Make yourselves holy

Leviticus 11:44 Make yourselves holy for I am holy.

This seems such a good subject for Lent: what does it mean to be holy? The holiness code, found in Leviticus, is a catalog of all the things that are holy and unholy, from seafood and certain animals to insects to skin diseases and sexual behaviors. The implication is that some things, some actions, have an inherent holiness to them. But that doesn't seem to apply to people, because whether they are holy or profane depends, in Leviticus, on what they do. So there is also a list of all the things that people are to do to be holy, including washing and cleaning themselves, anointing with oil and making all kinds of sacrifices. Most of these are things we no longer observe.

God calls us to be holy, and these Old Testament codes are the path of the Law, one way to becoming holy. Holy means wholeness and also often refers to being set apart. God set apart the children of Israel from the other nations to be a holy people unto God, God's chosen; all the codes that are listed are some of the ways that the early Israelites kept themselves apart from the peoples around them. God wants us all to be set apart for God in some way. We do that with our rituals and traditions, like those illustrated here. Reading scripture, setting aside this time to write about it, these are acts of setting apart. Setting apart time in my day, days in my week, seasons in my year to especially attend to the things of God are also acts which support holiness; Sabbath time is one such practice, as are the disciplines of the season of Lent. These things become holy because we as a community set them apart, and because I create the space for them in my life, space when I am more open to God's presence and movement in my life, when I can listen without distraction to God's call. When that is planted in me, when it becomes part of my daily rhythms, I think it does become infectious like some of the skin diseases described by the Priestly writer here. It infects those I meet, and infects the world in ways I don't even know about, but ultimately that is the reason for holiness: to set us apart so that we might draw others to God.

Prayer: Dear God, I try to be faithful with my time and my intentions. Let me not be concerned with the outcomes--that is Your work. Let me be faithful and let that be enough. Amen.