On Sacred Space and the sanctification of time.....

From the Energetic Procession blog:

The Divine Liturgy entails sacred acts and sacred words done within a sacred space. Outside of this space, those looking in are just voyeurs. What is the Divine Liturgy if I can fold laundry or pop a cold one while watching it, and do so in my pajamas, or pause it to answer the phone?

My friends at Energetic Procession make a much wider point than I wish to make here, and I refer you to their excellent blogsite for the full post, which is well recommended.  My reason for posting this beautiful snippet is to highlight that in the Divine Liturgy and the prayer services of the Church, something truly extraordinary, beautiful and yes, sacred is going on.  While it occurs in space that is set aside for the purpose of pointing us to the sacred, it occurs outside of time and space.  In short, the Divine Liturgy is a cosmic event, not a local event.  The current trend toward de-sanctifying the Church service either ignores that reality or, more likely, confesses the absence of that reality in the place doing the de-sanctifying.

There is a billboard near my parents' home that says "Church for people who don't do Church."  How sad that it is not enough to merely "do Church."  Similarly, the sign for the Baptist Church next door to the first Lutheran Church we attended said "It's not just church, it's Life" (note the capitalization).  I once joked to our then-Pastor we should make our sign read "It's not life, it's just Church."

Food for thought.