heaven and earth, God and humanity, and where truth, beauty and goodness is to be found.

Of life in Christ we can surely say:

My soul hath a desire and longing to enter into the courts of the Lord : my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.