By Dr. Lani Wilson

Good Day! The rain is back and we are grateful. As we continue in prayer for God’s little Deep East outpost and the world, let’s pray also for the safety of everyone during this wonderful El Niño winter.

The word shared for our consideration is “space.” Of course, we know that its most common usage is to designate a place, a unit of a three-dimensional area or locale. When we search for the word in lumina.bible.org we find that in the New Testament (NT), it is used mostly to describe a time period.

And after about an hour still another insisted, “Certainly this man was with him, because he too is a Galilean.”
Luke 22:59 (NET)

Now when the Lamb opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
Revelation 8:1 (NET)

He did this for two years, giving everyone in the province of Asia, Jews as well as Greeks, ample opportunity to hear the Message of the Master.
Acts 19:10 (TMB)

So stay awake and keep up your guard. Remember those three years I kept at it with you, never letting up, pouring my heart out with you, one after another.
Acts 20:31 (TMB)

It has come to mean many things and in particular, a sense of “personal space.” In 1963 anthropologist Edward T. Hall called the study of personal space “proxemics.” His seminal work essentially established the disciplines of intercultural relations and communication, especially nonverbal communication.

The term ''proxemics'' was coined by researcher Edward Hall during the 1950's and 1960's and has to do with the study of our use of space and how various differences in that use can make us feel more relaxed or anxious.
http://www.cs.unm.edu/~sheppard/proxemics.htm

He established that there were three to four dimensions of interpersonal space: Intimate, personal, social, and later a public space.

American anthropologist Edward T. Hall coined the term "Proxemics" in 1963 as he studied the use of space as it relates to interpersonal communication. It can be defined as, "The interrelated observations and theories of man's use of space as a specialized elaboration of culture" (Hall, Edward T. (1966). The Hidden Dimension. Anchor Books.) The main idea is that people from different cultures have different concepts of what constitutes one's "personal space" and that the way we use the space around us is generally shaped by our culture.
https://www.interexchange.org/articles/career-training-usa/2013/05/06/proxemics-and-communication-styles/

Ibid.

“Specifically, we have four levels of personal space:
• Intimate – 0 to 10 inches – Reserved for close friends and family
• Personal – 18 inches to 4 feet – For friends and informal conversation
• Social – 4 to 12 feet – An area for formal conversation and business transactions
• Public – beyond 12 feet…
If you look at personal space strictly from a cultural perspective, typical North American personal distance clocks in at about 18 inches. Western Europeans tend to be a bit closer at 14 to 16 inches. Middle Eastern cultures move even closer at 8 to 12 inches.”
Selwyn Swe, October 29, 2011
Organizational Change
http://selwyn.org/selwyn/node/12

Culturally, as noted above, Americans typically require the greatest interpersonal space. If we consider that the modern Middle East was the homeland of Jesus the Christ, then we might think that these rules applied during Jesus’ lifetime. Even in these extremely volatile politico-cultural times, the common shared ancestorship of the Children of Abraham can be seen in obvious and not-so-obvious ways.

The practice of the traditional Jew is different. The rule is that people of the opposite gender do not even touch each other, let alone shake hands, unless they are husband and wife, siblings, or children with parents and grandparents. What is the rationale for the Jewish prohibition on men and women touching, let alone shaking hands?
Lome Rosovsky, May I Shake the Lady’s Hand?
Chabod.org

And in a January 2006 manual for trainers in the Army on Arab Customs, there are a few words on “personal space.”

Most Arabs DO NOT share the American concept of “personal space” in public situations, and in private meetings or conversations. It is considered OFFENSIVE TO STEP OR LEAN AWAY! Women are an exception to this rule. DO NOT stand close to, stare at, or touch a woman.
Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence
US Army Training and Doctrine Command
Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas

If we can extrapolate to the Ancient World of the Near East of Palestine, we can see vague cultural similarities between the world then and the world now. Although Islam did not exist at the time of Christ, the kinship as Children of Abraham is acknowledged and accepted and therefore, there are probably many more cultural similarities that continue.

