"Being Holy" (10/26/08, Proper 25A)

"Being Holy"
Proper 25A/24th Sunday after Pentecost
Sermon from October 26, 2008
Leviticus 19:1-3, 15-18; Matthew 22:34-46


What word or phrase do you think of when you hear the word Holy? Holy, hummmm... as I thought about that word this week, many different phrases or ideas came to mind. For me, holy might involve having a heavenly choir singing backup to my singing, wearing a halo and angel wings, or remind me of the Holy Grail from Monty Python or Indiana Jones fame.

Or maybe the:
Holy Roman Empire;
a Holy Alliance from 19th century Europe;
the Holy War Crusades.

What about:
Holy Communion or Last Supper;
the Holy Family from Christmas;
the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit;
the Holy Father or Holy See--aka the Pope;
the Holy Trinity-Father, Son and HOLY Spirit.

How about:
the Holy of Holies in the temple in Jerusalem;
Holy Water to be sprinkled on folks;
Holy Week-the week between Palm Sunday and Easter;
or Holy Saturday, the day before Easter.

Then there is our culture's use of Holy:
Holy Cow;
Holy Hell;
Holy Terror;
Holy Mackerel;
Holy Smokes;
and being Holier-than-thou. Just to name a few...

We hear this word a lot. But what in the world does it mean? And how do we apply it to ourselves? Or can we?

Our Scripture reading this morning from Leviticus 19 provides much guidance for us along the ideas of what it means to be holy. The writer of Leviticus recorded the command from God to the gathered community to "Be holy, for I the Lord you God am holy." That is NO SMALL TASK. When we go to the dictionary, or dictionary.com in today's world, and look up the word HOLY, we get lots of different meanings. "To be specially recognized as or declared sacred by religious use or authority; consecrated; as in holy ground." Another definition said: "living according to a strict or highly moral religious or spiritual system; saintly; a holy person." I think this is often what we think of, but I would like to challenge that idea this morning. I think of it in more simple terms--holy means being "set apart", "different", or "not like the rest".

Our Gospel lesson this morning from Matthew 22 is probably a very familiar passage for many of us. The lawyers are asking questions AGAIN, and Jesus answers them, but His answer is probably not how the lawyers and Pharisees expect. Growing up, I remember hearing these words and thinking to myself, "Wow, Jesus was this great thinker who just came up with these thoughtful and tough answers out of thin air all the time." Well, Jesus was a great thinker and did have great answers, but what I've come to realize is that Jesus was often reminding the Pharisees and his other listeners about things that were already written in Scripture. He was able to reinterpret the sayings and laws that were recorded in the Scrolls of the Torah--the law--to make them easier for us to understand and follow. He was able to basically summarize the teachings of the whole Torah--Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy-- into two commands: "Love God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength" and "love your neighbor in the same way you love yourself."

The first commandment is Jesus' restatement of Deuteronomy 6, and we spent some time a few weeks back looking at this passage. [See "What's on your Doorpost? Sermon from 9/14/08 posted below.] The second commandment is from the passage we heard this morning from the 19th chapter of Leviticus. The Jews and followers of Jesus during His day would have heard these commandments from Jesus and automatically associated them with these two passages in the Torah. They often had the Torah memorized. They knew the Scriptures inside and out. All it would take is a reminder of these phrases or chapters for the followers of Jesus to associate the two commands with the greater ideas they encapsulate. These two commands served as Memory Triggers for the hearers. Hearing a snip-it of Leviticus 19 would remind them of the whole 19th chapter. Hearing Leviticus 19 would remind them of all of the Torah. A Rabbi who lived a few years before Jesus was challenged to teach the whole Torah while standing on one foot. He quickly responded: "What is hateful to you do not do to others. The rest is commentary. Go learn." Sounds vaguely familiar--like The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you…Love your neighbor as yourself and thus live a holy life.

