Once we call a place a holy place, watch out. That is where divisions begin. That is where wars are kindled. That is how people once so close become so distant - enemies. That is how we justify acting contrary to the holy life that seems to have been the reason we started calling a place holy. We too quickly forget that holy is not a word that brings status. It is not a word that is meant to distinguish one person from the likes of those others. It is not a word showing an earned designation given to a place or a person or a people so that others may kneel to them or honor them or give them protection from others.
I would submit that a holy place is the whole of creation. Therefore, there is no need to visit a place that has somehow been given the designation of being holy - for we are already in the midst of a holy place. It is here - in the place in which we find ourselves - that the fullness of God's Reign is at hand. I suppose we could thus say we are invited to take part in all that is holy - to reflect the creative image of God who blesses all places and all time. Imagine life within the holy presence of God's creativity. That is the invitation we have been handed. Enter the holiness of this time and place and be a part of the reason someone may look upon this place and time as holy. This is not to then be a place and time for which we create a shrine or altar or special marking so that we can return and make much to do about a moment in time that has already passed. We are invited to live as though we are present in a holy time and a holy place. Imagine how that kind of imagination may help everyone appreciate and be able to touch and hear that life that is forever holy and eternally breaking in to this time and place.
I have had opportunity to visit the 'holy land' and I have always felt guilty that I did not take up the opportunity with friends and colleagues. But, I could not. From a very early time in my life, I have come to see that places we call holy - usually are not. They are not a reflection of God's ongoing creativity. They are not places in which the peaceable Reign of God is at hand. The are not places that hold up the ordinary - the common - the left out and thrown out - the repulsive and disturbed. Instead, they have been made into places that are quite 'untouchable' and distinctive from the everyday availability of God's creative holiness.
The 'holy land' is a land of warfare - brutality - divisiveness - exclusion - possessive desire. In some ways, holy land is hell in the midst of us. Holy land becomes the place in which we can see - first hand - that which is not a part of the holy Reign of God. It is usually the place of brewing bitterness and hatred and bias and bigotry. So maybe it is good to visit such places simply to see how we have turned holy events from another time into the antithesis of that which they revealed once upon a time. A trip like that would be bittersweet and full of tears and may be so disturbing we would find ourselves entering lives of ongoing resistance to all such hellish places.
Who cares if we have the spot where Jesus was born? What does it matter to how I live my life if I have seen the way Jesus walked to the cross? Do remnants of a temple wall deserve our devotion? Is a spot claimed to be holy by various religions bring to life the peace that we all imagine comes from the God who is the author of such peace and life? I've been to shrines in Europe and found them to be sad places. They reflect the worst of holiness. That is, they reflect a bit of the hellishness we tend to make our of events once honored and admires for a living faith. They are part of a money-making enterprise - a magical mystery tour - a reason to fight with others in order that these places might be sustained.
Yet, enough about holy places out there - in another land - a place to visit. What about the holy places we hold so dear to us right were we are - our church buildings we have come to adore - and over which we are willing to fight to the death to keep. Maybe something in the next blog.
TRRR
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