The prohibition of touching (in Hebrew negiah) goes back to the Book of Leviticus (18:6 and 18:19) and was developed further in the Talmud. A person who observes this prohibition is often called a shomer negiаh. It applied not only to close contact such as hugging and kissing, but also to shaking hands or patting on the back. The practice is generally followed by traditionally observant Jews, both men and women, including Hassidic Jews, and those who are referred to as Haredim. It is also observed within the Modern Orthodox community depending on how traditional the person is.
op. cit. May I Shake the Lady’s Hand?

We can perhaps jump back to the First Century and be pretty sure that the prohibition about touching was similar. Of course, we know that Jesus was a devout Jew and would have observed the righteous laws of His heritage. Jesus was clear in His teachings about the unjust immorality of the Hebrew religious leaders. So clear, in fact, that apparently, it was noted by the Romans.

The following was taken from a manuscript in the possession of Lord Kelly, and in his library, and was copied from an original letter of Publius Lentullus at Rome. It being the usual custom of Roman Governors to advertise the Senate and people of such material things as happened in their provinces in the days of Tiberius Caesar, Publius Lentullus, President of Judea, wrote the following epistle to the Senate concerning the Nazarene called Jesus. “There appeared in these our days a man, of the Jewish Nation, of great virtue, named Yeshua [Jesus], who is yet living among us, and of the Gentiles is accepted for a Prophet of truth, but His own disciples call Him the Son of God-He raiseth the dead and cureth all manner of diseases. A man of stature somewhat tall, and comely, with very reverent countenance, such as the beholders may both love and fear, his hair of (the colour of) the chestnut, full ripe, plain to His ears, whence downwards it is more orient and curling and wavering about His shoulders. In the midst of His head is a seam or partition in His hair, after the manner of The Nazarenes…In reproving hypocrisy He is terrible; in admonishing, courteous and fair spoken; pleasant in conversation, mixed with gravity. It cannot be remembered that any have seen Him Laugh, but many have seen Him Weep.”
The Description of Publius Lentullus, http://www.thenazareneway.com/likeness_of_our_saviour.htm

On the one hand we have the prohibition about touching, especially between the sexes and on the other, we have the smallest interpersonal distance culturally. Again, using only lumina.bible.org, there are ninety references to the word “space” in the entire Bible, twenty five in the NT and sixty five in the Hebrew Bible. One Scripture in particular in the Contemporary English Version (CEV) jumps out.

Many of the houses in Jerusalem and some of the buildings at the royal palace have been torn down to be used in repairing
the walls to keep out the Babylonian attackers. Now there are empty spaces where the buildings once stood.
Jeremiah 33:4 (CEV)

In this passage the Weeping Prophet Jeremiah is imprisoned by Zedekiah, king of Judah, while the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, lays siege to Jerusalem. In this second message from God, God is revealing what is happening to The Holy City because of the people of Israel’s disobedience, especially the worshipping of other gods.

Empty spaces. In the modern urban environment where population density is both a public policy and public health issue and depending on one’s financial metrics, an empty space is either an eyesore or an opportunity. If you have money, power, and political influence, it’s an opportunity. If not, it’s an eyesore that bespeaks neglect, poverty, and dire straits.

But I am furious, and these spaces will be filled with the bodies of the people I kill. The people of Jerusalem will cry out to me for help, but they are evil, and I will ignore their prayers.
Ibid. verse 5

It is a devastating indictment and pronouncement, one that makes us reflect today on whose evil is responsible for the empty spaces between us personally and on the streets of Black neighborhoods in virtually every major city in this country. When you visit an unfamiliar city and are looking for some good barbecue, you can pretty much predict when you’ve reached the part of town where you’ll find that delicacy: Homemade-curtained windows; hand scrabbled signs on a few sparse businesses; vacant, graffiti-covered storefronts; and empty spaces with weeds and trash. We say “whose evil” as opposed to “evil people” because people aren’t evil incarnate but can certainly be filled with evil, just as they can be filled with good. Without diving into that morass on the nature of good and evil in humankind, we can safely say that the heightened exposure of the legacy of America’s Original Sin of slavery has consequences for every American, whether one acknowledges it or not. And that leads us to the other corollary of Jeremiah’s prophecy: The empty spaces between us.

