Church

Are Some Places "Sacred Spaces?"

by Kary Oberbrunner

Ancient mystics held a unique belief that the Divine inhabited certain geographic regions in a more significant manner than others. Translation? A phenomenon some call holy ground, thin places, or sacred spaces.

In the book of 1 Kings we meet Namaan, “the captain of the army of the king of Aram, a great man…highly respected. The man was also a valiant warrior, but he was a leper” (5:1). Namaan became a believer in sacred spaces—evidenced by his request to the prophet Elisha. The Scriptures tell us this leper followed the prophet’s orders and bathed himself in the Jordan River seven times. As a result of his faith in God’s Word, he experienced a dramatic healing from his leprosy.

With his skin restored like the “flesh of a baby” he packed up ready for the road trip home. But before returning to his homeland, Namaan asked permission to take two mule-loads of earth from Israel back with him. Turns out Namaan wanted to memorialize the location where God healed him, assuming that taking a little of the dirt also meant taking a little of the Divine.

Thousands of years later Celtic sojourners used a word term called “thin places” to designate a location where two worlds seemed to touch. In such regions, the veil between this world and the next embraced into one reality—barriers blurring momentarily.

For those of us who orient our lives to the God of the Bible, how accurate are these perceptions? Are there truly places where God is more present than others?

Though passages like 1 Kings 5 seem to affirm the idea of sacred spaces, others seem to question them:

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. (Psalm 139:7-10, TNIV)

Is God present everywhere at the same time in the same manner? Maybe on the other side of every moment exists a potential encounter with providence? Perhaps God is simply waiting on us to acknowledge the truth—that every place is a possible sacred space—if we’re simply aware of His presence.

Personally, I encounter God in a sacred space once a year. Every Christmas season, my wife and I return to our hometowns to spend the holidays with our families. For the last nine years, on New Year’s Day I slip away for a few hours and engage in a deeply meaningful tradition. Regardless of the weather, I head out to Lake Michigan with my Bible and my journal in order to take a hike through the woods. On a particular sand dune overlooking a winter landscape, I sit and review my past journal entries from the previous year. In the process, I rediscover God’s faithfulness.

After reading, writing, questioning, and praying, I grab a handful of sand, representing the number of minutes in my upcoming year. I dedicate these minutes to God, asking him to lead and direct me. Then I throw that same handful into the air, symbolically offering it back to God. The puff of sand flies freely into the air and then, after a moment, it disappears—just like our lives.

My annual wintery wonderland inevitably screams of an experience where the two worlds seem to touch momentarily–a place where I get a glimpse of God. But is God more present on that sand dune than he is in my living room or am I just more aware of His presence in that moment?

I often wonder if these thin places crowd in much closer than we’re comfortable admitting. And more importantly, I question whether these sacred spaces long to interrupt our lives on a much more regular basis, if we will simply invite them.

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Do you believe in sacred spaces and do you have any in your life? Do you think the ancient idea of sacred spaces affects the way modern Christians view church?

Comments

Jeff Straka

I believe it is US and not God that limits the places we perceive to be "sacred space". The mystics and contemplatives actually hold a panentheistic (God in all things, all things in God) view and so are able to encounter God where ever they are. Is it easier to feel the presence of God in some places than others (such as in a monastery or on a mountain top)? Absolutely. But it is only due to OUR difficulty in getting our false self (our ego) out of the way - to empty ourselves - and not the absence of God. We have "burning bushes" all around if we would just "wake up", as Moses did, to notice them.

Aaron Brown

I somewhat identify with your (Kary Oberbrunner's) reminiscence of stealing away in the early morning to sit atop a sand dune and remembering what God has done in your life.

In that same vein, I believe that our "sacred and thin spaces" are not physical buildings or landmarks that we can encounter God with, but are the occurrences of our lives that God has moved most mightily.

Proverbs 22:28 tells us "Not to remove the ancient landmark set up by our fathers."

For example, in November of 2009 I embarked upon 22 and 1/2 days of fasting to specifically seek God for answers to questions that had been dogging me for three years. In those 22 days, God led and guided me through passages in the Bible that have radically transformed my paradigm of how God speaks and answers the questions of my life. Those 22 days are now an ancient landmark for me. It is a sacred "space/time" in which I encountered God like never before. That time of my life, like a few other instances, will always be an ancient landmark for me where I encountered the living God and he changed my life from then on out.

Acts 17:24 has the Apostle Paul telling us, "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands." Thus, me personally, I don't think God specifically inhabits a particular place such as when his healing power troubled the waters at the Pool of Bethesda (John 5:1-14).

Jesus tells us that, "the Kingdom of God is now within us" (Luke 17:21) and now we are able to go anywhere to find God and communicate with Him. For me, geography and landmarks are geography and landmarks, nothing more. But geography and landmarks where we have encountered God still leave us with the "residue" of God and the "taste" of His goodness, so in now way am I trying to discount anyone's experience.

I personally may never look back on the "setting as sacred" of where I was during that fast, but I will always look back to that time and say, "That's it! That is when God changed my life! That is when He showed me more of Him!"

