Now I have to admit that the concept of Sacred Spaces is more or less in contrary to the theology I keep. When I look at the Bible I see God and then Jesus progressively moving away from the area that places are holy or that you can only meet with God in a specific location or space. This was sadly true in the old testament it seems that God limited himself to places where only sanctified people like Moses could go. Location to me speaks of religion and Law and I believe that even for today to some extent that is the case.
Jesus says he fulfilled the law and this included the concept that you had to go to a specific place Jesus replaced building with himself. So when the woman at the well talks to Jesus she speaks to him of the unfairness that the Jews get to go to that sacred building and meet with God whereas the Samaritans can only worship on a mountain. However Jesus corrects her and says you have it all wrong you have been thinking that I am limited to a building or a certain area but your wrong there will come a time when as long as your heart is right you will be able to worship me anywhere.
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit andtruth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth JOHN 4:23-24
Besides this I see in the new testament countless references to the church now being the people and not the building.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own." 1 CORINTHIANS 6:19
Jesus is now living inside us and therefore we don't need to go anywhere in order to worship him.
This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. ACTS 4:11
So it looks here like I am saying that we should not pay attention to this Sacred place nonsense. In actual fact I am saying something very different. Now whether I agree or disagree with the subject is not the point. The truth is that millions of people connect with either the spiritual realm or even God in this way, so to ignore it and say that space has nothing to do with meeting God I would be closing the door to many opportunities of helping people to engage with God's presence.
The question is does God presence himself in some surroundings and not others I would argue that it is not so much about the actual physical space but the expectations that people have when they get there. God senses the hunger that people have and when there is hunger God shows up.
He must think they didn't have to come all that way to meet me I would have met they where they were, but at the same time it must warm his heart the desperation of people. It was this kind of faith where Jesus was able to perform miracles.
Many of these pilgrims who make epic trips may be seen as religious and sadly they may not even have a relationship with God but we must not ignore this cry in their hearts to meet with God.
Certain created atmospheres seem to be more inviting as it were to God's presence perhaps because there is solitude, silence, stillness. Again I believe it is the position of our hearts rather than geography.
So as so many of the population seem to connect with either the spiritual or even God when they go into buildings we mustn't ignore the fact that buildings can be used to connect people with God. This makes me think of the buildings that I call Church where there is no solitude worship is noisy mainly and there are no visual aids around to direct people to God. The building is very normal and there is not a sense of awe. I am beginning to understand that although a church building is not really 'a Church' I firmly believe that is the people. However such buildings are like visual aids and show a tiny facet of God in terms of his awesomeness. Sadly I think we are missing something in our modern buildings. Now I absolutely love my Church and our church building I see it like my house where my family live. Nevertheless I would be really naive if I thought that anyone would walk into our building, and that people would be drawn into the building because quite frankly there is nothing special about it's appearance. On the other hand I am not a massive fan of big Church buildings I find them drafty, dark and a bit depressing. Perhaps this is because I haven't looked into the history of why they were built as much as I could.
Nonetheless there are many people who connect with God through one of these church buildings.
As an Artist I see how art can draw people into the presence of God. Installation is an Art form which is all about creating spaces (correct me if I am wrong installation artists) so therefore perhaps we should include more of this in our churches. Architecture is also an Art form in some ways and therefore we should be creating our buildings having in mind that we want people to be drawn into God's presence.
Big Shopping Malls create spaces in basis of what they want to achieve like the Trafford centre which wants to get as many people through as possible those the ambiance is so much that you keep moving seeing as much and hopefully spending as much as possible.
Therefore perhaps we need to create the buildings we use for Worshipping in a similar way creating spaces which will firstly invite people to come further into the space and furthermore inviting them into the presence of God. After all despite my opinion that Old churches are out of date they do draw you in as you look up and are pulled into this vast space which represents the awe of our creator who is so huge, eternal and infinite. It's time as Artists we really grappled with this idea and brought the modern that we have with a model that would see more people drawn into a space and consequently into the arms of our Saviour.
