2014A 20 Pentecost Holiness Code (Lev 19:1-2, 15-18)

Nancy S. Streufert
26 October 2014 Proper 25
1
. . . You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy . . .
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I think its safe to say that few people would name Leviticus as their favorite book of the Bible.
Like me, maybe you started out at some point with enthusiasm to read the whole Bible from
beginning to end only to stumble when you got into Leviticus.
Those of us who joined in the Bishops Bible Challenge a couple years ago shared a common
joke as we collectively read through Leviticus and got to the excruciating detail of the worship
rituals that God commanded: how difficult it must have been to get people to sign up for the
altar guild with all the animal blood thrown against the altar during sacrificial rituals.
Leviticus is the third of the first five books of the Bible. Known as the Law of Moses, the Torah,
or the Pentateuch, these are the books of law and instruction that are foundational to our
Judeo-Christian faith tradition. The setting for Leviticus is the wilderness of Sinai after the
Exodus, after God rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Before entering the promised
land, God sought to prepare them for life as his holy people among the Canaanites.
As understood by the peoples of the Near East in those days, the pagan gods that governed
their lives were not interested in the morality of the people. Rather, they demanded, so the
people thought, only proper worship by the people. Because their pagan gods did not reveal
how they were to be appeased by proper worship, the pagan peoples developed elaborate and
sometimes depraved rituals in hopes that their gods would reward them with good health,
fertility, and productive crops.
Unlike the Egyptian and Canaanite gods, the God of Israel made known to his people what was
expected of them. In so doing, God revealed his very nature and character, his holiness. The
central theme of Leviticus can be summarized in Gods commandment to the Israelites: You
shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.
A large part of Leviticus, Chapters 17-26, in fact is termed the Holiness Code, a sort of
handbook of instructions prescribing practical holy living for Israel. These instructions taught
how they are to distinguish themselves in holiness from the other peoples in and around
Canaan. Holiness of Gods people means for them to be set apart for service to God.
But dont think the purpose of distinctive holy living is intended to be elitist, to exclude
outsiders, to be segregated from others in their daily lives. For Gods purpose in calling the
Israelites as his covenant people was not an end in itself, but a means by which they would
mediate the knowledge, presence, and forgiveness of God to all peoples everywhere. To carry
out this vocation successfully, Israel had to embody the very character of God, his holiness,
while being present in the world.
The many laws in Leviticus cover worship rituals and priestly functions, but also such practical
matters as: 1) what foods may and may not be eaten, 2) how to purify oneself after touching a
dead carcass, or 3) how to rid a home of disease if leprosy is discovered in its walls. Heres
2014A 20 Pentecost Holiness Code (Lev 19:1-2, 15-18)
Nancy S. Streufert
26 October 2014 Proper 25
2
another one: you shall not put on a garment made of two different materials.
We find ourselves chuckling at the strangeness of it all and asking why God would command
such things of Israel.
Yet, Leviticus has a very important place in the context of our biblical history and theology and,
in fact, our civil society as well. Though we no longer perform animal blood sacrifices or follow
what were surely cultural practices peculiar to another age, the spiritual truths and abiding
principles of how we are to live as Gods people remain valid.
They include things like impartiality in the administration of justice, provision for unemployed
persons, and scrupulous honesty in business dealings. Here are two examples of social laws
from Leviticus that have found their way into our ethical conduct or in our civil code:
When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or
not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them
for the poor and the alien: I am the LORD your God. (19:9)
When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who
resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself,
for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God. (19:33)
I want those of our secular age who dismiss the Old Testament as merely an anachronistic Iron
Age tribal document to know of its relevance to the moral ethics of modern life.
And I want Christians to know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ makes little sense without the
foundation of the Old Testament and the Torah in particular supporting it.
When the Pharisee lawyer in todays gospel asks Jesus which commandment of the law is
greatest, he answers: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your
soul, and with all your mind. Did Jesus come up with this on his own? NO!! Jesus, a devout
Jew, knew well the Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus is actually quoting Gods commandment from the
book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Torah!
Then Jesus says a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Here, Jesus is
quoting Leviticus!
Jesus next says something interesting whose interpretation has evoked great controversy and
discussion over the years. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
Some argue that Jesus has superseded the Old Testament with these simpler
commandments. But what he is really saying is that if you truly and completely follow these
commandments, if you take them to heart, you will be embodying the life of holiness that God
has commanded in the Torah. When Jesus urges his hearers in the Sermon on the Mount to Be
perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, he is speaking to the same demands of holiness.
2014A 20 Pentecost Holiness Code (Lev 19:1-2, 15-18)
Nancy S. Streufert
26 October 2014 Proper 25
3
Dont worry about the strangeness of these laws that prevent mixing of fibers in your clothing
or cooking meat in milk. It helps me to look at some of these seemingly arbitrary commands as
a means to instill obedience in a disobedient people who are childish in the Spirit. Remember
when your mother told you to do something that didnt make sense to you and when you asked
why, she said because I told you so? Same idea . . .
How is Leviticus and the Holiness Code relevant to us today?
We know the importance the holiness code played in the life of Israel, Gods original covenant
people. But the main point I want to leave you with is that Gods commands for holiness now
extend to us as the Church, as the body of Christ, because we are now included in Gods
covenant people.
Today, and for the last few weeks, we have seen in our gospel readings that Jesus authority is
being questioned and tested. Last week for example, Jesus confounded the Pharisees who tried
to entrap him in a no-win situation of either blasphemy against God or insurrection under
Roman law. How did he manage it? By exhorting them to give to Caesar what is due Caesar and
to give to God what is due God. What Jesus is saying is that we have dual-citizenship. We are
citizens of our earthly communities, but primarily we are citizens of Gods realm, and as citizens
of Gods realm, we are to exhibit holiness in our daily lives, in our earthly communities.
As members of the Church we are commanded to live in holiness because God is holy. Just as
the ancient Israelites were to mediate the knowledge, presence and forgiveness of God to all
peoples everywhere, so are we to do so as the Church. And to be successful in this vocation, we
too are to embody the very character of God, the holiness of God.
What would it look like if we, Christ Church, were to embody Gods holiness as an inspiration to
the secular society that is Humboldt County? What can it mean for us to mediate Gods holiness
to the people in our community through our ritual worship and through our daily living as Gods
holy people?