Revelation 21

Still reflecting on yesterday's reading. It is very familiar because it is so often used at funerals. In focusing on a future with God (one recalls emmanuel- God is with us) there are parallels to the Temple. In the OT, the Temple was the place where God's Name resided. It was a place of encounter and sacrifice. For a Catholic, the notion of sacred space is foundational to our faith. I still remember traveling in Switzerland and seeing the churches there. While the shell remained familiar to me, the stripped down interiors were so stark as to be off-putting (for me). [Of course, in fairness, I am sure a Protestant would be disgusted by the interiors of many Catholic churches.] While my time in the Epsicopal church has decreased some of my earlier inclinations, and releationships with low church Evangelicals has gotten me used to meeting hall/auditorium churches, there is still something about sacred space which draws me.

I read an article from the Internetmonk (someone sent it to me in e-mail) yesterday. The author, dead for some time now, had written about the hunger among many Evangelicals for something more than "worshiptainment." The article was several years old, but it is something I have heard about in many quarters. Then I stumbled across a Protestant church historian's blog which  pointed out some of what has been lost by Christians since the Middle Ages. The idea of God in our world, sacraments, sacred space...

Reflecting on Revelation 21 in light of those articles reminds me that God is among us, now. The flat world of scientism is deadening. I miss the world of my childhood which was chock full of miracles and The Presence. On the other hand, we are not yet at the time when "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, death will be no more, mourning  and crying and pain will be no more." So that is the reminder that this world, while a sacramental of God, is not in its final form. The holy space is not yet the Kingdom in its fullness.

It is hard to live in such tension. To say God is everywhere may be sound theology but in a secularized culture like ours it leads to decayed spirituality. On the other hand, sacred spaces can become "magical" in the minds of believers. In a healthy expression, time and place set aside for God opens us to the hunger for a greater fullness. I can pray anywhere, but there is something different about being in a space consecrated to God and intentionally set aside for His worship. Experiences in such "intensified awareness zones" makes us more attuned to God in unexpected places. We are flesh and blood, mind and soul and body. Place matters. Matter matters!!! God has created such a world and in and through it we encounter Him each day, if we so choose. I am now going into our church to pray. I pray for you. I pray for His Kingdom to come, today!