Week #22: Discover Church as Sacred Space

What is your understanding of sacred space? Is it merely a spot conducive to relaxation and rest? Is the sacredness of a space dependent upon how much you enjoy your time there? Is there any difference between the sacredness found in cabin get-a-ways and golf-course greens, and that which is to fundamentally define the church?

Our life with God has become so individualized in contemporary society that I wonder if we downplay the understanding that church is the house of God. Truth be told, when talking about sacred space, does ‘church’ even enter our minds? A common quip today is “I don’t need to go to the church to be with God, I can worship God equally on the golf course, or the ski hill, or the summer cottage, or the coffee shop.” True. God is everywhere. We see this reality testified to again and again in scripture. Yet scripture also maintains that there is something special about the sacred space of the temple – or later on – the gathered collection of worshipers known as ‘the church’. The temple was seen as God’s house, the localized tent in which God’s presence would reside in magnificent glory. Even though God was everywhere, the psalmists would cry out ‘I was glad when they said, let us go to the house of The Lord’ (Psalm 122:1) or “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty’ (Psalm 84:1). Of course, the internal longing to be in the courts of The Lord was not based merely on the beauty of the building, or the majesty of its adornments. For those in the Old Testament and the New, to be in the temple was to be in the very presence of God, and to be surrounded by the wonderment of God’s divine activity.  God’s presence, localized in the context of the temple,  something incredibly special and unique, not to be duplicated or copied in other places within the world.

Is that the way we see the church today? Do we understand the church as sacred space, a space defined by God’s presence and activity? As we travel along the road and approach our buildings, do we believe, anticipate, andexpect that we will be in the presence of God?

Sadly, it is far too easy to see the church only in human terms. Church becomes nothing more than the place we come to sing religious songs, to hear scripture read, to touch base with friends. (Personally speaking, it is far too easy for me to see church as simply the place that I work. It is the building that houses my office). But if we understand the nature of the church only through the lens of what we do, we completely miss out on its blessed sacredness. If this is the case, then the adage is entirely correct: it does not matter if one goes to church for these religious actions can be done with the same effectiveness wherever one chooses to be.  In this way, sacredness simply becomes a function of where we are, not where God is. This obviously has disastrous effects on the how we view the church, and the God we worship. As Graham Standish writes in his book ‘Becoming a Blessed church’, God merely becomes ‘a theological principle we speculate about rather than a spiritual presence we encounter and experience.’

What is the church if it is not a place where we meet the very one who created, redeemed, and sustains us. Just as Moses was instructed before the burning bush to remove his sandals, as the place he stood was holy ground, so too, we should be overwhelmed by the presence of God active in and throughout the life of our churches.  We should enter through the doors of the church with our hearts leaping with anticipation over what God will do in our midst.

Why did the psalmists write so lovingly of the temple? Why did the disciples spend their time in the temple immediately following the resurrection? Why did Paul, Barnabas, Philip, and others, labour so hard to set up locations in which people would gather together in worship, if these places were not to be understood as spaces where we are invited to encounter the miraculous and powerful presence of our Lord.

Have you ever had the opportunity to sit alone in a church. If not, find a time to do just that. Schedule a time when the sanctuary is empty, and simply sit. Don’t pray specifically, although if your time turns into prayer that is alright. Just sit in God’s place and open yourself to the reality that you are in God’s presence in a special, unique, and blessed way. Open yourself to the Spirit’s movement within you, and around you. You don’t have to stay long, but try to let God define your time there.

After all, that is what sacred space is about isn’t it? Sacred space isn’t about us defining what we like to do, or how we like to interact with God. Sacred space is about submitting ourselves to the movement of God, and allowing God to take the lead in God’s own house.

Week #21: Celebrate!

The kingdom of God is filled with celebration.  We see this in the prophets, and later in John, as they peer into the heavens.  Endless worship and shouts of 'Hallelujah, 'Glory be to God' and 'Worthy to be praised' fills the lungs of all heaven's inhabitants. Jesus himself took up this imagery. He continually spoke of himself as the 'bridegroom.'  He imaged the Kingdom of God as a party and invited all to enter into such divine celebration.  For Jesus, and for all who take up his invitation, kingdom life is filled with exuberance and joy.  It's a wedding feast, an elaborate gala, a relentless rejoicing.

If scripture is filled with such descriptions of what life in God's kingdom is like, from where did we draw the conclusion that life with God is a bore?  When did we assume that focusing our life on immersion in God's kingdom meant sequestering ourselves from all pleasures and earthily enjoyments.

Yet so often, this is the very thought we have.  We see this particularly when talk turns to the dynamics of Christian discipline, or spiritual practices. After all, how could fasting be enjoyable?  Doesn't cultivating a life of prayer involve one's refusal to enjoy everyday life in order to lock one's self indoors and commit to endless navel-gazing?   Where is the fun in all of that?

