Sermon: Trinity 20

Preacher:

Date:

Sunday 21st October 2012

Service:

Mattins

What a total waste of space.

That is a pretty damning verdict on any building, or worse still, person. But it begs the questions, how is something a waste of space; is space something that can be wasted? Or is that just an idea of a modern, functional mind. Space is really quite important in busy and hectic lives, lives into which anxiety and fear, guilt and stress impinge.

Space is important in the singing of the melody of our lives. Continuing the musical analogy a rest in the score needs to be observed as meticulously as getting the length or pitch of a note right: the rest is a space in the music, and helps define what the music is about.

There is a strain of Christianity, that cuts across theological traditions and inclinations, which is all about filling spaces, erasing the rests and engaging in a feverish space filling frenzy; you can see it in the physical appearance of a building. As one writer on church buildings has somewhat polemically put it,

The phrase ‘liturgical space’ can be highly misleading if used to describe the interior of the typical church building which members of most mainstream churches experience as the norm. In these places, ‘space’ is the very last word that springs to mind, as they are usually cluttered from end to end with fixed furniture. No cat need ever fear being swung in them. There just isn’t room for cat swinging of for anything else. (Giles, Richard,.2004 Creating Uncommon Worship: transforming the liturgy of the Eucharist. Norwich: Canterbury Press.  53)

This isn’t just about buildings; it’s about the space we clear for God. Although: even that is wrong. It is not a case of ‘budging up’ to allow God to squeeze into our lives – there is room in my heart Lord Jesus…if you can squeeze into my busy, full schedule - it is about God’s presence increasing our capacity and our spaciousness – ‘that we may dwell in him and he in us’. That takes us to this morning’s first reading, as God declares through Isaiah,

‘Enlarge the site of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes’ Isaiah 54.2

In other words, let your habitations, your living space be stretched out, don’t be cramped and introspective. This implies a creation of space, a spirit of generosity and expansiveness. It is captured in the word ‘spaciousness’.

In buildings spaciousness implies engagement with the physical space in which liturgy is performed and informs how the built environment interacts with the liturgical spaciousness created in word, gesture and encounter.

In people spaciousness implies the clearing of space allows for the sense of unexpected delight or new ways in which God might lead or guide or prompt.

Such space is isn’t a vacuum, which sucks in spiritual clutter, but it creates a space within one’s own self for God to dwell. This is the space Jesus has cleared for us both in the example of his practice of prayer and unity with the Father, and in his saving death and resurrection. Jesus stretched out his human canopy to allow the fullness of the Father to dwell in him in those times he took himself away to find space and pray. He also by those silent, empty, spacious three days in the tomb created a new space, a new dimension, a renewed Sabbath, in which we can find our humanity transformed and replenished.

To conclude a sermon on spiritual space, I am now going leave some space for us to ponder and pray, stretching out our habitations, lengthening our cords and strengthening our stakes.

May we evermore dwell in him, and he in us.