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Text: Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18

I have always said that Leviticus is the book that ends most people's ambition of reading through the Bible. The stories of Genesis almost read themselves, and Exodus reminds one of a great motion picture. Then toward the end of Exodus and into Leviticus, we bog down in detailed descriptions of the tabernacle and specific instructions regarding the offering of sacrifices. Neither of those things has been important to anyone for at least 2,000 years.

But last week, I discovered the best way to read Leviticus. While all of you were shivering under the coldest weather of the season, I was sitting by the beach in Ft. Myers, Florida in 80 degree, cloudless weather reading my Bible. Such a fine setting can make even the book of Leviticus interesting. And it helped to read it along with the notes from the Life Application Bible, given to me by one of our church members. If there is any application to life and the Christian life in particular, the Life Application Bible will find it.

Apparently, the people of Israel camped at the foot of Mt. Sinai for two years listening to all that God said, and later recording it in Exodus 19 – Numbers 10.

The Life Application Bible tells us the central tenet of Leviticus is found in our passage for today, Leviticus 19:2. "You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy."

That lofty statement created a natural problem for the Israelites, and it creates a problem for us. They were not holy, and we are not holy. They were more often sinful than holy, and the same is true for us.

"We were created to have a close relationship with God. When that relationship is broken, we are incomplete and need restoration" (LAB). If Leviticus deals with restoring our relationship to God, then it is surely a book for all of us.

Most of us are quite uncomfortable with the word "holy." We associate it with the phrase "holier than thou," which none of us want to be. We think holy is a word that might well be applied to someone like Mother Teresa or people who dedicated their whole life to a monastery. But it certainly doesn't seem to fit those of us who have to work and live in our secular society.

Leviticus provided a plan for the people of Israel to deal with their sin by giving detailed instructions for offering sacrifices. Those sacrifices were symbols of repentance and obedience. Their offerings had to be without defects or bruises.

Leviticus presents its message in four basic movements, which can serve as an outline of the book.

1) Specific instructions concerning sacrifices

2) Information about the purity laws

3) Instructions for living a holy life

4) Instructions concerning seasons and festivals

It is interesting that Leviticus ends in celebration encouraging God's people to remember what God had done, give thanks to God, and rededicate their lives to God's service. Such a pattern is good for our worship too.

But we want to focus on that third movement about how to live a holy life. As we read Leviticus, we are called to rededicate ourselves to holiness. So what does it mean to lead a holy life?

"Holy" means "separated" or "devoted." The Life Application Bible says, "God removed his people from Egypt; and now he was removing Egypt from his people."

Leviticus gives two basic ideas about holiness.

1) Holiness requires dealing with our sin.

According to Leviticus, the first step to holiness is taking our sin seriously. When people saw the sacrificial animals being killed, they were sensitized to the importance of their sin and guilt.

The animal sacrifices of the Old Testament accomplished two purposes:

1) The animal symbolically took the sinner's place and paid the penalty for sin.

2) The animal's death represented one life given so another life could be saved.

When a sacrifice was brought to the altar, the person laid a hand on the head of the animal to symbolize complete identification with the animal as a substitute. The sin was symbolically transferred to the animal, and thus the sin was taken away.

I can imagine that it would make quite an impression to see the animal killed before our eyes. Our sin led to the death of the animal, which was taking our place! The whole intent of the system was that the outward symbol and the inner repentance were to work together.

But as time went by, the people failed to make this outer and inner connection, and the whole meaning of the sacrificial system was missed. The people began to make the sacrifices without making the inner connection that was intended.

In the book of Amos, the prophet writes the words of God, "I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" (Amos 5:21-24).

In the New Testament we find the fulfillment of the failed sacrificial system in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus was, as John the Baptist said, "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

And today we fulfill the intent of Leviticus when we worship God by confessing our sin and accepting Jesus Christ as the only one who can redeem us from sin and help us approach God.

2) Holiness involves the way we treat other people.

There is a second way that Leviticus defines holiness. According to this second view, being holy is largely about how we treat other people.

The second part of our reading for today came from Leviticus 19:15-18:

"You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor: I am the Lord. You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord."

In this passage, holiness is defined by how we live and how we treat others.

I don't remember where I found the following story, but it is one that fits our text. One afternoon a lady at the shopping mall felt the need for a coffee break. She bought herself a little bag of cookies and put them in her shopping bag. She then got in line for coffee, found a place to sit at one of the crowded tables, and then taking the lid off her coffee and taking out a magazine she began to sip her coffee and read. Across the table from her a man sat reading a newspaper.

After a minute or two she reached out and took a cookie. As she did, the man seated across the table reached out and took one too. This surprised her, but she did not say anything.

A few moments later she took another cookie. Once again the man did so too. Now she was getting a bit upset, but still she did not say anything. After having a couple of sips of coffee she once again took another cookie. So did the man. She was really upset by this time – especially since now there was only one cookie left.

Apparently the man also realized that only one cookie was left. Before she could say anything he took it, broke it in half, offered half to her, and proceeded to eat the other half himself. Then he smiled at her and, putting his newspaper under his arm, got up and walked off.

Boy, was she steamed! