Dear friends, greetings to you in the name of the Lord,
According to the old story, The teacher asked his students “How do you know when the darkness is ending and the day has begun?”
One bold student proclaimed, “When you can look at an animal at a distance and know if it is a dog or a sheep” to which the teacher replied, “No.”
A second student, a little less assured, offered, “When you can look at a tree at a distance and know whether it is a fig tree or and olive tree?” Again the answer was rejected. So the students asked, “How do you know when the darkness is ending and the day has begun?”
"When you can look in the face of another and see only the face of a brother or a sister, then the darkness has ended and the day has begun.” Answered the teacher.
Our vision of being holy is really about how we see the world and interact with it.
Mark 1: 14-15 reads, “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming, “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel.”
“The Kingdom of heaven has come near,” that is to say that with the coming of Christ the Kingdom of Heaven was established. And with it, came the expectation that the followers of Jesus would live as members of the kingdom. But what does that look like?
Being holy, that is, ‘set apart for God’s purpose’, is a daunting task, and honestly can feel a little over-whelming. We know we are supposed to live as the people of God and followers of Jesus Christ, but there is so much to do; and we have trouble knowing where to start… I think we start by falling back on the heart of Jesus’ ministry, Love.
The Gospel of Mark reads this way in chapter 12, “One of the scribes came near and … he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:28-31 NRSV)
This is crucial to our understanding of the Christian Life because it leaves no room for picking and choosing, to love God with all that is in our being leaves very little room for anything else. And yet in these words Jesus is calling us to a way of life toward others, because one cannot love God without loving others.
Later, according to John 13, Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”(John 13:34-35 NIV) Be mindful, this is a commandment from Jesus, not a suggestion, not a guideline, we have no choice in the matter, either obey Jesus or reject him.
The command to love would be re-iterated by Jesus’ Disciples down through the ages… In the days near the end of his life, the community would gather for worship, and always they would ask the Apostle John for a teaching. To this request, John always gave the same answer, “Little Children Love one another.”
Frustrated by this, a young man assigned to carry the aged Apostle home finally got up the nerve to ask, “you were there with our Lord, you walked with him, saw his miraculous power, brother John, when we ask for a teaching, why do you only say “little children, love one another?”
John turned to him and said, “Because if you could do just that, it would be enough.”
You see, to love one another is an attitude more than a simple action, a way of life more than a set of rules. The day-to-day tasks of our lives and the decisions we make must all come back to these words and be checked against these words.
To love as God loved us in Jesus Christ is more than just a vision or a way to look at each other… It is a challenge and a calling to, as one put it. ..“To boldly and bravely become blessings to each other.”
The greatest blessing in our lives is Jesus Christ, so we must then seek to be a blessing to others, just as he was a Blessing to us. To love one another and see each other not as the world sees us, as only flawed and broken human creatures; but rather as Christ sees us, as beloved children of God.
To “Be Holy” is to live as a Christ-like ones who treat one another with the reverence and love with which we would treat Christ, and he us. To live as those who see each other only as sisters and brothers. Showing the world that among us, the darkness is ending and a new day has begun, for us and all the world in the coming of Jesus Christ. To live as those who are always citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, loving God and blessing one another as we remember Jesus’ promise that wherever we are gathered together in his name, the Messiah is among us.
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