We have come to equate the lack of noise, sound or silence with emptiness. The need for constant stimulation is killing us.

Noise can kill. New research shows that loud sounds increase the risk of heart attack, high blood pressure, and stroke. A study published in the European Heart Journal found that long-term exposure to high levels of noise dramatically boosts heart risk. Men exposed to prolonged noise were found to have a whopping 50 percent higher risk of having a heart attack. Women were found to have an even greater risk, almost 300 percent.
Researchers uncover the healing power of silence,
Lynn Allison, Newsmax, 11 December 2013

There are antidotes for this but it takes a change in belief and habits.

Clinical psychologist Dr. Jack Singer tells Newsmax Health that aside from the physiological effects of prolonged noise exposure, there’s mental damage. “The psychological strain experienced by people exposed to constant noise includes distraction, lack of focus, and a slowdown of mental processes…” Conversely, spending time in silence can help heal the mind and body, doctors say. Here’s what you can do to protect yourself against noise and harness the healing power of silence: Use ear protection…Keep the volume as low as possible on your cellphone and music headphones… Meditate. Find a quiet time for a few minutes every day to close your eyes and focus on breathing. Meditation has been proven to boost the immune system, lower blood pressure, and reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease. Avoid noise hotspots…

Ibid.

Reverend Myrtle Griffin’s healing ministry for Allen Temple was not about a magic touch or power that God gave her. That’s a secular, Godless, and superficial view of her anointing. Reverend Griffin’s ministry was founded on a profound submission to the will of God to descend, to the guarantee of The Christ to lay His spirit over the sick and dying as she stayed on her knees for them, in their place – and in that space - for hours and sometimes days. Reverend Ineda Adesanya’s focus on spiritual meditation is a chance for Allen Temple to acquire this discipline and find peace. It is in these contemplative spaces where God meets us; it is far more than just reading a few Bible verses and saying a prayer. It is petitioning the One Who Is to enjoin with us by submitting our bodies, then subsequently our minds, and eventually our souls to that space that only the spirit of The Christ Himself can fill.

How is it that people who perhaps spent their childhood, youth, young adulthood, and/or early middle age in a nurturing house of God just walk away saying, “I’m done” with their spiritual home, with what had been their spiritual anchor? Done with what?

• We know the answers to that question are multifaceted and as variable as the personalities that hold them.
• We know that it is not confined to any one denomination or non-denomination.
• We know that it is an American issue nationally.
• We know that the answers to that question are varied and even coming from the un-churched, sound reasonable.

But those are secular answers. Whenever those two words, “I’m done,” are spoken in response to a query about why someone is no longer around on Sundays, it’s amazing that we understand the empty space that precedes it. We viscerally fill in that unspoken paragraph with all the possible reasons why that person is gone; gone from this family of God…gone to another family of God. And it creates another empty space in us. What personal spiritual spaces between us in the church body got so large as to create a vacuum, a vacuum that sucks people away?

One alternative view of empty space can be found in Chinese culture in the arts, specifically Chinese painting.

The principles of the Chinese painting tradition derive from Daoism, which emphasises the unity of humanity and nature together with the release of an individual’s creativity. The stressing of empty space or void is also a Daoist feature…
The Mystery of Empty Space: An exhibition of twentieth century Chinese painting;
26th July – 16 October 2005,
The Ashmolean Museum,
University of Oxford, United Kingdom

The Eurocentric view of empty space was that it created a vacuum because an empty space or void could not exist.

In science, nature abhors a vacuum, or horror vacui, is a postulated, stated in circa 485 BC by Greek physicist- philosopher Parmenides that a void or rather a vacuum, in nature, cannot exist. The nature abhors a vacuum argument was first presented in stated in Greek physicist-philosopher Parmenides (510-450BC) circa 485 BC by essay “On Nature”, in which he stated, via reasoning and argument, that a void or rather a vacuum, in nature, cannot exist.
Hmolpedia: An Encyclopedia of Human Thermodynamics

However, the Chinese believed the exact opposite: It is from empty space that qi (Chi) flows.

Qi Baishi (1864-1957)

Ibid.

