Pentecost 6

Pentecost 6 “HOLINESS” 6/23 & 26/05

Domestic violence, drugs, arson, theft, assault in our own community. I believe that in the hearts of most of us gathered here, and in the hearts of most Americans these days, there is a growing uneasiness about our nation and world. Our money, our gadgets, our guns do not bring us comfort nor confidence. Many live with the encroaching fear that our moral foundations are sinking from beneath us into the quick sands of compromise and corruption. Morality seems optional and community is under attack!

If our plight lies in our moral deterioration, where is our moral redemption to be found? This is the mission and calling of the Church, “a holy nation” living within the world politic. The writer of the First Letter to Peter addressed himself to the Christian community within the Roman political state when he wrote: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.” He was writing about the Church, not as an institution, but as a people in society led by a light that comes from above society. Paul captures this truth so wonderfully in Romans 6:14: “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” You and I are invited, encouraged, enabled, and expected to live our daily lives “under grace”! In Matthew 10:42 Jesus offers a simple, achievable example of what this type of living looks like…”If anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones…”. We are to be “holy”, as our Father in heaven is holy and this can be demonstrated in even the simplest actions and interactions day to day!

Living holy lives is not so much like the daily rising of the sun, as it is like toiling with the sweat of our brows and the ache of our backs in a garden which the weeds will take over if we neglect it for even a day! Sin is not abstraction to the Christian; it is a daily antagonist! Is not our awareness of sin one of the reasons we gather now? We march shoulder to shoulder within this world, in communion with God who stands within the shadows and keeps watch and ward over His own! But, Christians who do nothing more than gather in corporate worship and study for their own mutual edification are dim lights beneath society’s bushel baskets! We are to be holy and this requires us to be the Church when we’re not in Church! Christians are “salt” and “light” and “leaven”; but the salt must be in the food, the light must shine in the darkness, and the leaven must be yeast in the meal! When the Church gathers and goes forth, scattered like salt and leaven throughout society, we live with the integrity of the divine, moral law and exert a transforming moral influence upon all the world!

This fact is so wonderfully captured in the letter of an anonymous author some 17 centuries ago: “Christians are not distinguished from the rest of mankind in country or speech or customs. For they do not live somewhere in cities of their own or use some distinctive language…yet their own way of life which they display is wonderful and admittedly strange. They live in their native lands, but like foreigners. They take part in everything like citizens, and endure everything like aliens. They remain on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the established laws, and in their own lives they surpass the laws. To put it briefly, what the soul is to the body, Christians are to the world.”

It’s not easy to be live holy lives, as St. Paul will acknowledges in Romans 7:15: “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” A young native American man was looking at the special garment that his grandfather, the medicine man, was wearing. On the breast of the garment, two wolves faced one another in conflict. Grandfather explained these wolves represent the ongoing battle between good and evil. The young man asked his grandfather: “Which of the two is the stronger?” Grandfather answered, “The one that is fed the most.” Which, by your thoughts and actions, will you feed most today?

Sin still lives in and around us. In fact, we who have come to know the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ often have a heightened sense of sinfulness. But, living “under grace”, sin need no longer reign supreme. Paul says quite forthrightly in Romans 6:14: “For sin shall not be your master…” God, through Christ, calls us---His family, His Church, His body--- to be “holy”…living our lives so as to be pleasing in God’s sight; speaking words of truth and grace; offering kindness to the weakest; renouncing sin; extending forgiveness; praying with fervor; worshiping regularly; giving generously; encouraging others; speaking grace; and trusting only in God. This is “holiness” and this is what God expects of us!

Amen.