Sermon, February 20, 2011 - Epiphany 7

"Being Holy", A Sermon Preached by The Rev. Canon Dr. C. Denise Yarbrough on Sunday, February 20, 2011 at Church of the Ascension, Rochester, New York

You shall be holy, as I the Lord your God am Holy. (Leviticus 19:2)
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect. (Matt. 5:48)

“Be all that you can be.” When I was an attorney working for Young & Rubicam advertising agency in New York, that was the slogan we created and developed for the United States Army, a major and remunerative client of the agency. Ads for the Army showed able bodied, beautiful buff young men and women working out, riding jeeps, climbing walls, engaging in acts of “derring do” with flags and military uniforms and a good dose of old fashioned patriotism as we lured young people into military service. How ironic that the U. S. military would have as its slogan a phrase that captures the essence of the final line of the section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount that we read today. “Be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect” is a somewhat sloppy translation from the Greek, where the word we translate as “perfect” actually derives from the Greek word telos, meaning “goal”, or “end” or “purpose.” The phrase does not mean what it sounds like in the NRSV translation, i.e. it does not call us to some ideal of perfection in behavior or outward appearance or conduct, but rather calls us to become all that we are created to be as children of the living God. It is a call to “be all you can be” but that you that is called into being is the you that is a child of God, a holy, compassionate being grounded in love and committed to being love in the world.

That last line of today’s portion of the Sermon on the Mount has troubled many a commentator through the centuries and, no doubt, has been one of those exhortations from holy writ that has left many a faithful person despairing of ever rising to the level that Jesus appears to be calling us to achieve. A different translation of that phrase is found in Eugene Peterson’s translation of the Bible, the version known as The Message, a very contemporary translation, where Jesus says, “Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you." Being “kingdom subjects” means we are people who are citizens of the kingdom of heaven, and we are expected to live our everyday lives as if we are living in the kingdom of heaven.

Both today’s reading from the Sermon on the Mount and the portion of Leviticus which contains what is known as the Holiness Code deal with some very concrete images of what it means to be “kingdom subjects.” These two passages read like a sacred version of the book “Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” given that these are very direct and specific examples of ways of acting in the world that are pleasing to God. Loving one’s parents and neighbors, observing the Sabbath, leaving gleanings in the field for the poor, don’t steal, commit fraud, or lie, pay your workers their wages on time, “love your neighbor as yourself.” Then Jesus adds some more instruction which sounds like he’s even more strict than the Holiness Code when in truth he’s simply broadening what is already embedded in the tradition. His language about turning the other cheek, going the extra mile, and loving one’s enemies all speak to the need to be holy people by refusing to engage in enmity, revenge, or violence. The line about not resisting evildoers is not a command to let evildoers run amok in our world. The Greek words translated as “do not resist” are more accurately translated as “do not resist violently,” or “with violence.” Resistance isn’t the issue, it’s violence. All of Jesus’ exhortations in this portion of the Sermon are about being peaceful, reconciling, non-violent people in a world that often rewards and invites just the opposite behavior. “Love your enemies” is a tough command to swallow in the world that is not God’s kingdom, but in God’s kingdom there would be no enemies. By loving those we might call “enemy” we bring in the kingdom as we reduce the alienation and polarization of an us/them world and learn to see all people in the world as children of God deserving of the same love and respect that we want for ourselves.

The advice to turn the other cheek is an exhortation to engage in non-violent resistance to evildoers, quite the opposite of the way it is often interpreted as essentially making yourself a doormat and letting someone beat up on you. In the ancient world, a slap on the face was done with the back of the right hand. For someone to hit you a second time, on the “other cheek” with the back of their right hand is very difficult to do, so to turn the other cheek is actually a way of standing up to the person, not unlike non-violent resisters who place themselves in front of tanks or nuclear plants daring their opponents to run them over. The example of giving your cloak if someone asks for your coat is another image that involves the people on the bottom of an oppressive regime standing up to the oppressor, by stripping themselves naked before the oppressor thus humiliating that oppressor through the extreme action. And going a second mile refers to the practice in the Roman Empire of the ruling class being able to conscript a poor person on a moment’s notice to do manual labor for them. By suggesting that the person do more than is asked of them is to encourage them to put the oppressor in a position of being the recipient of freely given service rather than slave labor. All of these are situations where the underdog stands up to cruel ruling powers with dignified, non-violent resistance.

