Holy places/things

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Hi all,

I just had an interesting discussion with my theology prof. today.  In
class, he brought up that there are several theories about how the ark of
the covenant dissappeared.  One is that the ark is in a church in Etheopia
somewhere.  Anyway, this led to a topic about how in Etheopian Orthodox
Christianity.  

Their churches are sort of like a series of "courts" in a square shape, the
outermost court is where the lay people are permitted, the next "ring" or
level was where the deacons, etc. could go, and the innermost area was
where they kept a replica of the ark of the covenant and only priests were
allowed to enter there because it was too holy.  It appears that they are
the only sect of Christianity to hold this particular belief.

Since this seemed rather odd to me (naturally), I asked my prof. (who is an
Episcopalian priest) to explain that theology to me, since it does not
appear that the apostles held the same type of doctrine (concerning holy
places).  In fact, the opposite seems true with the gospels' mention of the
vail in the temple being torn in two (the Holiness of God is now available
to all, not a select few anymore).

Well, to make a long (very long) story short, he kept trying to find an
example to illustrate to me why some Christians venerate or hold sacred
certain objects or places.  He would ask things like "If you were to go to
Israel and stand on the hill where Jesus was crucified, would you feel you
had to take off your shoes because the ground was holy due to Jesus' blood
touching it?" etc.  He was trying to relate to me the concept of venerating
objects, but he could not find any examples that I could relate to in my
experience of God.

He tried mentioning defacing pictures of Jesus, I answered with the fact
that we don't think one should even make pictures of Jesus.

He asked me what I thought of a book or magazine being laid on top of a
Bible (i.e. nothing should be placed "above" the word of God).  I answered
that I'd heard of people being offended by that, and if someone who would
be offended were in my home, I wouldn't do that.  (Remember Paul's
discussion of meat offered to idols/stumblingblock?)

He asked me if I would be offended by someone smoking in Church (i.e. that
it was defiling a holy place).  I said no one in my church smokes, but if a
guest lit up someone would ask them politely to step outside because our
church is a smoke free environment.  Also, that guest may not believe their
body is designed to be the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, so one can
forgive them for smoking (they don't know better).

This led to another can of worms, sort of.  I kept trying to relate to him
that God dwells within people, not objects or places.  It is your body that
is to be kept holy, not things.

He said "so you don't believe anything is Holy or sacred..."  I said NO, we
believe only the Spirit of God is holy, and since it dwells within us, we
are to be holy.  I said God's Spirit or holiness is not "concentrated" in
any particular place or with any particular thing (such as the ark)
anymore.  It is free to all, accessable to all, not hidden or separate
anymore (Hallelujah!).

It was an interesting talk we had (sort of "on the spot" type situation). 
What do you all think about this?


Anneliese