If Jesus was using the “Love your neighbor as yourself” part of verse 18 from Leviticus 19 to help us remember the whole chapter, and thus the whole Torah law, then maybe Jesus was reminding us to "Be Holy because God is Holy." One big part of being holy is loving our neighbors as ourselves. I believe these two ideas “being holy” and “loving our neighbor as ourselves” are integrally related and apply to today as much as they did in Jesus' time. Being holy--being set apart--being different than the world around us. As Christians we are called to be set apart. We are to live in the world but not of the world as we sometimes hear. We are to be kind and generous to those around us. We are to show compassion, treat each other fairly, vote wisely, and act justly. We are to play fair on the soccer or football field, drive without road-rage, and share our lunches in the school cafeteria with those who don’t have enough to eat. Jesus commands us to love our neighbors and also love ourselves, while we ultimately love God with our hearts, minds and spirits. That is the small yet big idea of being holy.

There has been a lot in the news lately about plumbers. I must say I missed that debate, but all I hear on TV involves plumbers. Plumbers, especially Plumber Joe, have received a lot of publicity. So I will not pick on plumbers and use an electrician instead, but this can apply to most any daily situation. Say you have a light switch that is not working properly and need to call Joe's Electrical Services to come work on the switch in your house. Joe arrives, finds the short circuit, and fixes the problem. You then go to pay Joe for his hard work and give him a fair wage for his time and service. You're grateful that someone has the know-how to fix the problem and thank Joe for his work. Was that a holy moment?

Jewish thinking for this situation, as I understand it, would say this was a holy moment. Jesus, I believe, would say this was a holy moment. Thus we can also say this was a holy moment, whether we were aware of it at the time or not. The person receiving the services of the electrician paid fair wages for fair work. Joe was treated as the person would like to have been treated. If much grumbling about the price took place, or Joe charged a huge, unfair price, then the situation would have been very different, but that wasn't the case. Being holy, according to Leviticus 19, doesn't have to involve heavenly angels singing in the background or feeling extremely spiritual. It means being set apart and unlike the rest of society--treating others as you would like to be treated--loving your neighbor as yourself. And as we pay attention to our lives and actions more, we will likely begin to see even more regular moments in our lives in holy and set-apart ways.

So where does it leave us? How do we live out these ideas of being a good neighbor to those around us? How might we understand Jesus' words today and find them helpful in our 21st century world?

We spent time this morning in the Inquirer's Class discussing two documents from our Moravian tradition that help articulate what we believe and how we are called to live in the world. As I've thought more about the “Ground of the Unity,” which describes what we believe very succinctly, and the “Moravian Covenant for Christian Living,” which helps us see how we can live in this world, it struck me how closely the Covenant for Christian Living reflects this whole idea of how to be holy and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Both Leviticus 19 and The Covenant for Christian Living were written for a community to help the members to both live together and live in the world. I am even willing to go as far as saying we could rename the "Covenant for Christian Living" to be the "Covenant for how to live Holy, set-apart lives in community", but I guess that doesn't have as nice of a ring to it.

As I've re-read the Covenant again, one paragraph stuck out to me in light of Leviticus 19's command to “be holy” and “love our neighbor as ourselves.” Paragraph 29 reads: "We will not hate, despise, slander, or otherwise injure anyone. We will ever strive to manifest love towards all people, to treat them in a kind and friendly manner, and in our dealings with them to approve ourselves upright, honest, and conscientious, as becomes children o God. Together with the universal Christian Church, we have a concern for this world, opening our heart and hand to our neighbors with the message of the love of God, and being ever ready to minister of our substance to their necessities."

If you haven't read the whole Moravian Covenant for Christian Living, or haven't read it lately, there are copies available here up front for you to take home today. Spend some time this week looking over the Covenant for Christian Living and Leviticus 19. I hope sometime in the near future we can continue conversations about how we can encourage one another to live holy lives in this community and world, as I believe we can always be challenged to keep growing and learning as Children of God. And next time you need to call a plumber, shop in a store, or go vote, think about where those holy moments are in your daily life. You just might be surprised where you find opportunities and experiences to be holy-set apart as followers of Jesus. "Love God with all you have" and "love your neighbor as yourself." Words to live by... Words to encourage us to “be holy because The Lord our God is holy.”

Please pray with me:
Holy God,
We ask you today to help us be aware of the holy moments in our lives. We strive to do you work in our world and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Give us the strength and courage to live lives that are set apart and holy. Help us to help each other see the holy moments, name them, and use them as encouragement to keep being holy, set-apart followers of Jesus Christ. In Christ’s name, Amen.