“Touching the holy”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Tuesday, January 3, 2023
Genesis 28:10-22 (Forward, p. 66) CEV p. 27
There is something about certain places that evoke a sense of ‘the holy’. In some cases, it is a location out in the great out-of-doors, perhaps a mountain vista or a seashore scene. For me, it is Margaret Falls, out in BC’s Shuswap area. These falls, for me, were not only stunning but awesome, awe inspiring. They really do give me a sense of God’s presence.
For still other people, it is a building, particularly a church. There are many churches that evoke a sense of holiness, of being filled with the presence of God, of having been prayed in. It is for this reason that many people are attracted to old places of worship, so much so that church planters speak of ‘cathedral evangelism’, of people coming to faith simply through a building. I can well understand that, having experienced this nearer presence of God in an ancient coastline church in Cornwall, England, dedicated to some obscure Celtic saint. This was all the more evident given the rather spiritually ‘dark’ or oppressive atmosphere of the New Age/ occult saturated village nearby.
Jacob experienced this at Bethel in what is now central Israel, on route from Hebron to Haran in northern Syria. Obviously very tired, he had laid down for a rest using a large rock as a pillow. While asleep, he had a dream wherein he saw a stairway to and from heaven, occupied by angels ascending and descending.
And, as if this was not enough, not awe-inspiring enough, he also heard God speaking to him. Here God made him a series of the most incredible promises:
-that He would give him and his descendants the land where he was now sleeping;
-that He would spread his descendants over all the earth and multiply them so as to be as numerous as specks of dust;
-that his descendants would prove to be a blessing to all the peoples of the earth;
-that He, God, would be with him, watch over him, and bring him back to this same place; that God would never, ever desert him.
When Jacob woke up, not only did he remember his dream—which is rather unusual for most of us—but he was also filled with awe and wonder and a great deal of surprise. “Surely God was in this place and I did not know it”. And, upon reflecting upon this, he was filled also with more than little bit of fear, which was, of course, most appropriate for having been in the nearer presence of God!
Jacob then responds by making this a place of worship and by making his own promises to God, which true to form—at least to the old Jacob—are something akin to bargaining. ‘If you do this, I will do that.’ Regardless of that, even if he doesn’t yet realize or see the full consequences or results of this, he has been touched by God, such that he and his life will never again be the same.
I pray that we too will have our places and times of encounter with God during this new year, and that we will remember and treasure them, and be transformed by them, even as Jacob did.
Forward notes: “Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’” (verse 16)
“When I first started attending an Episcopal church, one of the biggest shifts for me was how embodied our worship was. I didn’t know when to cross myself, when to bow, or when to kneel. It felt like relearning how to worship. In many ways, the pandemic has also felt like a relearning of how to pray.
“When I do not know what to do, I take long walks in my neighbourhood. When I am in nature, the Holy Spirit feels a little more near, and both words and silence come a little easier. At the advice of my spiritual director, I try to thank God for the small things throughout the day. I like to walk to a nearby church and spend a holy hour catching up with Jesus. I hope to fill my small prayer corner in my apartment with icons of Jesus from around the world.
“God does not change. The ways we communicate with God and the places where we find God can. Like Jacob, may we learn that God is surely in this place, even when we do not feel it.”
Moving Forward: “Where do you find God? Share your story with us at #ForwardDaybyDay.