Keeping Sacred Space Sacred or Fussing over Real Estate?
Browsing the news online, I came across Time magazine Matti Friedman piece entitled Clashes Erupt at Sacred Jerusalem Site. It concerned a clash between Muslim worshippers and Israeli riot police, which ended in some injuries, particularly a Palestinian woman who suffered a head injury from a rubber bullet. This all happened near the Western wall, perhaps a artifact from the Jerusalem before it was destroyed by Rome in AD70, near the what Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call the Nobel Sanctuary.
The trouble centers on social, political, and theological differences between Muslims and Jews in the region, but the catalyst is an Israeli decision to include two West Bank shrines on a list of national heritage sites— the site that Jews call the Cave of the Patriarchs and Muslims call the Ibrahimi mosque, and the other site is Rachel's Tomb, adjacent to the city of Bethlehem. Of course this is just one more squabble in a whole series of squabbles that erupted beginning with Israel receiving statehood in 1948, and the Six-Day War in 1967. (What is not mentioned is what amounts to an eviction by the sword and relegation to the ghetto for many Palestinians—quite controversial to say the least.)
Certainly there is no one issue that drives the two to claim these sacred spaces at the expense of the other, and complicating the issue are Christian beliefs that in some way one side, namely Israel, has some sort of divine right to the Land, and everyone else is a second class citizen. What they fixate on is a very controversial interpretation of Genesis 12:1-2 and 13:13-16, as if God is simply selling some parcel of land. Actually, God was giving Abraham (Abram) something greater (more on this later). Oh how troubling are these day?
When Muslims, Christians, and Jews read the great narratives of the Old Testament, and witness the greatness of God in the lives of people, and the places wherein He unveiled His glory, like Jerusalem and Bethlehem, is there really a reason to squabble over who has the right to call a location their own? Do not all three Abrahamic faiths accept the authority of the Old Testament? If so, why spill blood on the very places where God unveiled truth to us? Is there not a peaceful solution?
Yet God’s promise land is more than just a sacred space, or some piece of real estate. God is the God of the universe, and there is no place that He does not own. God even gives to us something even greater than a sacred place.
When a Samaritan woman inquired on where Yahweh’s place of worship was located—Gerizim or Jerusalem—to her Jesus Christ responded,
God created the universe, and the universe gives testimony to the glory of God. Moreover, God creates man, both male and female, in His own image. They were made to be God's people, and God desired to be there God. The problem is, as many are already familiar, the first man Adam sinned and fell from glory. When God revealed Himself to Abraham, He made a covenant with the patriarch that involved so much more than a piece of property that could be labeled sacred space, He began a plan of redemption, which would culminate in Paradise lost becoming Paradise restored.
Of course, but who of us as fallen sinful people, who are but dust before the infinitely holy and infinitely just one true God, how can we even fathom to approach such majesty? If there there is a way of repentance, wherein the penitent sinner can fall upon his face before God, and the Lord in turn shall offer mercy, what joy would that be? Just maybe, there is something to this Christian idea that God has entered into time and space, incarnated as the person of Jesus Christ, so that He would make for Himself a sacrifice to make atonement for sin? It just may be that this God is building a temple, not with stones, but with spiritual regenerated people?
The trouble centers on social, political, and theological differences between Muslims and Jews in the region, but the catalyst is an Israeli decision to include two West Bank shrines on a list of national heritage sites— the site that Jews call the Cave of the Patriarchs and Muslims call the Ibrahimi mosque, and the other site is Rachel's Tomb, adjacent to the city of Bethlehem. Of course this is just one more squabble in a whole series of squabbles that erupted beginning with Israel receiving statehood in 1948, and the Six-Day War in 1967. (What is not mentioned is what amounts to an eviction by the sword and relegation to the ghetto for many Palestinians—quite controversial to say the least.)
Certainly there is no one issue that drives the two to claim these sacred spaces at the expense of the other, and complicating the issue are Christian beliefs that in some way one side, namely Israel, has some sort of divine right to the Land, and everyone else is a second class citizen. What they fixate on is a very controversial interpretation of Genesis 12:1-2 and 13:13-16, as if God is simply selling some parcel of land. Actually, God was giving Abraham (Abram) something greater (more on this later). Oh how troubling are these day?
When Muslims, Christians, and Jews read the great narratives of the Old Testament, and witness the greatness of God in the lives of people, and the places wherein He unveiled His glory, like Jerusalem and Bethlehem, is there really a reason to squabble over who has the right to call a location their own? Do not all three Abrahamic faiths accept the authority of the Old Testament? If so, why spill blood on the very places where God unveiled truth to us? Is there not a peaceful solution?
Yet God’s promise land is more than just a sacred space, or some piece of real estate. God is the God of the universe, and there is no place that He does not own. God even gives to us something even greater than a sacred place.
When a Samaritan woman inquired on where Yahweh’s place of worship was located—Gerizim or Jerusalem—to her Jesus Christ responded,
Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:21-24, NASB).The center of worship isn’t a location; instead, it is the people who seek to worship Him in a spiritually true way. The worship God wants is not just to preserve a sacred space piece of real estate; instead, God wants us to come before Him, to give Him all the glory due to His Name.
God created the universe, and the universe gives testimony to the glory of God. Moreover, God creates man, both male and female, in His own image. They were made to be God's people, and God desired to be there God. The problem is, as many are already familiar, the first man Adam sinned and fell from glory. When God revealed Himself to Abraham, He made a covenant with the patriarch that involved so much more than a piece of property that could be labeled sacred space, He began a plan of redemption, which would culminate in Paradise lost becoming Paradise restored.
Of course, but who of us as fallen sinful people, who are but dust before the infinitely holy and infinitely just one true God, how can we even fathom to approach such majesty? If there there is a way of repentance, wherein the penitent sinner can fall upon his face before God, and the Lord in turn shall offer mercy, what joy would that be? Just maybe, there is something to this Christian idea that God has entered into time and space, incarnated as the person of Jesus Christ, so that He would make for Himself a sacrifice to make atonement for sin? It just may be that this God is building a temple, not with stones, but with spiritual regenerated people?
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