Sermon: “Wherever You Are, There is An Altar”

by Traci Hubbard

Driving to church this morning I caught a glimpse of my laugh lines in the rearview mirror and I thought, “I don’t remember anything being that hilarious.” There’s a quiet but stubborn belief many of us carry that somewhere else, some holier place, some better season, some more put-together version of ourselves, that is where we’ll finally meet the Divine. Not here. Not in traffic. Not in our messy kitchen. Not in the hospital waiting room. Not in the middle of a half -finished life. But Jesus interrupts that idea. In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” And in Luke, He says, “The kingdom of God is within you.” Which means, wherever you are…there is an altar.

A friend of mine once decided she was going to “get serious” about her spiritual life. She bought three books, two journals, a very expensive candle that smelled like something called “monastic pine,” and she told her family, “Starting tomorrow, I am waking up at 5 a.m. for intentional connection with the Sacred.”

Day one: the alarm went off. She hit snooze. Day two: She woke up… but so did her toddler, who immediately needed juice, a hug, and an explanation for why dinosaurs are extinct. Day three: the candle got knocked over by the cat, and now the house smelled less like “monastic pine” and more like “burnt regret.” By day four, she said to me, “I think I’m just not cut out for a spiritual life.” I replied, “Or maybe your altar isn’t at 5 a.m. with a candle. Maybe your altar is at 6:37 a.m., holding a sippy cup and answering dinosaur questions. Because wherever you are, there is an altar.”

Jesus says, “Do not store up treasures on earth… but store up treasures in heaven.” We often hear that and imagine heaven as some far-off spiritual vault, like LOVE has a cosmic savings account and we’re trying to build a balance with high interest rates. But then Jesus says something that changes everything, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Our treasure isn’t just what we value. It’s what we pay attention to. It’s what we give our time, our body, our presence to.

Then in Luke, Jesus closes the distance entirely when he says, “The kingdom of God is within you.” Not someday. Not somewhere else. Not after we fix ourselves. Within you. Within me. Right here, in the lived, breathing, sometimes awkward, sometimes frustrating, sometimes quiet, often ordinary experience of being human.

Here’s the conviction that, honestly, has saved my life more than once and it is there is no spiritual treasure to be found apart from the bodily experiences of human life on earth. Not outside of them. Not beyond them. Not in spite of them. But through them. Through the tiredness. Through the laughter that comes at the wrong moment. Through the grief that sits heavy in our chest. Through the joy that surprises us in the middle of a completely average Wednesday. That’s where the treasure is. That’s where the altar is.

We tend to think of altars as fixed places that are polished, quiet, set apart. But what if the altar moves? What if the altar is wherever we tell the truth? What if the altar is wherever we show up responsibly, authentically, and vulnerably? What if the altar is wherever we love, even a little, even imperfectly? This means the kitchen can be an altar. The car can be an altar, especially when we choose to not yell back at the angry driver… growth is happening! The workplace can be an altar. Our hands in the soil can be an altar. Holding our grandchild, listening to our adult children sharing stories about their week, a puppy in our lap, a nap on the couch with the sun warming our shoulders can be an altar. Coffee with a friend, even the gym, yes, even while negotiating with our body and not skipping thirty minutes on the treadmill can be an altar. “Every human interaction offers (us) the chance to make things better or to make things

worse.”― Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

Every place our body goes becomes a place where heaven can meet earth. Folks, sometimes the most sacred moments don’t look sacred at all. They look like sitting beside someone and not knowing what to say but staying beside them anyway. Or laughing so hard you forget, for a moment, everything that’s been weighing heavy on you. Or crying in the shower because it’s the only place you can get five uninterrupted minutes. Or choosing patience when every instinct in you says, “Nope, we’re done here.” Last week, that moment appeared to me more times than I can count. I am jealous of people who know how to really shut up. When I shut up, subtitles come out of my face.

Our human moments are not distractions from the consciousness of the Holy, from the energy of Eternal LOVE. Those moments are the altar. Because if the kingdom of God is within us, then we don’t have to go somewhere else to find it. We don’t have to wait until we are more disciplined, more peaceful, more enlightened, more whatever. We don’t have to upgrade our circumstances. All we have to do is notice. Notice that our life, this actual, imperfect, embodied life, is already filled with holy ground. In her book, “An Altar in The World” Barbara Brown Taylor writes, “What is saving my life now is the conviction that there is no spiritual treasure to be found apart from the bodily experiences of human life on earth. My life depends on engaging the most ordinary physical activities with the most exquisite attention I can give them. My life depends on ignoring all touted distinctions between the secular and the sacred, the physical and the spiritual, the body and the soul. What is saving my life now is becoming more fully human, trusting that there is no way to God apart from real life in the real world.” 

Perhaps our question isn’t, “Where can I go spend time, connect with, the Lover of my soul?” Perhaps our question is, “What am I treasuring right here?” Because whatever we treasure becomes our altar. If you treasure productivity, your altar will be your output. If you treasure approval, your altar will be other people’s opinions. If you treasure control…Mmmmmmm…that altar is exhausting, and it never stops demanding. But if you, if I, begin to treasure presence, this moment, this breath, this person in front of you, in front of me, then our heart follows. And suddenly, we realize we have been standing at an altar all along.

I believe Jesus is gently trying to free us from the idea that God, by whatever name you know and understand God, is hiding somewhere else. The Spirit of Love never hides. The Spirit, LOVE’s energy, is not waiting for us to become a more mature spiritual version of our lives. The Spirit is meeting us here, in our bodies, in our relationships, in our ordinary, unpolished, very real existence. “No one longs for what he or she already has, and yet the accumulated insight of those wise about the spiritual life suggests that the reason so many of us cannot see the red X that marks the spot is because we are standing on it. The treasure we seek requires no lengthy expedition, no expensive equipment, no superior aptitude or special company. All we lack is the willingness to imagine that we already have everything we need. The only thing missing is our consent to be where we are.”― Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

Friends, wherever you go this week, when you’re washing dishes, know there is an altar. When you’re answering emails, there is an altar. When you’re laughing with a friend, there is an altar. When you’re walking, there is an altar. When you’re picking someone up to drive them somewhere, there is an altar. In the grocery store check out line, in the geese flying over head, in the movement of the lake, in the whispering of the trees, in the sound of your breathing, there is an altar. When you’re carrying something heavy, emotionally or literally, there is an altar. Some denominations offer altar calls after the sermon. They are meant to be a time for people to come forward and respond to something they feel the Spirit is saying to them. I don’t believe we need altar calls. I believe we need to altar our awareness so we can know each moment is an altar in our lives.

We don’t need pretty words when we are talking to the Spirit. Sometimes all we need is a quiet awareness that tells us, “Loving One, you are here too.” Because the treasure isn’t somewhere else. The kin-dom isn’t far away. It is within you. Within me. It is among us, around us. This week, as you continue living and creating your life in every moment, remember, wherever you are, there is an altar, and smile, because the moment where you acknowledge you are also an altar in the world, your treasure will be so much more than enough. It will be everything and more. May it be so, amen.