Earth is crammed with heaven

“Earth is so thick with divine possibility that it is a wonder we can walk anywhere without cracking our shins on altars.”

― Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

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saint and sinner

blessed or cursed

sacred or secular

us or them

holy or sinful

for some reason we like to divide the world up

into nice neat categories

it makes life so much easier

if we can label everything

and everyone

winner

loser

good

bad

and so define the people we value

and the people we don’t

and Sacred?

Well, we confine that to

Sacred and Holy places

which too we have defined and adorned.

but sadly this is not the way it works

Jesus refused to label people

adjectives had little meaning to him

(unless he wanted to blow apart the think of those for whom adjectives had too much meaning)

he did not see Jews and Gentiles

just people

he did not see saints and sinners

just people

and the world did not have

designated “holy places”

the earth was full of holy places

the farmers market

the homes of common sinners

wheat fields

and fishing boats

for Jesus, earth was crammed with heaven (thanks Elizabeth Barrett Browning),

and saints

(mostly accidental)

God was to be worshipped exuberantly,

whenever, wherever,

and all people were to be seen as God’s children

nothing’s changed