The Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, France is a feat of Medieval church architecture. Upon entering the chapel, worshippers and tourists find themselves surrounded on all sides by an overwhelming flood of blue, green, red, and white light from stained-glass windows depicting stories from the Bible and from heroes of the Christian faith.
In the Middle Ages, it was not uncommon for a church, chapel, or cathedral to be filled with ornate stained glass depictions of Bible stories. During this time, churches conducted their homilies and sermons in Latin, a language not regularly spoken by normal church-goers. As the people were told things they could not understand, and as their minds began to be consumed by the common hardships of the 13th Century, their wandering eyes could not help but fall upon the church’s beautiful depictions of Moses leading God’s people from slavery, John the Baptist telling the world about Christ, and Jesus’ resurrection on the third day. This allowed them to leave church encouraged and awestruck by God’s beauty even with the distractions of their everyday lives.
Many Medieval churches utilized stained glass to tell stories of the Christian faith. What makes the Sainte-Chapelle so special is the fact that, no matter where visitors turn, they are completely surrounded by stained glass depictions of the entire Bible. The. Entire. Bible. Every story of God’s faithfulness to his people encircles the visitors inside the Sainte-Chapelle. Worshippers and tourists cannot escape the multi-chromatic light of God’s love, mercy, and beauty throughout the ages.
The Saint-Chapelle’s stained glass windows. Image from Wikipedia.
We, the modern worshippers of God, do not typically go out of our way to tell God’s stories through stained glass anymore, but we still have the chance to surround worshippers and “visitors” with God’s light. We can reach all of our friends and loved ones with a single tweet, social media status update, or blog post. Right now, so many people are easily and justifiably distracted by discouraging news of hardship, much as they were in the 13th Century. Let’s do our part against that!
One of our jobs as the Church is to help flood the world with God's light, and now more than ever, the world is starving for light. Let’s let God’s beauty and faithfulness be known and shown through all of our actions over the next few weeks. Whether we are in grocery stores, at the doctor’s office, at home, or here on the internet, let’s make God’s light inescapable!
-Travis Morrill
Communications and Facilities Administrator at Friends Community Church
