What's Holy?

One of the recurring themes I have talked about over and over in these articles is what I see as one of the blocks to our spiritual development. It is how we seem to want to divide our lives into secular and sacred. I am learning more and more of what it means to ignore that distinction.

 

I have come to believe there is no separation of secular and sacred. Everything we do while we walk this earth is related to God, so everything we do is holy. Some of you may question me on this, like what does washing dishes, doing the laundry, or driving to work have to do with holiness? But, if you think about it and believe it the most mundane of tasks allows us to participate in the presence and glory of God.

 

Barbara Brown Taylor in her latest book titled “An Altar in the World” shares her understanding of this holy creation as important to the creator or Jesus would not have come as incarnate (in flesh). The way we primarily experience the world is through our senses of touch, taste, sight, and sound. So, all the places we live out our lives rely on acting as God’s creation through our humanness. Why would we assume that these acts of the flesh would be bad because they aren’t done in a stained glass church or a sacramental act? And we can even look at those sacraments and see that we experience them as acts shared and received by our bodies. 

 

When we share in communion we share in the body and blood of Christ transformed for us. When we receive baptism we participate in one of the most mundane of human experiences; we get wet! We receive a spiritual rebirth through a simple act of water.

 

All this is to say that we can’t make some things more holy than others. All acts of grace, thanks, healing, sharing and most of all loving are holy acts. But, so are simple acts like taking care of children, caring for those who are aging, taking care of animals and cleaning up after the messes that come with life.

 

We never know when we will find God blessing us. Just as Jacob saw the ladder coming down from heaven in the middle of the desert, we never know when or where the ladder will descend and the angels will descend and ascend in our lives.

 

So, God may show up for you as you sit in a pew on Sunday morning and listen to a beautiful anthem by the choir, or an inspired word is shared in sermon, prayer, or song. But, it may happen when you are feeding your baby, or buying groceries, or walking your dog or eating your lunch. All those things are holy gifts and they happen on holy ground. We just have to stop long enough to see, hear, maybe even take off our sandals and know that God is here!