Valois United Church

October 26, 2008 :   Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18 & Matthew 22:34-46

19:1 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
19:2 Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.

Those are the words from Leviticus.
Be holy.

Some congregations are used to an interactive sermon style, where it is a sort of discussion, thouch somewhat restricted.  It would be interesting to ask: How do we ‘be holy’?

I wonder how many of us would have images of monks spending hours in prayer
I wonder how many of us might have images of nuns feeding the hungry, smiling but not speaking.

You shall be holy....

Not sure there is anything wrong with those images, but that’s only a part of things.  Be holy....

Well, I looked for the definition of holy in the dictionary.

Etymology:
    Middle English, from Old English ha-lig; akin to the Old English word for whole — meaning complete:
1: exalted or worthy of complete devotion as a being perfect in goodness and righteousness 2: divine

1.       L'Éternel parla à Moïse, et dit:
2.      Parle à toute l'assemblée des enfants d'Israël, et tu leur diras: Soyez saints, car je suis saint, moi, l'Eternel, votre Dieu.

Saint: Qui est, par essence, la perfection et la pureté absolue.

“Saint” and holy do not share roots.
Holy is speaking of perfection of completeness.
‘Saint’ is defined as ‘what is, in essence, perfection and absolute purity.

Put the two together, and we begin to understand what God, through Moses, is calling us to...
You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.

---

Now, after this the book of Leviticus goes on to a bunch of other rules, such as
“You shall not let your animals breed with a different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor shall you put on a garment made of two different materials.”

So much for poly-cotton blends...  Not a rule that we pay much attention to, nor do we really see how it helps with holiness.  But some of the others deal with respecting others...  
Buried among them all are these words:  you shall love your neighbour as yourself.

That’s in the verse right before the one about the fields and garments - and not too long before verses restricting hair cuts and beard trims.

But one thing about that particular rule that tells us that it is more important than the others amongst which it is buried: Jesus quotes it.
One of the Pharisees, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.  "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"

He said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the greatest and first commandment.
And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.

These words of Jesus tell us  how to be holy.  That is how to be complete.  That is how to get as close to perfection as we can get.

These two commandments go together.  The lawyer asked Jesus for one law.  Jesus gave him two.  One without the other cannot exist.  One without the other can never be complete, can never be whole, can never be the road to holiness.

Loving God - loving God means much, but it results in appreciating God, praising God, worshipping God, taking time for God.... at church, at home, when travelling.  Loving God means wanting to speak with God, in prayer,
loving God means wanting to listen to God - in prayer, and in scripture.  
I’m delighted that we often have close on 100 people here on a Sunday, counting everyone oldest to youngest.  I am happy that Valois United has a Bible Study group with 8 or so participants.  But I hope there is a lot more going on than that - for we are a community of faith, and we need to be connected to God’s Word to be a true community of faith.  
(Yes, there is lots of action going on here - hundreds of meat pies, church repairs done, lawns mowed, bulletins created and printed.... but if we are not sure how it connects to God, then it does not mean a lot.  If we are sure how it connects to God.... those things, too, are a part of our holiness)

Loving God.... means spending time with God.

You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.

'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'
Most of the people reading Leviticus, hearing Leviticus 3000 years ago thought of this as meaning to love their Jewish neighbour.  The person who was pretty much like themselves.  
But that limitation is blown.  Even just a little later in the same chapter, it says:
    The one from another land who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the one from another land  as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
And then Jesus goes and blows any remaining restrictions of ‘neighbour’ when he speaks of the hated Samaritan being the neighbour....

So, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself' challenges us yet today to reach out to the stranger, the other, as well as the person much more familiar.  It challenges us to reach out to the Arab, the Moslem, as well as the person in the pew in front of us.  It challenges us to reach out to have compassion for the homeless, as well as to care for the children of our local schools.

Love God.  Love neighbour.
You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.