All of the commandments that the writer of Leviticus and Jesus are articulating deal with very ordinary, everyday human interactions. Both Leviticus and Jesus suggest that being holy is all about how we deal with other people in the world and becoming holy is something we do in the course of our ordinary, humdrum, work-a-day lives. It’s not about retreating to a holy mountain or monastery and praying for hours on end, or engaging in strict ascetical practices. Holiness is born in the midst of ordinary human interactions. Love is something that is incarnate in the everyday interactions between people in a society, and most particularly for Jesus, between people who may not have a natural affective relational tie.

The command to pray for enemies calls us to treat those we think of as enemies as real human beings with a story, with feelings, with hopes, dreams and desires that must be respected. It is probably the single most challenging spiritual discipline there is. Loving someone who has hurt you or whom you believe may hurt you is not easy and takes discipline and hard work and courage. It is a mark of maturity, spiritual and psychological. The command to pray for our enemies is one worth keeping, not for the sake of our enemies, but for the sake of our own souls. If someone drives you completely crazy, or has made you enormously angry, pray for them. It’s hard to hate someone you pray for regularly.

And while some may criticize this portion of the Sermon on the Mount as being idealistic and unrealistic, I would suggest that the part about loving and praying for enemies is something that contains the most transformative potential of any spiritual wisdom there is. Think of how it has worked in our world historically. The civil rights movement, which was the product of Martin Luther King Jr.’s commitment to non-violent resistance based on the gospel of love, the end of apartheid in South Africa, also a product of non-violent resistance rooted in Jesus’ teachings about loving enemies and forgiveness, the increasing use of restorative justice principles to resolve criminal disputes, where the victim and the perpetrator actually meet one another and listen to one another and come to understand one another as human beings, and even the recent peaceful revolution in Egypt are all examples of people loving enemies and being transformed in the process. The Forgiveness Project is a worldwide movement dedicated to restorative justice principles. They have a website that I invite you to visit. There you will see and read countless stories of people who have found healing and wholeness – indeed, “holiness” through building personal relationships with their enemies.

When I visited the West Bank in Palestine I met one of the people featured on the Forgiveness Project site. Bassam Aramin is a Palestinian, a former “freedom fighter” who had engaged in violent action against the Israeli occupation of Palestine. He spent seven years in an Israeli jail after throwing grenades at an Israeli soldier’s jeep. No one was killed but he was arrested and thrown in jail at the age of 17. While there, he was beaten and humiliated. He struck up a dialogue with an Israeli guard in the prison which proved to be transformative for him and the guard. He came to understand in prison that dialogue and education and peaceful resistance to oppression was the only way forward. After his release he founded an organization named “Combatants for Peace” along with former Israeli soldiers who also wanted to find a non-violent way forward. These former enemies came together, having laid down their arms permanently to work together for peace. Two years after beginning this active peace work, Mr. Arramin’s 10 year old daughter was shot to death outside her school by Israeli soldiers. Even then, he refused to go down the road of anger and revenge. The soldier who killed his child has still not been held accountable, but 100 former Israeli soldiers who have joined his movement for peace built a garden in her honor at the school where she was killed. Bassam had to overcome his rage and hatred and desire for revenge, just as the Israeli soldiers had to overcome years of indoctrination and dehumanization of Palestinians, in order to engage one another as human beings deserving of respect and dignity. Combatants for Peace works to bring peace in the midst of the intractable conflict in Israel and Palestine, building playgrounds for Israeli and Palestinian children to share and play in together. The path of non-violence and respectful engagement of those we might call “enemy” is the path towards making the kingdom of heaven a reality in the world today.

Yes, the commandments given by Jesus in today’s reading from the Sermon on the Mount are tough going. If we take them seriously, as we must, we will be forced to do some of the most difficult spiritual and emotional work there is to do in the course of human life. But, if we want to “be all we can be” as holy people of God we have no choice but to take seriously the call to non-violence, peaceful resolution of conflict, and dignified and respectful engagement with those we consider “enemies.” Just as army recruits have to go through boot camp to “be all they can be”, we who want to be disciples of the Risen Christ have to be willing to go through the spiritual boot camp of learning to love enemies, pray for those who persecute us, and resist violence and oppression with non-violence and embodied love. Being holy is not for the faint of heart but it is a requirement for citizenship in the kingdom of heaven. Amen.