February 19, 2017
Everyday Holiness
- Matthew 5:38-48
- Rev. Jim Montgomery
“EVERYDAY HOLINESS” 7th Sunday in Epiphany
Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; Matthew 5:38-48
The Rev. Dr. Jim Montgomery
There are 66 books in the Bible. Do any of them have a worse reputation than the book of Leviticus? Even if you’ve never read Leviticus, you’ve heard other people who’ve read it, so you’re positive you don’t need to read it. You know, it’s got that one verse used to judge gay and lesbian Christians. You may also know it contains dozens of very specific prohibitions of very commonplace behaviors.
Leviticus (1) prohibits trimming bears; (2) prohibits getting tattoos; (3) prohibits wearing clothes with two kinds of fabrics. [Anyone wear yoga pants? Woe unto you!] Maybe you know that (4) Leviticus forbids cursing your mother or father; and for those of us who do, it calls for our death. Leviticus says (5) not to eat shrimp or lobster; and, most scandalous of all, (6) prohibits eating bacon!
It's hard to know what to do with this book. We hardly ever hear from Leviticus. For example, today is the only Sunday it shows up in our 3-year lectionary cycle.
Too often, we Christians ignore Leviticus; one problem with that is Jesus. Jesus, it seems, had an awful lot of admiration of Leviticus. One time, long ago, people asked Jesus to tell them the greatest commandment in all of Scripture; that is, “Which one shows us the way to life?”
Jesus answered from Deuteronomy: “Love God with all your heart and soul and strength.” And then, he added his favorite verse from Leviticus: “And, love your neighbor as yourself.” LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR. There it is: the heart of Jesus’ ethical vision for life, and it comes verbatim from Leviticus!
This book’s central message is not about shrimp, or sex, or haircuts. It’s about holiness. Everyday Holiness. The 19th chapter of Leviticus begins with God instructing Moses: “Speak to my people and say to them, ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” BE HOLY.
Leviticus teaches how human holiness is fashioned after God’s holiness. Leviticus teaches how a person comes to live a holy life, and how a community becomes a holy witness to God.
Holiness is not self-righteousness. Holiness is life with dignity. Holiness is God making God’s home with us, and dignifying this life we share together. “I am holy,” God says. “You be holy, too;” and Leviticus tells us how. Leviticus says holiness is something we find in community with each other, in the hundreds of day-to-day choices that knit us together.
Sometimes holiness shows itself not so much through people, but through moments. Have you ever spent time with someone who is dying, and felt invited into their sacred passage? Or, if you have birthed a child? Or, felt yourself held by loving, accepting arms, or had your gifts put to good use in service to others? All these moments dignify and honor the participants. They are holy, and they make us holy.
Leviticus insists everything matters. Every word we speak. Every choice we make. Every bit of food we eat expresses our oneness. The authors tell us the way we worship – getting our rituals right – is as important as getting as our relationships right. Leviticus says there is no such thing as sacred or secular; we don’t step out of church into a totally separate world. It’s all one.
I think it’s funny how the writers of Leviticus insist that God and holiness are in the details. Maybe that’s why they were afraid we wouldn’t get it, and that’s why they added to the end of their commands the same refrain, saying, “I am the Lord your God.”
Do not make metal idols – “I am the Lord, your God.” Do not speak badly of others – “I am the Lord your God.” Stand up when an older person enters the room – “I am the Lord your God.”
Now, that could be a bit overbearing, couldn’t it? And yet, haven’t we parents used the very same response?! When your child asks you, “Why do I need to clean my room?” The only reasonable answer is, “Because I am your father!” or “Because I am your mother…and I said so!?”
“I am the Lord your God.” That’s the divine “Because I said so!” It means – what I want you to do is good. It will make you a better person, a better friend, a better family member.
Some of the commands in Leviticus are dated, even deplorable. We know that. But who says we don’t have the authority to adapt them? Faith communities continue to write and rewrite their own Holiness Code for their own time.
This congregation has a Holiness Code, doesn’t it? It includes: “You shall use inclusive language for God in worship.” “You shall not make homophobic or racist, heterosexist or xenophobic remarks.” “You shall recycle all recyclable things. You shall welcome all people.” Why? “…for I am the Lord, your God!”
We still believe there are certain things we have to do to promote and protect human dignity. And as long as we believe that, Leviticus will never grow too old to be useful. Leviticus says that holiness is treating those who are weak with extra care. Holiness is welcoming newcomers in the community, and making sure there is food for everyone who is hungry. Holiness is treating every life with equal value and seeking justice for all.
You take on an “Everyday Holiness of God” through what you eat; and when you do not cheat or steal; and when you handle your business with integrity; and when you refrain from lies and from speaking badly of others. Don’t listen to them as a list of rules. See them as a vision for life in all its fullness where no detail is too small to treat with care.
If this sounds familiar, it should. It’s part of the worldview we call gospel. It comes to us in the message of an itinerant preacher who loved Leviticus. “Do not think,” he said, “that I have come to abolish the law…; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill it.”
Jesus preached Leviticus all the time. The past several weeks, we’ve been listening to the Sermon on the Mount, following the words of Jesus as he commands his disciples – both then and now – to do some of the most difficult things imaginable: turn the other cheek, love your enemies, and pray for those who attack you. And then, there’s that last verse, the kicker: “Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.” WHAT?!
