Do you know what season we are in on the Christian calendar? The season of Epiphany. Churches following the calendar have been reading passages of people who had an epiphany, like Isaiah in Isaiah 6 and Peter in Luke 5. Some might ask, “What is an epiphany?” Epiphany “refers to a visible and frequently sudden manifestation of a hidden divinity either in the form of a personal appearance, or by some deed of power or oracular communication by which its presence is made known.” Or, more simply put, moments when the hidden divinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, manifests and we suddenly realize we are in God’s Presence. He is with us. We come to know something of God we didn’t know before, we have an “aha” moment, a light comes on for us.
I had an epiphany many years ago. My first three children were small and running around my feet. Our oldest daughter had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and my world had been shattered. I was searching for God in ways I had not previously and, on this day, suddenly God’s Presence filled the room. Jesus came into my living room and I realized and said out loud to myself, “HE’S ALIVE. JESUS IS REALLY ALIVE!” What I had read and believed in my Bible, what I had been taught, I came to know in the depths of my being with a knowledge that was beyond information. It was experiential and transformational. I perceived Him as truly with me. He was stunningly beautiful and strong. Epiphany! I didn’t even know this word back then, but it happened, one of the most true experiences of my life. I was filled with the Holy Spirit and overflowed with joy and love. I said to Him then (and still say today), “I’ll go wherever you say go. I’ll do whatever you say do. Just let me be with You. I just want to be with You.”
God’s Presence, the manifestation of His hidden divinity with me, changed my life. I have never been the same. In an epiphany, the reality of God breaks through the less true realities spun like a web by culture, sin and faithlessness (among other things) and what is most real, most true, God’s Presence, is manifest.
My friend Ben Snyder, an Anglican priest, recently shared that what is remarkable about an epiphany is that God does not arrive where He was not present before, He was already present. He does not show up and begin to address our needs, He has already been actively engaged and working without our awareness. Epiphany is not about God finally swooping in to rescue, but rather it is about us finally seeing that He is present among us. Recognizing God’s Presence with us changes everything. When we realize we are in God’s Presence, we come to a deeper understanding of our unworthiness and sin; God intervenes on our behalf to strengthen and restore us; and transformation takes place enabling us to become witnesses to God’s deep love for the world. The world needs an epiphany.
Sanctuary is a ministry of attending to the Presence of God. The living God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is active and near to each one, but most don’t know it. Most live unaware of this central reality. When we come and worship God, pray to God, rest in God, we are saying to the world, God is present, God matters, God is worthy. By maintaining a space in the heart of our city for God alone, we stand as a symbol that God owns it all and everything ultimately is to be for Him, about Him and unto Him. By giving God attention, we are saying He is the worthy One; by crying out to Him, we are saying He is the Source and only Answer. Our listening to His voice trumpets the message that He is the Way, the Truth, the Life for the whole world. We bear witness to the central reality of hidden divinity, God’s Presence.
It might not sound that exciting to be a symbol. But symbols speak! Urban T. Holmes III in Spirituality for Ministry says this about symbols: “We need to remind ourselves repeatedly that to classify something as a symbol does not make it less real, as our culture often thinks; rather we are designating it as a central image in our reality.”
To believers in Jesus Christ, the reality of a hidden divinity, cultivating awareness of the often unseen Presence of God with us, is a central image in our reality. Symbolizing life lived in the Presence of Christ, whether seen or unseen, and ordering our lives because of this true reality is the bullseye of our target, our aim.
Cultivating awareness of God’s Presence as symbol through worship, prayer, rest becomes cultivating awareness of God’s Presence as a way of seeing and living in the world.
For Sanctuary, our target is cultivating awareness of God; practicing God’s Presence; consistently living open to God; acknowledging God; paying attention to God; worshiping God; listening to God; crying out to God; thanking God; waiting on God; surrendering to God; rejoicing in God; watching for God. No one can create an epiphany. It’s a gift from God. But for those of us who have experienced the revelation of God’s Presence with us, we can live out of it. That’s the symbol: People living out of the Presence of God, not apart from it.
We live as a symbol of what we value. When a mother of small children stops in the midst of all the chaos around her and turns to God, obeys Him when it doesn’t make sense, worships Him when the tears of pain fall, becomes a symbol to the children watching of the way to live in a reality not easily seen, but nevertheless absolutely real, valid and life giving. She symbolizes the bullseye in the target of life, that God is present with us, that God knows, God hears, God heals. She intercedes for them by being a symbol that designates the central reality of life: God, seen or unseen, is present. She makes a way for them to do the same.
When the college student in the dorm, stressed and unsure or confident and clear, worships or prays while his roommates sleep or play video games, it symbolizes to all who would see, a central image in our reality, that God is present to guide, enable, bring peace. He intercedes as a symbol showing a way of life, the reality of a hidden divinity present, at work and true.
Now, what if that mother or college student or business person or ministry leader or city worker (you fill in the blank) walked to a central space in the heart of their city to turn to God, to worship God, to listen to God. They now become a symbol for those outside of their own personal space, designating as a central image in their reality to townspeople, known or unknown to them, lost or saved, that God is present and in HIM we live and move and have our being. People who see them week after week, month after month, coming to a place and spending time, resources, energy, worshiping God, praying to God, drawing near to God, resting in His Presence, opening to God, listening to God are offered a light, a way of living radically different from what culture magnifies. They now become a symbol to a dying world that life is to be lived in God, in that hidden divinity of His Presence.
What if those people (the mother, college student, etc.) all went to different churches, held to different Christian faith traditions, who on the nuances of their faith might disagree, came to the same place in the heart of the city and worshiped God together, prayed together, rested in His presence together, blessed and welcomed each other in Christian fellowship, recognizing that we are really on the same team? They become a symbol to the Body of Christ of a central and true reality that God’s people in God’s Presence are empowered to love for one another. Their very act of coming to a space for God alone is intercession for the church. It could also be a means of healing for the world, which is still waiting to see us love one another, both within and between our churches. God’s reality is, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
And even better, what if this mother, college student, banker or baker were of different races, genders, nationalities? What if their differences were made subservient to the Presence of God, and they came together in the central space and worshiped God, prayed together, rested in God’s presence together, discussed truth together. This would designate a central symbol of Kingdom reality: in God’s Presence, there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free. What intercession would that be! How powerful a witness is a symbol!
The Sanctuary exists to draw attention toward, back, up, to God and God alone, because He is our reality. Living out of awareness, openness, attention to God is the way of life; saying by our lives: I am God’s own, we are God’s possession. As much as Sanctuary is for any individual who wants to come here for personal, alone time with God, what I want for us to see and understand is that you are never coming here for only you. The Sanctuary is a symbol of the central reality of a hidden divinity: God’s Presence with us. Others see, watch. This will one day be manifest on earth as it is in heaven.
So, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good, come to Him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight. Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Cultivate your awareness of God. Live out of the hidden divinity of God’s Presence. Be a symbol.