6/19/24

Some 30 years ago, I stopped by a convenience store owned by a couple I went to church with when I was a little boy. The wife was a perfect example of what I preached about on Sunday. I told her about the church I was serving at the time and how loving the people were. She was not impressed. She patted the mass of hair piled up on her head and asked me, “But do they have the hair standard?”

Hair standard? What hair standard? The one concocted by the church she attended. Her minister taught that Holy women shouldn’t cut their hair. TRULY Holy women shouldn’t even trim the split ends. Or wear pants. Or jewelry. For them, holiness had to do primarily with outward appearance (for some reason it was only women’s outward appearance).  

The Jews of Jesus’ day had a similar problem. They substituted the Law of God with their own man-made rules and regulations. These were called the “traditions of the Fathers” and were boundary markers invented by the teachers of the Law and imposed on the people. These had little to nothing to do with what God commanded, but they helped create a boundary between the Jews and the Gentiles (which is certainly not what God had in mind for the people who were to be a “light to the nations”).  

The Pharisees and the scribes, the experts in the Law, created a system of rules and regulations that defined the Law smaller and smaller, tighter and tighter,  making it a rope around the necks of God’s people. That’s why Jesus tells the disciples in Matthew 5, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Then Jesus goes on to explain that keeping the Law is not a matter of  “Thou shalt not kill.” No, Jesus says, don’t let your anger get out of hand, and you don’t have to worry about breaking the commandment. 

While the Pharisees, whether in the first century or today, looked downward, narrowly defining the law into more and more trivial details, Jesus pointed us in another direction entirely.  Jesus called us to look up, to live a life that soared high over the Law and its individual commandments, knowing that by living the life of “Loving God . . . Loving Others” we’d make the Law irrelevant.  

But if Jesus taught that, how do followers of Jesus fall into this pharisaical trap? 

When I was in seminary, I heard a Wesleyan pastor explain what happened in his denomination: in the Wesleyan church of the 1800s, when a person would come forward during a church service to completely consecrate themselves to God, they would often take off any jewelry they owned for it to be sold and the money used to support missions. There would be a basket on the altar, and the gift was voluntary.

That’s a good and a noble idea. 

As time went on, it became an expectation that when someone came forward to completely consecrate themselves to God, that they would take off their jewelry and give it to be sold for missions. 

It went from a voluntary act to an expectation.

In time, the “selling your jewelry to support missions” part was forgotten, and it just became the expectation that when people would come to the altar to completely consecrate themselves to God, they would take off their jewelry. The original purpose was lost completely, and it became a regulation worthy of the Pharisees in the gospels! 

Their initial motives may have been good, but the good part was lost and forgotten!  

Because of the way the extremists have hijacked the word, we don’t hear holiness preached or taught much anymore, but holiness isn’t something for us to be afraid of. In fact, Hebrews 12:14 says, “Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” Without which no one will see the Lord . . . sounds like we need to pay attention! 

Holiness stems from the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives (if that doesn’t drive us to our knees, I can’t think of what would) and when the Holy Spirit is present anywhere, things are going to change. 

If the same Holy Spirit that brooded over the face of the deep at the dawn of Creation (Genesis 1:3) is in you, brooding over your heart, then you can expect new creation! But we’re not robots controlled by a god who forces us to do things against our will. We have to be willing participants. 

Holiness requires our participation in intentional transformation. “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,” Paul writes. That’s cooperation: the Spirit and you. Transformation requires our cooperation and it takes shape in community — in the fellowship and worship of the people of God. 

A life of holiness reflects what God has already done by making us into a new creation. It is an aspect of who you already are in Christ. And not only that, Holiness is a foretaste of our life to come . . . and that’s what I’ve been preaching on these last several Sundays. Holiness is important, not because God is a killjoy, but because Holiness calls us to be human in ways probably none of us have ever considered before.  

In other words, Holiness is not a matter of whether or not a woman cuts her hair, whether we play Rook or “Go Fish,” or whether or not men wear neckties, but holiness is a matter of whether or not we live lives of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” 

To live a life like that is truly heaven on earth!

Blessings,
Pastor Terry