Becoming Holy

Leviticus 19: 1-2, 9-18 Marianne Niesen February 20, 2011

If you think about it, we use the word "holy" a lot. We talk about the Holy Bible or the Holy Sprit, a holy place, or a holy person. We look in awe at something and say holy smokes! (Or holy something else that I cannot repeat here.) Roman Catholics call their pope "Your Holiness." When some things or some persons are called holy, we often think there is – or should be - a difference about them. This feeling is a clue about the real meaning of the word ‘holy.’ The root meaning of ‘to be holy,’ is ‘to be set apart’ usually for something sacred. A holy person or a holy place is set apart for God's purpose

So, what does it mean that the Israelites were told to be holy for God was holy? That was -and is - a key part of the Law for Jews. In fact, teaching people to be holy was the purpose of the Law. They were chosen, you remember and that meant they were to be different. Be holy…be like your God. It was a high standard. Jesus himself, as a Jew, was rooted in that Law and he would pick up this theme when he told his followers to be perfect as your God in heaven is perfect. [1] Living a holy life was what God called the chosen people to do in the world – but not as some kind of game. They were to be holy because that is what God is . . . and, the book of Genesis tells us that we are created in the image and likeness of God. Being holy, then, is part of living up to what God has planned from the beginning. But the book of Leviticus does not leave this ‘holiness’ thing to chance. The verses that follow the command to be holy tell how to do it. We have just a few of them here…and they all have to do, interestingly enough, with the way we treat each other. The commentary in The New Interpreters Bible says it like this:

. . . in this great chapter on moral holiness, the emphasis falls on social justice. Produce should be left in the fields for poor people to glean. Neighbors should be dealt with honestly. Wages should be paid promptly. Disputes should be settled with equity and fairness. In Leviticus, if you want to be holy, don’t pass out a tract; love your neighbor, show hospitality to the stranger, and be a person of justice. [2]

What did it mean when the chosen people were told to be holy as God was holy? It meant they were to be like God in the care with which they treated one another and others.

Still, holiness is an elusive concept. So I thought I’d explore what others through the years have said about holiness. Robert Ingersoll said In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action. Walter Elliott… The desert has its holiness of silence, the crowd its holiness of conversation. Ivan Turgenev: To desire and expect nothing for oneself and to have profound sympathy for others is genuine holiness. Mother Teresa: True holiness consists in doing God’s will with a smile. [3] And William Wilberforce, There is no shortcut to holiness; it must be the business of our whole lives. [4]

I was especially drawn to that quote from Wilberforce. He was born to a rather wealthy family in England in 1759. His father was a merchant and, when he died suddenly in 1769, young William was sent to live with an aunt. This aunt was part of a new movement in England led by a ‘John Wesley’ whose followers were called ‘methodists’ because they had developed a rather methodical process for ‘practical holiness.’ Some of those early Methodist groups were even called ‘Holiness Clubs.’ Wilberforce’s mother, when she realized her son might be influenced by these religious types, brought him home. From there, his young adult years were fairly ordinary… spent at schools and at the university. By the young age of 21, he decided on a career in politics and was elected to Parliament. (I’m sure his Mom thought she had succeeded in rescuing him from that holiness stuff.) But, when he was about 26, he had a religious conversion and from then, they say, things changed. He became friends with a Thomas Clarkson who opened his eyes to the injustices of the slave trade. After that, there was no looking back. Wilberforce took on the abolition of slavery as his life’s work. It was indeed his personal path to holiness and was without a doubt the business of the remainder of his life.

Wilberforce served 45 years in Parliament. His tireless efforts to completely abolish slavery brought him ridicule and even persecution. Remember, slavery was profitable. The pathway to abolition was blocked by vested interests, parliamentary filibustering, entrenched bigotry, international politics, slave unrest, personal sickness, and political fear. Sound familiar? Wilberforce’s first anti-slavery bill was presented and defeated in 1791 – 163 to 88. He did not give up. Bills in 1792, 1793, 1797, 1798, 1799, 1804, and 1805 were all defeated. But, his antislavery efforts finally bore fruit in 1807 when Parliament voted to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire. But Wilberforce did not stop. He then worked to ensure the slave trade laws were enforced and, finally, that slavery itself was abolished completely in the British Empire. Wilberforce's health prevented him from leading the last charge, though he heard three days before he died, in July, 1833, that the final passage of the emancipation bill was ensured in committee. [5] It was finally passed one month after his death.

This commitment to practical holiness even came to the attention of one ‘John Wesley’ – the same John Wesley whose movement Wilberforce was exposed to as an adolescent. In fact, Wesley’s last letter before he died was to Wilberforce. Just a week before his own death, Wesley wrote

Dear Sir:

Unless the divine power has raised you to be as Athanasius contra mundum(a ‘saint against the world’) I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villainy which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? O be not weary of well doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.

Reading this morning a tract wrote by a poor African, I was particularly struck by that circumstance that a man who has a black skin, being wronged or outraged by a white man, can have no redress; it being a "law" in our colonies that the oath of a black against a white goes for nothing. What villainy is this?

