The concept of holy ground has always been an intriguing theological concept to me. The very idea has an immediate aesthetic appeal to the mind. We instantly flash to distant locales, monasteries atop icy mountain, a tiny shrine in the midst of a great deserted forest, perhaps for those of us of the Christian inclination we might even envisage something like a grand cathedral, bedecked with stained glass and relics. Certainly temple Judaism had some kind of fascination with the concept as did/do the variety of past and present pilgrims of all faiths, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Shintoists and Hindus. There is something appealing to us about the notion that God is more powerfully present somewhere in the world.
And yet my theological brain can't help but see something strange in the whole notion. While we like the idea of holy ground and perhaps some of us even enjoy seeking it out there is a flaw in this beautifully sculpted concept. Something which just doesn't quite harmonize with who we seem to imagine God to be.
If God is truly omnipresent and with us everywhere in entirety, how can he be anywhere more or less than he already is? Are we truly comfortable with the idea that God chooses to be some places and not others? Or worse that God is somehow incapable of being somewhere?
None of these seem particularly palatable theological concessions. And further none of these conclusions seem to fit with the person of Jesus Christ. And yet holy ground is not something we can dismiss, it features too prominently in scripture and calls out too powerfully to the human spirit. What then are we to do with the notion?
It seems that, despite our inclination, holy ground cannot be something that is purely geographic. God encompasses the geographic in its entirety. He must be fully and equally present at point A and point B or our very definition of omnipresence falls apart. So why then do we experience some particular locale as holier than another? How is an ancient or secluded place more holy? Herein lies our problem and yet I believe the answer is simple (if not necessarily clear).
Holy ground, rather than being a locale in which God is more fully present, is instead a place in which we become more fully present. A place wherein we allow ourselves to experience the divine that is around us everywhere we go. God is everywhere, he's just waiting for us to meet him where we are. The designation of some places as holier than others gives us the excuse we need to briefly wave aside the veil and glimpse God going past. However, the demarcation of holy ground also allows us to be comfortably blind to the sacred in our daily lives.
When we can learn to find holy ground wherever we walk it completely changes the nature of the sacred for us. As Jesus moved from place to place he didn't bring sacredness with him, rather he revealed the sacredness that was already waiting there. When we open our eyes to God and look for him in the world around us any place can become holy ground, a well in Samaria or the Sea of Galilee. Our homes and our offices, a Wal-Mart or a homeless man's alley. A church or a bar. When we change holy ground from something we seek after to something we carry with us we can encounter God in the most unlikely of places and lives will change as a result, first and foremost our own.
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