Glory to Jesus Christ!  Glory forever!

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

“[P]erfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

It goes without saying that we hear a lot about holiness in Sacred Scripture for one simple reason: our God is holy.  He is the “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal” of the Prophet Isaiah’s vision wherein he experienced the seraphim standing about the throne of God, high and lifted up, crying out, “’Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory’” (Is. 6:1-3).  This is the same cry heard in Heaven by St. John the Theologian in his revelation of divine worship, “’Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was, and is, and is to come!’” (Rv. 4:8).  It is for this reason, then, the Church, too, in her divine and heavenly worship of our thrice-holy God calls upon these holy words of the seraphim to express her worship of this same God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – “’on earth as it is in Heaven’” (Our Father).

It goes without saying (I hope), that because our God is holy, we, too, are called by Him and empowered by Him to be holy.  St. Peter in his Epistle, quoting the very words of God to Israel, His elect and holy people, says to us, “’Be ye holy, for I AM holy’” (Lv. 11:44, 45; 19:2; 20:7; 1 Pe. 1:16).  Thus, the Apostle concludes, “[B]ut as He Who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of living” (1 Pe. 1:15).  Again, laying claim to the words of God to Israel, the Apostle says the Church, following in Israel’s lineage, is likewise “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people” (Ex. 19:5-6; Dt. 7:6; Is. 43:20; 61:6; 66:21; 1 Pe. 2:9). 

Aaron, the high priest, in his service in the Tabernacle, was to wear a gold plate upon his mitre with the words etched into it, “’Holiness to the Lord’” as a sign and a witness in the Presence of God (Ex. 28:38).  In fact, both he and all others who ministered unto the Lord in the Tabernacle (later the Temple) had to wear special garments, setting them apart, wholly for service to the Lord.  They did not wear casual attire; they did not wear street clothes.  They wore vestments specially made for divine and holy service and only for divine and holy service.  

We find in Sacred Scripture that not only is our God holy unto Himself, but persons, places, and things can be holy as well.  We find that we cannot mess with God’s holiness without consequence.  Remember Uzzah who died after having touched the holy Ark of God while it was in transit.  If you recall, the oxen transporting the Ark stumbled and he put forth his hand to steady it, only to be struck down.  His death was the result of not handling the holy things of God appropriately as directed by God (2 Kg. [2 Sm.] 6:1-11; 1 Ch. 13:1-14).  We are to reverence God’s holiness just as the Prophet Moses was instructed by God to do when he approached the burning bush that did not burn.  He was told by God to take off his shoes “’for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground’” (Ex. 3:5).  Holy things are reserved for those designated as holy by God.  This is what the priest calls out from the Altar in the Divine Liturgy, “The holy things are for the holy.”   

We could go on ad infinitum here, I believe, but you get the point that there is a certain exclusivity to holiness and being holy.  That holiness is not to be trifled with, taken lightly as though inconsequential, or treated cavalierly as though nothing is so holy that it has to be treated thusly.  But, what is holiness?  What does it mean to be holy?  Its base meaning is simply to be set apart for God, to be consecrated to God for His purposes, to be devoted lock, stock, and barrel to God for God, to share in God’s “otherness.”  Once something or someone has been made holy, it cannot be used for any other purpose than for which it was made holy for.  A chalice isn’t a coffee cup, the Altar isn’t a workbench, a church isn’t a social hall or a dance hall, a Bishop, Priest, and Deacon are no longer just one of the guys because they have been set apart – consecrated – to serve in the Temple at the Altar of the Lord, to feed the reason-endowed flock of God’s Word. 

