A Pneumatology of the Mundane
Is Sunday more holy than Thursday? Are the Eucharistic elements more sanctified than my Wonder bread and Welch’s grape juice? Is a church sanctuary more holy than the public park?
For modern Christians the answers are generally, Yes, each of the former is more holy or sanctified than the latter.
But I want to argue in this post that the Spirit of God is active in all things – even those mundane or common objects, times, or places. In other words, Sacred Space need not be limited to cathedrals or communion tables. Sacred Time need not be restricted to Sundays or Lent. And Sacred Objects need not be restricted to Bibles, crosses or pulpits.
Rather, encountering the Spirit of God occurs with mundane things, places, and times:
- Simple kitchen tables where we meet God each morning for our devotions
- That old, tattered watch our grandfather gave us with the Bible inscription on the back, continually challenging us to faithfulness
- Thursday night dinners with old friends who challenge you to love God more.
The sacred is found in the mundane. As one scholar put it, we can and do encounter God in “quite unreligious, commonplace experiences.”
This does not mean nothing is sacred for the Christian. Rather, it means all times, places, and objects are sacred:
- Paul tells us all days are to be lived for the Lord, not just the Sabbath.
- All meat comes from God, even if it’s sacrificed to idols.
- The temple of the Holy Spirit is not built by human hands, but is the community, ekklesia, of God.
- Whatever you do with your hands do with all your might – not with eye service and pleasers of people, but unto God!
- Whether you eat or drink (mundane tasks, are they not?), do it all to the glory of the Lord.
However highly hallowed or wholly humdrum, everything must be considered consecrated.
- And if everything is sacred then nothing is merely mundane. No person, no task, no object, no place and no time can be considered God-forsaken:
- As believers in a crucified savior, every person is considered sacred to God and therefore to us.
- As kingdom workers, even term papers and taxes become sacred.
- As resident aliens, each place we go the kingdom of God accompanies us.
- As agents of redemption, we redeem the time and demonstrate God’s sovereignty over all ages.
When Christians understand that nothing is mundane we are also able to see the all pervasive presence of the Spirit in all created things, great and small.
The Spirit’s presence in Genesis 1:2 suggests that the Spirit has always been involved with the creation. And now through Jesus’ death the Spirit reveals that all creation falls under Christ’s redemptive purposes (Col. 1).
In recognizing this we have the ability, indeed privileged, to observe the Spirit’s workings in the mundane tasks, we are able to be present – that is, not continually distracted by what/who is coming up next or later. We can focus on our task at hand precisely because we know that the Spirit is at work in this task, no matter how trivial. We work with the Spirit to call all things to the redemptive purposes of God.
Let me illustrate this: When I do the dishes for me wife, no matter how mundane that seems to me, I am enacting loving service within our home. I not only demonstrate my love for her as a husband, but I actually demonstrate the love of Christ for her. This demonstration of love is prompted by the Spirit. The Spirit compels me to creative means of loving my wife. But that creativity need not be only and always big-feats of romance (as important as that may be). Rather, my wife feels most loved when I simply clean the bathroom or take out the trash. Everything is sacred in our marriage – even pee stains around the toilet! (or, rather, the absence thereof) If I ignore the mundane, my wife will feel unloved.
So it is with the Spirit. The Spirit does not always and only need our great missionary allegiance. The Spirit wants us to be faithful in all our little tasks. Our excellence and present-ness in all things mundane turn those things, places, and people into sacraments – means by which we encounter the living God through physical realities. It is here that something “as ordinary as a sleeping child, as simple and objective as a flower, suddenly commands attention.” And it does so because the presence of the Spirit.
Everything is sacred, brothers and sisters. Everything.
Could it be that everything is sacred?
And all this time
Everything I’ve dreamed of
Has been right before my eyes.
-Andrew Osenga “Sacred”
I’m not a theologian but when I read this post my Spirit responds with an unmistakeable sense of affirmation. When we look at the world through the this lens of everything is sacred, or perhaps more importantly, that nothing is “God-forsaken” it allows us to truly do all things to the glory of God and rejoice in all that we do. All that to say, I really like this post.
Tom,
I feel this has been your weakest post in your ongoing series on the subject of pneumatology. I really did not see how my understanding of the Spirit should be challenged because so much felt like it wasn’t about the Spirit himself, but rather about what I do. That said, many of the things you said are no less true. I myself would tells others of your point about what you do for your wife not only shows your love for her, but your love for Christ and his love for both of you (since I’m not married I can’t speak in first-person terminology……..yet). You paragraph was quite right when you write,
So it is with the Spirit. The Spirit does not always and only need our great missionary allegiance. The Spirit wants us to be faithful in all our little tasks. Our excellence and present-ness in all things mundane turn those things, places, and people into sacraments – means by which we encounter the living God through physical realities. It is here that something “as ordinary as a sleeping child, as simple and objective as a flower, suddenly commands attention.” And it does so because the presence of the Spirit.
