A holy nation . . .
1 Peter 2:9; 1 Peter 1:13-21

During the month of June we're focussing in our services on who we are as the church of Jesus Christ. We've been using 1 Peter 2:9 as our outline:

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to god that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

What does it mean to be a holy nation? What does it mean to be holy?

Imagine for a minute a pure, white cloth -- the sort of cloth we use during communion. It is about as close as we come to a sacred object in our church. Why do we use such a cloth for communion? Why don't we use just a common dishrag? Because it's clean, its spotless -- it conveys a sense of purity.

And I would guess that when most of us think about holiness this is the kind of thing we're thinking of. Purity, spotlessness, sinlessness. To be holy is to be free of moral blemish -- free of sin. We sing "Purify my heart, cleanse me from within and make me holy ." We treat holiness and purity as synonyms.

And there's good reason. Purity is part of God's holy character. When we call God holy we mean that he is free from any of the sin or weakness or limitations of created beings. We picture God as light: "God is light and in him there is no darkness at all." We picture him as a consuming, purifying fire. We know that he cannot abide sin, and that only those who are pure -- completely pure -- can come into his presence.

So when scripture tells me to be holy because God is holy, I think, "Gosh, that must mean I need to become like this communion cloth -- pure, spotless, morally perfect."

And as soon as I start to think this way, I run into a big problem: I'm not like that. I know very well that I am not pure. And no offense, but I know very well that you are not pure. And collectively WE are not pure. I have been pastor long enough to know these things. Our hearts are more often like one of the rags under our kitchen sink than they are like this communion cloth.

So I look around at our congregation, and I have to say, if holiness is the same as purity, then Peter is certainly NOT talking to us. We may be chosen people, and we may be priests, but pure like this cloth we most surely are not. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

Yet -- Peter says unequivocally, "You ARE at holy nation." And the New Testament is full of this kind of thing. Over and over again, scripture addresses the Christians as SAINTS -- which translates literally to holy people. Were the early Christians more pure than we are? Not by a long shot. Think of the Corinthian church. They were anything but saintly -- they were fighting with each other, greedy, sexually immoral. Yet Paul addresses them as Saints -- holy ones.

So if impure, sinful people like us -- or like the early Christians -- can be called holy, what does it mean to be holy?

Let's take a brief excursion back to the Old Testament. Turn with me to Exodus 3. (p. ____ ) This is the famous chapter where the Prince of Egypt, AKA Moses, comues upon a bush that is on fire. And although the bush is burning, it does not burn up.

This is Moses 1st encounter with God. And what's the first thing God says to him? "Take off your sandals. Where you are standing is HOLY ground." This is only the second time the word holy is used in the Bible and what is it used for? Not God, not Moses. Ground. What could possibly be holy about a piece of ground?

And if we proceed from there and look at everything that is called holy through the Old Testament we find similar surprises. The word holy is applied to a huge variety of things:

Particular days can be holy
clothes can be holy
animals can be holy
dead animals can be holy
bread can be holy
fruit can be holy
oil can be holy
so can perfume.
Dishes can be holy.
Mountains can be holy
Even musical instruments can be holy.


What's going on? Basically, anything that God defines as holy is holy. To be holy simply means to be set apart for God's purposes. When God takes an ordinary, common thing -- a dish or a musical instrument or a people -- and says, "Mine! This belongs to me!" -- then that dish or instrument or people becomes holy. It is set apart.

Now this need not seem foreign to us. We can all relate to this meaning of holiness at a very ordinary human level.

When we were children, most of us learned what a holy place was. Remember when you ran innocently into the living room with muddy shoes. Or spilled soda on the couch? You learned very quickly that there are holy places and ordinary places. The priest or priestess of the shrine made sure that you knew.

We also learned about sacred garments. We learned that you never, never make mud pies in those clothes -- you know better. You do not wipe chocolate covered hands on that shirt. Some of us didn't learn the lesson very well, but we understand the concept. So I will not go home and work on my car in these clothes. They are not meant for that.

