This is a sermon from our Father among the Saints John of San Francisco, Wonderworker, in 1962. He was referring specifically, at that time, to the construction of the "Joy of All Who Sorrow" Cathedral in San Francisco, yet his words are timeless. It is always a time to build. 

Time to Build

By Saint John [Maximovitch] of San Francisco & Shanghai

Some people are saying: "The time is not come to build the Lord's house." Among them are many who are buying houses for themselves, who live in their own houses in full satisfaction of their material needs, or who are selling their homes to move into better and better dwellings, increasing their assets. It is understandable when such words are heard from unbelievers. But how can they be repeated by believers who themselves go to church?

A church is a place that is consecrated, holy, in which there always dwells the grace of God. At the consecration of Solomon's temple, the glory of the Lord in the appearance of a cloud filled the house of God. So it was in the Old Testament temple. How much more powerfully does the grace of God act in the temples of the New Testament, where there is offered a true cleansing from sin, where we partake of the true Body and Blood of Christ, where, during the Divine Liturgy, the Holy Spirit continually descends upon the Gifts being consecrated and upon the people present? One can pray anywhere, and God hears prayers from anywhere. But it's much easier to pray in a church where everything is conducive to prayer. From there our prayers ascend to God, and the mercies of God are sent down upon us.

The construction of a church is a sacrifice to God; to allocate a parcel of land for church services is to sacrifice to God part of your personal possessions, but most of all it is a gift of your love, your zeal.

Churches are not needed by God Whose throne is heaven and Whose footstool is the earth; it is we who need them. It is we who benefit from donating towards the building of churches, although the Lord accepts not so much the substance of our alms, as much as He does our zeal; the quality of our effort. Christ approved the widow's mite, saying that she had given more than anybody else, for the rich cast in a great deal from their abundance, but she gave all she had, all her livelihood. Those alms we give in the name of God are received by God Himself. Spiritually, our alms are laid up in the treasuries of heaven, God's treasuries, from which nobody can steal them away. If someone steals any church possession, he steals from God Himself and the Lord God Himself punishes him.

At each Liturgy, those who contributed to the building of the church are commemorated. In building churches here on earth, we create for ourselves eternal habitations in heaven. Decades will pass, our bodies will decay, perhaps our very bones will turn to dust, but our souls will live eternally. Happy will they be who prepare for their souls a dwelling in the heavenly mansions. Even if the churches, which are built, fall into ruins, the names of those who contributed to their construction will be written in God's eternal books, and the prayers that arose from within these churches will be sealed.