“Holy” and “perfect”
are probably the two worst words anyone could ever use to describe God’s
expectations of us. “You shall be holy,
because I the LORD your God am Holy.”
“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” These are two verses that even to say them
you need the perfect mix of the voices of James Earl Jones, Charlton Heston,
Morgan Freeman, and maybe George Burns.
I cannot imagine anything more detrimental to spiritual well-being than
complicating our relationship to God and one another with expectations of “holiness”
and “perfection”. “Holy” and “perfect” just
ain’t going to happen and so often our attempts to be such just lead us down a
path of prideful prudishness and harmful judgementalism.
What comes to mind when you hear the word “holy”? The
first thing that pops into my mind is the vision of heavenly worship captured
in the hymn “Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty.” God the Trinity in all his awesomeness sits
enthroned in Heaven surrounded by angels and saints adoring him. It is an exclusive scene of total otherness
to anything known on Earth. I also think
of holy places. We like to call church
buildings and especially church sanctuaries “holy” believing that God is
somehow here and nowhere else. As a
result what we have done is put “God in a box”, this box, and instead of
“casting down our golden crowns” before him we surround him with plastic
flowers and memorial plaques and get grumpy at children when they run and play
in here. I also think of holiness as
sinless virtuousness. Holy people are
like Mother Theresa whom none of us will ever be like. Yet, for some reason we
think a robe and a collar makes a person closer to God than normal people can
be. There are also holy things. Communion
is a holy meal and that means it must be handled special and not too often. Only super-human Mother Teresa-like ordained
ministers should serve it and it can only be received by people who understand
that it must be eaten with a look of serious, sour/dour penitence, never joyfully
or with emotion. Yet, if all these
common religious sentiments about what holy means are indeed what “holy” means,
then we stand guilty of practicing the same superstition and magical thinking
that pervaded the Medieval Church and the Reformation was for naught.
That’s the world holy. What about perfect? Well, nobody’s perfect and perfectionists are
miserable people who berate themselves for never be good enough or a quick to
point out the imperfections of others.
Pursuing perfection is a recipe disaster.
Our ideas of “holy” and “perfect” simply make them
bad words to use, but we don’t have any others that really work. This means we can’t just take them at face
value here and rather have to do some Bible work. That’s what you pay me for and so here we go.
Looking at what the biblical idea of holy is, saying God
is holy essentially means God is awesome, utterly good and all that but
especially when it comes to steadfast love and faithfulness. Out of a love we cannot comprehend God is
utterly faithful. As Creator, God stands
above and outside the creation and therefore is not mired down in our broken world
corrupted by sin and death and so God is free and able to act in his creation
according to his steadfast love and faithfulness. So, God’s holiness means that God in his
incomprehensible steadfast love and utter faithfulness involves himself in his
creation for reconciling it to himself and for salvation.
When the Bible speaks of us being holy or of “earthly”
places and things being holy this means simply set aside for use by God. So, if
God’s holiness is that he is involved in this world for reconciliation and
salvation, then persons, places, and things that are holy are holy because they
are involved in what God is doing to reconcile his creation to himself and save
it from sin and death.
Looking at what perfect means, well, perfect is the
worst word to translate the Greek there.
The Greek there (telos and teleos) means to be complete in the sense of
fulfilling one’s purpose. A hammer is
perfect when it is used to hammer things.
Bread is perfect when eaten. We humans
being created in the image of God are perfect when we are living in the image
of God. But, wait a minute. What does God look like?
God’s image is the Trinity. God is the loving communion of the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit giving themselves to each other so completely (perfectly)
in sacrificial, unconditional love that they are One. God is perfect in that he does as he
is. In utter faithfulness to his
creation, whom he utterly loves, God gives himself sacrificially and loves us unconditionally
in order to reconcile us to himself and save us from sin and death. The culmination of God’s steadfast love and
faithfulness is Jesus who perfectly reveals what God looks like.
So, humanity made in God’s image should look like steadfast,
sacrificial, and unconditional love and faithfulness in our relationships with
one another and the creation. This leads
us to say that in the Bible being holy and being perfect are
pretty much the same thing: God sets us apart to be those through whom he does
his work of reconciling and saving in this fallen creation. What we have in our readings from Leviticus
and Matthew is what this looks like.
Leviticus tells us not to be greedy pigs squeezing every
last dime out of our means of income for ourselves. Rather, we leave some of the harvest for the
poor and the alien to glean. God looks
like sharing. We pay those who work for
us fairly and on time. God looks like
economic justice. We don’t lie or steal
or slander. God is honest. We don’t take advantage of or treat the
disable wickedly rather we include and accommodate. God looks like accessibility. We look after our kin and we don’t take
vengeance or bear grudges. God looks
like loving family. We don’t judge in
favour of the rich and powerful because they are rich and powerful. God looks like equality before the law.
In Matthew Jesus tells us not to retaliate against
those whom harm, steal, sue, or take advantage of us but rather do strange
things like going the extra mile. We are
to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Blessed are the peacemakers for the will be
called children of God. God looks like
reconciliation.
God has set us apart and called us to be different in
this world, different in the Good way.
If I had to translate be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is
perfect” it would be “Get ‘er done, therefore, like your heavenly Father get’s
‘er done.” Be just, fair, honest, and
faithful peacemakers and the world will see what God looks like. That’s what being holy and perfect is all
about. Amen.
