The concept of “thin places” or “thin spaces” is ancient. I believe that its origins lie in Celtic spirituality. Essentially a thin place is a place where the experience of the holy is so intense that God seems to be very close. There are a few locales where the distance between heaven and earth collapses. Around the world there are many shrines and other places where people have had significant religious experiences and are labeled as holy places. The experience of a thin space is never universal. Some people have experiences in that place that elude others. Given the Celtic roots of the concept, perhaps standing on the windswept Donegal cliffs of Ireland or watching dolphins of the Sheep’s Head peninsula are experiences of thin places.

There are many others: the grand canyon, the Taj Mahal, Mt. Fuji, Bethlehem, Lake Tanganyika, . . . the list goes on and on.There are also places made sacred by what occurred on the site: ground zero in New York City, Auschwitz, Normandy Beach, and especially today, Gallipoli on the 100th anniversary of the landing that has become especially important in the history of Australia and New Zealand commemorated for a century as Anzac Day.

In 2006, Susan and I made a study of sacred places, starting with the sites close to home, Wind Cave, Paha Mato (Bear Butte), Mato Tipi (Devil’s Tower) Wounded Knee, and the highest point in South Dakota, Harney Peak, also known as Black Elk peak. Our travels took us through British Columbia where we visited places of natural beauty, glaciers, and totem sites. We traveled to Australia and walked around the base of Uluru (Ayers Rock).

There is no doubt that place has in important impact on our religious experience. The sanctuary where our congregation worships has served the congregation for 56 years. For a little over a third of that time I have been pastor in that room. Every funeral, every baptism, every confirmation, every wedding, every anniversary celebration, every family reunion, every Christmas, every Good Friday, every Easter . . . occasion upon occasion add layer upon layer of meaning to the place. Each time I walk into the room, I feel a rush of memory and power that comes from knowing that people have been coming to the place for the most significant moments in their lives for generations. It is a holy place.

In 2011, we expanded our studies into encounters with God to focus on the times of encounter as well as the places of encounter. We know that grief and loss can make us more aware of our need of God. We know that the birth of a child can make us more aware of the power of God’s creativity. But there are other sacred moments - the exchange of vows, the sharing of communion - that shape our experience of the holy.

Scientists might try to analyze the psychology of certain events and try to break down the emotions of experiences of deep beauty or moving ceremonies. Their insights might be helpful, but the encounter with the sacred is far more than simple emotion.

Historians point out that knowing the history of a place adds to its meaning. Discovering our place in the world in part involves a connection with the rich history of those who have gone before. But there is more to the experience of the holy than just knowing the story.

I once led a delegation of high school youth to a Western Regional Youth Event held in Hawaii. This was back in the ’80’s when caps were part of the outfits of most of the boys in the group. We had had several conversations about different cultures and the language of respect, but I still had to remind some of the youth of the need to remove a cap when entering a church or viewing a shrine. They weren’t intending to be rude, they just didn’t think of their caps as anything other than a part of their outfit. Towards the end of our visit, we went to the Pearl Harbor memorial. You ride a boat out to the memorial, constructed over the place where the Arizona lies on the bottom. In the white marble are etched the names of the victims. While we were standing there, in silence, I looked around and noticed that all of the caps were being held in hand. I hadn’t told anyone that they should remove them, they knew, without being told, that it was a sacred place.

I don’t know if the memory of that visit is as strong for those who traveled as youth with that delegation, but at the moment, we knew we had shared a common experience. I have had similar experiences at the Vietnam War Memorial, with the Aids quilt, and at countless other memorials we have visited in our travels.

I am sure that the thousands who camped out to be on the beach at Gallipoli at dawn this morning for the ceremonies marking the centennial of the start of the failed campaign that took the lives of tens of thousands will long remember this day. Most were aware of other dawn gatherings, in the cities of New Zealand and Australia, marking the first military campaigns of those countries after achieving their independence and the deep looses they suffered. It is estimated that more than 11,400 from Australia and New Zealand were killed in the Gallipoli campaign.

The experience of the sacred, however, is more than grieving and honoring those who have died. It is in the realization that the impact of their lives continues beyond their deaths that is so powerful in such moments. And places become sacred for other reasons than as places where death has occurred.

Natural beauty, places of meeting, times of vision all are factors in the recognition of thin places.

The earth shook in Nepal today. The beautiful home of the world’s highest mountains is shook with grief and injury and death as they begin to dig out from the rubble of fallen buildings and collapsed memorials. The land is no less sacred than it was before the earthquake. It is more so.

Layering meaning upon meaning, story upon story, event upon event, can make the sacred even more intense.

May we continue to visit the places that make our hearts sing and remind us that we belong to something much bigger than ourselves.

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