Last Sunday our Vicar Matthew Holland was preaching on Psalm 84. This is a very famous Psalm and many Christians who don’t know their Bibles very well will also be aware of the general jist of it thanks to the worship song by Matt Redman, “How lovely is your dwelling place (Better is one Day)”.
The main thrust of Sermon was looking at whether or not, as 21st century protestant Christians we believe in (or even should believe in) the idea that a physical location can be sacred. Should we looking at the idea of pilgrimage as a valuable exercise?
We know of course that the Temple in Jerusalem was a very prominent in the Old Testament as the house of God. This is what this Psalm is about. This was a Holy Place where the presence of God was real and tangible. The Psalmist, who couldn’t get to the Temple for an unknown reason was simply just longing to be there.
Many people do go on pilgrimage (although some may not call it that) to the “Holy Land” but is this relevant today? Didn’t Jesus do away with that? Surely now we can meet with God anywhere, any time.
Our Catholic brothers and sisters still hold very dearly to their sacred places and relics. Pilgrimage is a valued part of their walk. Whether it be to Jerusalem, Rome, or some other sacred site around the world. There are very few such sites left in the U.K. thanks to the very successful vandalisation campaign in the 16th century but should we be looking to go out of our way to visit such sites? Is God’s presence still stronger there than it is elsewhere?
As mentioned above we noted that the idea was strong in the Old Testament. We know of the Temple and how it held the presence of God. We can also read stories such as that of how the anointing of God was so strong with Elijah that even many years after his death people would visit is burial site to receive healing. Jesus himself got very angry when he saw that the Temple was being used as a market place. Maybe this extra passion was generated because it was indeed the house of his father.
I think that we have lost something in today’s church because we have lost the idea of pilgrimage. We have almost written it off as a fairy story or not scientific enough for today’s modern church. I believe that the evidence is there, in both the Old and the New Testaments, which shows that God can have an effect on locations for a period of time which leads us to describe them as Holy Places and long to be in them. But of course pilgrimage needs to start in our own hearts. We need to find God for ourselves, in a personal way. Simple running after sites to be in God’s presence is not a good idea.
Part of the problem we have today is that many so called Holy Sites are nothing more that tourist attractions; places where a few people can make a lot of money. Much like the market place which the Temple had become in Jesus’ day.
Maybe the first question we need to ask is can we make a site holy or sacred? Can we make a site be a place where God dwells? We know that we are Temples of the Holy Spirit. So every where we go we take the presence of God with us.
While I think that sites of old can, and do hold some unexplainable power thanks to the presence of God, we also know, through what Jesus has done for us, and the Holy Spirit living in us, that we can make our own house a house of the living God.
