Meeting Jesus on Holy Ground
By Rev. Kyle Norman
“Do not come any closer, “God said, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5)
As a priest, I have witnessed myriads of strangers randomly stop at the church and sit quietly in our pews. It happens more than you would think. In fact, it happened just the other day. A young woman came walking into our church on a Thursday morning. She wasn’t looking for money or food but guidance; she felt lost and confused and didn’t know where to go or what to do. Seeing our steeple in the distance, she headed in our direction, feeling a desperate need to be in God’s presence.
As I sat with her, she described what was going on in her life, the trauma she was recovering from and the struggles that seemed to follow her. As I placed my hand on her shoulder for prayer, she erupted in deep and agonizing cries. She wept more forcefully than I have heard someone weep. And as I anointed her with oil and prayed for Christ’s light and protection, she whispered “thank you Jesus for being here.”
We all know the age-old truth: the church is not a building - the church is the body of Christ, the community of the faithful. This is true. Still, we cannot deny that sacred spaces are important in our spiritual lives. We see this throughout the Bible. Amid being ushered into God’s most holy presence, Moses is instructed to remove his sandals and recognize the “holy ground” upon which he stood (Exodus 3:5). Similarly, following his vivid dream in Bethel, Jacob exclaimed, “Surely the Lord is in this place” (Genesis 28:16). He then erects a monument in testimony to that reality. Later, as Israel journeyed through the desert, the “tent of meeting” was erected as a place to receive divine inspiration. These places weren’t just random places of personal or religious nostalgia; they were set apart for the unique, special, and defined purpose of meeting God.
The people of faith have always responded to God’s invitation to enter holy ground. The Temple was vital to Israel, and the early disciples were “always in the temple praising God” (Luke 24:53). Later, when persecutions arose, and the disciples were ejected from the temple, holy ground shifted to other locations: houses, rivers, and catacombs. For the early Christians, and for us, having a defined place where we meet with the living God is an essential part of our faith lives.
Finding such holy ground is easier than it first may appear. Creation holds a myriad of opportunities for cultivating sacred spaces. Celtic Christianity, for example, has a long history of naming mountain tops, riverbeds, and forest paths as “thin spaces”– places where heaven and earth meet uniquely and powerfully. Our favorite place in creation can easily become a sacred space. In fact, Jesus said to Nathanial that he observed him “sitting under the fig tree” (John 1:48). This text indicates that the fig tree was a place where Nathanial went to draw near to God. It was a place of meditation, biblical study, and prayer.
A quiet room or a corner in the house can easily be reserved for such activity. Simply place your Bible, along with a prayer book or devotional guide, perhaps, in that location. You may light a candle or hang a cross if you choose. Such things help create an atmosphere conducive to the time of prayer. Of course, if one does not have an entire room free to designate, you simply attend to prayer or Bible reading from the same location every day. Simply choose a specific end of the couch or a corner of the kitchen table and consistently engage in your devotions from this place. It then becomes holy ground or sacred space.
Intersecting Faith and Life:
Before we go too far in attempting to find our unique and personal sacred space, however, we must remember that, for the people of God, holy ground is not an individual possession but a communal gathering place. Solitary sacred space, developed at home, can be a blessing for us, but they simply do not compare with the gathering of the Christian community. The young woman mentioned above sought out the church because, somewhere deep in her soul, she knew that she would meet the presence of Jesus. Yes, Jesus is everywhere, yet the places in which the community gathers for prayer and worship, day in and day out, seem to shine with the radiance of Christ’s presence uniquely. They become the cities on the hill that invite the wanderer to come and meet with the Lord of love and redemption.
So, before you define your own personal sacred space, perhaps take a journey to the corporate sacred space, the communal holy ground. Like Moses, we are invited to stand on Holy Ground, not to establish our religious identity, but to meet with the Risen Lord. We come to holy spaces to be filled with the Spirit. The more we engage in these places, the deeper our life with God becomes. This, and this alone, is the ultimate vision of holy ground, whether it be a prayer closet, a riverbed, or a Cathedral.
Do you feel the need to meet with the Savior but don’t know where to “go”? Do you need to hear a message of forgiveness, grace, or love? In Christ’s unyielding care for you, the Lord has set places designed to help you experience this reality. The way forward is quite simple. Just seek out holy ground. Christ is present there, awaiting you to come and meet with him.
For Further Reading:
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