DEVOTIONAL: ON HOLY GROUND by Dave Korb

As the story of God’s people unfolds in the Old Testament, there are some very special moments in which the ground becomes particularly holy.

I think of the altars Abraham built in various places on what would come to be known as the Promised Land. When God met Abraham at those altar moments, Abraham was often confused, a little bit worried and maybe even anxiety-ridden about whether or not God’s promises and purposes were really going to be realized. At those altars, on that ground, God spoke and Abraham was changed.

Later on there came a moment in the desert when God spoke to a man we know as Moses. The bush was burning. It was a bush like hundreds of other bushes, but this one was different because it burned but was not consumed. Moses moved toward it with some degree of curiosity. God said, “Take off your shoes, Moses. You are on holy ground.” God then spoke to Moses about his eternal purposes and Moses’ role in those purposes. When Moses left that place, he was a different person.

Not long after Moses led the people out of Egypt toward the Promised Land, they built a tabernacle. This church was portable so that it went wherever they went, and in the middle of that tabernacle was a place called the holy of holies. It was sacred. It was holy ground. The glory of God was said to dwell there. So sacred was that ground that no one but the high priest was allowed to enter, and that but once a year. And even then, they tied a rope around the ankle of the high priest so that they would be able to pull his body out, lest he did something out of keeping with the laws and purposes of God and died in judgment.

All the way down through the generations of Israel there were places designated as holy ground. No one dared go near these places unless they were qualified and unless they were prepared. And when they came away from holy ground, something was different—they were different.

In the New Testament you don’t quite get the same sense of holy ground. Holy ground is in the heart where Christ dwells, but there still were places in the biblical account. Zaccheus found holy ground in a tree when Jesus noticed him and invited himself to dine as his guest. Matthew’s tax booth turned into holy ground when Jesus approached to issue the call. Paul trod on holy ground on the road to Damascus. Judas reclined on holy ground in the upper room as Jesus announced that one would betray him. The disciples dozed on holy ground when they chose to sleep while Jesus prayed. Peter paced on holy ground when he was asked three times about his relationship to the man called Jesus. Peter stood on holy ground again after the resurrection when Jesus asked if he loved him.

I think this matter of holy ground is important. I think that one has to be ready to ask at least three questions when approaching holy ground.

1. Do I know holy ground when I see it?
2. Do I know how to act on holy ground when I reach it?
3. Do I know what to take from holy ground when I leave it?

I would like to prioritize these questions, but each competes with the other. I have failed to see holy ground on an airplane when my agenda was to read a book but God had something else in mind in the person seated beside me. Or I have treated a holy moment without regard because I considered it part of my vocation rather than my reason to be. Or I have failed to sense appropriately what God was saying and doing at different points in my life. Then there are those times when I do get it; those times when it hits me so hard that I stand in awe at what God has done.

Spotting holy ground…I think it’s still important for us to be on the lookout and to respond in reverence, because God continues to show up in the most unexpected times and places in our lives.

In recent months a particular Chicago church has been featured in a cover story on both PBS’s Religion & Ethics Weekly and WGN’s News at 9. What is it that caught the media’s attention? Known simply as “The House,” it’s a Saturday night service held twice each month on the city’s West Side. Pastored by Rev. Phil Jackson, The House packs some 500 youth into Lawndale Community Church’s factory-turned-sanctuary for services that use rap, dance, drama, poetry, testimony, video, and preaching to reach the neighborhood’s hip-hop culture. Reports Fred Shropshire of WGN news, “It’s loud. It’s raw. It’s cool. It’s also Church.”

The House’s vision is to “be an aggressive, Christ-centered, urban, youth-driven, culturally-relevant, biblically accurate, community-empowering, family-friendly, hip-hop ministry that will cultivate and empower youth living on the West Side of Chicago with a sustainable faith.” Says Rev. Jackson, “What we’re trying to do, objectively, is to reach students where they are, to take them to where God would have them be and using the vehicle of hip-hop.”

What is hip-hop? The genre’s musical roots are found in jazz, black gospel, reggae, and rhythm and blues. But hip-hop is more than music. Explains a Christianity Today article entitled “Hip-Hop Kingdom Come” (Jan 2001), “Hip-hop is not easy to pigeon-hole. It’s not just about a style of music but a lifestyle. In addition to rap and other urban sounds, it encompasses fashion, language, art, and attitude. It’s not a homogeneous subculture but a diverse supraculture transcending ethnic, geographical, and artistic boundaries.”

While hip-hop has attained a secure place in popular culture, much of today’s most popular rap and hip-hop music raises moral flags with parents and youth leaders. Songs from artists such as Ludacris, Eminem, and DMX are laced with profanity, sex, drugs, violence, materialism, and the degradation of women. Can music and a culture so characterized by worldliness, sensuality, and vice offer anything redemptive?

The House, and a growing number of churches and ministries throughout the country, are convinced it can, and must. In Tampa, Florida, teenagers attend Club X, an outreach sponsored by Without Walls International Church, where young rappers rhyme not about “money, misogyny, and mayhem but the perils of a life without Christ.” In New York City, over one thousand youth flock to Metro Ministries’ Club Life each Tuesday night to sing and dance to hip-hop music with Christian lyrics. Churches integrating hip-hop into services include Word of Life Church in Honolulu, Phoenix First Assembly of God, and New Beginnings Christian Center in Portland.

