From a note I sent to my weekly Bible study folks to cancel Bible study for the evening, reflecting on this Sunday’s first reading…
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Hi all!
So no baby yet but my family needs some tending to this evening.
I don't mean to leave you empty handed! I talked about the Gospel reading and 2nd reading in the bulletin this week. But I just wanted to leave a couple thoughts on the first reading and how it relates to the rest of them.
The LORD tells Israel through Moses to "Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy".
Holiness has a lot of connotations in the Bible. Something holy is something set apart for God's purposes. Sacrifices were holy because they belonged to God and were eaten by his representatives, the priests. The Ark of the Covenant was holy because it was God's throne. The Temple was holy because it was God's house. They would be "charged" with holiness, with something of God's quality.
Here in Leviticus, we see that Israel as a people are holy. In Exodus 19:6, Israel is even referred to as a "priestly kingdom". Like the priests, they are set aside for God's purposes but also they represent God to the rest of the nations, just as they represent the people before God. I like to think about this mutual representation (of representing God to the people and the people to God) when thinking about this passage. If we have inherited a role in the "priestly kingdom", then we too are "priests". Indeed at Baptism we were baptized into Jesus' threefold ministry of priest, prophet, and king. We also share in this role of mutual representation.
So how do we represent God to others and others to God? And how are we set apart from others as a holy and priestly people?
Our second reading gives us one hint. We are "the temple of God" and the "Spirit of God dwells" in us (1 Cor 3:16). We carry something of God in us and if people encounter us, they should also be encountering God.
But it's our last few Gospel readings that I think give us the flavor of what holiness should mean. It presents us with a paradox. We are a people set apart for God from others, yes, but we our being set apart is found precisely in our interactions with others. We are to model God's graciousness to us back to a society that is often demanding and unkind. It meets anger with love and demands with dignified giving.
In other words, we can't be a holy people if we are unwilling to love and become enmeshed with others. If we are set apart it's by how we conduct ourselves with others regardless of who they are and how they live. Holiness here is not marked by being physically apart from profane people or things (and holiness at this time was always kept apart from profane things).
So be holy as the LORD himself is holy and do not be afraid.