I think i wish you would have addressed the issue of “why” in this post rather than just “what.” So much of what is said in this post Paul makes a similar case for in Romans 14 and yet the Holy Spirit is missing in Paul’s argument, he emphasizes faith. I hope that you will come back and try to show why its the presence of the Spirit that makes these mundane things sacred. It could also just be the way my mind is wired and I have to always ask the “why” question.
PS: Paul actually doesn’t say that we aren’t to just observe one day in Romans 14:5-6 but that if a person is convinced in his/her own mind of that one day and observes it in honor of Jesus, then s/he hasn’t sinned. Wednesday my Pastor preached on the topic of Sabbath.
Hey guys, thanks for your reflections. Interestingly, on my new blog page, I just got ripped by my friend theotica. It was a really helpful critique of what I’ve written. I still think the gist of my argument is right, but the way I express some of it needs to be rethought. Check it out at http://www.thefuerstshallbelast.wordpress.com
Now…
I think what Miles appreaciates about my post is really the heart of what I wanted to get at – whether I communicated it well or not. So, thank you for your kind words, Miles.
Hank, I kind of felt like I had been answering a lot of ‘why’ quesitons in the previous post. And not that that question isn’t important here, but I kind of really wanted to get to the pastoral ‘what’…if that makes any sense. My bit about the Spirit in creation I think begins to get at the ‘why’ – and as far as that bit goes, I actually plan on writing a (series of posts?) post on that matter. I hope it will engage your quesitons a little more.
As for faith in Romans 14 – I don’t disagree with you. However, it seems like to me that Paul always assumes the presence/activity of the Spirit when he speaks of faith. So, when he speaks of Christian freedom in Romans 14, I believe he is operating on the assumption that his believers understand that he has permeated all of Romans will the Spirit (indeed, right from the opening paragraph!).
I don’t think any of this is ‘counter’ what you’ve written, I just thought I’d add why I felt I could reference Romans 14 with the assumption of the Spirit.
Good thoughts, man. Let me know what you think of my response.
I had most of this written out last night, but I left it unpublished, and my comp restarted (thank you automatic updates), so I here is my rehash.
Tom,
I have been thinking about this post for a couple of weeks now. I find that I agree and disagree with you here. You are spot on in terms of the value of creation and our acts within it, but might be missing the mark with the term sacred. I define and use the term sacred in terms of its contrast with the profane/mundane. As such, it is related to the term Holy, in that it denotes something that is set apart for a certain purpose over something else. As such, if everything is sacred, then nothing is.
I don’t want to deny the worth of all of creation, nor the worth of our reverent acts. I agree with you that the Spirit is active and constantly engaged with creation and our mundane actions. I submit that sacred actions are artificial but necessary for our communion with God. We can walk or swim anywhere we wish, but cars, boats, and airplanes are wonderful aids in transportation. It is the same with the creation of sacred places, times, and actions. Yes, we may commune with God in any place, at any time, and through most any action, but setting aside certain ones can help us to focus our communion.
As an example, consider prefabricated prayers. As a composite baptist/church-of-christ, the idea of pre-written prayers smacks of artificial tradition and ritual. I’d rather pray a living prayer than some dead series of mutterings from years past. But, in reality, these pre-written prayers contain useful and wise patterns of communication with God and we even have an example from Christ in this matter. It is artifical, but it can be benefical as well.
In sum, there is a great value to your post here, but I just wanna add a small footnote.
Thanks Henry. I think in many ways your criticisms are spot on.
I would respond, though, by challenging the idea that ‘if everything is sacred then nothing is.’ That is, I think we can stills say there’s a sense in which there are certain things set apart specially (Eucharist, Baptism)…and in that, my analysis is weak, admittedly….but I still want to hold on to the fact that all things are sacred; that is, as Paul says, ‘Whether you eat or drink, do it all to the glory of the Lord.’
So, for me, the issue is certainly doing away with the secular/sacred or sacred/mundane dichotomy, but that doesn’t mean I wish to do away with distinctives of each event, time, space or object. Taking a bath has sacred aspects to it if one is reflective enough and in tune with the Spirit enough – the shower is a place where we can meet with God, and thus is sacred.
But the shower is certainly qualitatively different than the Baptism waters or the Eucharist. These are specially set apart. They are sacred, but to a different degree and in a different way.
So, certainly, see the Eucharist and pre-fabricated prayer as specially sacred. I think I failed to communicate this clearly in my post. Unfortunately, in my attempt to uplift the mundane, I brought low that which was already sacred. I was wrong in this. But I thin kthere’s still a sense in which I can say everything is sacred.
Just some thoughts. What do you think?
I think I can agree with this. How do you define “sacred?”