In 2000 Regent University hosted a conference on “Hip-Hop Culture and the Church.” Keynote speaker Eugene Rivers stated, “Hip-hop culture provides an alternative community for those who feel disconnected.” He added that “in a fragmented world where many youth feel disenfranchised and do not have enough responsible adult role models, hip-hop provides acceptance and identity.”

The idea, then, is to harness the cultural force of hip-hop and its ability to engage youth and pair it with the truth of the gospel and its ability to transform lives. Daryl Esquivel, a performer at The House, told PBS, “Paul says…you have to be all things to all men. We’re taking hip-hop, and we’re taking the gospel, and we are intertwining the two so we can reach that community.” Micah Berryhill, a fellow performer, says simply, “We believe it works because we see lives change.”

To learn more about The House, hip-hop culture, and the Church, follow these links: Rev. Phil Jackson   The House   Hip-Hip Kingdom Come
                             WGN Cover Story   PBS Cover Story

In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership
by Henri Nouwen
1993 (Reprint) Crossroad Publishing Company, 81 pages

At just 81 pages, this is a short book that says a lot. The book is broken into three chapters, framed this way:
Chapter 1. From Relevance to Prayer
                The Temptation: To Be Relevant
                The Question: “Do You Love me?”
                The Discipline: Contemplative Prayer
Chapter 2. From Popularity to Ministry
                The Temptation: To Be Spectacular
                The Task: “Feed My Sheep”
                The Discipline: Confession and Forgiveness
Chapter 3. From Leading to Being Led
                The Temptation: To Be Powerful
                The Challenge: “Somebody Else Will Take You”
                The Discipline: Theological Reflection

When asked to deliver a lecture on leadership for the next century, Henri Nouwen writes that he felt totally inept. “After twenty-five years of priesthood, I found myself praying poorly, living somewhat isolated from other people, and very much preoccupied with burning issues. Everyone was saying that I was doing really well, but something inside was telling me that my success was putting my own soul in danger. I began to ask myself whether my lack of contemplative prayer, my loneliness, and my constantly changing involvement in what seemed most urgent were signs that the Sprit was gradually being suppressed.” Many of you know the rest of the story—Nouwen left a teaching position at Harvard to go to L’Arche in Toronto to spend seven years caring for the mentally handicapped. He writes, “So I moved from Harvard to L’Arche, from the best and the brightest, wanting to rule the world, to men and women who had few or no words and were considered, at best, marginal in the needs of our society.”

I definitely consider this book a must read. These 81 pages contain not only reflections on the experience of moving from the halls of academia to the rooms of a group home, but thoughts from a soul gone dry after years of professional ministry. This book offers much for the thirsty soul.

The Story of my Life: An Afghan Girl on the Other Side of the Sky
by Farah Ahmedi with Tamin Ansary
2005 Simon Spotlight Entertainment 256 pages

This book came to my attention—and that of the nation—because it is the result of Good Morning America’s “The Story of My Life” Contest, in which viewers were challenged to submit an essay of 600 words or less, proposing why their life story warranted a published telling. It is the story of Farah Ahmedi, an Afghan girl who came to the US with her mother as a refugee in 2002. Her life up to that point had been fraught with the loss of her leg due to a land mine at the age of seven, the loss of her father and sisters when a rocket hit the family’s house, and the loss of her home in Kabul when she and her mother escaped over the mountains to Pakistan as refugees in 2001.

Following her tragic encounter with the land mine, Farah was airlifted to Germany for treatment and recovery under the sponsorship of a relief organization, and spent two years away from her family and homeland. I find the cross-cultural aspects of the book fascinating. It is interesting to read about her impossible transition back into Afghan life after her time in Germany—the view she had of what was normal and accepted before she lived elsewhere, and how she viewed customs and life in Afghanistan upon her return. It is also insightful to learn of her mother’s dread of being thrown into slavery upon coming to the US, and not having events unfold as feared. What I find troublesome is how Farah was drawn to love the people who saw her physical needs and met them, who gave her both gifts and necessities. I could not shake nagging entitlement issues as I read her story. What I also found disheartening was that Farah moved to Wheaton, where I live, and was befriended by many Christians; but as she tells her story she celebrates America’s religious freedom because everyone made it easy for her to practice her faith, and did not share their own. They did everything possible to provide her with things, they found opportunities for her to practice her Muslim faith, they took her to fun places around Chicago…but they didn’t take her to church. Farah describes this as a very positive aspect of her experience here. Positive? Telling—yes!

What Clients Love: A Field Guide to Growing Your Business
by Harry Beckwith
2003 Warner Business Books, 256 pages

If you like books that have quick-to-the-point, short bursts of insight, you will love this book. This is a small handbook full of great business ideas that easily spill over into the pews. One example:

“Resist Authority. Assemble eight people in a room and what happens? The Alphas take over. As a result, the ideas that are implemented in your company do not come from good thinking. They come from the Alphas—the animals in any cluster that seize and hold the power. Are Alphas good at creative or strategic thinking? Not necessarily. They are just good at seizing power. Often, they are only the people who look the most powerful—as studies show that the taller a business school graduate, the higher his or her starting salary. If you are an Alpha, learn to keep still and wait. Listening to authority will focus you on the past, on what has worked. But little is working today; discontent with services is at record highs. Listen to authority and you will repeat this shadowy past—and lose your clients.”

Although aimed at the business world, this is a great book full of thoughts that apply to many aspects of life.