Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Holy Places: Rethinking Sacred Geography in Modern Faith {Reflections}
Have you ever wondered what makes a place truly sacred? Ryan explores the fascinating contrast between ancient beliefs about holy places and a more personal understanding of sacred spaces.
Throughout history and across religious traditions, certain locations—mountains, rivers, trees, boulders—have been designated as inherently holy. The Hebrew Scriptures are filled with these sacred geographical markers, like Moses encountering the burning bush on holy ground. Today, millions still make pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Mecca, and other revered sites, believing these places possess a unique spiritual essence.
But perhaps there's another way to understand sacred geography. What if these places aren't inherently different in their physical makeup? What if, instead, the sacredness emerges from how we approach them—with heightened awareness, spiritual expectation, and communal intention? Ryan reflects on his own journey to Jerusalem, discovering that the holiness he experienced wasn't necessarily in the ground itself, but in his own openness and the collective spiritual mindset of his travel companions.
This perspective doesn't diminish traditional sacred sites but rather democratizes the sacred, suggesting we can create holy spaces wherever we are. A prayer closet, a quiet spot in the woods, or any intentional space can become hallowed through ritual and regular practice. These self-created sacred spaces serve as portals where our everyday consciousness shifts, allowing us to experience transcendence in the ordinary. Wherever you are today, consider how you might carve out space and time that becomes holy through nothing more than your presence and intention.
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What is up everybody? Hey, ryan here and welcome to our Reflections podcast. And hey, I don't know if you know this or not, but in the ancient world they believed—and you see this in Scripture too, in the Hebrew Scripture In the ancient world people believed that there were sites, like geographical locations, that were actually more sacred than others. They had these sacred sites, like sacred mountains or rivers or trees or boulders, and the Hebrew Scriptures. You see this a ton. I mean, you think about Moses. When Moses encounters the burning bush, he approaches it and has this sense that he's on holy ground. In fact, that's what the bush tells him. And so in the ancient world and in the Hebrew Bible, you have this sense like this space, this actual location, this geographical location, this mountain over and against that mountain, or this patch of ground over and against that patch of ground, this is a sacred place and that over there would then be like sort of a more ordinary place. And they had this sense like that place was like the fancy word is ontological, so like ontology has to do with like being and so they felt like that that place, in its being, in its essence, was actually different than the other places around it. It was actually sacred, it was a holy place, and I was in Israel a couple of years ago now. It hasn't been that long, but before kind of sort of some of the modern unrest began in 2023.
Speaker 1:But we were there and Israel is one of those places where people that go there have the sense, or this belief that, like that place geographically, like the atoms that make up the ground or the locations or the rivers and mountains there, that that place is actually sacred and holy in and of itself, in its ontology or in its very being. But I want to offer a different way of looking at this. You know that maybe something else is going on there. So, again, many folks travel there. Mecca is also a place like this, where the Muslims go on a pilgrimage because they believe that place is a holy site. So, whether it's Jerusalem or Israel in general, or Mecca, or lots of us have these places in the world. But I wonder if it's not that necessarily, because how could it be that that rock over there is any more sacred or holy than this rock outside of my house? Well, I wonder if it's not that that place is different, but that somehow, when I go there, that I'm different that when I approach it in a certain way. When I go to like.
Speaker 1:When we went to Jerusalem, I mean I was going over there like with high expectations in terms of like what I would see, and when you're there it is a magical place. But I learned for me anyway, it wasn't because I thought that that ground was somehow in and of itself holy and sacred, but somehow I was like more awake to it myself and then I was more alert to it and I was with a bunch of folks who went with me, and there was like 20 or so of us, and we were all going over there with like one sort of mind of trying to like discover God in new and fresh ways. And when we, you know, collectively, went over there with that mindset and that sort of openness, we experienced something that I might call holy and sacred. And so, look, I'm fine if we want to, you know, approach these sites as maybe ontologically, like in their being, that they're somehow set apart or more holy or more sacred or more divine. That's fine.
Speaker 1:But I also think there's something unique about the fact that when we go to these places, like we're different, like our hearts are open and unique and different, and that's an experience of the Holy and the Divine. And so, by all means, go to Israel, go to Jerusalem and go to these places that you think are sacred, or create your own, you know, create a prayer closet or a special place in the woods for you, because when you go there and when it becomes a ritual of you going there and you being in those places, it does something to you, and the ritual itself of traveling and doing the things and going to that spot somehow does indeed open you up to something sacred and divine and something holy. And so I really think there's a sense of like. These spaces in and of themselves are not necessarily any or all that different from other spaces at all, but you and I, we can kind of create spaces and carve out space in our lives, time and places themselves and make that space holy. It's how we come into those spaces that makes the thing a unique experience.
Speaker 1:And so we need those spaces, because it's what allows our bodies and sort of the monkey part of our brain to kind of shut down and to experience God in these uniquely divine ways. And so today, may you have a sense, wherever you are, may you have a sense of a calling to kind of experience God in these sacred places. May you actually create some of your own wherever you are, whatever you're doing, may you experience God in these unique ways today. Alright, peace, love you guys. Hey, if you enjoy this show, I'd love to have you share it with some friends. And don't forget, you are always welcome to join us in person at Central in Elk River at 830, which is our liturgical gathering, or 10 o'clock, our modern gathering, or you can check us out online at clcelkriverorg Peace.
