Text: Psalm 22. Hymn: 645, Built on the Rock.
Sound bite: “Take Time Out for Jesus,” by Eddie Owens.
Even when steeples are falling.
Go ahead and turn the volume up on this one, unless it would get you fired. It wouldn’t sound good for me to belt it out, but it’s OK for you. 
Psalm 22 is noteworthy for its prophecies about Christ on the cross, but the gospel at the end is a nice counter to the despair at the start.
TURRIE on 
Dan
In my own church, we have only sung this hymn once or twice since I joined around 8 years ago. I woke up that morning to the news that Christian churches were under attack in the Holy Land. I still get chills up my spine when I sing
Built on the Rock the Church doth stand
Even when steeples are falling.
Crumbled have spires in every land;
Bells still are chiming and calling.
Throughout the church’s history and even today, she stands in the face of persecution. Yet even then she calls distressed souls through the proclamation of the Gospel, through Holy Absolution, through Baptism, and through the very body and blood of our Lord in Holy Communion.
In the case of the particular steeple depicted, the toppling was due to an abandonment by
a nominally Lutheran denomination of the Word and its own theological heritage to build on the quicksand of political correctness.
A tornado did that to Central Lutheran in Minneapolis at the exact time when, across the street at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly, debate was scheduled on the acceptance of homosexuality as the moral equivalent of relations between husband and wife.
The US Church is under attack here, just not with bombs and physical warfare. Public policies can restrict God’s Law from being preached in its fullness. Public schools deny student access to Biblical views on all sorts of issues. News outlets often do not present the full story when anti-Christian views are spouted.
We also have subtle attacks. Popular books such as The Shack and DaVinci Code are often read as fact and not fiction, and propagate false views of key Christian doctrine.
Then, of course, there is the amalgamation of religious views, where pagan philosophy and culture are absorbed by Christians, as though all religions are equal. We rationalize this by saying things like we all worship the same god, it doesn’t matter as long as I’m trying, etc.
Yet the Church remains here as a beacon to the lost, both those under her wing and those outside of it through Word and Sacrament ministry. As stanza 5 states:
Here stands the font before our eyes,
Telling how God has received us.
The-alter recalls Christ’s sacrifice
And what His supper here gives us.
Here sounds the Scriptures that proclaim
Christ yesterday, today, the same,
and evermore our Redeemer.
Some of the more subtle attacks of the church are reflected in this article over at Abide in My Word
Pastor Messer comments on Lutherans who now attend other denominations and why they left. The beliefs that any denomination is good enough, that mega-non-denom-church with all the programs MUST be doing something right, or that 25 miles is just too far to travel to church all serve as attacks on the Church.
Doctrine matters! The beliefs mentioned undermine sound doctrine as though it is not important to the believer. Good, solid catechesis is the remedy for this kind of apathy.
On the positive side, Rev. Messer also looks at Lutherans who remain in the church and a convert as well.
Praise God for those who cling to Jesus as he is proclaimed in truth and purity, and as His Sacraments are rightly distributed!
Domestically, we may not have to concern ourselves with church steeples crumbling due to the bombs of war, however, I find that they do crumble due to apathy, materialism, and political correctness. Further, there are so many
“churches” not built on the Rock, but on our own meeger accomplishments. So as you say, we must continue in all earnest to continue to proclaim the Gospel in all its strength and purity.