Bishops’ News: Lingering on holy ground
““Do not come any closer,”, God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.””
It’s such a marker of this time that when we read scriptures which are so familiar to us, we meet the fresh revelation of God. God meets us where we are. (Does anyone else feel reading that first sentence like God is practising two metre distancing?!)
In many families and cultures, we take off our shoes before we enter a house. For some, we do this for hygiene. For others, when you visit the house of another, removing your shoes is a mark of respect. And for others still (and often parents!), that pause to remove your footwear before you cross the threshold of your own house is a chance to take a deep breath before you re-enter your home life, in all its joys and stresses.
We have been waiting this week for the government announcement about whether we will move to Level 2. Our church leaders have been discerning the call of the Spirit about what our corporate expressions as Jesus’ body will look like going forward. In our homes, we also are thinking what our practices might be as we look forward to re-entering our schools and workplaces. We now know we cannot yet meet in groups of more than 10, which has clear implications for our gatherings together, and is an opportunity to strength the house gatherings many of us have been developing.
But what can we say we have learnt from loving those who are right under our nose? One noticing is that our homes are holy ground. They are the places where we get to say thank you for loving and being loved. They are also the places where we need often need the grace of God the most – because in our stress and frailty we so often hurt those we love and who love us, and are hurt in turn. They are places of laughter and joy, and sometimes places where we feel the most scared and lonely. They are the often the spaces where, like Moses, want to hide our faces, and need Jesus’ help the most. Or the spaces where we experience the greatest intimacy and see the image of God in others.
As we look forward to extending out from our bubbles, let’s keep that commitment to love those close to ourselves, and not to let ourselves get distracted from that. We love God’s world and long to be agents of transformation, and this is so good. But let’s take the time to linger in the spaces where Jesus comes to minister to our deepest frailty, and wash our feet. That holy ground can be the space from where we are sent, as the people of God, to set God’s people free.
In Christ
+Justin and +Eleanor
