Thinking more deeply
March 10, 2009
Today in our lectionary group one of the pastors began our discussion by asking a question: What is sacred and what threatens it (what you deem sacred)? So once again I was taken on a trip with this idea about our own stretch of highway, LVPC, and how this creates a sense of sacredness for us. And at the same time, there are things, issues, people, or any other number of things that we may feel threaten this sense of sacredness. I wonder if this is what we are getting at when we talk about our own stretch of highway. It’s scary to think that something can alter and negatively change what we embrace as sacred to our faith journeys.
So what do you deem sacred? What threatens it? And to go a step further, how does this impact your faith journey?
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1.
Samantha | March 10, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Sacred is a concept that can be both lay or religious. Quiet in a theater is sacred, or people wouldn’t be giving talkers and candy wrapper wrestlers the evil eye or shh them so strongly.
For me, the Bible, for one, is sacred, which is why I teach my SS students not to sit on it, bend the pages or toss it about. An impact is that I am trying to understand *why* I view the Bible as sacred. I mean, I don’t believe many of the stories actually happened as they are written or understand most of the parables. I don’t believe that if the Bible didn’t exist, God or Jesus wouldn’t exist: The belief in God and/or Jesus existed for years before the books were written. Because they are the stories of God and to God, and God is sacred, they deserve respect. I’m sure it is more than just that as all books deserve respect, yet I would use a copy of Oliver Twist to brace a wobbly table.
2.
Ashley | March 11, 2009 at 2:07 am
I like this question, but I hate that I don’t have an answer. Can I really be living a life where nothing is sacred? That just seems, well, incomprehensible to me.
I love the whole concept of finding sacred in the ordinary, so maybe using that, my sacred changes. Maybe on days I feel like the world is closing in on me, my sacred is my space. My refuge — where ever that is. (Bubble baths, puppy cuddling on the sofa, time being absorbed in book.)
Maybe on days that I’m lonely, my sacred is friendship. Maybe on days that I just can’t keep things bottled up, my sacred is my blog _ my forum for venting. Or maybe it’s my “thin space” on the days when I can’t calm down and sit for hours sewing seam after seam.
But sacred is just, such … a damn heavy a word. I feel like it cheapens that which is really sacred to use the word for something that is probably superficial. But, I guess what my weird nonsensical rambling is getting at is that sacred is relative. (Maybe this is like saying 2+2 =4. Perfectly obvious to everyone.) But for me, sacred is fleeting. Sacred is gray, not black and white. Sacred isn’t something that can be defined and wrapped up nicely in a bow. It just is.
So, now here’s my totally random counter question: does experiencing the sacred make us a little bit that way? Does it rub off on us? Does it just make us special? Or is it something that’s kind of like that first warm spring day after a grueling winter; we don’t realize how much we need it until we find ourselves in the midst of it or when it seems like it’s a world away?
3.
Ashley | March 11, 2009 at 2:07 am
Apologies for random novel posted above. Weird day.
4.
Julie | March 12, 2009 at 7:48 pm
I think it is our not paying attention that threatens the sacred. Was that said in the book? I feel like I’ve heard that (or something like it) from somewhere lateley. I guess I haven’t been paying attention….
A sacred story from last night…As I was getting in the car to come to the lenten study, I was thinking about how life is pretty good for me right now. I feel happy, but at the same time also feel that “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”- things aren’t settled, there’s more to do. (We had this song (U2)sung at our wedding…people were very confused!) I got in the car, turned it on and the radio starts blasting the very song that I was thinking about. I burst out laughing. Little moments like this can feel sacred to me.