Worship - 19 July 2026

Summary Of This Week's Theme

When Kate and I walked the Camino de Santiago some years ago, there were places that seemed to draw us in and touch us deeply.  One of them was O Cebreiro. I wrote in my journal that it was ‘a simple Romanesque church... that moved me beyond words.’  Parts of it have stood since the ninth century, sheltering countless pilgrims.  Somehow, all those centuries of prayer seem almost woven into the stones.

That raises an interesting question: what makes a place sacred?

Some would argue that all ground is equally holy because God can be encountered anywhere. There is truth in that.  Yet today's reading reminds us that some places become especially significant because of what happens there.

Jacob, fleeing after deceiving his brother Esau, dreams of a ladder reaching to heaven. Waking in awe, he declares, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place,’ names it Bethel, ’the house of God,’ and marks it with a stone.  God had met him there, and the place became part of his story.

We are like that too.  We form relationships not only with people but with places.  Certain landscapes, churches, or quiet corners become woven into our lives because they are where we have known God's presence, found healing, or discovered a new direction.  They become what the Celtic tradition calls ‘thin places,’ where heaven and earth seem especially close.

The danger, of course, is that we become possessive. We can begin to think we own what is really God's gift.  Churches, holy places, even cherished traditions can become idols if we love them for their own sake rather than for the God to whom they point.

That may be the connection with Jesus' parable of the wheat and the weeds.  The real sacred ground is not only beneath our feet but within our hearts.  God has sown good seed there, yet weeds of pride, resentment and possessiveness can also grow.  Our task is not to spend our lives judging who is wheat and who is weed, but faithfully nurturing the good seed that God has planted in us.

The whole earth is God's holy ground.  Yet some places remind us of that truth more vividly than others.  They become signposts to God's presence, inviting us to go on growing. And here in Menorca, we are richly blessed with such places.  May they always lead us beyond themselves, and closer to God.