Of course, when we add on the controversies, the back-biting, and the insults that sadly run alongside the christian community, we can see why some would conclude that God has nothing to do with fun, joy, or happiness.

Of course, as we saw above, this is not the case.  The kingdom of God is a party, and eternal celebration of the grandest scale.  The actives of faith, even the  more disciplined ones, only serve to usher us deeper into divine joy and abundant life.  As Richard Foster often explains, if the disciplines do not lead you into joy, you have missed the point.

We simply cannot expect to live our lives with any kingdom-focus if we deny the joyous experiences that God leads us into.  If we are too busy trying to live the christian life that we forget to enjoy the christian life, then we have failed to truly take up Christ's invitation.  The fruit of the Spirit involve love and joy, not just self control.  God's presence is intimately found in those times where we laugh and sing.

What is more, the invitation to join God in God's party is to be lived out in our lives.  We don't celebrate by ourselves.  We engage others.  We invite others.  We join others.  The community of faith is a community of kingdom-focused, Jesus loving, party-goers!

Where can you celebrate?  What can you celebrate?  Perhaps you should put down your prayer journal, or your disciplined fasting, and your times of service, and find a party? What would happen if you saw the enjoyable things in life, as ordinary as it might be, as a place in which a kingdom celebration could erupt?  What if you gathered people together for no other purpose that to enjoy each other's company in the Spirit ofGod.

That is kingdom focus.  That is simplicity.  It is the willingness to see our lives lived in God's kingdom.  And that has as much to do with our smiles and parties as it does our serious spiritual works.  So look a celebration and join God's party.

Week #20: Check email/social Media only twice a day.

A few summers ago I attended Provincial Synod in a neighbouring province.  Unbeknownst to me at the time, the location of the synod was not conducive to my cell service.  The carrier that I use did not have stations in that area.  Thus, my phone was completely useless for the 6 days that I was away.  I was unprepared for the panic that I ensued.  Internally, I felt as if I was entirely alone and powerless.  I felt as if my life would crumble around me and that I could do nothing to stop it.  What would I do, how would I function if I couldn't update my status, send snarky tweets, or check my office email?

We are bound to our electronic devices with emotional chains that we often don't realize.  Most studies agree that the average person checks his or her phone every 6 minutes.  If you do the math you learn that we can't even go one percent of the day without reaching for our phone! We are consumed with the idea that we will miss something important if we don't have our eyes constantly on that screen.

We like to tell ourselves that this is out of a desire for connection.  We want to be available to all people at all times, we say. Of course, the truth is that this isn't about availability at all.  It is about control.  It is about fear.  We have this fear that if we do not have control over our surroundings, then everything will fall apart.  What will people do without our input or our statuses?  Surely life cannot run without these things?  So we tell ourselves that everything is of utmost importance.  Everything is an emergency. Everything demands our time, our response, our input. Why else would we check our work emails while on vacation?  Why else do we refuse to turn off the device? We are simply enslaved to the notion that anything important will be mediated through beeps and chirps, and unless we are there to receive it, to manage it, then something will be thrown off balance.

Of course, in this striving to see ourselves available to all, we actually keep ourselves unavailable. We fill our moments always looking to something else. We wait for the next beep.  The newest notification. The latest post is never as interesting as the one to come.  Life is spent in anticipating what will come next, rather than what is present now.

It can be hard to put down our phones - especially if we have trained ourselves to feel uncomfortable without it in our hands.  Yet when we do so, we are able to uncover the Kingdom of God which is present.  We enter into life in the Spirit as defined by the presence of God here. In refusing to look at our social media devices, we remind ourselves that the world around us runs to a bigger agenda.  We put down the desire to control, to be the one who knows, who answers, and we sit with the reality that God is able to run the things of heaven and earth according to God's good purpose, and not our own.  We remind ourselves that in pursuit of the Kingdom of God,  we are not called to be the ones who lead, but the ones who follow. After all, we cannot be open to Jesus and his kingdom, in the sacrament of the this present moment, if we are too busy waiting for the newest gossip and the latest notification.

There are times which we need to check our email.  And Facebook today is a constant source of communication.  But will anything really be lost if you do not turn on your screen for a few hours?  Do you really need to respond to every email, every tweet, every message the moment in which it comes.  Or can you take some time, to breath, to pray, to seek God's wisdom and guidance in the life in which you are called?  Can you stop long enough to remember that the Kingdom to which you belong is held in His hands, not in your own.

Through the discipline of putting down your phone, you don't lose your beeps and notifications.  In fact, I'm willing to bet that you wouldn't actually miss anything.  What you gain, however, is freedom, and joy, and life in the Holy Spirit.