Back to Shalom and Sacred Space

In the next series of posts, I plan on tracking the Biblical concepts of Sacred Space and Shalom. There will be a few interruptions, of course, since Googly has so much to say about just about everything under the Sun (much to Mrs. Googly Moogly’s delight—not!). Plus, I plan on uploading some more music every now and then that may (or may not) speak to the idea of Shalom. Sometimes I like to just give people an opportunity to hear something that they may never have had the chance to hear before. Honestly…how many of you have ever heard “Alaska” by Cactus, or “Put Your Hand…” by Donny Hathaway before? OK…how many of you wish you had never opened the player to hear it for the first time? And of course, I’m still playing around with the video widgets! So…sidetracks we may take…but Shalom is, as always, the goal!

Anyway, with a few interruptions in the plan, I’ll be attempting to give a general overview of how the Bible speaks to the issues of Sacred Space and Shalom. We know from the testimony of the entire Scripture that the grand plan of God is the “summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth.” (Eph. 2:10) This is what we’ve called the Recovery of Sacred Space in Christ. By Sacred Space I mean God’s habitation or dwelling place, which is, generally speaking, the Entire Created Order; but more specifically I’m referring to Sacred Space as the “place” of meeting between God and His Creation. The entire Cosmos is Sacred Space, of course, because God is Holy and He cannot be removed from His Creation—He created everything and even now upholds everything by the Word of His power. From the perspective of Creation, though, we can speak of Sacred Space as the “place” of intimacy between God and the Created Order—where God meets His Creation through Man, His Image-Bearer.

My goal is to track the Biblical storyline from Creation-Fall-Redemption-Consummation using the theme of Sacred Space (and all that S.S. entails) as the all-encompassing idea that unifies the Scripture—all of it—as an organic whole. While there are many minor themes and strands of ideas woven throughout the Scripture, I believe that the concept of Sacred Space, understood in Biblical terms as the Kingdom of God, is the singular focus of the Bible. The Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, is the record of God working out His purpose in redemptive history; and His purpose, as already stated, is the “summing up of all things in Christ”.

The Old Testament is the record of the promise of the Recovery of Sacred Space, and the New Testament is the record of the fulfillment of this promise in Jesus the Christ. We’ll be looking at this promise-fulfillment motif as we follow God’s plan of redemption from the beginning promise of a Seed of the Woman through to this Seed’s arrival in the Person of Jesus Christ. From beginning, the portrait of the Person and Work of Jesus Christ is painted; and when He arrives, He fulfills all the Scripture in Himself. His work on the cross was not simply for the redemption of (some) men, but for the redemption of the entire Cosmos.

The Recovery of Sacred Space in Christ is the story of the Bible—it’s the Gospel! And all the doctrines of the Bible must be seen as attributing to this singular goal and purpose of God in order to be understood correctly. My purpose in this series is to help my own understanding of the plan and purpose of God as well as any who take this journey with me. While we can never plumb the depths of the Gospel, we who love our Lord will want to continue to learn the fullness of who He is and what it is that He has accomplished.