To listen to the sermon as it was preached at the 9:00 am service, click here.
To listen to the sermon as it was preached at the 10:45 am service, click here.

St. Charles Episcopal Church - Saint Charles, IL

The Seventh Sunday after Epiphany - Epiphany 7 RCL – Year A

Sunday, February 20, 2011                                                                                                                                                                            

Leviticus 19:1-2,9-18 – Psalm 119:33-40 – 1 Corinthians 3:10-11,16-23 – Matthew 5:38-48

Rev. William R. Nesbit, Jr.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

“Speak to all the congregation... and say to them:

You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.”

This week our readings continue on the general themes from last week.

In Leviticus, Moses is passing on the annotated version of the ten commandments to his people, and in Matthew, Jesus continues to do the same for his people. At the root of much of our readings today, is the concept of holiness.

Holiness is a difficult concept in our society today for many reasons. One of the greatest sins in American society is to be “holier than thou,” a term used to denote someone who sees themselves as better than everyone else, and sees others as beneath their concern. If we are not careful, that understanding can creep into our own understanding of what it means to be holy. Holiness is far more complex.

One dimension of holiness is to be set apart, but care must be taken to keep in mind that this is really more about identity. To be holy is to be set apart for a specific purpose. This part of holy is the easiest for us to understand. For example, Eucharist is a holy meal. On the one hand it is simply the preparation of a portion of bread and wine to be administered to everyone who comes to church on Sunday morning. On the other hand it is a holy meal, a meal set apart. We use a special table, the altar, that we don’t use for any other meal. We use special dishes, the chalice and paten, that are not used for any other meal.

Are they better than any other table or dishes? Well, we do decorate them nicely and make them out of precious materials, but that is because we use them to the glory of God and we want them to look nice. A chalice is not a better cup, it is a cup used for a better purpose. The same is also true for the paten and the altar and everything else we use on Sunday morning for the Eucharist. Being holy isn’t better, but it is different. It is set apart.

The other dimension of holiness is holy as a way of being, or a goal to which one strives. It is largely about this dimension that Jesus has been speaking to us for the last few weeks. As you listened to the reading from Leviticus this morning, did you hear one phrase repeated a lot? In just those few passages you heard “thou shall not” sixteen times. Twelve verses and sixteen “thou shall nots.” If you’re like me, after the tenth “thou shall not,” your eyes began to glaze over and your ears stopped listening. If that happened to you, you may have missed something, so I want to take a moment to draw your attention to it.

Did you notice how many of those “thou shall nots” are pretty much the way we live our everyday lives when we can get away with it. Not many of us are farmers here, so you may have missed the true meaning of the first part. How many of you think you are rightly entitled to all your wages; that you worked for them and they are yours to do with as you will? How many of you are holding a grudge against someone? How many of you have paid the state of Illinois the taxes due for your on-line purchases? That’s just a few of the things that came to my mind. You can probably come up with a list of your own. Do you still think you might be holy?

In the big scheme of things they’re probably not all that problematic, but I bring them up to get us to ask the question, “Are we really doing what God asked; Are we being Holy?” The good news is, I think, that at least we’re not “holier than thou,” and that is a good place to start, but there’s even more good news as well. The work of holiness is never complete. Holiness is a way of life, not a condition of life. We may not be holy, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. We only get into trouble when the quest for holiness is never begun, or if it is abandoned.

We live in a society that does great good in the world, but there is so much more that needs to be done. We worship in a church that is a light of love and support in our community, but there is so much more that we could be doing. We cannot afford to rest on our laurels. We must get better.

We are a people set apart for the work of the church, but is the work of the church just to make ourselves better? That’s the trap, you see. That is where we run the risk of slipping from holiness into holier than thou. So, how do we protect ourselves from this trap; Keep from moving the focus from us to them, and by that I really mean from me to us... all of us? And even harder, how do we keep it there.

We must constantly be reminded that just like the road to salvation, the road to holiness is not a road I take alone; it is a road we take together. And, it is not easy, particularly in a land that so admires individualism, not to mention personal choice. I think this is, or should be, the most startling way that Christians in America should set themselves apart from their non-Christian brothers and sisters, a dedication to the premise that we are all in this together. Sadly, we still have a long way to go.

The truth is, Jesus Christ came to save the world not convert it. Some would say that the only way to save the world is to convert it. I’m just not sure that Jesus ever felt that way. Jesus lived and died to show us the way to live and die. He was a tireless teacher, and he lived, and died, what he taught. By our own lives we can either give meaning to his life and death, or make it largely meaningless. Or to put it another way, whenever we do not live as the body of Christ, that body is crucified again, but this time by our own hands. I say again, the life we are called to by Jesus is not easy.

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

It is something we can never attain, yet also something we should never stop striving for. It is the dance with holiness.

If the life of faith is a dance with holiness, than the music that gives shape to the dance is love. Without love in our life, love of God and loving neighbor as yourself, holiness has no source and no purpose. And so love and holiness are inextricably bound together. Love demands holiness, just as much as holiness demands love. It is an irony and a mystery that to strive for holiness is to be set apart to become even more intimately connected with all of the creation of God. To be holy, as God is holy, is to love as God loves. That is the perfection we seek. The boon we pray for. The hope of the world.

Come Holy Spirit, and fill our hearts with your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace and of all virtue; that we may live a holy life, worthy of the salvation you have given us. Amen.