On the Way to the Way 8: Standing on Holy Ground, Where God Breaks Through

There's nothing heretical about the idea of a particular sacred place. 

Yes, there is a sense in which everything is sacred - the veil between the sacred and the secular has been ripped down. But that doesn't mean that sanctity doesn't bubble up

particularly vigorously in certain places. - pg xvii The Sacred Journey by Charles Foster

Some months ago I wrote about pilgrimage and whether or not there are in fact holy places, or if all places are holy. If you read that particular blog you will know that I came out on the side of all ground being holy. In particular I wrote about Moses and the burning bush, about how God tells Moses he is standing on Holy Ground and the idea that the ground was always holy, God was merely alerting Moses to that information.

Let me now say that I still think that. God created the world and said that it was 'good'. God made it, that makes it holy. In the same way I believe that you and I are holy also, we have merely lost our way and forgotten that fact, Jesus came to remind us, sadly we, mostly, still don't believe it. To that end I can sit here in my home office in a chair that used to reside in my church office and I can be in the presence of God. By and large, though, I am not. 

The reason I am not, in my opinion, is because of all the trappings of life that surround me. Which is a large part of the reason I am eager to go on pilgrimage, to finally release some of the fluff of life. But that is not the only reason. There is a new book by Brian McLaren titled We Make the Road By Walking which I am planning on purchasing very soon, so no, I have not read it, but I believe in the title. We make the road by walking. The destination is only as important as the journeys that were undertaken to get there.

If that is true, then the places people journey too are enhanced by the amount of people journing there. The score of people who have interacted with those along the path. The blood and sweat and tears of hundreds/thousands/millions of pilgrims have mixed with the air and mud and paths along the way. The many prayers have mixed with the wind and rain. Their feet and their bodies have made impressions on the ground. All of this tells me that the places, where people gather to touch God, are holy because people have gathered to touch God. It's the same thing that makes sanctuaries holier than the parking lot outside. 

It is possible that many days from now when I finish the long journey I have yet to physically start I may have a different opinion, but for this moment I will stand by the possibility that all ground is holy but that sometimes in some places God breaks through a little easier and clearer than in others.

Buen Camino,

Pastor K