The New Holy

There was a time when it seemed that the church was a sacred enclave in a secular world.  To step into the sanctuary was to step into holy ground and to step out of it was to step into what some writers would refer to as the profane.   There are even those prayers of consecration which set the church buildings and the ground upon which they are built apart declaring them to be holy.  Perhaps, wearing the clerical robes and the ordination of the Bishop gave me no logical choice to view the world in any other way. 

 

However, something happened on the way to retirement.  No longer was I so immersed in all the sacred rituals and symbols of the holy.  All of my life what I called the sacred space was one step away, but upon retirement what was once sacred space was far away and, in a sense, no longer so accessible.  What I discovered early on was the way the world was not a profane place, but a holy place.  My image of the church once limited by walls and ritual became as high as the sky and as broad as the horizon between east and west, north and south.  The world of creation became an unbounded cathedral where every square foot was holy. 

 

More and more I am coming to understand that there is no place where I can put my feet that is not holy ground for every time my foot touches ground it touches something which is a part of the creation of the Father who brought it into being and declared it good.  And in that cathedral as wide as the earth and maybe even the universe, there is no lack of visible things which bring to mind how the Creator is present and at work in the midst of His people.  It has truly been an amazing journey for this sojourner who once saw and experienced the holy so differently.