11 September 2024

Recently, I had a wedding in an old chapel which is roofless. I was told by a member of the family that it probably never had a roof. This was improbable to me but I was intrigued. Why would a kirk be built without a roof. Three reasons.

Firstly, to see the stars! When you are in love, you see stars. Isn’t that right? Abraham was asked to count the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the shore. Which is the greater? There are multiple stars for every grain of sand.  Seeing stars leads us to wonder and opens us up to the natural world.

Adam and Eve met in a garden where God walked in the cool of the day. Bride and groom in ’Song of Songs’ celebrate their love for one another in the natural world - the lily of the valley, the apple tree, the turtle dove, pomegranates, dates, figs, wheat,  wine and honey!

Secondly, to respect transience. There is something impermanent about a roofless kirk. It is open to the elements and reveals the passage of time in its eroded stone. Just as the rain leaves its mark in stone, so lovers leave their mark in hearts and lives.

In Christian marriage, this indelible mark is the sign of a cross for it is a love which  makes sacrifices for the other. ‘My luv is like a red, red rose’, yes it has beauty and sweet perfume but it also has thorns. Love cannot be grasped nor possessed. It wears a crown of thorns because true love suffers.

Thirdly, to grow in wisdom. When Solomon  built the  temple, he gave thanks to God. In his wisdom, he said in his prayer, ‘Heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built.’ A kirk without a roof opens us up to this truth. God cannot be contained nor constrained by us.

And neither can love for, as St. John says, ‘God is love and those who live in love, live in God.’ St. Paul reveals the secret. ‘Love never faileth.’ It is eternal. This eternity is celebrated in this roofless chapel because it opens us up to heaven on earth in the love which ‘binds all things together in perfect harmony’.

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