When God planted the first Garden Temple, He placed it not only in Eden but in the East of Eden. Water flowed through that garden to refresh the world. In this original advent of our Triune God, He claimed a particular plot of land in which our father Adam would commune with Him and from which Adam and his household would be fruitful and exercise dominion. This original house of worship in Eden’s Paradise was not an end in itself, but the essential conduit through which the power and glory of God would spread throughout all of Eden and to the ends of the earth.

In God’s kindness to Christ Church, He has granted us a plot of land and a house of worship. In His peculiar providence, our house of worship is planted in the east of Moscow with a road running to a from it called Dominion Way. Stranger still, water runs through this land where our Church Hall sits, water that begins atop Moscow Mountain and passes right by the west side of our own Garden Temple here before flowing into and through Moscow. The name of this water source just so happens to be Paradise Creek. I lie not. The choir there can look out of the western window behind them and see it.

As we dedicate this Church Hall today with great gratitude, remember that our worship here in this place is the means through which our God and Father will extend His kingdom throughout all of Moscow and over all the world. As we assemble at this earthly tabernacle, remember we ascend to the tabernacle made by no human hand, where the Last Adam sits between His first and second advent. And as we offer living and holy sacrifices here, remember they are fueled by the Holy Spirit who like Living Water has been poured out from the Heavenly Jerusalem into our hearts to give life to the world.

Let the heart of our anthem from this house of worship be: All of Christ, for all of life, for all of Moscow.