The Aspen Grove

Sacred Space

Note Planted: 2024-06-27
Last Tended: 2024-07-02
11 min read

🍋Fruit 😁Strongly-Agree🟢Conviction

Importance: 10%

The Big Idea: An📝Essay on my thoughts defining an understanding of Sacred Space.

Living in the Expanse

What IS space? 

Hearing the word space may call to mind images of rocket ships, or starry galaxies. Yet that distant expanse of space, somewhere above the atmosphere is but one location space exists. Space is a foundational, defining, element of life. Right now as you read these words you are inhabiting ― space.

Take a moment and pause…. 

Look around you….

What do you see? 

How is the space around you defined? 

Are there walls, or a roof?

A fence, or a tree line? 

What gives the space its shape? 

Furniture, plants, or artwork?

Light through a window, or the reflection off a lake?

Each and every day we step in and out of many spaces. We eat, sleep, work, rest, and play in space. As embodied creatures, we inhabit a physical world and experience it through space.  Restaurants, malls, even our homes and workplaces are all spaces designed for particular activities.  

As God created the cosmos we read this description of space’s origin:  And God said,  “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters,  and let it separate the waters from the waters.”  And God made the expanse  And separated the waters that were under the expanse  From the waters that were above the expanse.  And it was so.  > And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning,  The second day. 

  • Genesis 1:6-8

At the very dawn of creation, God scoops out a space between two masses of water.  A space within which He will paint and sculpt the rest of His masterpiece.  The hand of God shapes the horizon to hold the hues of sunsets. A place where light and dark dance to burst forth into color.   As the days of creation unfold, the empty expanse becomes a world brimming with life.  With the flash of fish’s scales in the ocean deep, and the smell of dripping dew over fresh earth.  The space God creates becomes so much more, it becomes a home. 

Embodied Encounters

As we inhabit space, our lives unfold.  Humans are sensory beings, all of our experiences ― every  interaction ― is filtered through hearing, sight, smell, tactile contact, or their dynamic mingling. These sensory experiences happen within space and are the building blocks from which we shape our experiences.  It is from these foundational faculties of perception that we enter into encounters with those around us. 

Sitting at a dinner table with family, or walking in a park with a friend. Each encounter is affected by the spaces within which they occur. These spaces give shape to our lives. They are the canvas upon which we paint the story of each day. 

To get a sense of what this looks like, imagine having a conversation with someone you know and care about. Picture the back and forth.  The exchange of thoughts and feelings.

Now imagine that conversation in different spaces:

Imagine sitting across from each other 

calmly sipping coffee in a quiet cafe. 

Now imagine that same conversation at 

a bus stop, as one of you boards the bus.  

The very same conversation can take on different meaning and tone simply based on where it happens. Space is a great mediator. Through it we experience our whole lives.  Within space we love, laugh, and cry. The spaces we inhabit affect us. The places we choose to spend our time, and the way we design the space around us allow certain kinds of encounters ― while impeding others. 

Think about a dining room table. It gives shape to the room it occupies.  A large table allows for big family meals, or sprawling board games with players gathered round. Yet, it can also make a small meal for two feel a little lonely with empty wood stretching out across the room.  Yet on the other hand, a small corner table allows for an exclusive workstation, or a cozy breakfast nook.  While it makes spreading out to build a gingerbread house difficult to say the least. 

If you have ever tried to make too much pasta in a pot that is too small. Then you already know space matters. 

A Meeting with God

As we have seen, space is vitally important when it comes to our relationship with other humans.  It is also deeply important in our relationship with God.  This may seem odd at first.  How does physical space have anything to do with our relationship with an omnipresent, invisible God? 

The answer to this question is woven throughout the fabric of Scripture. Story after story tells the tale of humans encountering God.  Adam and Eve walk with God in the garden of Eden. Moses hides in a rock as God walks by. Elijah hears the small tender voice of God on the side of a mountain. All through the pages of Scripture we learn and hear about a special kind of space, Sacred Space. 

In a world that is often dark and broken, Sacred space is something all together otherworldly. One story that captures the power and majesty of Sacred space comes to us from Exodus 3:

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, 

“I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. 

  • Exodus 3:1-6

Sacred space is a place of meeting. While humans meet in offices or living rooms, God meets humanity in sacred spaces. Throughout the Old Testament, sacred space is described and created in awe and reverence. One example of this, are the detailed plans for the tabernacle.  Page after page have been meticulously preserved for us.  We can read through the measurements and materials that were all carefully crafted into a space where God comes to meet man.   

