Saying YES to the World

All of the readings today in the Episcopal lectionary dealt with the theme of holiness. It is a concept and a reality which many Christians misunderstand. When God says to Moses in Leviticus, "Tell the people to be holy because I, Jehova God, am holy," He is not asking for an impossibility. He is also not expecting that every Israelite will become an ordained priest. All believers are called to be holy, and the lesson from Jesus in Matthew 5 amplifies for us some of the behaviors which characterize holiness. We must forgive our enemies, go the extra mile, give to the poor, and a number of other equally difficult things.

I shared with the children today about the little girl in the Old Testament who was a slave in the house of rich Naaman, a powerful man. Sadly, he had leprosy. However, a more natural response from this little girl might have been, "So what! I hate him! He keeps me as a slave! I hope he dies!" Instead she wants to help him: "I know somebody who can heal him . . ." Now that's holiness!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, developing a Karl Barth theme he liked, wrote a sermon on "saying YES to the world," in which he basically affirmed our involvement in human relationships and other "earthy" activities. God wants us to be fully involved in this world, he said, and yet living according to Kingdom principles. That, too, is holiness.

We must drink deeply of the holiness of Jesus if we decide to make an earnest attempt at inviting His Kingdom to come into lives. We can only be holy as He is holy if we allow His Spirit to permeate and penetrate our being, and then we can truly share the Living Water with others.

I want to say YES to the world, but in HOLINESS, the pure, transparent, cleansing holiness of Jesus.