Living into God’s Holy Presence

One of the vows we make in our covenant with God is to “strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being.”  In our relationship to God we remind ourselves of this when come together for worship.  In worship we recognize our faults by confessing our sins against God and our neighbors, and through forgiveness we strengthen our unity with Christ and one another.  Worship is a constant reminder that God was in Christ reconciling the world to God; and it reminds us about what is required for living into God’s holy presence.

Our readings appointed for today concern what it means to be the holy people of God.  We heard in the Book of Leviticus, “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the congregation, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.’”  St. Paul, writing to the Church in Corinth said, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple?  God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”  Then, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said to his disciples, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” 

A discussion in the book of Leviticus is about what it means to be holy.  The Israelites were freed from bondage and slavery in Egypt.  Through the exodus theirs was a special covenant with God, and holiness included wholeness, perfection, and relationships among people.  God is holy and we are to live in the same way, lives that are holy.  Genuine holiness is about caring for the poor and the alien. 

In using the metaphor of a farmer the author of Leviticus said that those who left the remnants of the harvest on the edges of the field, were not to “strip your vineyard bare; [but] you shall leave the fallen grapes for the poor and the alien.”

The commandments about relating to others focused on justice and responsible behavior.  You shall not lie or steal, nor swear, nor keep for yourself wages of someone you hired until the next morning.  “You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great; with justice you shall judge your neighbor, and love your neighbor as yourself.”  Living a holy life is about being responsive to the needs of the larger community.

St. Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth concerned the community.  He wrote that everyone belongs to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.  The context for his letter was a divided church in Corinth.  Some of its people were loyal to Paul and others to pagan gods, Apollos or Cephas.  To use today’s terminology, we might say that the church was in need of conflict management.  What mattered to Paul was a loyalty that was much greater than loyalty to the leaders of the local community.  He stated, “everyone belongs to Christ” and said, “No one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.”  He then asked, “Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? … God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.”

Today’s gospel continues Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount that we have been reading during the past several weeks.  It has to do with being holy and what is involved in being perfect as God is perfect.  Being perfect is Matthew’s way of calling the disciples to holiness, to being fully committed to Christ. Christian living calls us to live into the fullness of the commandments; it is a life of maturity, wholeness, holiness, and perfection as a disciple and follower of Christ. 

Jesus began each commandment with the phrase, “You have heard that it was said…, but I say to you….”  He then used the examples of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” and “you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.”  These commandments reach their fullness when one can turn the other cheek, not refuse anyone who wants to borrow something, and when one can love one’s enemies and pray for those who oppress or persecute. 

Jesus pointed out how much easier it is to do the limited things, the least demanding things.  There are people who love others who love them, so they greet their brothers and sisters.  But Jesus asked, “What more are you doing than others?  Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”  Then came the real challenge: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  This is the challenge for all of us today.

Walter Brueggemann, professor emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary, commented on this challenge.  Brueggemann writes: “Christ’s human possibility [is] a defiant alternative to the human self proposed by the dominant values of our culture.  Our culture offers an autonomous self accountable to none; the new self in Christ is accountable to God in obedience.  Our culture offers an anxious self who is never safe or adequate; this new self is safe with God.  Our culture offers a self that is one-dimensionally profane in self-regard; this new self is authorized to holiness in attentiveness to the poor, the neighbor, and finally the enemy.”

The take-home message is that the holy people of God live a different kind of life.  As holy people of God we are to live lives that are characterized by a generosity and a grace that goes beyond the accepted cultural norms and the usual laws so easily taken for granted.  Our is to be a life devoid of fear and hatred, a life filled with love and respect for every person, whether the poor or an enemy or the marginalized.  The Christian life is a holy life built on a foundation of love seeking to be perfect as God is perfect. Amen.