All you Need is Holiness

We are all stuck on this little planet together. Different cultures, different religions, different nations. We are not going anywhere. And we have, and continue, to all treat each other terribly. We are violent, destructive, malicious, and angry.

Jesus says that the way out of the mess that we have gotten ourselves into is to love our neighbor as ourselves. The word for "love" is agape. Agape means ultimate concern and presence with those who are decidedly unlovable to us. The love that we are called to express is not the sappy, sentimental meaning of the word that we hear on Top 40 radio. Agape love is powerful, subversive, and scary. Agape love can turn us around.

We cannot practice love of those who are unlovable without holiness. Holiness is often associated with what is separate and apart from the world; it is associated only with praying and singing hymns and reflecting. Holiness is not doing those things; we do those things to make us holy. Holiness is exhibited not by separating ourselves from those who we perceive as unlovable, but by first questioning the unlovable nature of those who we deem to be unlovable, and then to question whether we are as lovable as we perceive ourselves. And holiness is about entering into relationship with those we deem unlovable, and being their servants. As we do so, remember that God is calling those who we deem unlovable to enter into relationship with us.

A good metaphor for holiness is the story of Jesus washing the disciples feet. Washing feet is about as dissimilar from what we typically think of as "separate from the world" as you can get. You cannot get more engaged with the world than washing peoples feet. And remember that if we take agape love seriously, that means we will allow our own feet to be exposed and washed by those who we deem unlovable. This is a great image about what can bring healing and peace to the world. Having the courage to expose all the sweat, dirt, and imperfections of our feet to our enemies, our enemies having the courage to expose their feet to us, our willingness to wash our enemies' feet, and our enemies' willingness to wash ours.