But then, Jesus is preaching Leviticus; and, searching for the words that sum up his way of life, and the way of life to which he calls us, Jesus says, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Jesus is quoting from what may well be his favorite book: the Book of Leviticus! “Be holy, for I am holy.”
But then, Jesus is preaching Leviticus; and, searching for the words that sum up his way of life, and the way of life to which he calls us, Jesus says, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Jesus is quoting from what may well be his favorite book: the book of Leviticus! “Be holy for I am holy.”
The last section in Matthew 5 gets to the core of faithfulness. Jesus has already said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Now, Jesus teaches us, as his disciples, how to live as peacemakers in these final 11 verses. In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, disciples are to live “as surprising people” in the face of persisting hostilities and hatred = with the spirit to bear trouble calmly and display a noble generosity.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,’ but I say…turn the other cheek…give your cloak…go also the extra mile.” When we feel that someone threatens our honor (which is the essence of a slap), or treats us unfairly (the meaning of the shirt), or when we feel exploited (the meaning of the forced mile), Jesus asks us to suspend our tendency to judge and demand justice. He demands from us a noble and generous kindness.
In the many moments of the day, when a superior is verbally abusive, when a co-worker is particularly inconsiderate, disciples are to be “surprising people.” Responding with grace: giving the other cheek, giving the other garment, going a second mile. Jesus is asking us to plot goodness, to spread love, and practice extravagant grace, because it matters how we live. It affects the whole world. It mattes how we live.
There’s a story about a pastor who announced on their outside sign and in an article in the local newspaper that, come Sunday, he was going to preach on “The Member of This Church I Would Most Like to See in Hell.”
Well, that caused quite a bit of excitement; and on Sunday, quite a crowd. The church was filled with people who hadn’t been there in ages who wanted to hear who this might be. People who usually went home after Sunday School stayed that day. People who only come on Christmas showed up, too. The seats were full; there was even a delegation of intrigued Methodists who wandered in from down the street. Everybody was there.
As the sermon progressed, the pastor finally came to the moment. And then, he did it – he really did call out a name.
It was the name of the best-known woman in the congregation! She was everyone’s favorite Sunday School teacher. She was the one people named as the warm face and saintly smile who greeted them on their first visit to the church. She was the one who gave energy to caring and serving in the congregation and in the community…Maybe someone like Janet Decker, the oldest member of this congregation who died just last week, whose life (it seemed to me, from what I heard) was full of grace and love.
The stunned congregation hung onto every word as the minister went on to say that the reason he most wanted to see her in hell was because he was sure that, in a very short time, that very place would be transformed, converted, utterly empty! Without a doubt, her love of God and neighbor, her sense of caring and community, her zeal for giving her gifts and serving God made her the kind of person whose life always made a difference – even in hell.
Every one of us has the capacity to influence the world, or some fellow-traveler through it. Our apathy affects others. Our meanness and self-centeredness add a weight to society. In the same way, our generosity enhances the life of others. Our willingness to work for wholeness can bring light and hope to ourselves, others, and the whole world. It matters how we live, how we treat one another.
It all matters. Every relationship you have, every choice that you make, from recycling to Sabbath rest, from feeding the hungry to loving every child. It all matters.
Good friends, this is the journey that we seek to be on together: becoming the kind of peaceful, loving, poised, gracious, generous people that, when people see us, they say, “Oh, so that’s what it looks like to be a Christian.” That’s “Everyday Holiness.”
Thanks be to God.
Prayers of the People February 19, 2017
Holy and generous God, sometimes we wonder how it makes You feel when we speak of You in the hushed tones of fear; when we think of holiness – as rigid rule-keeping and harsh separations. Forgive us when we reduce your warmth and welcome, your compassion and wholeness to cold religion.
Teach us to be people of true holiness; of compassion and loving obedience; of hospitality and healing. May we be those who make the world friendlier and more flexible, more accepting and inviting, more caring and protective. And, may Your Holiness – through ours – flood the world.
Ancient and Active God, sometimes it feels like it doesn’t really matter if we ignore the needs of our spouse, or shout at the kids unnecessarily, or elaborate on the truth just a little, so we look better, or waste the resources our world so generously gives us. Sometimes it feels silly to worry about making things beautiful, to keep reaching for the best of the good, and not just the easy; to stay true to what is true. What difference does it really make in the big scheme of things, if we just take the easy way, the not-bad-but-could-be-better way?
And then we come here; and as a community of faith, we remember: You do not accommodate our good-enough-ness, or our that’ll-do-ness. You do not darken the sun just a little, so we won’t feel so dull, or switch off some of the stars to keep us from feeling small.
You are holy – whole-y – one and complete, and God. You are Light and Life and Love and Fullness. You can be no other. You are Beauty and Goodness and Truth, brilliant and dazzling; and it is we who must change, we who come to this place of worship, we who must choose to gaze on Your Holiness and Beauty, and be changed into glory.
And so, here we are, Holy One: presenting ourselves to Your Holiness. And now, as our Master Teacher has taught us, we pray as one community of faith and hope and love: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.