Throughout my sabbatical/renewal journey, I have been exploring the theme of the sacred space and worship. My travel to Peru, Canada, and Scotland and my building the labyrinth and my reading and reflecting over these past four months have been my way of searching for an answer to the question of what is sacred space and how does it relate to worship anyway.
During John Bell's program on Iona, he defined worship as "a gift to God, not entertainment for us." He went on to say that worship is the faith community sharing in love before God and with each other that which is most important to them. One definition of sacred space then might be the site where that sharing takes place. It could be in a 20th century church or in a 12th century abbey. It could be at the top of a mountain, in a garden, by a flowing stream. It could be in what some would call the crumbling ruins of an Incan temple. For Christians, it could be anywhere where two or three or more are gathered in Jesus' name. For most of us, I guess that leaves out the golf course.
If worship is our gift to God, then surely a foundational question is why bother giving a gift to the Holy One anyway. But before you can answer that question, you need to answer the question of how important God is in your life. What has God done for you? What do you look to God for? Who is God for you anyway?
If, in your heart of hearts, God is irrelevant to you, then you have no need to worship, no need to give this gift. Then you can head to the golf course with no regrets.
However, if, in your heart of hearts, God has meaning for you in any sort of ultimate way, then giving this gift of worship is an extremely important thing for you to do. IGiving the gift is the only thing you can do. Heading to the golf course then is really not an option - or a substitute for the gift.
Seen in that light, worship in a sacred place is outside of the realm of day to day priorities. Worship is not one of a number of activities on your "To Do" list.
We all need to answer the question not once, but every day (and particularly every Sunday!). Is this gift to God that we have an opportunity to make more important than having a late breakfast and reading the newspaper? Is this gift to God that we have an opportunity to make more important than an athletic contest or mowing the lawn? If the answer is no, giving this gift is not more important than a late breakfast and the newspaper, not more important than the athletic contest or mowing the lawn, then what does this say about us and about how we feel about our relationship with God?
Why is it that so many of us these days make choices about how we use our time as if God was irrelevant to us? How we answer that question says a lot about who we are as human beings, as children of God. Can we be all we are meant to be by going it alone - or can we be all we are meant to be only in relationship with God, our Creator?
All this, of course, brings us full circle to our first question about worship in sacred places - ultimately, what meaning does God and your relationship to God have for you - and will you have the courage to express that relationship by giving to God the gift of worship?
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