Leviticus 19:1-2,15-18 Psalm 1 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 Matthew 22:34-46

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:  

Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy…”

In last week’s Gospel lesson, we were reminded that we are created in the image of God, and, thus, are intended to be reflections of God.  This week’s lessons exhort us, yet again, as creations of God to be reflections of God’s holiness; our interactions with one another are to be holy; our everyday lives are to be lived in holiness.  We shall be holy because the LORD our God is holy.

These words come from the book of Leviticus.  There are more than six-hundred laws, some very nick-picky and specific, that were set down by the Israelites in the book of Leviticus.  Too many of these very specific laws have been cherry-picked to be used unjustly as weapons by self-seeking religious leaders over the centuries.  Leviticus gets a bad reputation and is seldom included in our lectionary.

Yet, the words we read today: “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy…” are considered the theological foundation – the basic reasoning on which and the Law of God is founded.  You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.  “The holiness of God demands to be reflected in human beings.”  [Professor Christopher Hays, Feasting on the Word, Year A, Volume 4, p. 195]

Our lesson from Leviticus comes from the section entitled the “Holiness Code” thought to have been recorded here by the priestly scribes of the Jerusalem Temple.  The Levitical chapters within the Holiness Code contain God’s laws – God’s guidance toward taking the holiness experience of our worship of God, which in this case generates from the Temple in Jerusalem, and expanding this holiness experience into our everyday lives.  We come together for worship and praise so that we can carry the holiness of this experience into the world; this is the emphasis of God’s laws expressed in the Holiness Code.

From today’s Gospel lesson, it is clear that by the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry, the gift of God’s Law had become convoluted by some misdirected leaders into a vehicle for exerting power and meting out punishment, rather than guiding God’s chosen people in their relationships with one another – in living out their love for one another.  Of course, sadly, the convolution continues in our times.

It is this convolution that Jesus is confronting in his testy exchanges with the Pharisees in the Temple.  If you have been following our Gospel lessons over the past weeks, you note that these exchanges are increasingly tense as the wise Pharisees grow more and more desperate in their intentional efforts to discredit or, hopefully, incriminate Jesus with his answers to their crafty questions.  In this exchange, Jesus shows them that the foundation of their Jewish faith lives in him as well by quoting the second portion of the Shema – the daily prayer of all faithful Jews – “love the Lord you God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all you mind.” This commandment, Jesus says, is the greatest commandment.  But, then, Jesus adds the command to love you neighbor as the second commandment.  This second commandment is not equal, but not separate, and Jesus makes us all aware that both are essential and that one command cannot be followed faithfully without the other.

Just exactly how one is to love God and love one another is left to the lifelong discernment of those in Jesus’ audience, including us, as Jesus moves on to another basic essential.  Becoming, now, the questioner of the Pharisees, Jesus challenges them to explore their understanding of the term “LORD.”  “What do you think of the Messiah?  Whose son is he?”  Yes, the Messiah is identified as the Son of David, but, most importantly, Jesus establishes that the Messiah is the Son of God; and the Messiah is the LORD.  Here, the conversation ends.  We are told that no one dared ask him any more questions.

Coming back to the words that the LORD spoke to Moses: I am the LORD; you shall be holy because I your God am holy.  Again, the words repeat God’s law to the people, “I am the LORD,” this time followed by the specific command.  “You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin.”

Of all the millions of man-made laws throughout the world, our nation, our state, and local municipalities, there is not one single earthly law that can control the hatred in our hearts.  We can be fined, silenced, and ostracized for hate speech; we can be imprisoned for hateful actions, but there is no human law that has the power to eliminate hate from our hearts.  Only God’s law speaks to the hateful thoughts that become words that become actions that become our character.  Only in seeking the holiness of God can we snuff out the fertile seeds of hate that too easily take root and sprout within the human heart.

As we live into the love of God, making that love of God the foundation of our everyday lives, we begin, more and more, to understand what it is to live into loving our neighbor.

“I am the LORD; you shall be holy because I your God am holy.”  To repeat Professor Hays’ quote, “The holiness of God demands to be reflected in human beings.”  I cannot not tell you exactly how we are to live up to that demand, except to emphasize that we must first understand that we are loved by God.  But, I leave you with these words of the psalmist speaking of those who delight in the law of the LORD:

They are like trees

            planted by streams of water,

which yield their fruit in its season,

            and their leaves do not wither.

In all that they do, they prosper. 

…for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,

            but the way of the wicked will perish.   [Psalm 1:3,6]

“I am the LORD; you shall be holy because I your God am holy.”