(I took this picture of the golden menorah in in 2023 in Jerusalem's old city Jewish Quarter, overlooking the Temple Mount. It was crafted to be used in the new Holy Temple, after years of research).  

Whatever Happened to Standing for Holiness?

I saw this sincere question on my social media feed. What a great question, I thought! I was saddened by the comments. Most of them railed against the so-called ‘seeker friendly’ churches, as if being friendly to those who sin differently than you do is incompatible with holiness? When did holiness become a fortress against fellow humans? Well, just ask Isaiah, he battled that mindset a time or two, didn’t he?

Where ever you have humans you have those of us who are so desperate to be accepted by whoever we think holds the ticket to safety and belonging that we’ll trounce anyone who threatens our safe little worlds we create, including those messy sinners on the wrong side of our particular religious sensibilities.

You know the saying, "When you point one finger, there are three fingers pointing back to you"? Or the one Yeshua has, "Don't focus on the speck in your brother's eye while ignoring the log in your own eye"? Ok, so, I’ll look in the mirror and say, ‘yes, I’m talking to you, Gail.’

You are invited to share my mirror.

Somewhere along the way standing for holiness became little more than virtue signaling, a way to show how much better I am than you because I sin differently than you do. My version of God’s truth became God’s truth, period, and I stood my ground and would not budge, in the name of standing for truth, for holiness. Even if it pushed people away. Even if my lifeline to God grew weaker in the pushing. How would I even perceive the distance between God and I, so busy was I standing my ground for set apartness. I became so set apart, I set myself apart from God, even. He’s gentle but powerful to bring me back.

Isaiah told the ancient people ‘The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.” This sounds a lot like taking God’s wisdom and fossilizing it into a hard shape with no room for nuance. When you think all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Being set apart makes me feel special, but to be set apart I need to be on the other side from something. Or in this case from someone(s). Look how much better I am than you because I do or don’t do this thing or that. Look at how much worse you are than me because you do or don’t do what I am standing for. I’m elite and this makes me think I have value. Value to whom? Those who are just like me.

So, now, my stand for eliteness replaces holiness (whatever holiness even means) and this makes me better than you, right? Look at all the things I am doing for God (never mind that I’ve ceased doing things WITH God so long that I am disconnected from my Source of wisdom therefore confusing eliteness with godliness.)

My current favorite way to explain holiness is ‘set apart for a special purpose’. Be careful what that special purpose is! Having grown up in the south, I am acquainted with the pretty dishes, you may know those, they’re only brought out for a specific purpose (often to impress guests with my exquisite taste). Humm, come to think of it, maybe this is what religious elites think holiness is – actions pulled out like fine china to impress those in the club and to judge and shun the outsiders.

Holiness means set apart for a special purpose. It seems to me I need to explore what the special purpose of godliness is, right? When did I forget WHY we are to be set apart- to help the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized. Isaiah 58. Do I even know who these are, today and in my own circle of influence? Who is my neighbor?

The backlash of this fine china kind of holiness is that God’s beloved, the very ones who need Him in their lives, are understandably avoiding places where those of us who ‘stand for holiness’ without the foundation of love, (having forgotten that all people are connected and equally loved by our Creator) congregate.

Of course, the solution isn’t to water down the good news, as is so often the accusation levied against those who call for more love, it’s to learn what the good news actually means to God and then do acts of righteousness and justice in keeping with the good news. While you and I figure this out together, let’s not push Him out while we’re pushing out the very ones we’ve been set apart to help.

‘Be holy for I am holy’ is heavily scented with compassion, faithfulness, patience, building bridges from heaven to earth. And the only way you or I will even catch wind of this fragrance is by staying very close to the Source. And that will mean we’re standing close to the outsiders. And that’s how we’re standing up for holiness.

Isaiah 58:

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness^[a] will go before you,
    and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
    you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
    with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
    and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
    and your night will become like the noonday.
¹¹ The Lord will guide you always;
    he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
    and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
    like a spring whose waters never fail.
¹² Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
    and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
    Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.