“I am continually struck by the idea that our understanding of holiness has become very worldly….” – Jen Carney
I love that line from Jen’s post about being a holiness church. I find the irony compelling; what was sacred and separated out has become profane and mixed in with everything else. How are we to understand holiness when our perception of holiness has been warped by the world? This ‘worldly holiness’ is an emphasis on purity, cleanliness, and sterilization against the dirty, tarnished, tainted parts of life. The more holy we become, the more we are required to remove ourselves from everyday life in our community. If we do not retreat from it, we will be risking our holiness. We could accidentally rub up against unholy things, activities or people and cause our fall from grace.
But isn’t this completely antithetical to the call of God?
God has called us to be holy. We are to live a life separated out for the purposes of God, living in ways drastically different than the world around us. But that call does not include the complete retreat from the world, or any retreat for that matter. For while God calls us out (to be holy) of the world, he turns around and sends us right back into the world. We cannot be true to the calling of God in our lives, if we allow ourselves to be called out, but refuse to go back.
If we persist in this “worldly” understanding of holiness, we exhibit an incredible lack of faith and trust in the God we are trying to serve. What does it say about God, if we are afraid that living in and amongst the world will corrupt us? What contradictions are we proliferating when we talk about a God who has promised to never leave nor forsake us, promised to send us the Holy Spirit to empower us, and even revealed his ultimate victory to us, and then behave in utter terror at the thought of being around the profane? Has not God not called us out for the specific purpose of sending us back in, so that we might be light in the darkness?
This is why I find Jen’s blending of holiness and perfect love so important. If we follow her definition of perfection, past the static toward the dynamic, perfect love becomes the way we maintain our called-out status and our mission to the world. Jen describes holiness as, “our call to embody and enact love for God and others.” Perfect love is a complete love of God and others that reflects the love God has for us. This love redefines our perceptions and orientations. It differentiates us from the world that loves only the loveable, as a people who love everyone; and emboldens us to take that love beyond the pretty places into the dark, gritty places where real hurt and strife exist. Holiness is not receiving clean, new shoes, and trying to walk through life without getting them dirty; holiness is receiving new shoes covered in NeverWet, allowing us to enter the muddy streets unafraid, able to live out the love we’ve been shown.