Liturgy and Architecture as a Christian Woman

We have already seen that simplicity in worship (and in architecture) cannot be contrasted with beauty, as though it were an alternative to it. Simplicity is an aesthetic trait, and those who think that a building or a liturgy is automatically beautiful because it is complicated, with the maximum number of gold filigrees on it, are not being aesthetically wise. But it is simplicity that is aesthetically valuable, not laziness.

Simplicity is beautiful when it is elegant. Complexity is beautiful when it is understated. The lines should be clean, not cluttered. Simplicity as an element of beauty is not to be used as a convenient excuse to remain unchallenged, staying with what you are used to. The space we worship in should be human, which means that we are simultaneously at home there, and challenged to rise above our current level.

Compare what we are going to do architecturally and liturgically with what a godly woman should do to adorn herself. She should adorn herself, and she should make herself beautiful. But the Bible is explicit that this is not to be done by bedizening oneself with various spangles.

If the church is the bride of Christ, one of the characteristics her adornment should have—as that adornment is architecturally expressed—is the characteristic of modesty. When Scripture addresses women about how they should adorn themselves, the consistent refrain is that women should not overdo it (1 Tim. 2:9; 1 Pet. 3:3-5).

As we build, we are adorning. So let us not put the make-up on with a trowel. Let us not assume that more is better, because an adorning simplicity actually says that less is more. In the book of Revelation, both the New and the Old Jerusalem are adorned. But one is adorned like a bride for her husband, and the other is adorned as a harlot who rides a beast—and she was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was covered in gold, jewels and pearls. The New Jerusalem had jewels too—but she wore them differently.

So let the stones cry out.