On Sacred Time and Sacred Space

The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

ALMIGHTY and merciful God, of whose only gift it cometh that thy faithful people do unto thee true and laudable service: Grant, we beseech thee, that we may so faithfully serve thee in this life, that we fail not finally to attain thy heavenly promises; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

In broad strokes, there are two types of Christians. When you ask a Christian what is the Church the responses will tend to lean towards the visible Church or the invisible Church, namely a visible institution ordained by Christ in which those who profess the name of Christ gather to worship him, while the invisible church is the body of believers. Both viewpoints are supported by Holy Scripture, which refers to the Body of Christ both in the sense of believers (I Cor 12. 12, 13, 27; Eph 4. 15, 16; Eph 5. 29, 30) and in the sense of Christ himself as the Church (St Jn 2. 19-22; Col 1. 18, 24).

So the reality is that both are correct in a sense, however there is a tendency, particularly among protestants, to dismiss or ignore the sense of the Church which they do not answer with. In the case of protestants, they often proclaim the invisible Church, at the expense of the visible Church. In the case of Catholic traditions, such as Anglicanism (at least among Anglicans who emphasize their catholicity and less so among some evangelical Anglicans), the reverse might be true, with the emphasis placed on the visible Church to the detriment of the invisible church. In these instances, groups that emphasize the invisible church do so because their concern is primarily with the personal relationship between God and mankind. Emphasis on the visible church is simply an unnecessary barrier between mankind and God. In the other case, the emphasis is on the institution created by Christ and the instruments of his grace left behind that bring us into that personal relationship with God and nourish us in his grace, namely the sacraments.

To concentrate on one of these viewpoints while dismissing the other is patently un-Biblical and creates an unhealthy perception of the Church, our relationship with God and shrouds the issue of sacred time and space. In a recent post on The Community, also shared by the Anglican Communion News Service, Fr. Kyle Norman expressed his concern that:

Our life with God has become so individualized in contemporary society that I wonder if we downplay the understanding that church is the house of God. Truth be told, when talking about sacred space, does ‘church’ even enter our minds?

In discussing the Christian concept of a Rule of Life, it was noted that some Christians tend to downplay the need to spend time in worship on Sunday, because they feel they can adequately bear witness to God’s glory in witnessing his creation, and in so doing worship him adequately.

This viewpoint stems, perhaps unknowingly for some, from the incarnational nature of Christianity. In Christianity, incarnation is a key theme: God breaking into the created order to give a glimpse of himself. Whether it be to give revelation, to Moses, Abraham or the other Patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament, to the revelations granted to the Apostles in the New Testament, even to the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures themselves, not to mention his ultimate incarnation in Jesus Christ. God continues today to break into the created order, and indeed we invite him to do so. Yet in a sense, all creation is incarnational. It is a manifestation of God’s glory and presence with us that he created the heavens and the earth. That is all true, yet does that make all of creation a sacred space?Is every stone of the earth, every pool of water and every bird in the sky consecrated to God’s glory?

Holy Scripture tells us that the heavens declare the glory of God (Ps 19. 1a) and St Paul similarly writes that God’s nature is written into the bones of creation (Rm 1. 20). This is not sacred space in the purest sense of the word. What it can be, however, is sacred time. Time in which we consecrate to God, to spend with him. To marvel at his glory, incarnated in the glory of his creation. The idea of sacred time complements the idea of sacred space, because it allows us to spend time with God, enjoy his presence and focus on the intimate and personal relationship he holds with each of us regardless of where we are physically present.

It could involve sitting in the midst of creation, or it could be ten minutes spent in prayer while taking the train to work in the morning. The key is the intention of devoting a particular time to God; to offer worship, prayer and most importantly our attention. Indeed, the invisible Church could be present in such an occasion if a group of believers gathers to share that sacred time together, but it misses something.

Similarly, many Christians designate particular rooms or sections of their house as areas for prayer, Scripture reading and so forth. In a sense they are creating sacred space by turning over an area of their home to God; it is a place in which they go to meet God in prayer and in his Word. Yet again, much like the example of sacred time alone, there is something that is missing.

Sacred time can coincide with sacred space. The most visible and public aspect of sacred space remains the Church itself, through its local parish buildings, where we gather to worship God through common liturgies. Church buildings are consecrated to God—indeed there are rites for that purpose in the Book of Common Prayer—and the times when the body gathers to worship God in community are similarly sacred times which occur in sacred places. As Fr Aidan Kavanaugh writes in On Liturgical Theology:

…the liturgy of the church is nothing other than that church’s faith in motion on certain definite and crucial levels. This faith surely has other modes and levels, but these are to be evaluated finally in terms of the church at worship before the living God, rather than vice versa. It cannot be forgotten that the church at worship is not only present to God; far more significantly, the living God is present to the church. This latter presence is not a theological theory; it is a real presence which is there to affect, grace, and change the world.

There is room in Christianity for both the visible and invisible church, and we should never focus on one to the detriment of the other. It is through this that the fullness of God’s presence may be felt; it is a place in which the visible and invisible churches coincide and are united in God’s presence. The body of all believers are united to Christ’s instituted church by the grace offered in the holy sacraments.

Ultimately our faith is about submission to God’s will, and in creating sacred time and sacred space, it is the way in which we confirm that submission to God by providing a place or time in which we turn away from other worldly concerns to experience God’s presence.