Thin Places, continued…
When I was in high school, some friends and I went to clean up an old building nicknamed by most people as "asbestos." It was a place where most people went to party, do drugs, spray paint inappropriate graffiti, and do in darkness the things that in the light they would not be allowed. We were there simply because it was the perfect place to play paintball. However, I remember, especially the first few times I went there, a feeling of darkness that would make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
There are also places where no matter what is going on in someone's life, there is a sense of peace. Places where the prayers seep into the walls. As much as a place can be haunted by darkness, a place can also be coated in a heavenly light of peace. Of course, you can go too far in this thinking and worry that every garage sale purchase has a demon in it. But I think we can all identify places we have been that make us feel like something is off and other places where we feel a sense of spiritual peace.
Last week, I pondered upon the Celtic concept of "thin places", which is an important aspect of Anglican spirituality. One of the things that is important to understand for our own spirituality is that we live in a spiritual world: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." (Eph. 6:12).
So how and why are there thin places where heaven and earth meet? To answer this question, we must look at the first thin place, the Garden of Eden. We are told in Genesis that it was in the Garden that Adam and Eve walked together with God. This was a place of divine encounter between God and humanity. Not just the garden but all of creation was where God wanted to be in relationship with his creation. This is our hope in the New Heavens and New Earth, that we will dwell with our God and he with us. Yet, sin came into the world and ruptured creation, distancing God from his creation which was now tainted with sin.
As we look throughout the Scriptures, we see people making false High Places to their gods. The tower of Babel is depicted as a false thin place as the people try to reach the heavens. The sin of humanity continues to place creation in opposition to God's intended purposes. The actions of the priest on the Day of Atonement reflect the idea that sin makes not just the human heart but spaces unclean as he covers everything with blood.
Yet, the whole world belongs to God. All things find their fullness in Christ and are for his purposes. While God gives people and places over to their sins as an act of judgment, he does not forsake his creation. He comes and gives himself in particular ways. Because the whole world is Christ's he can choose how he gives himself and where heaven meets earth.
These places where there seems to be a special encounter with God are seen within the life of Abraham as he sets up altars and wells to remember the divine encounters and the actions of God. Last week we also mentioned Jacob's dream where he awakes and proclaims that this place must be the gate of heaven. We could also look at Elijah on the mountain when he hears a "still small voice" (1 Kings 19:12). And this concept of thin places is perhaps most clearly seen within the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Temple.
These are the places where God dwells with his people in a special way. Yet, God cannot be put into a box. Psalm 139 reminds us that there is nowhere we can go to flee the presence of God. However, God was with his people in a particular way. On Mount Sinai, Moses had to veil his face because it reflected the glory of God (Ex. 34). In the Tabernacle, we are told that God came and dwelt in it as evidenced by a cloud during the day and fire in the cloud during the night (Ex. 40) —this is mirrored for the Temple in 1 Kings 8. Like the temple, within the Tabernacle was the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. In 2 Samuel 6 and 1 Chron. 13 we are told of Uzzah who died because he reached out and touched the Ark. The Ark was the place where God dwelled and as they moved the Tabernacle around, they moved the Ark and placed it in the Holy of Holies. This is why in 1 Samuel 4-6 when the Philistines capture the Ark it is viewed as God who was taken away.
There are many other accounts we could look at where God is especially present in a particular place. However, we would be remiss to not bring attention to God's "tabernacling" among us in the God-Man Jesus Christ. The fullness of diety dwells in Christ. This is why when he dies on the cross and the veil in the Temple is torn, it is not because God is cursing the Old Testament laws or condemning the Jewish practice, as though they were keeping him in a box. The veil is torn because what the Temple has signified has been fulfilled in Christ Jesus. Through the incarnation, God dwells with his people. He is God, the High Priest, and the sacrificial lamb that takes away the sins of the world.
God still gives himself in particular places where he has done great works. But the places that are thinnest are the places where we meet Christ and he gives himself to us in Word and Sacrament. For it is a greater act and mystery in Holy Communion when the priest calls down the Spirit in the Invocation than Elijah calling down fire from heaven.
“Through the veil”,
Fr. Aaron