LIVING IN SACRED SPACE

Additional Suggested Scripture Reading:
Mark9:17 – 27

Text For This Meditation
Exodus 3: 4-5 When the LORD saw that he (Moses) had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” 5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

“Moses, Moses,” the voice out of somewhere sounded within his soul, “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is Holy Ground.”  So begins Moses’ appointment with his Divine Destiny.  He would yet stand in many unholy places on this earth. However, Moses will never forget that he had played host for God’s visitation in a secret space within him. From this moment forward, that intense reality remained.

In the profane courts of Egypt’s Pharoah, God continues to manifests His Presence to Moses.  Then later, at the Red Sea, the law, separating the sea from the land at the time of creation, yields to the command of this one man, whose soul has received the visitation of God. From the sacred space of Moses’ soul, come words to encourage the despairing tribes, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm, and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today”.
(Exodus 14:13)

There is an unspeakable mystery here that calls for our heartful celebration. God creates human beings, mere creatures of the dust, with the potential capacity to house the Divine! 

Moses is but the shadow of that truth which finds completion in Jesus Christ. By sending ‘The Word made Flesh,’ God manifests how that entity, within each of us, is made ‘HOLY’ through His indwelling.
There will yet arise, from within, visions that will change the course of our history too.  These visions, however, will require that we each live, habitually and as completely as possible, on that level of our being where Christ dwells with power and love.

My seminary training had me serving as a student chaplain in a large city hospital. There, I was to minister to a young patient named Luke. Luke was married, thirty-two years old, and the father of two beautiful daughters. Their photos, along with that of their pretty young mother, adorning his bed-side table, suggested that he had been a patient here for a considerable time. 

One morning sometime following my first encounter with him, I found Luke extremely upset. “Frank, you know what these stupid people told me this morning? They told me,” Luke fell silent, seeking composure; he turned his face away from me. Then in a voice, scarcely more than a whisper, he continued,” They can’t do anything for me, and, and, I am going to die.”
Over the following weeks, I observed the various stages of approaching death and, I sought desperately to be with my friend all the way.
One day further along the way, he, in an angry tone, hissed these words at me, ” Frank, you’re going to be a minister? I don’t believe in God anymore! Please don’t come to see me again!”
“I understand you, my friend. Even though I can’t be with you physically, Luke, my spirit will always remain with you.”   

In response to his request, two of the most painful weeks of my journey followed. And then I could stand it no longer. I tapped on Luke’s door. The worn and wasted face now bore a smile. “Oh, Frank, I prayed that you would come back.” 

The days which followed provided some of my most precious memories.
 One evening as I was about to leave his room, Luke surprised me with this request.
 ” Frank, my friend, can I ask you something? When the time comes, could you be with me?”

That time came one afternoon as I prepared to leave the hospital to travel home, some fifty miles away. Urgent paging stopped me in my tracks. I hastened back to Luke’s room. As I entered his room, he summoned the fleeting resources of his failing strength to beckon me to his side. He smiled as I held his hand. Surrounded by his family and some hospital staff, I knew we were all standing on holy ground.

 A Prayer To Follow This Meditation

 Gracious Father,
Your unconditional love, seeking some humble space to indwell, infiltrates every atom of our earthly being.
 That inner space, the hallmark of our humanity, can never be satisfied apart from You alone.

Gracious Father, we are utterly dependent upon the working of Your Holy Spirit:
– without the Spirit’s activity, we become aware of needs around us but quickly freeze in the position of those who conclude that  there is nothing to be done;
Until Your Spirit  intercepts with ” Go, and certainly I will be with You.”

 – Without Your Spirit’s activity, we lose the ability to explore the possibility that our help is lying beyond the common ground. 
Until  Your Spirit awakens us from our reverie with the challenge that” The ground where  you stand, is Holy Ground.”

– Without Your Spirit’s activity,
we will never realize that common ground becomes Holy Ground when God is present.
God’s Presence within changes a person from dealing with every situation depending only upon the common wisdom of the world to a person who sees all things and all people everywhere as contributing to the building of God’s glorious Kingdom here on earth;
May Your Spirit teach us all to pray, “Lord, I believe. Help Thou my unbelief.”
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen.

 

Hymn: Holy Ground

HOLY GROUND

“This is holy ground; we’re  standing on holy ground;
For the Lord is present, and where He is, is Holy.
This is holy ground; we’re standing on holy ground;
For the Lord is present and where He is, is Holy.

These are Holy hands. He’s given us holy hands.
He works through these hands, and so these hands are holy.
These are Holy hands. He’s given us holy hands.
He works through these hands, and so these hands are holy.”

Editorial Notes

1.  The Scripture quotations throughout are from the NIV
2.   It is recommended that a re-reading of the story of
Moses may help with this meditation. Exodus 3 – 14
3.   Photo, Internet Open Stock.