The Once and Future Tabernacle
Religion for the real world
When the pandemic closed the churches, it felt like being kicked out of the Garden again. Desperate to stay alive, congregations invented online services overnight, and now virtual church is here to stay. But where is here?
We are worshippers tabernacled (yup, you can verb it; I looked it up) in our homes, like the primitive Christians in house churches. Ministers are now voice crying in the wilderness, like the ancient prophets, relying on the spirit and our bandwidth. Many of the smaller churches may never physically reopen. And in some ways, it felt like the end of everything.
I think it’s just the beginning.
“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
– Winston S. Churchill, November 1942
But what in the world is a tabernacle?
For years, since I grew up unchurched, as they say, I only had a vague idea of what a tabernacle was, except that it was the place where the Mormons had choir rehearsals. But I loved the sound of the word — still do — and I knew it meant something specific and important.
