Sacred Turf

The early church did not have sacred geographical space.  The focus on the sacred was in sacrament, community and transformation.  Then stuff happened.  Constantine came along and began to build churches.  His Mom supposedly found the true cross and the grave of Jesus seemed to be discovered.  Paul preached the cross, but not a physical one. He preached "bearing" our own crosses in imitation of Christ.  Imitate Christ, become Christ.  Instead, we build edifices to visit and then we had to have armies to defend them, or go kill people to get them back, or sell indulgences to fix them up.  Most of the political intrigue of the papacy in history was to defend or expand the "Papal States."

We are not the only religion that does this.  Others war and kill to take or defend their imagined sacred space.  I don't think that Jesus was much about buildings.  He was about building the kingdom of God, which does not need sacred buildings.  I suspect, being God, he knew how commercial it all could become.  There have been and will probably be wars over the "Holy Land."  Personally, I am concerned about the holy land within.