Sacred Things

19, March 2006

Dakota Community Church

Sacred Things

If I asked you this morning to name something that is scary or funny or irritating you probably would not have to hard a time with coming up with something.

If I asked you to name something sacred, it might be a little more difficult.

You may remember back in January I talked about Esau and how he traded everything he was meant to be in God for one momentary craving.

Hebrews 12: 16 (KJV)

Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

Profane comes from the Greek word (953) beb-ay-los which means from the base or to cross the threshold.

We get our word profanity from the same root.

In the Hebrew culture there are two realms, the sacred and the common.

To profane something is to take something sacred and reduce it to common status.

- The birthright of the first born is sacred.

- This is why we are not to use profanity. It is usually something sacred that we reduce to common status.

So something sacred is something that is the opposite of that. It is something that is separated for God.

Matthew 7:6

"Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.”

What would the Lord want us to recognize the sacredness of this morning?

1. Your life is sacred.

We need to treat our life as the sacred gift that it is.

Lamentations 3:22-23

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Every morning when you wake up and open your eyes and draw in breathe it is a fresh, sacred gift of God. All over town in hospital beds and in nursing homes there are people who don’t get that privilege and others who are fighting and praying with their whole hearts for one more day.

When my grandfather was 100 years old we were out one day and he was telling about his aunt who lived to be 105. I asked him if he thought he would make it to 105 and he said, “I hope so Dan, I sure hope so.” – Your life is a sacred gift.

James 1:16-18

Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.

Think about your life for a minute, you probably spend more time thinking about the negatives, the difficulties and the struggles you are facing. But have you stopped to recognize and rejoice in the sacred moments that are gifts from God?

- I remember coming in from school at lunch to my mom’s love and lunches.

- The first time I walked into the hockey rink with Joel and Caleb the smell brought me back to hours of fun with my dad.

- Christmas morning in our home after Church with the boys at the age they are now was bathed in the sacred presence of God.

2. All life is sacred.

Read Mark 10:17-23

Mark 10:21

Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

Have you ever had the experience of looking at another human being and loving them?

Quotes:

“The awe that we sense or ought to sense when standing in the presence of a human being is a moment of intuition for the likeness of God which is concealed in his essence. Something sacred is at stake in every moment." (Abraham Heschel)

“Next to the blessed sacrament, our neighbor is the holiest thing presented to our senses. Most of us, though, are oblivious to that holiness except at rare moments.” (C. S. Lewis)

Genesis 1:27

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

When I was younger back in Nova Scotia I joined Premier John Buchanan’s re-election tour one summer. At lunch over lobster sandwiches he looked down the long table and said, “So Dan what do you do for a living?” I nearly spit lobster all over the table. I couldn’t believe he had remembered my name from our one brief meeting.

What I am talking about here is something deeper than celebrity awe.

I am talking about recognizing the image of God in another human being, and loving them, seeing them for the sacred being that they are.