Secure in the Sacred

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

16Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? 17If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

About two years ago I took the volunteer position of “creating and running the multi-media for our contemporary worship service”. Or, as I affectionately say, “slide girl.” My life as slide girl has not been without its adventures. There was my first attempt on Palm Sunday when I didn’t realize how sensitive the clicker was and went through about 4 slides every time I tried to advance to the next one (thus giving the congregation visual whiplash as I scrolled back and forth). There was the Sunday I frantically tried everything I knew to focus, only to discover 3 minutes before service that the frosted plastic lens cap was still attached. And there’s the ever challenging possibility the band has changed verses or lyrics and everything I’m showing on the screen is wrong. Not always good times….

But one of the best events of being slide girl was hearing the explanation behind the painted block of wood used to keep put the projected image at the right height for the church wall. When the previous slide technician (he was a man of much dignity and it would not be accurate or fitting to call him “Slide boy”) announced he was moving, he graciously offered to meet me at church one evening and show me everything I would need to know about the system. I had seen the white 2 x 4 emblazoned with the word “SACRED” before and was most curious. I waited patiently while he showed me the filters that needed cleaning, the focusing mechanism (must have phased off during the lens cap discussion), the clicker, etc. When he finished his long and extensive lesson he asked tiredly, “any questions?”
     Just one,” I replied. I pointed to the wooden block and said simply, “This.”
     “Oh,” he laughed. “I needed the 2 x 4 to lift the projector to the right height. But every time I would have a regular 2 x 4 here someone would take it or would borrow it and I couldn’t find it on Sunday when I needed it. So, I painted this one and put the word “sacred” on it – and no one has ever touched it since!”

In my two years as slide girl, I can verify – people have unplugged the machine, messed up the laptop, lost the clicker, BUT – no one has ever moved, taken or touched the “sacred” 2 x 4. What does that say about us? It says we have somewhere gotten the wrong message. Instead of finding the sacred – we fear it.

Fearing the Sacred

How often to do we hear about the “Fear of the Lord” – and translate it into “the fear of what is the Lord’s”? How many children do we show a pulpit bible and then tell them not to touch it? How many times has the laughter of teenagers been squashed by someone reminding them they are in “God’s House”?

Why do we fear what we label sacred (sometimes we label things literally – like the word sacristy – sacred space and sometimes we label figuratively as in “that song is sacred”)? I think we get confused from the very definition – according to Miriam-Webster sacred means

“Dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity. Devoted exclusively to one service or use (as of a person or purpose).”

Set apart. That’s why we fear those things that are sacred. We feel that they are different, foreign, and away from us. If I told you my chair was “sacred” would you sit in it? No, because you would think, “wow, sacred –  that’s not for me!”.

But today’s scripture in Corinthians tells us not only is the sacred FOR us – it IS US!!! We are the children of God, the temple of God and we are sacred in God’s sight. Imagine for a moment what the world would be like – if we realized we are sacred, and other people are too. Imagine.

Understanding that concept of sacredness through a different lens – a lens that says “touch me, know me, be me” instead of “RUN AWAY, I’m SACRED” (like a biohazard sticker might), what are we to know?

The Sacred Should be Recognized

When Moses is approaching the burning bush a voice came from heaven and said, “OH MY GOSH -- DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT WALKING HERE!! GET OFF THE GROUND, ITS HOLY!!!!”

No, wait…that’ s not right…actually the bible says that God said, ‘“Shal Naalechah me'al raglecha, ki hamakom asher atah omed, admat kodesh hu” – or in English - "Take off your shoes from your feet, for the place wherein you stand is holy ground."

God doesn’t want Moses to run away (although God cautions him, probably because of the fact a bush was on fire, not to come any closer!), and God does not chide Moses for approaching or standing in a sacred place. Instead, God just wants to make sure Moses recognizes the ground he is standing on is holy ground.

The purpose of the sacred isn’t to repel us, but to inspire us and to strip away the coating of this world. Rabbi Melanie Aron lists two possible reasons why Moses needed to remove his shoes to be on holy ground. One was that it leaves the trappings of the world outside. All the muck and dust for the world is left behind so the person stands fresh before God. The other was that when your shoes are off – you have to pay more attention. With shoes, pebbles, twigs and thorns are nothing - you can just walk on them – but without shoes you are vulnerable so you must step carefully and pay attention to what you’re doing. That’s what God wants us to be doing when we approach our creator – pay attention.

Whatever the reason – purity or purpose or both – it is clear that God wants us to recognize when we are on sacred ground or dealing with a sacred person. Sacred people? Look back at Corinthians – that means US. We need to treat each other with the recognition of the sacredness we all have as the temple of God’s presence. Your friends are sacred, your clients are sacred, your waiter, your mechanic, your massage therapist, your banker, your neighbor: sacred. Do you treat them that way? If not, when approaching them – particularly someone difficult to deal with – take off your mental/emotional hard-soled shoes – and walk carefully among them.

I know, I know…the temptation is to say – “If I walked around all day regarding every one as sacred and every place as holy ground – I’d never go anywhere and I’d never talk to anyone!” But the truth – as Moses tells us, as Corinthians tells us and as the generosity-natured Holy Spirit tells us – is that if we walked around recognizing the sacred people and places around us – we would walk in heaven on earth, and we would talk so much more to God.

