Genesis 28:10-19
First Reading for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost (Year A)
Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it!” And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven”….He called that place Bethel.
-Genesis 28:16-17, 19a
Whenever I visit my home in South Carolina, I love to go outside at night and take a deep breath. On a clear night the stars are far brighter than they are in Nashville. My parents live on the edge of the woods and though you can hear the distant hum of Interstate 26, the primary sounds are of the life that fills the place. Crickets. Cicadas. Birds bidding good night to one another. And a chorus of frogs that transform from a boy choir chirp to a deep bellow as spring turns to summer.
If I stop for just a moment, I feel peace. The world is still and I feel like God is just a little bit closer. I don’t see angels ascending and descending, but it definitely feels like the holy is in that place. That driveway in Spartanburg County is a Beth-el, a house of God. I am grateful for the times I remember that.
I remember once that someone told me that a specific place was God’s address. I totally know what they were going for. This person was trying to relay the sacredness of that location. Yet I always balked at the idea of God having one address. What I love in this story about Jacob is that he stumbles over God in a random place he would have never expected. I love that idea. Eugene Peterson wrote a book called Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places. When we start becoming aware of how the geography of our lives is dotted with scores of Bethels then we realize of how God is always with us. Not just in the typical holy places like church, but everywhere.
I decided to write down a bunch of places where I have felt like God was near. As I wrote down this list of Bethels, I was reminded of all the ways that I have experienced the peace of Christ and that is always a great thing to remember. I decided to share that list here. It is not exhaustive. It is in no particular order. Some places are obvious and some are not. I would encourage you to take some time to write down as many places of which you could think that you could call Bethel.
The beach; especially after communion has been taken and “Amazing Grace” has been sung
My grandparents’ dinner table
Matanzas, Cuba
The 5.8 Trail in Percy Warner Park
Torrey Pines Nature Reserve in California
A Christmas-light illuminated room at Bethany Hills as students lead worship
Standing at the Pacific Ocean for the first time with EA
Standing at the Pacific Ocean with my boys for their first time
Mars Hill in Athens, Greece
Assisi, Italy
The Watkins Room at Furman University
Most of Furman University
Lakeside Chapel at Bethany Hills
Any place where people come together to serve their community; right now I’m thinking about a bunch of kids helping clean up J.T. Moore Middle School in the summer
A booth at Denny’s late at night with a friend; sometimes writing a script, sometimes just talking about life
Muir Woods National Monument near San Francisco
Virtually anytime that I am in the mountains
The L-Train in Chicago
The Brooklyn Bridge
KFC Yum! Center (the official name includes the exclamation mark) in Louisville in the moment when Coldplay performed “Till Kingdom Come”
Multnomah Falls in Oregon
Countless movie theaters and bookstores
A room in Panama City Beach where we washed students’ hands (because feet weird people out)
Hospitals from the rooms where EA brought our sons into the world to waiting rooms where I have kept vigil for family members to the people I have visited in their halls
The courtyard next to the church at Gethsemani Abbey
Epcot (yes, Epcot)
My first time on an airplane in college when I looked down at the clouds and they looked like another world
The Grand Canyon
Playing cards at the Jelley’s kitchen table
My old attic office in Spartanburg
The Green Room at Coastal Carolina University
Several stages in the Carolinas and Tennessee where I got to play worship music with some friends
Richland Creek Greenway in Nashville
And so much more plus many not yet visited