Sacred Place or Sacred People

In thinking about the “sight-seeing tour” vs. “quest” view of life from last week, another distinction comes up. In the sight-seeing tour view, it’s all about finding those special places that are somehow meaningful. It’s the “sacred place” or “sacred space” view of life. Getting up high, or finding a still lake that’s completely secluded and beautiful, or seeing the vast emptiness of the desert or the power and hugeness of the ocean, all give us a sense that there is something mightier and more important than we are.

Virtually every religion is based on sacred places. Even in the Bible the patriarchs in the Old Testament were constantly making shrines and memorials of sacred places where they had encountered God in a special way (See, for example, Genesis 28:10-22). Eventually this became centered on the Temple in Jerusalem. Strangely, it was hard to get people to go to that particular sacred space. They wanted to worship in “high places” that God hadn’t commanded to be used for worship. The problem was that they would worship God any way they felt like, instead of following the worship commands given in the Bible.

But a strange thing happened when Jesus came. The woman at the well asked him if people should worship on the mountain at Samaria or the Temple in Jerusalem. In other words, which was the right sacred place? Jesus said, in effect, that there is no sacred place. What mattered was the inward worship in “spirit and truth,” not where you did it. (John 4)

And you can see that this is in perfect accord with the “quest” view. There is no place that is better than another; there is only being true to the quest. But there is one thing that matters on the quest: companions. Yes, one may have to be alone on the quest. But the best way to quest is with like-minded companions, those who seek the same goal.

On a sight-seeing tour, everyone is the same—same age, same country, same economic class. On a quest, everyone is different. Think of the nine riders in the Lord of the Rings: four hobbits, an elf, two men, a dwarf and a wizard. Think of the pilgrims on the Canterbury tales. Think of the Monkey King and his companions on the Journey to the West. Sightseers are homogeneous people all trying to have the same experience. Those on a quest have only one thing in common—the quest itself. But that quest unites them in a way nothing else can. In fact, those on a quest are sacred; they are holy. They are set apart to that one task and bound together in their commitment to the quest.

This is how the Bible talks about Christians. The place is not what makes Christians holy. The sanctuary is not the holy place. There is physically no holy place for Christians. When people talk about Jerusalem being a holy place to Christians, I always think that they have misunderstood Christianity. This is, I believe, one of the flaws of the Catholic church. It tries to make sacred places and sacred things. It elevates the “host” and at that moment the host becomes the sacred body and blood of Jesus.

But that is simply a misunderstanding. There is already a Body of Christ. There is already a place where God dwells. The Body of Christ is his church—his people united in their calling as the People of God. The place where God dwells is in the living temple of his people (see 1 Peter 2:4-10). God’s people are the sacred people in whom he is present.

And this tells us how we ought to treat each other. I am amused from time to time how people will give special preference to the “sanctuary” as being “the house of God” and so it ought to be treated specially. I remember seeing a sign posted above one sanctuary door: “Enter With Reverence.” But if I am right, then it is the brother or sister in Christ standing next to you that is the holy thing in your sight. It doesn’t matter how you treat “bricks and mortar”; they pass away. But the person standing next to you is the dwelling place of God himself! He or she is the sacred person that will accompany you on your journey to the goal of God’s call to eternal life. So we must treat each other with reverence as God’s house.

Note that all references to “you” in the following quotation are plural (the KJV makes this clear!):

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

– 1 Corinthians 3:16-17