That he who has guided you from youth up may continue to strengthen you in this and all things, is the prayer of, dear sir, your affectionate servant, John Wesley [6]

I like to believe that Wesley’s letter was one that encouraged Wilberforce on what would be an incredibly long journey for indeed there is no shortcut to holiness; it must be the business of our whole lives.

Still, for all the power that a story like that of Wilberforce has, we cannot ignore the fact that, in the history of all the great enduring religions of the world, some people choose a more solitary path to holiness. I do not want to discount that. One of the great saints of early Christianity was a man named Antony. As the story goes, while attending Mass one day, he heard the words of Jesus in the gospel telling him that, if he would be perfect – holy – he should sell what he had and give it to the poor. He felt compelled to do just that. And, after giving all he had away, he sought a cave in the desert and began to live an austere life of prayer and fasting, listening for God. It is said that he faced great temptations and internal battles. But, he stayed the course, convinced that to be holy – really holy – one had to forgo all creature comforts and focus only on God. Others followed his example, living as hermits, solitaries in the desert. People might go to them for counsel at times but, for the most part, they became saints, found holiness, alone. Antony of the Desert or Antony of Egypt is known as one of the ‘desert fathers’ and, when we think of holiness, we cannot ignore these masters of the solitary life. Stories abound about the strength of their prayer, and the power of their holy lives.

Even here, however, the power of practical holiness peeks through. One of the most striking legends around Antony of the Desert is of the day, it is said, that God called to him, "Leave your cave and go to a distant town. Look for the local shoemaker. Knock on his door and stay with his family for a few days." The holy hermit was puzzled by God's request, but nonetheless – having learned to obey when God spoke - left the next morning. He walked across the desert sands and by nightfall had reached the village. He found a small house, knocked on the door and was greeted with a smile and a welcome. The hermit inquired if the man was the local shoemaker. Hearing that he was, the hermit was pleased, and the shoemaker – for his part - seeing that Antony was tired and hungry invited him in to stay. Antony was given a hearty meal and a clean place to sleep. The hermit stayed with the shoemaker and his family for three days. . .

Then after three days the hermit said good-bye to the shoemaker and his family and walked back across the desert to his cave, wondering all the while why God had sent him on this mission. When he arrived back at the cave, God questioned the hermit. "What was the shoemaker like?" Antony answered, "He is a simple man; they have a small home. He has a wife and a baby. They seem to love each other greatly. He has a small shop where he makes shoes. He works very hard and makes very little, but he still gives money and food to those who are less fortunate. He and his wife pray each day; they have lots of friends." God listened to the whole story. When he finished the account, the hermit asked, “and why did you send me there?”

God replied, "You will be a great saint, as you wish, but the shoemaker and his family will be great saints as well." [7]

To be holy is to be so in love with God that it spills out into everything we do. That’s my definition of holiness. Trying to live as if people matter to us as much as they matter to God. Or, as Frederick Buechner says if you want to be holy, be kind. Fundamentally, to live a holy life is to live in the world with kindness. I suppose some would say that is ‘watering it down a bit.’ After all, the meaning of ‘holy’ is to be ‘set apart.’ I began this sermon with that observation. But consider this… in a world where expediency too often rules the day, where people are judged and discarded too often simply because they are different, being Godlike looks far more like kindness than judgment. I find it tragic and disappointing to hear that our Montana legislature is yet again about the business of eliminating protections for the most vulnerable among us and calling people who are different abominations. That is not the work of holiness. After all, the law from Leviticus simply said leave some food in the field for those who need it – no strings attached. The law said do not hate in your heart anyone of your kin and later, we are reminded that, with God as our Father, we are all kin. We are not to take vengeance or bear a grudge. That’s hard stuff…but it is also ordinary stuff. The stuff of kindness. Basic decency. Which, in turn, is holiness. Practical holiness.

Certainly, there is a place in the world for ascetic holiness – for the kind of lives led by the likes of Antony. But it is especially good to remember that holiness is not reserved for those who can go off to become hermits. The Bible clearly tells us that holiness calls to us all. To men and women. To children and the elderly. To shopkeepers and shipmakers. To pharmicists and farmers. To parents and politicians. To those who travel on mission trips and to those who stay home and pray. We are all God’s chosen people commissioned to be holy as God is holy. Jesus learned this at his own synagogue and lived it. And faithful followers of Jesus have been striving to live it ever since – seeking to become holy in the ordinary halls of everyday life. We are to be holy as God is holy and, in the end, it is to be the business of our whole lives.

[1] Matthew 5: 48.

[3] These quotes found at http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/holiness/

[4] http://wtsaid.blogspot.com/2010/03/william-wilberforce-on-holiness.html

[5] seehttp://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/activists/wilberforce.html

[6] seehttp://gbgm-umc.org/umw/wesley/wilber.stm

[7] Reference found in several places, including … http://www.rathkennyparish.ie/church-calendar?task=event&month=1&year=2011&day=17&id=106