ODJ: sacred spaces

Eat, Our Daily Journey | May 20, 2011 12:02 am

May 20, 2011 


His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him—though He is not far from any one of us. For in Him we live and move and exist (vv.27-28). 

READ: Acts 17:16-34 

A torii is a traditional Japanese gate typically painted
 brilliant red and found at the entrance of Shinto 
 shrines and Japanese Buddhist temples devoted to particular gods. Adherents to those religions believe it marks the point where one leaves the secular world and enters the holy. A large and famous torii stands off the shore of Miyajima Island in the Hiroshima Prefecture of Japan. Visitors are informed it’s “sacred” space.


Sacred sites are common in most religions. Hindus trek to Varanasi, located on the banks of the Ganges River; neopagans make their pilgrimage to Stonehenge. A sacred space is where a god or spiritual power is thought to be unusually present.


To the Greeks of Athens, the apostle Paul stood on sacred ground as he spoke to them on the Areopagus (Mars Hill). With its links to the gods Mars and Ares, the hill also stands a stone’s throw away from the Parthenon—the temple of the goddess Athena. Among a plethora of gods, Paul had seized an opportunity to talk about another “unknown” God (Acts 17:23). 


This God, Paul explained, was Creator and Lord of the whole world—rather than parts of it, like the Greek gods (v.24). Greece’s gods had limited powers, but this God controlled the destiny of each individual on the planet (vv.25-26). Greece’s gods had limited spheres of influence, but this God was literally everywhere (v.27). 


Paul’s message is important for all believers in Jesus, for we have our own version of sacred space: the church sanctuary. We “meet” God there on Sunday morning and then head into the “secular” world on Monday. But if the one true God is present everywhere, then everywhere is sacred space. 


And that makes your workplace, campus, and home a place of worship too.

—Sheridan Voysey

NEXT
There’s nothing wrong with having a special place where you like to pray. But, in your mind, what’s the difference between such a place and a Japanese shrine?  
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