Our lives are filled with things that we treat as holy. Whenever someone moves -- which is alot in this church -- we learn what is holy in their house. The Reeds moved yesterday, and they clearly marked their holy things. They didn't use the word holy -- they used euphemisms like fragile and handle with care. But none of those of us moving those things were fooled. We knew they were holy.

We have a shelf of very holy objects in our living room -- a collection of china teacups. They are set apart from the rest of our dishes, given a special place. They are not for ordinary, common use. they are set apart. And you can tell whether your visit is a sacred occasion by whether the tea cups come down.

What makes such things holy to us? Is it their purity? Is the living room set apart because it is the cleanest room in the house. Are my Sunday clothes special because they are cleaner than jeans and a T-Shirt? Is a china T-cup set apart because it is cleaner than other tea cups?

No. Purity doesn't make these things holy. It's the other way around. Because they are holy we protect their purity. We keep them clean, we keep them separate from other things because they have a special purpose. But the holiness -- the set apartness -- comes first.

It's the same with us. We are not called saints because of our purity. It is not because we are particularly good that Peter calls us a holy nation. "You are a holy nation," he says, because why? -- the answer is in the next phrase -- because you are "A people belonging to God." God put his hand on us and and said, "mine!" We belong to him, he has set us apart for special purposes, and it is this and this alone that makes us holy.

Purity doesn't make us holy. Holiness comes first. But Holiness motivates purity. How?

Let me illustrate. Imagine two containers. First a crystal goblet. We use one each month when we celebrate communion. We don't have very many objects at Stony Brook that are set apart for special use. Again this is about the closest we can come to a holy object for our church. Then imagine a common can of Coke. A common object and a holy object. What will happen if I pour the coke into the holy container?

No smoke. No fire from heaven. But I am certain that some of you would be upset. Some of you would be appalled. It is a bit shocking, especially for the liturgically minded, that I would use a communion goblet for a common purpose. That is not what it was meant for. It was meant for a special purpose -- it was set aside. It is not meant for common use. It is not meant to hold junk food. Because it is set apart for special use, we are careful to keep it pure. And we are upset when it is defiled.

Each of us is a holy container, set aside for God's use. Scripture tells us we are temples in which God's Spirit lives. Should we not be shocked when our minds are filled with common things? It should be shocking when I use my tongue, which was set aside for the praise and worship of God, for gossip or slander or angry words. It should be appalling when I use my body, the temple of the holy spirit, for sin.

Why is it appalling? Precisely because the container is holy and continues to be holy even when defiled. When I poured coke into the communion Goblet, the communion Goblet does not cease to be set apart. We will not throw it away and get a new one. And if my children took our a china tea cups out to the garden and used them to dig in the dirt I would not say, "well, too bad. They're ordinary now. I guess you can have them." No. I would be upset because they don't belong out there -- and I would want to purify them and get them back in their proper place. There is a dissonance between holiness and impurity that demands to be rectified.

In the same way, when I plunge myself into the filth of sin, it does not take away my holiness before God. I am still set apart. I cannot make myself more or less holy before God. That's the shame of it. That's the scandal of it. The temple did not cease to be the temple if it was defiled -- but it was a scandal, and it demanded purification. The same is true for us. When we are defiled, we do not lose our holiness -- but because we ARE holy we will desire purification. We must come over and over again to the cross -- to confess our sins and to be reminded that they are paid for.

You ARE a holy nation -- therefore be pure. Holiness motivates purity.

One of the vivid images that scripture uses for holiness is white robes. I'd like you to imagine that as you leave here you are wearing a white robe. Only you and God can see it. And that robe is the mark of your holiness. Now when you are wearing something white, you have to be particularly careful. Stains show up so clearly. So you will want to make sure that your robes of holiness stay white. You want to keep it pure.

And when you get a stain -- which will happen often -- don't throw away the robe. Come to Jesus for cleansing.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:5-7)