Jack Hardaway
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We are in danger.
We are in danger of many things.
We are primarily in danger of overdosing on holiness, being deluged in sanctity, overwhelmed by the tidal forces of the Spirit.
And we so often miss and misunderstand what is happening all around us and within us.
The prophet Isaiah understood, when the temple filled with the smoke of God’s presence he said that he was a man of unclean lips, and God cleansed his tongue with a burning coal.
The holiness of things drives us crazy, rather than confessing that our words fail, we profane that holiness with violent words and thoughts and actions.
We are constantly overwhelmed with the holiness of life and the sanctity of freedom and choice. We pit them against each other, missing that holiness is of God, that holiness can’t be divided or twisted into division and opposition. We use words for that which they were not meant to be used.
God is undivided, God’s holiness unifies, the Trinity is a unity of diversity, thrice holy, yet singularly holy. The sanctity of life and the holiness of choice are the same holiness, they reveal God. We misspeak and we miss-see when we use them to pull apart.
There is that great scene in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark where they open the Ark of the Covenant, Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood close their eyes. They averted their countenance.
What happened next, all the Nazis who wanted to possess and twist holiness into that which it is not, all those who consumed with their eyes that which was not theirs, they melted and died in splendid 1981 special effects, with nary a single CGI to be found.
God’s holiness surrounds us, and our lips are unclean, we do not avert our eyes, so we rage and frenzy, and lash out.
We dwell on the fringe, to go deep we must cleanse our lips and avert our eyes. Rather than using words to profane one another, rather than using eyes to consume one another in rage, we will have to humble ourselves before one another, and the holiness that holds us all together.
Our readings today are filled with holiness pulling the world back together.
Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, great name. Much like a certain Simon the Tanner from last weeks reading from Acts. Great names. Lydia’s heart is opened. Her whole household is baptized, and she prevailed upon the apostles of God.
(Worth noting that the early church had women who headed up households, who shared leadership with the Apostles, who even told the Apostles what to do and were apostles themselves, and whole households were baptized, which, by the way, includes infants and children. Just a little aside there, the Spirit sets the world free, rather than the opposite.)
Revelation, we see the waters of the river of life, the tree of life, and that medicine that heals the nations. John was in the Spirit and he saw the holiness of God that fills the world, and that fills the future with hope.
John’s Gospel, Jesus is getting ready to leave. We live in a world of leaving and leave taking. Jesus reminds us that we also live in a world of arrivals, we let go and then we embrace. Always both. Jesus leaves, but The Spirit arrives, and The Church becomes the ongoing body of Christ in the world.
Holiness makes a home in us.
We are those who have been called to deep humility and reverence before God’s holiness that fills this world. Our words and our eyes are to speak differently and see differently.
The rest of the world is frenzied and anguished, and we bring the peace of God.
We need to remember that. We need to do our job.
Holiness will drive us insane if we try to use it and control it.
We can only bear witness and invite others into that deep silence before the holy that is song and praise.
This world, each other, we draw one another deeper into communion with God.
Gentle reverence, that is the rule, that is the baptism, that is the water that is life.
Holiness has prevailed upon us.