Where Might We Find Holy Ground?
In the seventh chapter of the Book of Acts you will find Stephen’s defense before the Sanhedrin or ruling court of Israel. He was put on trial for “speaking against this holy place (the temple) and against the law.” (Acts 6:13) How Stephen responds to these charges is absolutely amazing. He had several points he wanted to make in his defense and one of these is that God cannot be tied down to one place or land. The Jewish leaders of that day had come to believe that God’s presence was pretty much limited to the Temple itself. In a sense they had put God in a box. Stephen believed that was not possible and that the very thought was idolatrous.
In Stephen’s defense before the Jewish council he pointed out how God had from the beginning worked and made himself known outside of what they considered the “holy land.” Contrary to what they might believe, no single place could be identified as God’s house, no area or region could be called the “holy land.”
I think this is something we need to consider still today. Each religion has places it considers as holy land. Many years ago I spent a month studying in Israel and Jordan. For a lot of people the “holy land” is Palestine—the land of the Jewish patriarchs and eventually Jesus. I’m thankful I got to spend a number of weeks there and certainly learned a lot by doing so, but in the end I had to come to the same conclusion as Stephen did, that no land is holier than any other. What makes any land “holy” is God’s presence and God’s presence is not limited by any geographical border.
Going back to Stephen’s defense, at one point he reminded those who stood as his judges that when God confronted Moses through the burning bush God told him to take off his sandals for the ground he was standing on was holy ground. (Exodus 3:5) Where God encountered Moses was not in Israel. Stephen wanted the Sanhedrin to remember that God has revealed himself in numerous places. Later Stephen brought up how Solomon would eventually build a temple for Israel but that even he realized that no earthly building could contain God. Stephen quoted Isaiah 66:1-2 to drive home his point: “This is what the Lord says: ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?’”
God is Maker of heaven and earth. God cannot and will not be limited to any one building, land or group of people. God can be encountered anywhere we happen to be. It may well be in a beautiful sanctuary or shrine, or even in a place of significant religious importance, but God can just as easily be found in a local park, your backyard garden or your own home or workplace. Stephen did not quote Isaiah 6:3 in his defense but very well could have. Here the prophet Isaiah hears the angels calling to one another saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
If Stephen is right and the angels knew what they were talking about then we must conclude that the whole world is sacred and should be thought of as such. We must not put limits on where God can speak or act. You just never know when it comes to God; the place where you are at this very moment may well be holy ground.
–Chuck
(I took the images above in Michigan, California and Wyoming.)