Holy Places: Rethinking Sacred Geography in Modern Faith {Reflections}

Have you ever wondered what makes a place truly sacred? Ryan explores the fascinating contrast between ancient beliefs about holy places and a more personal understanding of sacred spaces.

Throughout history and across religious traditions, certain locations—mountains, rivers, trees, boulders—have been designated as inherently holy. The Hebrew Scriptures are filled with these sacred geographical markers, like Moses encountering the burning bush on holy ground. Today, millions still make pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Mecca, and other revered sites, believing these places possess a unique spiritual essence.

But perhaps there's another way to understand sacred geography. What if these places aren't inherently different in their physical makeup? What if, instead, the sacredness emerges from how we approach them—with heightened awareness, spiritual expectation, and communal intention? Ryan reflects on his own journey to Jerusalem, discovering that the holiness he experienced wasn't necessarily in the ground itself, but in his own openness and the collective spiritual mindset of his travel companions.

This perspective doesn't diminish traditional sacred sites but rather democratizes the sacred, suggesting we can create holy spaces wherever we are. A prayer closet, a quiet spot in the woods, or any intentional space can become hallowed through ritual and regular practice. These self-created sacred spaces serve as portals where our everyday consciousness shifts, allowing us to experience transcendence in the ordinary. Wherever you are today, consider how you might carve out space and time that becomes holy through nothing more than your presence and intention.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
What is up everybody?
Hey, ryan here and welcome toour Reflections podcast.
And hey, I don't know if youknow this or not, but in the
ancient world they believed—andyou see this in Scripture too,
in the Hebrew Scripture In theancient world people believed
that there were sites, likegeographical locations, that
were actually more sacred thanothers.
They had these sacred sites,like sacred mountains or rivers

(00:36):
or trees or boulders, and theHebrew Scriptures.
You see this a ton.
I mean, you think about Moses.
When Moses encounters theburning bush, he approaches it
and has this sense that he's onholy ground.
In fact, that's what the bushtells him.
And so in the ancient world andin the Hebrew Bible, you have
this sense like this space, thisactual location, this
geographical location, thismountain over and against that

(00:58):
mountain, or this patch ofground over and against that
patch of ground, this is asacred place and that over there
would then be like sort of amore ordinary place.
And they had this sense likethat place was like the fancy
word is ontological, so likeontology has to do with like
being and so they felt like thatthat place, in its being, in
its essence, was actuallydifferent than the other places

(01:20):
around it.
It was actually sacred, it wasa holy place, and I was in
Israel a couple of years ago now.
It hasn't been that long, butbefore kind of sort of some of
the modern unrest began in 2023.
But we were there and Israel isone of those places where people
that go there have the sense,or this belief that, like that
place geographically, like theatoms that make up the ground or

(01:40):
the locations or the rivers andmountains there, that that
place is actually sacred andholy in and of itself, in its
ontology or in its very being.
But I want to offer a differentway of looking at this.
You know that maybe somethingelse is going on there.
So, again, many folks travelthere.
Mecca is also a place like this, where the Muslims go on a

(02:01):
pilgrimage because they believethat place is a holy site.
So, whether it's Jerusalem orIsrael in general, or Mecca, or
lots of us have these places inthe world.
But I wonder if it's not thatnecessarily, because how could
it be that that rock over thereis any more sacred or holy than
this rock outside of my house?
Well, I wonder if it's not thatthat place is different, but

(02:22):
that somehow, when I go there,that I'm different that when I
approach it in a certain way.
When I go to like.
When we went to Jerusalem, Imean I was going over there like
with high expectations in termsof like what I would see, and
when you're there it is amagical place.
But I learned for me anyway, itwasn't because I thought that
that ground was somehow in andof itself holy and sacred, but

(02:43):
somehow I was like more awake toit myself and then I was more
alert to it and I was with abunch of folks who went with me,
and there was like 20 or so ofus, and we were all going over
there with like one sort of mindof trying to like discover God
in new and fresh ways.
And when we, you know,collectively, went over there
with that mindset and that sortof openness, we experienced

(03:05):
something that I might call holyand sacred.
And so, look, I'm fine if wewant to, you know, approach
these sites as maybeontologically, like in their
being, that they're somehow setapart or more holy or more
sacred or more divine.
That's fine.
But I also think there'ssomething unique about the fact
that when we go to these places,like we're different, like our

(03:26):
hearts are open and unique anddifferent, and that's an
experience of the Holy and theDivine.
And so, by all means, go toIsrael, go to Jerusalem and go
to these places that you thinkare sacred, or create your own,
you know, create a prayer closetor a special place in the woods
for you, because when you gothere and when it becomes a

(03:49):
ritual of you going there andyou being in those places, it
does something to you, and theritual itself of traveling and
doing the things and going tothat spot somehow does indeed
open you up to something sacredand divine and something holy.
And so I really think there's asense of like.
These spaces in and ofthemselves are not necessarily
any or all that different fromother spaces at all, but you and
I, we can kind of create spacesand carve out space in our
lives, time and placesthemselves and make that space

(04:12):
holy.
It's how we come into thosespaces that makes the thing a
unique experience.
And so we need those spaces,because it's what allows our
bodies and sort of the monkeypart of our brain to kind of
shut down and to experience Godin these uniquely divine ways.
And so today, may you have asense, wherever you are, may you
have a sense of a calling tokind of experience God in these

(04:33):
sacred places.
May you actually create some ofyour own wherever you are,
whatever you're doing, may youexperience God in these unique
ways today.
Alright, peace, love you guys.
Hey, if you enjoy this show,I'd love to have you share it
with some friends.
And don't forget, you arealways welcome to join us in
person at Central in Elk Riverat 830, which is our liturgical

(04:54):
gathering, or 10 o'clock, ourmodern gathering, or you can
check us out online atclcelkriverorg Peace.