Something holy is moved from being ordinary to extra-ordinary because of God.  There is a quality now imparted by holiness that is solely rooted in God and His nature.  We are not holy by nature, though we have been created for its capacity.  Adam and Eve possessed original holiness given to them by the grace of God.  But, it was lost to them, and to us, in the Fall and must be restored to us by the Holy One of God, Jesus Christ, Who is the precise image of God.  We know that holiness makes us different from the rest of the world from which God has called us out and has set us apart.  This is Paul’s point in today’s Epistle when he speaks to the Church about her relationship with the world.  He tells the Church, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship [communion] hath righteousness with unrighteousness . . . light with darkness . . . Christ with Belial [Satan] . . . believer with pagan . . . the Temple of God with idols?”  St. Paul’s point is: we can’t say we are of Christ and act like devils; we can’t partake of the values of Heaven while living out the values of this fallen existence; we can’t say we’re the baptized faithful and look like unbelieving, immoral hedonists.  We can’t say Sunday is the Lord’s Day set aside (made holy) for divine worship and treat it like it’s our day to do with it as we want.  We can’t say we – and all we have – belong to God and then withhold our tithes and offerings from Him.  The world around us does that.  How is that any different (Lk. 6:31-36)?

But, we are different because we are no longer of the world – in it but not of it.  Paul says that.  Now, we are the Temple of the living God because the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of holiness – dwells in us and among us.  “[Y]e are not your own,” he says.  “For ye are bought with a price.  Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cr. 6:19-20).  We’re different.  We are in the world, but no longer of the world (Jn. 17:1-26).  We’re “peculiar,” to use St. Peter’s wonderful term, special, unique, set apart, consecrated, wholly devoted to Christ God for His glory and Kingdom, to be like God.

This holiness to which we are called is not ours.  It is God’s holiness imparted to us by the Spirit of holiness in the Church.  If we are to be holy; if we are to be growing in holiness, perfecting it, as Paul says today, then we must necessarily be in the Church and of the Church.  What does that mean?  It means we are to be baptized into Christ and we must partake of Christ in His Church in worship, through prayer, by Confession and the Holy Eucharist.  The Church is, first, in holiness because she is the Body of Christ.  We, as individual members of that Body, are united with Christ and His holiness, in the Church.  Our holiness, which is God’s, comes to us, then, through the Church in whom the Holy Spirit ever dwells communicating the grace of His holiness to those who partake of Christ.  In the Church we partake of God’s divine nature (2 Pe. 1:4).  We cannot be Christian, beloved, if we are not in the Church and of the Church.  We do not make the Church holy. Rather, the Church makes her sons and daughters holy because she is the Body and the Bride of Christ God, the holy Mother of the holy ones of God.  To drive home this special relationship, our Lord once told us, if you recall,

‘Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, no more can ye, unless ye abide in Me.  I AM the Vine, ye are the branches.  He that abideth in Me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit [holiness], for without Me [apart from Me] ye can do nothing’ (Jn. 15:1-27).        

“[P]erfecting holiness in the fear of God.”  The Apostle makes it clear here that holiness – God’s holiness, His likeness – is something we can mature in and perfect by the exercising of our faith and love “in the fear of God.”  This holy fear is a profound and holy reverence of God which is the basis of the Christian life and the beginning of wisdom (Pr. 9:10).  We are to grow up in Him, “unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ep. 4:13).  The fear of God is essential if we are to be like God in “righteousness and true holiness” (Ep. 4:24; Co. 3:10).  It makes us humble, and it is definitely tied to loving God, thus becoming like God in these holy qualities of humility and love.  Holiness, humility, and love, then, are all bound up together, which should not surprise us.  The holiness of God heals our souls fragmented by sin and death, puts us back together again, restores us to a unity of self that has been split asunder by the Fall, and imparts to us His wholeness.  It is a quality of the soul made known in our living as we work out His holiness in fear and trembling (Pp. 212).  Only then can we be in the world as witnesses of this divine Truth, the aroma of God (2 Cr. 2:15-16), summoning the world to come out of itself and into the Kingdom of God (Co. 1:13).

“Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all [the passions] of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”  Without holiness, beloved, Holy Scripture says, “no man shall see the Lord” (Hb. 12:14).

Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ!  Glory forever!

PROPERS:

2 Cr. 6:16-7:1

Lk. 6:31-36