What is holy ground?

On August 25, 2012 a story appeared in the press about a group of freshmen Republican legislators  appearing to suffer the affects of a night of drinking, who jumped into the Sea of Galilee for a late night swim.  Rep. Kevin Yoder of Kansas removed all his clothing before diving in.  Last week he apologized.  None of the non-nudes joined in the apology.  They insisted that this was a spiritual swim for them.

Apologies are good and it seems to me, that those who give reluctant apologies have usually exhausted their excuses or that the incident has become public.  This incident happened over a year ago and the press and the FBI have made investigations which have recently become public.  So Mr. Yoder, your apology has lost some of its warm and fuzzy, so far as I am concerned.  I really can understand what happened;  all of us have done stupid things which cannot be explained in the light of day.  And, yes, I know that the Sea of Galilee is a recreational body of water in Israel.  It is not like the Biblical art picture depicted of Christ walking on water there!  I, too, have been to the Sea of Galilee  and realized that it was not what I had it  mentally pictured. 

So what was the big deal?  To me, it is simple.  You never know what is "Holy Ground" to another person!  To defile that ground constitutes a sacrilege to them!   In this case, the Sea of Galilee is an evident "Holy Ground" to Jews, Christians, on and on.  The Congressional delegation should have received full briefing on what to do and what not to do to show respect.  My tour group certainly was well-briefed on these things!  Should we expect more or less from representatives of the government?

The Bible gives two instances of using the term "Holy Ground", one in the Old Testament (Ex. 3:5) and one in New Testament (Acts 7:33).  Both were referring to the time when God spoke to Moses on Mt. Horeb from the burning bush and said that this was holy ground.  The "Holy Ground" was not the bush or the bush afire.  The ground and the bush were sacred because of the presence of God there.

We all need to be mindful of what is sacred to another.  It will not have a florescent sign on it!  But the "Do Not Enter" connotation is there in another person's heart and mind!