I'm beginning a series of messages for  Lent  this Sunday called Th in Places. 

Early Celtic Christians recognized "thin places" as places where 

the veil between Heaven and Earth is very sheer, or tissue paper thin.  It's a specific place, moment in time, or an experience when God becomes very real. 

Such a moment occurred for Thomas Merton on March 18, 1958, o n  th e corner of 4th street and Walnut downtown when he was overcome with the presence of God. That experience in Louisville happened in the middle of an  ordinary day, when Merton was running errands for the monastery.  And when you visit that spot today, it still seems like an ordinary sort of place, until  you know the story of what happened there. There's a historical marker there that memorializes the moment. 

But the great thing is that you do not have to be a Trappist monk to experience God in a thin place, and you don't have to travel faraway. It could happen when changing a diaper or raking leaves, at the bedside

 of a sick friend or sipping a cup of coffee before dawn. The Bible describes many such moments, and this weekend we will go to a river where hundreds of people gathered and the heavens opened in Mathew 3:13-17. It was a very thin moment!

 

God's peace and love,

David Emery

 

P.S. Thin Places is a six week sermon series we will journey though this Lent  focused on "thin places"  - places where the separation between Heaven and Earth is narrowed and God's presence is experienced.

Coming up...