Sermon - Sacred Space

In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. A couple of weeks ago I found myself in the Parish church of St Ives. From the outside a rather dull building of grey stone but once over the threshold you are greeted with a spectacular vision of countless medieval angels and apostles beautifully carved and coloured greeting you from their elevated position all around the body of the church . You are immediately made aware that this is no ordinary space, it is not a museum or gallery where tourist can acquire the consolations of culture or a sense of history rather it is a sacred space where heaven and earth mingle together angels and saints are mysteriously present. As you move forward into the church you are almost tangibly touched by a profound stillness a deep ageless silence where the busy world has been hushed and left behind and you are being invited to linger and let go of your immediate cares and concerns and see yourself afresh in relation to this sense of eternity of which the building so powerfully speaks and evokes. Then you move to the Lady chapel where there is the gentle radiance of lit candles, prayers have recently been offered and you discover some words written just for you to help you through the experience of arriving in this sacred space, words from the 11th century by St Anselm, “Come now and put aside all business for a while , take refuge from your tumultuous thoughts cast off all your cares and let your burdensome distractions wait awhile . Take some leisure for God, enter into the chamber of your heart put out everything except Go , close your door and seek him alone , say now to God with all your heart “I seek your face O God your face I seek” . However distractions and tumultuous thoughts that we carry around with us of which St Anselm speaks can be overwhelming Seeking God alone in prayer isn`t always easy especially when we are in a crisis and everything is changing around us are we feel we have little control. When we are ill or feeling unwell or anxious about a hospital appointment we may not have the energy to pray we perhaps become despondent it is then we have to remind us that others are praying for us on our behalf. Those statues of angels and saints are a reminder that there are other forces always along side us uniting their prayer with ours. This is why intercessory prayer is so important. Our prayer for others is a real form of support. We carry people to God who cannot carry themselves. It is an act of love . And because prayer touches the threshold of the divine we will not know how our prayer is used or how it takes effect but it will become part of God`s providential care for the person we are praying for . Then we quietly leave the church of St Ives, and find ourselves back in the sunshine. The world now seems slightly a different place and we walk up the hill to a whitewashed house where there is an invitation to enter a garden the garden of Barbara Hepworth . A tropical garden with Australian Cabbage palm , Fuchsias , Bougainvillaea , Camellias , Japanese Quince , Narcissus and among the colourful foliage and trees are her own sculptures works which she always wanted to have with her. We have entered another space no less sacred than the space we have just visited . And again we find some words written just for us words Barbara Hepworth left for her visitors, “Wonder around the garden on your own , let them look at you and they will speak to you” . It may seem an odd notion of sculptures speaking, but there are many levels of communication , many ways of being touched and moved . In fact we are invited to touch the sculptures themselves to make a connection and to walk around and through the larger spaces. There is one piece which is particularly moving called “Prayer” it is an organic plant like form reaching up, almost pleading and seemingly at the same time drawing down energy from above. This piece was done after the sudden death of her son Paul. We can see how Barbara Hepworth turns her grief into a creative act . It is a lamentation but at the same time an expression of hope reaching outwards and upwrds from within the pain of loss.It could not have been an easy for Barbara Hepworth to create this sculpture task but the actual doing of it was her prayer her expression of where she was and now it becomes ours. We too can connect with that stretching beyond ourselves seeking to draw down the strength or the wisdom or the patience which we may need for the situation we find ourselves in . The garden had its own stillness and spoke it own language and was for me a reminder that God can touch us in so many different ways and that all creativity is an extension of God`s own creativity entering his world through the imagination of others and feelings of others . Each one of us will have our own sacred space that speaks to us it may be the space of a friendship or a love, a particular piece of music or a passage from scripture it may be a poem or a novel, it may be something about this space of St Michael's and the delicate web of friendships whatever it is let us not neglect but cherish them visit those places because they are all gifts from God , expressions of his love towards us.