The experience/encounter with God will always be sacred.

Chris Slack

If, by way of a sacred place, you mean an area where you (personally) feel closer to God, then it is hard for me imagine anyone would disagree that there are such sacred places for each of us. Why shouldn't God also have places that he feels closer to us as well? Shouldn't we viewing this question from the eyes of Him?

Jonathan Merritt

Jeff,

Isn't it an over generalization to say, "The mystics and contemplatives actually hold a panentheistic view"? I know of mystics and contemporary contemplatives who would not hold to a panenthiestic view.

Jm

John Trombley

May I proposes that it is not the space but the beauty/aesthetic that helps break down the cares of life that interfere with our relationship with God. This to explains the power of music, the visual arts, narrative or other forms of the creative arts to bring us closer to God.

Jeff Straka

OK, then I would say MOST. But the "classics" like Meister Eckhart, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, anon. author of "Cloud of Unknowing", Julian of Norwich, and the more modern and active in centering prayer, Fr. Richard Rohr, Fr. Thomas Keating, Basil Pennington, Cynthia Bourgeault come to mind as ones who use panentheistic language. It seems that even Jesus used language pointing there: "Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me".

(Hopefully you are not confusing panentheism with pantheism, which infers God IS all things.)

Kristine McGuire

Several years back when I was practicing witch I believed in "sacred spaces" and that particular areas had more "god energy" than others. This is certainly a common view held among mystics and pagans alike.

However, as a re-dedicated Christian I know we can experience God's presence any where we go and that no one place is necessarily more sacred or "thin" than another. I believe it is our attitude and openness to His presence that makes a place sacred whether it's beside a lake or in our living room.

Chuck Sullivan

I am sure there are those (mystics and contemplatives) of ancient times and present that hold to a belief there are "sacred spaces" and/or "thin places" where they experienced a "closeness" to God as evidenced in the scripture by erecting memorial stones or building small monuments for an "experience they had at that location" and in history itself. Actually, we are all like that...how many times do we remember a last minute touchdown from a football game by standing on the field where it happened and remembering where we were when we experienced it...or remembering the place/time/song we heard when we asked that special someone to marry us. All of these are "sacred spaces" so to speak. What we cannot lose sight of is that these places are inhabited by God and in fact, are held together by his being. Which means we can "experience" one of these "moments" at any time or anywhere. We have to remember God is omnipotent (above all things), omniscient (knows all things) and omnipresent (is in all things and present everywhere in all the earth and universe.)

Right now for me, my keeping room is a "sacred space" where I read, study and pray every day. It is sacred because it is where the God of the spirit world invades my physical world. But, that could happen on a beach, on the moon or on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. By the way, I actually did cross that border and when I saw the military on both sides and realized exactly where I was and what I was doing it became momentarily "sacred" to me as I kept reciting Psalm 91 and tried to hold onto God's promises for deliverance.

I believe Christians today, at times, think of a specific location as sacred because they

"experience" God there.

Chuck Sullivan

Jonathan Merritt

Chuck,

I like your thoughts here. You are making a point that the thing which makes a sacred space so sacred is not the where but the who. Good thinking.

Jm

Eddie Leighton

My friends and I design interactive prayer rooms for the purpose of using creativity and atmosphere in a space to encourage people to meet with God. These spaces are filled with candles, fabrics, music, props and art. We have had people of all faiths use these spaces and come out changed by and experience and a meeting with Christ. But we are quick to remind everyone that it wasn't the props or the candles that change lives but rather the individual that allowed themselves to quiet the noise of life and be drawn to the feet of Jesus.

We have to remember that it is a meeting with the divine that makes a thin or holy space and not the space its self.

Kary Oberbrunner

Eddie....I like your comments man. I do have a question though. When people of other faiths come and have a "meeting with Christ" what medium of truth are you using when guiding them? Scripture, something else, etc? I resonate with your heart, but I do appreciate the balance from Jesus...."God is seeking true worshippers, who worship him in spirit AND truth."

Eddie Leighton

Kary... yes. We use alot of scripture in our space. We try to engage all five senceses as we engage God and christ is always the focus.

Chris Skaggs

I seem to be the black sheep here but I'd have to say that I tend to think that thin places are real things.

Jacob and his sudden realization God was in "this place" comes to mind as an obvious scriptural touchpoint. Mount Moriah and all that happens over and over on the same piece of rock is another. To say that our world may have spiritual hills and valleys alike says nothing about God's omni-things, it's simply an observation about geography and people throughout time, around the entire world, and independent of culture have taken of certain spaces that seem somehow and inexplicably 'holy.' (I will point out those same cultures typically note dark place as well...)

Modern, western Christianity is deeply influenced by our political belief in equality and the notion that some places might be 'special' in some way just rubs us the wrong way. We likewise resist the notion that some people could be 'blessed' even though the majority of church history understood that such things happened all the time. In that way I fear we often reject concepts that in fact add depth and dimension to our understanding of reality. Even more so I would hate to find myself rejecting a truth simply because 'mystics' or 'witches' happen to have noticed the same thing.

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