You Shall Be Holy
“You shall be holy, for I am holy.” – Lev 11:45
Easy for you to say, Lord. We are the ones who actually have to pull it off. We tend to let God take the blame for a multitude of difficulties. Some insurance companies, for example, still pin natural disasters on God, calling tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, and other cataclysms “acts of God” because they are not preventable. Does God deserve that rap? Maybe, maybe not; but there is no question that the command for high-end ethical living is an earth-shaker that comes straight from the mouth of Yahweh. When our best attempts to live up to that demand run into opposition, what are we to do?
Yahweh puts it this way in Leviticus: “You shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from the other peoples to be mine.” (Lev 20:26) This is the wellspring of human ethics, the declaration that what God has called to be separate and apart should reflect the goodness and set-apartness of almighty God. Jesus put it another way, just as precise and just as apparently unmanageable: “Be perfect … as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt 5:48)
And as we look out on our congregation during our sermon in which we remind the flock that God calls us to be holy so that our living reflects the holiness of God, we see drooping eyelids fighting the flutters; wandering minds looking forward to brunch, soccer games, afternoon naps, events that are far more relevant to our experience than the impossible demand to be as holy as God.
Yet that is what God wants.
God acted differently toward Israel than toward all other nations. When God picked Israel to be God’s people, God brought along a laundry list of expectations for both parties to the covenant. God would protect the people from danger and provide them with a ritual to purify themselves and a way of living that would garner God’s blessing. (Deut 30:15-20). The people, in turn, were to obey the commandments and sayings of Yahweh.
God’s track record in living up to God’s end of the bargain is stellar. We, however, have shown an embarrassing willingness to wander from our initial resolve. And in a remarkable and ongoing display of chutzpah we also seem to have no trouble appealing to God’s faithfulness as a way of getting ourselves out of trouble.
The going in the wilderness gets tough? Don’t just gripe; remind God of God’s responsibilities. (Num 20:1-9)
Life’s boat ride becomes stormy? Don’t just complain; call the compassionate Jesus to account. (Mk 4:35-41)
The benefit of this tactic, of course, is not that it serves to remind God about God; it serves to remind us about God, about the One who saves, the One who sustains. Such reminders of God’s goodness, of God’s perfection in an imperfect world, draw us closer to the One in whose image we are made.
A young member of my small group, brought up confident in the faith, recounts his spiritual confusion. His college experience had been invigorating, inspiring even. He had almost single-handedly launched the Alpha program on his campus and watched it grow exponentially. He had withstood the pressure of his fraternity brothers to buy into an Animal House lifestyle; in fact, he led several of his brothers to embrace a deep relationship with Christ.
On graduating, this marketing major accepted a position with a major automaker. After a time he was offered a management position by one of the firm’s subcontractors. Should he take the plunge with the greater opportunities but also the greater risks and challenges.
“This is what I don’t get,” he said. “I went ahead and accepted the new job because I genuinely thought it was the right move to make. My wife and I prayed about it, talked about it, gave it some time, prayed about it some more, and it just felt absolutely right.
“But it was not long after I started that I realized some of the other managers were, you know, cutting corners, not being dishonest enough to raise red flags but being, well, dishonest. There is a lot of pressure to fall in line with that sort of practice and I just can not see doing it. But then I realized that if I do not, my (profit) numbers are going to go down and I will start to look bad.” Why have you brought us … to this wretched place?
“So what do I do? I feel like this is the place God wants me to be, but I also feel like it is a place where dishonesty pays off and honesty gets you booted.” Lord, do you not care that we are perishing?
Silence among the group. It can be hard indeed to sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land. Then one of the older members offers: “Why don’t you call God on it?”
“Excuse me?”
“Call God on it. You know, a prayer; something like, ‘OK, God, you got me into this, now bless it. This was not totally my idea, you know; we talked, I asked for your guidance, this is where I ended up. It is not like you to just leave people in a mess, especially when you helped them get there. Now help me find a way through.’ You could try that.”
The young man’s face brightened, as if he had remembered an obvious but obscured truth. “This isn’t mainly about me, is it?”
This young man’s struggle to live ethically continues, but he is now aware that his power to wage that fight comes not from his own good intentions and dogged determination. It comes from God who makes God’s people able by helping them remember that it is God in whom they live and move and have their being. In remembering who God is, we remember who we are.
“You shall be holy, for I am holy,” is, after all, a command to be separate even as the commanding God is separate. And perfection? The underlying word, teleios is related to growth and maturity and is related to the word for goal as well. To be holy and perfect is to be coming of age, to be growing up into the full stature of a man or woman of God. (Eph 4:13).
What might happen if we preachers actually encouraged our listeners who are struggling for ethical back-up to “call God on it,” to muster up an attitude and go toe to toe with this commanding God, to call God to account? It just might provide them with some spine by reminding them of who already has their back, and their future.