So the next time you see a painted 2 x 4, or a person living on the street, or a student riding a bike on the side of the road, or a cranky older patron of Ukrops taking forever to pay and causing the line to slow down – instead of raising the defenses, or running for the hills – take a deep breath, and take off your shoes. They're sacred.

A Rare and Precious Gift

Scripture: Luke 6:20-26

“Don't throw the past away
You might need it some rainy day
Dreams can come true again
When everything old is new again”

Peter Allen wrote that song in 1979 for the musical “All the Jazz”. The further time goes by the more true it has become. Movies are more likely to be re-makes or re-hashes of familiar themes than original stories. Songs are re-done or “sampled” (the horrible practice of playing part of an established song into your song then claiming you made a “new” thing). Political scandals, public romances and private divorces – all go round and round.

It’s not all bad, though. Sometimes more than bad films or obnoxious songs come back from history. Sometimes a beautiful idea is re-captured and presented to a whole new generation. One such idea is the Lachrymatory. Glass blowers from all over the globe have discovered the ancient tradition of the lachrymatory – a tear bottle – and have begun making them again. There are many places where you can buy modern versions of these tiny tear holders all created as a “blast from the past”.

A Roman Lachrymatory - circa 100 AD (CE).

A modern Lachrymatory, from Timeless Traditions, 2008

A lachrymatory is a tiny glass or pottery bottle people would use to catch their tears in when someone died. After the bottle had been cried into, it would be placed on the crypt, burial place or memory stone of the loved one as a testament to how much that person (usually a child) meant. It started as an ancient practice, and many Hebrew scholars feel Psalm 56:8 “Put my tears in your wineskin” is an allusion to the idea. By the first century the Roman Empire and its conquered lands used lachrymatories as a culture rite of passage. In fact, rich people even hired mourners to cry into a lachrymatory so the deceased would be honored by a bottle filled with tears. For the poor, who did not usually have the luxury of a “tear-for-hire” service, friends and neighbors would gather their tears to place inside the bottle. After gathering tears in a bottle, they would present it to the widow or parent and say formally and compassionately, “Condolesco adactus” –“ I suffer with you.” (that’s where we get the word “condolences” from).

Imagine that – after a tragedy giving your neighbor the gift of tears. Certainly not something the good folks at Hallmark or flowers.com would encourage. Yet what a powerful thing it would be indeed - To grieve with someone - to mourn with someone.

We don’t value tears in our culture as much as we should. The weekend after the Virginia Tech Tragedy I saw a large banner at a concert I attended where people were encouraged to sign it in support. There were a lot of hopes, and “I’m praying for you” kind of sentiments – however I don’t recall seeing one note that said “I am crying for you” – although crying was what many of us did – and knowledge of that was a great healing gift to those who mourned and lost a loved one. Anyone can laugh with you, or pray for you. But it is a true brother or sister of spirit who can cry for you.

Even when we cry for ourselves and our own sorrows we tend to hide that fact. We don’t tell people about the times we cry over mean words, long silences, or serious betrayals. We don’t let on that we cry in the car on the way home from a bad day at work, and we rarely even admit the times we are so grateful for someone’s mercy or forgiveness that we cry then too. We are a family made of hiding criers.

The New Testament, particularly the stories of Christ, show how important tears are to the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and would encourage us not to hide them. Think of the many narratives about crying.

Jesus weeps over the sins of Jerusalem
A woman’s weeping softens his heart to her plight and he heals her daughter
Jesus weeps tears like blood the night before his passion
A woman washes Jesus’ feet with her tears

And in the list of blessings in Luke (a synoptic version of the Sermon on the Mount) we are told:

“Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh” (Luke 6:21 NIV).

Even Paul talks frequently about the tears he cries for the churches he loves and nurtures. Want to see how much he cries? Go to the http://www.biblegateway.com/ and type the word “tears” and choose “New Testament” – a whole list of Paul’s teardrops appears.

There is no worse feeling in the world that helplessness. When our friends or loved ones endure something we can’t fix, or experience something we can’t change that creeping awful helplessness crawls into our hearts and buries its deep fruitless longing. In those times its good to remember – if you can’t fix it, and you can’t change it – you can pray about it, you can support through it, and you can cry over it. Its not a bad thing – it’s a gift. The anger of helplessness is a natural reaction. Crying for someone is a spiritual action. Which do you think most befits the people of God?

So the next time someone tells you of a past event that’s harmed them, instead of wishing you could go back in time, find the person who caused the harm and pop them in the nose (a natural reaction) – cry for them, or cry with them, and pray for their healing and be inspired by their strength. The next time someone you love faces an illness, a job loss, a loneliness your care can’t seem to permeate –instead of slogans and suggestions designed to “fix” them (a natural reaction)– cry with them, cry for them, and pray at their side –holding their hand.

You don’t need to save your tears in a small glass jar for them to be of value – but when you recognize the value in tears you will be a part of Christ’s family, bringing the care of heaven to the children on earth. Tears are a rare and precious gift.