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I will wash my hands in innocence
and walk around your altar, ADONAI,
lifting my voice in thanks
and proclaiming all your wonders.
ADONAI, I love the house where you live,
the place where your glory abides. (Psalm 26.6-8, CJB)
A priest likely wrote psalm 26. The song relates a ritual scene, including a rite of affirmation of innocence.
Part of being a Christian is loving a place where we gather with others to worship. Over time, the sites, sounds, smells ... of the place assume deepening significance. We have memories of the passing of many, even as we have memories of rejoicing together in the birth of new generations.
The priest is quick to clarify his first acclamation: "I love the house (i.e., temple) where you live." He writes, "the place where your glory abides."
The glory is the Shekinah, or the manifest Divine presence, not the Divine essence. For One exists "who alone is immortal, who dwells in unapproachable light that no human being has ever seen or can see--to him be honor and eternal power. Amen. (I Timothy 6.16, CJB)
However, the Eastern Church mystical theologians remind us of a paradox. The Light is not the Essence, but the Light, or energies or glory, or works, is the Triune Mystery manifest, even if not in essence. The Unmanifest Light shines in the Rays of Light. Says St. Gregory Palamas (b. 1296), in Discourses, "... there is only one unoriginate essence, the essence of God; none of the powers that inhere in it is an essence, so that all necessarily and always are in the divine essence." So, while we cannot approach the One, the One is with us in His, or Her, Manifest Presence, unapproachable in UnManifest Presence.
Part of the deepening significance and urge to attend, as well as cause of love for, "your house," is the experience of that Other emanating in a special way through the presence of the Body of worshippers. The symbolism of "house" and the rites enacted there calls our attention heavenward, or to contemplate, in love and yearning, the One.
Therefore, the place of worship, whatever we call it, must never become simply a social experience with others. And is it possible that we too carelessly can enter and act there? In truth, however, the place of our worship is to be a place honored and engaged as a place that lifts our hearts to contemplate the Light. For the Shekinah that reveals the Presence, hides the same.
But, cannot "your house," the one you love, be a place where you gather in your home, the wood, or at another site and by yourself, though with the company of saints hidden to human sight? Yes. You can choose, for example, that place in your home where you go daily to read, pray, and enjoy contemplation. That place can be a "your house" where you address by name, as the psalmist, the Manifest Presence, the place where you and that One commune, mind to mind, heart to heart, in consort with the prayers of all saints, of all ages. Amen.
*Quote of Palamas is from The Classics of Western Spirituality.
**OneLife writings are offered by Brian K. Wilcox, a United Methodist pastor serving in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. He writes in the spirit of John Wesley's focus on the priority of inner experience of the Triune God; scriptural holiness; ongoing sanctification; the goal of Christian perfection (or, wholeness). Brian lives a vowed contemplative life with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis, in North Florida. OneLife writings are for anyone seeking to live and share love, joy, and peace in the world and in devotion to God as she or he best understands God.
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