Empty space is a philosophical concept, it is a synonymy of void or nothingness. Daoism advocated ‘attaining the limit of empty space, retaining extreme stillness (Lao Zi 16), further regarding that ‘only the Dao (Way) accumulates space. Space is the fasting of the heart’ (Zhuangzi Chapter 4, Worldly Business Among Humans). Empty space is regarded as the beginning of the myriad things, so it can be regarded as a foundation of Daoist philosophy. The Chan (zen) school of Buddhism also emphasises that ‘what is form that is emptiness, what is emptiness that is form’ (Paramita Hridaya Sutra). Chinese painting has been mainly influenced by these two schools, therefore, the concept of empty space has had a significant impact on Chinese painting.
op. cit. The Mystery of Empty Space

The philosophy of African people cannot be synergized into a solitary nexus because of the thousands of different African People, although John S. Mbiti’s seminal text, African Religions and Philosophies (1969), introduced the West to African cosmology. Quoting Emil Pearson’s People of the Aurora (1977), Gerhard Kubik explains a piece of Pearson’s cultural research of the Ngangela People of West Africa.

…there is no term in the Ngangela languages equivalent in its semantic field with the notion of ‘space’ either. In the Ngangela language there is no word, as far as I know, for “time” as a continuous, flowing passage of events or the lack of the same. Time is experiential or subjective, that is, it is that which is meaningful to the person or thing which experiences it. Time and space are cognate incidents of eternity. The same word is used for both “time” and “space” (the latter in the sense of “distance”).
Emil Pearson in Gerhard Kubik, Space time Concepts
and Tusona Ideographs in Luchazi Culture
African Music, Vol. 6, No. 4 (1987), pp. 53-89

The fluid concept of time and space of the Ngangela people and the significance of empty space in Daoist philosophy is in diametric opposition of the Western, Eurocentric concept of empty space. Since African-Americans are true synergistic hybrids of both worlds, could we stretch and perhaps make a cosmological, cultural leap in our spiritual consideration of empty space? After all, God is the God of all creation. In the Bible, S/He calls herself “the One Who Is.”

I am The Alap and The Tau, says THE LORD JEHOVAH God, he who is and has been and is coming, The Almighty.
Revelation 1:8 (Aramiac Bible in Plain English)

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God--the one who is, and who was, and who is still to come--the All-Powerful!
Ibid. (NET)

I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "the One who is, who was, and who is coming, the Almighty.”
Ibid. (HCSB-Holmes Christian Standard Bible)

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says Lord God, the One being, and who was, and who is coming, the Almighty.
Ibid. (Berean Literal Bible)

Could we make that leap and consider the empty spaces that occur when people don’t feel connected to their church anymore? Without needing to know the many instances and inclinations that led to that Eurocentric vacuum, could we consider the potential, the qi (Chi), the power that Chinese Daoists see and feel in the empty space as opportunities? Can we reinvigorate the power of time and place of our West African heritage and use the empty space, both metaphorical and three dimensional, in our churches to bring new and returning believers home? Aren’t we supposed to be vibrating with the energy of The Christ? Isn’t this space in which God awaits us crackling with the power of His Son? Shouldn’t we plead with God to flow into this empty space like waves on the ocean? Isn’t there more Christ-like potential than spiritual poverty in this empty space? Isn’t Jesus, the Nazarene, the Promise fulfilled?

Watch for this: The time is coming’ --- GOD’s Decree --- when I will keep the promise I made to the families of Israel and Judah. When that time comes, I will make a fresh and true shoot sprout from the David-Tree. He will run this country honestly and fairly. He will set things right.
Jeremiah 33:14-15 (TMB)

Jesus, You were always taking off by Yourself, slipping away, sailing off in a boat, walking up mountainsides at night in the dark to talk to The One Who Is. You took the empty space of nighttime silence and filled it with communion. Help us to find that space we need as a church body to align ourselves more and more with You. Help us to seek You out in that space, not fearfully, not anxiously, but expectantly, hopefully, ecstatically. Ripen us, mature us into Your space. Please be patient as we hover, unaccustomed to the quiet but sure that You’ll come get us and allow us to rest.

In that space.

Amen