The Church of St. Paul & Incarnation, Jersey City NJ
January 1, 2020
The Feast of the Holy
Name
Numbers
Psalm 8
Philippians 2:5-11
Luke 2:15-21
A New Understanding of Holiness
Happy
New Year!
If
you’re like me, you probably use words all the time that you understand what
they mean but if someone were to ask you to define it, you might struggle a
little bit.
This
is probably especially true with religious language.
Since
today is the Feast of the Holy Name, let’s take for example the word “holy.”
We
all understand what it means, right?
And,
we could all come up with some synonyms like “sacred” or “blessed.”
But,
what does “holy” actually mean?
Well,
on the most ancient level “holy” means to be set apart from the ordinary and
the everyday.
Probably
all ancient people had a holy river or a holy spring or a holy mountain, places
that were seen as having a special spiritual quality and were not like all of
the other ordinary rivers, springs, or mountains.
Judaism
had and has a strong sense of holiness.
The
Jerusalem Temple was constructed to emphasize holiness: the outer court was
open to everybody but as one moved closer to the center the access became more
restricted until finally at the very center of the Temple was the “Holy of
Holies” the holiest of all places, hidden behind a large veil, where only the High
Priest was allowed to enter, and only just once a year, on Yom Kippur, the
holiest day of the Jewish year.
But
it’s not just the Temple.
There’s
the Sabbath, a holy day set apart and quite different from the other six days
of the week.
There
are the various rituals, especially circumcision, which all Jewish males were
and are expected to undergo, including, as we just heard, Jesus of Nazareth.
Like
other religious people, we Christians have our own sense of holiness, though
I’d argue that it has faded a lot in recent decades and today most people who
claim to be Christians live pretty much like everybody else. Certainly, Sunday
is seen much more as the second day of the weekend instead of a particularly
holy day.
(Which
is an amazing change when you consider that within my own lifetime blue laws
were still on the books here in Hudson County, meaning that on a Sunday you
could go down to Two Guys on 440 and buy a loaf of bread but you could not buy
a pair of pants. Why? Because it was Sunday, a holy day, a day unlike all of
the others. Buy your pants some other day!)
But
here’s the thing: in and through Jesus, God offers us a new understanding of
holiness.
When
Jesus died on the cross, we’re told us that the veil in the Holy of Holies was
torn in two – symbolizing that our sins have been forgiven and the separation
between God and us has been overcome.
In
and through Jesus, the holiest of holiness – God – has come among us as a
living, breathing, and loving human being.
As
Paul writes in his Letter to the Philippians, probably quoting a very early
Christian hymn, Christ Jesus was equal to God but he humbled himself to become
one of us, even allowing us to do our worst to him – and then God raised him
from the dead and so every knee should bend at the holy name of Jesus.
A
new understanding of holiness: it’s not about separation anymore.
Just the opposite.
Since God became
one of us then humanity itself is holy.
And, if that’s
true, then we should treat one another as holy ones.
Imagine
if we really gave that a shot, with God’s help.
Imagine
if we really tried to see the people around us, the people we love, yes, but
especially the people who get on our nerves, the people who mess up all the
time and seem to be just terrible failures, the people we don’t like at all, even
the people we fear like those guys dealing drugs in Triangle Park, imagine if
we tried to see them as holy ones – as people so special and so valuable – so
blessed - that God came among us and lived and died and rose again - for them.
If
we really gave that a try, it would
be the best New Year’s resolution ever.
Happy
New Year, everyone!
Amen.
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