Tarnished Holiness

The Rev. Dr. Whitworth Ferguson III

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

July 10, 2011

Tarnished Holiness

1 Peter 1:13-16

“Holy.

That is what you are going to be

if God gets his way with you.”

(Frederick Buechner)

Holy.

If God get his way with you,

with me, with us,

we’ll be more than faithful,

more than just good disciples,

more even than model Christians.

                                   

We’ll be holy.

But, there’s a rather big “if” to this holiness.

God has to get his way with us,

and the problem, the very large problem

is we, you and I, get in God’s way.

We resist God’s efforts to mold us, shape us,

even as we pray: God mold us, shape us;

even as we nod in ready agreement with Scripture

that teaches us that God is the potter

and we are the clay.

                                   

We can become holy, every one of us,

if we let God lead us to holiness,

guide us to holiness;

if we let God nurture the holiness that is within us.

Then again, perhaps that’s not

what any of us really wants – holiness.

Could it be that the term, the concept,

the very idea of holiness

may be more than we are interested in?

More than we want?

Perhaps it is enough for us to be modestly faithful,

enough to consider ourselves just slightly

above average in discipleship.

                                                     

After all, holiness sounds like a whole new level,

a whole new way of living.

Maybe, just maybe,

it is better not to aim that high,

to leave holiness to a select few.

When I was a student at Cornell Law School

some thirty years ago,

professors graded on an absolute curve.

It didn’t take my classmates and me long to figure out

that our classmate Jeff was always going to get

the top grade.

Everyone else adjusted their sights downward,

aiming for the A-, the B+, even the B,

grades still good enough

to assure that the doors of the best firms,

with their large salaries, would be open to us.

We learned we had little to gain

by trying to compete with Jeff for the top grade.

It seems much the same way in our faith lives:

the term “holy” is not one we aspire to for ourselves.

It’s a term we are more inclined to use

for that rare person,

like Mother Teresa.

Of course, it doesn’t help that the word comes

with baggage attached to it:

It may take us a few minutes to think of someone

we would describe as “holy”,

but we can all think immediately

of someone we know with a

“holier-than-thou” attitude.

Holier-than-thou:

a person who is smug,

sanctimonious,

self-righteous,

who is only too happy to let you know

that he or she is closer to God than you.

Between the negative baggage

and our belief that holiness is probably

beyond our reach,  

it isn’t surprising that

the word isn’t a part of our regular vocabulary.

And yet, the swarthy fisherman,

a man whom the gospels paint as rather dim,                 

a man whom the gospels portray as about

as far removed from holy as anyone might be,

this man is calling us to nothing less than a life of holiness:

“Therefore prepare your minds for action;

 discipline yourselves;

… Like obedient children,

do not be conformed to the desires

that you formerly had in ignorance.

Instead, …be holy …in all your conduct.”

And the standard Peter sets for us is not

to content ourselves with a B, or a B+,

or even an A-;

the standard we are to aim for is the A+ of Jesus Christ:

 “…as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves…”

More than 1200 years earlier

the Lord God called the children of Israel

to nothing less than holiness.

In Leviticus we find God saying to Moses,

“speak to the congregation of the people of Israel

and say to them:

You shall be holy,

 for I the Lord your God am holy.”

(Leviticus 19:1-2)

“You shall be holy”, every man, woman, and child.

who followed Moses through the wilderness,

and every one of us here and now.

The standard is high, but the good new is,

God doesn’t grade on a curve,

and God will tutor and help us every step along the way.

                 

Holiness is what God wants of us

and holy is what God will make of us,

if only we will let him.

To live a holy life is not to spend all your time in prayer,

it isn’t to spend all your time in church,

it isn’t to spend all your time reading the Bible.

Prayer, worship, and study

are all building blocks of holiness,

but the model for holiness,

for how to live our lives

is Jesus Christ: how he lived his life.

Jesus lived his holiness in community,

in fellowship with one another,

especially those who were not the elite of society.

In today’s society, Jesus would have little interest in

the celebrity, the professional athlete,

the captains of industry with their bloated salaries.

Jesus lived his holiness reaching out to the detested Samaritan,

the feared Roman centurion,

the dreaded leper.

And of course, Jesus lived his holiness

by reaching out to children,

welcoming them, gathering them up in his arms,

letting them know how much joy he found

in their presence.

“Let the little children come to me”, he said,

“and do not stop them;

for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.”

(Luke 18:16)

We grow in holiness in how we welcome all the children

who come to this place:

our own children who are here on Sunday;

the children who are enrolled in our Early Learning Center;

and, of course, the more than one hundred boys and girls

who will fill our halls and classrooms this coming week

for our Vacation Bible School.

Through our Vacation Bible School

we can grow in holiness even as we nurture holiness

simply by welcoming every child as Jesus did,

especially those who will be here for the first time,

and may find this to be a new and strange place,

perhaps even a little frightening.

Jesus wants us to welcome children

because he knows we can learn holiness from them

from their joy,

from the way they laugh, dance, skip and hop

from the way they make new friends so easily.

Put a group of four-year-olds in charge and we’d have:

no NFL lockout,

no budget impasse in Washington,

and probably no war.

Watch children for even just a few minutes

and it is easy to understand why our Lord said,

“Truly I tell you, unless you change

and become like children,

you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

(Matthew 18:3)

We live in holiness when we come to this Table,

not because we are about to celebrate a Sacrament,

but because we are about to gather in community

in response to the invitation from the one who is

the Bread of Life,

to come to his Table

all of us, together, reconciled,

the peace of Christ filling us all,

the peace we are called to share with all.

To grow in holiness

is to grow in those gifts that help build community.

To grow in holiness is to slough off those things

that break down community.

We are holy, every one of us;

filled as we are with God’s Holy Spirit.

Life tends to tarnish our holiness over time,

but with God’s help we can restore our luster

and gleam brightly,

reflecting God’s glory,

reflecting Christ’s love.

We can be holy,

you and I,

if only we will let God have his way with us.

AMEN