And as we read about God meeting with humanity, whether on the side of holy mountains or in the depths of shimmering temples, sacred space is shrouded in mystery and danger. Only the chosen few dare approach God on His holy ground. Moses was even afraid to look at the burning bush when he realized who kept it burning. And so as the story of Scripture unfolds, humans can find God.  They can go and meet with Him in the places He promises to be, yet the meeting is carefully guarded.  Only after careful preparation and washing on the proper days, with the right procedure, can people even begin to dare stepping into sacred space.

Sacred Space On the Move

Then when the time was right, God Himself completely overturned the temple tables. The Holy One stood up from the mercy seat and stepped into creation.  The infinite, omnipotent, creator of all does the unimaginable and becomes human. The apostle John describes Jesus’ incarnation as tabernacling among us. The center of God’s presence on earth moves out of a building and into a Man.

It is no mistake the Gospels record the places Jesus inhabited.  We see Him reclining at dinner tables, praying on mountains, preaching from boats, and drawing near to touch the untouchables.  Jesus brings sacred space out from the shroud of mystery into the unexpected, dirty, normal places of the world. Up to this point in the Story of Scripture, it could be expected that the unapproachable Holiness of God would simply consume in righteous fire the evil and broken world Jesus encounters.

Yet Jesus’ first coming does not create sacred space through judgment or purification (to be sure this will be the path of the second coming).  Instead, Jesus ― God Himself ― met humans in places no one could have ever expected. He ate with sinners, talked with a samaritan woman, even drove out demons in a cemetery. All of the sudden, sacred space began to flood into the normal everyday spaces people inhabit.  

For the first time since the fall, God physically walked with humanity once again. Just as this redefinition of sacred space begins to sink in, as the locus of God’s presence permanently shifts, the new temple of God is slain.  God’s long promised anointed cast aside like a common criminal. But unlike the former temples, this one was rebuilt in three days. Not by human hands, but the raw primeval power of God himself raises the eternal center of all sacred space ― Jesus ― and places Him in His rightful place on the throne of God. 

At this point we can realize the monumental nature of God’s shifting presence.  The perfect has done away with the imperfect, the copy has been replaced by the original.  Jesus is priest, sacrifice, temple and mercy seat all wrapped together. Sacred space is no longer defined by walls, or miraculous encounters, but the reaching down of heaven into all corners of the world. The Holy steps into the unholy, the incorruptible encounters the corrupted. The broken, sinful and impure are invited to step onto sacred holy ground.  The greatest miracle ever witnessed abides in this one little fact.

Seeking Sacred Space

And so we come full circle, you sit here as an embodied being.  Living these moments within a particular space. Surrounded by objects and people that each allow or constrict so many opportunities.  The question then becomes: Where is all this sacred space for you? 

Jesus flooded creation with sacred space, there is no place the gospel cannot reach. In a world often swirling in confusion and darkness, sacred space is a place of safety and calm sought by many.  However, our sinful human nature so often turns a reason for rejoicing into an excuse to wander. We stand as those who can walk through the veil.  The dividing line between God and man has been erased.  Yet we tend to design our life, the places we go and the things we use, around our own selfish comfort. 

The physical encounter of baptism and communion bring us face to face with the Holy presence of God. But unlike Isaiah, we often move on unphased.  We sit in sanctuaries, spaces designed as sacred.  We see the altar for the supper, the font for the water, the walls are designed for singing and music. Even pulpits are made for preaching. Surrounded by reminder after reminder of the earth shattering power we dare stare in the eyes ― and carry on as if nothing is different. 

“Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,”

  • Psalm 114:7

So we hear the call of the ancient prophets, the call to enter the presence of the Almighty with awe.  If we take this reality seriously, it changes things. As we meet every Sunday as God’s people, gathered in God’s space.  We step before the throne to meet Him and hear His words to us. The ethereal audience with the Alpha and the Omega is ours every Sunday. 

This truth is profound. 

Yet we cannot relegate sacred space only to the sanctuary, leaving it behind as if the tabernacle still stands. Rather, as we hear the call of the prophet to tremble, the words of Jesus come next: “follow me.” Jesus takes us by the hand to follow Him, to take the love, the grace, the very presence of God and to bring it with us out into all the normal everyday spaces we step into. 

As we continue to ponder the implications of these realities, questions for further thought start to bubble to the surface.  How do you design spaces under your care? For example, how does the reality of sacred space adjust the way you treat your living room? What motivates the places you find comfortable? Is Jesus calling you into a new place - an uncomfortable space? What would that look like? How do we take seriously the presence of God throughout our daily life?  

All of this comes back down to what sacred space is all about.  God meeting with Humans. The creator of the universe stooping down to hear our prayers, to sit with us, to celebrate and to cry with us. The veil is torn! God is here. 

May Jesus accompany you no matter where you go.  Amen.

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