“I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.” Psalm 122:1
Many things have been troubling my mind and soul during the last months. The list is long. But one bothersome thought keeps rubbing the back of my brain: Where can I go to cry “Sanctuary”?
Sanctuary. It’s a Medieval construct, which stretched over 400 years and was upheld by both the Church and the secular government. More than likely it has its roots in the Levitical “cities of refuge”. I like how one definition is written: It was a last resort….for those often under chase by the community. And there it is, the very thing that has been rubbing against the back of my brain, like a pebble in my shoe…the lack of Sanctuary in our world today.
During the Medieval centuries and into the Early Modern era, the Popes were allowed to place churches and indeed whole countries under something known as “Interdict”. The most famous case was King John of England. He irritated the Pope, and didn’t heed the threats, and to get John to heel, Pope Innocent III placed all of England under Interdict. What does this mean? Basically the church doors are closed. There is no worship, no marriages, no burials, no baptisms, no Lord’s Supper….the Church in those days was responsible for all of these activities, both in performance and in recording. Life as Medieval folk knew it, came to a halt. They were not amused…with John. Enter the Magna Carta.
So, here I sit, 800 years later, longing to cry Sanctuary….save me from the community that is attacking me and my faith, but I find myself under Interdict, only this time, the government and the Church are complicit and I cannot enter my church in order to even raise a cry.
The doors are closed, locked up tight. No marriages. No funerals. No baptisms. No Worship. No Lord’s Supper. Church life, as we know it as Christians, has been halted…..for months. Some churches have opened, but only in a sterile setting; forbidding nearness, forcing maskings, no chatting…only frigid sterility.
Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Our Lord touched the foulest of the foul….without fear. He healed them. They ran to Him for sanctuary, and He did not turn them away. He did the opposite. He embraced the sick, the oppressed, the demon possessed, the adulterous. Where may we go to be embraced today? Certainly not the Church….the one place where we should dwell in complete safety. Instead, our churches have capitulated to the World and are functioning under a self imposed Interdict. And Why?
Do we value false virtue over Truth? Do we value the hollow words of the government over the fulfilling words of Scripture? Do we fear man, more than we fear Almighty God? Do we say in one breath that we believe in and trust a Sovereign God and with the next, lean on our own understanding?
Have we forgotten the injunction in Hebrews: “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”?
Where are our Spiritual spines? Why are we cowering, with covered faces and arms wrapped tight against our bodies, shying away from our brothers and sisters? Truly, what would Jesus do? Do we see the damage that this behavior is having upon the members of Christ’s body? Do we see the damage it is doing to ourselves?
Lack of face to face fellowship, is taking its toll on our congregations. And what do our churches do? They rattle off a laundry list of regulations we must all adhere to in order to enter the Sanctuary of the Most High. We are forced further and further under Interdict, while we thirst for the Table, longing to cry out Sanctuary in the midst of a community that is attacking us from all sides.
Where may I go? When may I be glad again when they said, let us go into the house of the Lord?
King John’s interdict lasted well over 3 years.
My soul, my dry, weary, tired out soul longs for sanctuary and awaits the day when I will again be able to leave the dry and weary land, that lacks water and behold my King in his sanctuary, with my brothers and sisters, beholding his power and glory…..because truly, His love is better than life and my lips will glorify Him.
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