We had a terrific Quiz Night on the evening of Friday 18^th September and all credit to two young people in particular, Andrew Scott and Adam Duff; though there was a bigger gang involved, and it was all thought out very well and the questions were very good. Well done to all concerned!

What about the tallest building in the world? Not the most straight-forward question, but perfectly explained during the quiz. The current, official holder of the title “The Tallest Building in the World”, seemingly, and I hope I’ve got this right now, is Taipei 101 in Taiwan, although it has been superseded by the Burj Dubai which was topped-off at 2,684 feet on 17^th January 2009. It will not have the official title until it is fully completed and then opened, they hope, by 2^nd December this year.

The tallest structure in Washington D.C. is the Washington Monument. It is an obelisk to commemorate America’s first President, and at the time it was the world’s tallest structure when completed in 1884, until the Eiffel Tower was built in Paris in 1889.

In the city of Washington, there can never be a building of greater height than the Washington Monument; it’s actually only 555 feet high. On the very cap of the monument, two words are displayed; Laus Deo.

You can’t see these words and most people would not be aware that they are there. In a sense these words overlook the 69 square miles which comprise the District of Columbia, capital of the United States.

Two seemingly insignificant, unnoticed words, but very meaningfully placed at the highest point over what is the most powerful city in the most successful nation in the world. They mean, “Praise be to God”.

I believe that from atop of this magnificent granite and marble structure, visitors may take in the beautiful panoramic view of the city with its division into four segments. From that vantage point, one can see the original plan of the designer, a perfect cross imposed upon the landscape, with the white House to the North, The Jefferson Memorial to the South, the Capitol to the East and the Lincoln Memorial to the West.

We may forget the height of the building or the size of the letters, and we may even forget those who put the words there in the first place, but no-one who knows those words will be able to forget their meaning and also be reminded of a verse from the Psalms, “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.” (Psalm 127:1)

When we build bigger and better, when go faster and higher, I often wonder do we ever do it to the glory of God, really? Even some of our magnificent church buildings on these islands, and just think of some of the incredible cathedral buildings in England, for example,are they all really built with the glory of God in mind, or are we really celebrating the advancement and technology and innovation of man, rather than God?

Is this what Jesus heard the disciples arguing about – who is the greatest, the best, the favourite? Is it their own concerns they are worried about, or the concerns of God?

You know well the origin of the Totem Pole amongst the Indian tribes of native Americans! Some anthropologist will probably correct me on this one, but I think the basic idea was the representation on totem poles of certain characteristics and traits of a particular tribe. If they were reputed to be fast or agile, they might carve a deer, or of being as cute as a fox, or whatever animals that seemed to portray perfectly the traits and characteristics of the tribe. As time went on and the Totem began to build, many animals were depicted.

This is a work of art, we must celebrate! And so it became the focus of the people. So much so that it was worshipped and admired and it held a place of complete importance, knowing it had assumed a place of great significance, which, indeed, it had become. They worshipped the Totem because it was bigger and better than one individual. But the question is, when they sang and worshipped and danced around the Totem Pole, what were they actually worshipping? ... They were worshipping themselves!

“Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain”.

I often wonder do we ever really offer all our efforts and work to the glory of God, rather than to the glory of ourselves. Do we ever really give him the credit, when things go right, or are we happy to take all the praise ourselves?

We can wonder and marvel at the wonders of science and technology, but I think we should always be aware, that we do so under God’s watchful eye.

We have the freedom to do it! We have the freedom to give him the glory and we have the freedom to give ourselves the glory. We have the freedom to love and we have the freedom to hate. If we didn’t have the freedom to love, then we can never truly love. You can’t be made to love someone, because that wouldn’t be love; we’d be like robots. So for God to want us to love him, truly, he had to give us the freedom to love him (or else it wouldn’t be truly love) and, indeed also he had to give us the freedom to hate him, or ignore him.

It’s our choice; to worry about our own work and achievement, or to offer it all up to the glory of God. For unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain.

I hope we can appreciate the choice, and I hope we can choose wisely.