Holy

I was reflecting on what I was going to talk about this evening at our communion service. I had read in my devotion on May 25th about what it means to be holy. Laurence Stookey in "This Day" p 84 talked about the biblical meaning of being holy. After studying Leviticus and the holy laws in class we discussed the reason for the laws especially the food laws of Israel. In fact the entire Torah speaks to the fact of trying to create a holy people. In looking at that holiness did not mean perfection. It was assumed that the people would be holy and if they were life would go bettter for them. In fact in Leviticus is the statement that "You are to be holy as your God is holy." Lev. 19:2. We are not gods but we are expected to be holy.
Holy in this context means to be set apart. Much like Sabbath is a time to set apart from our everyday activities, so is our life to be set apart from the accustomed standards of this world. We are to provide an alternative to what the world says is good and to concentrate on what God says is good. Lev. 20:26 goes into this by stating "You are to be holy to me, because I the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own."
The concerns about living to this is the cost of being set apart. A question we would have to answer is how willing are we to be out of step with society in order to be holy? Are you willing to be called odd? Stookey states, "We are called to be a holy church, not a club to whatever is currently popular." I believe this is particularly difficult to live this day even as it was difficult for Israel to live this out. The pressure to conform is great and if one does not conform one is excluded from participation in many of the social benefits of our culture. Think about people you know and maybe even judge as somewhat eccentric who do not own a television, do not use a computer, do not own a car, who choose to live a green life and not use extensively non-renewable resources, and who do not use credit cards to purchase items. I know that I have difficulty with the idea of conformity to societal expectations and yet desire to not be so caught up in them that they become my gods.
It is not just in economic areas that conformation occurs but also in the political and even the religious areas of our life as well. We continue to hear the mantra of both political parties that seem to become nothing more the rhetoric with no substance. This occurs with both parties. The concern I have is that there are churches that also offer a lot of rhetoric with no substance. When Jesus confronted the Pharisees it was often based on this very issue. That somewhere the church became coopted by the society and began to conform to society rather than be an instrument to transform society. Paul in Romans 12:2 states "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will." Jesus sends us out to be evangelists to those in the world. One may think that one person cannot change and I quoted Margaret Mead yesterday. Today I want to share a statement made by Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. "This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. The saving of our world from pending doom will come not from a conforming majority but from the creative maladjustment of a transformed minority (Wallis, The Great Awakening 2008 p66)."
I wonder what the church would be like if we believed in being transformed by the Spirit of God and to set ourselves apart not away from society. The early church did that and did transform an empire.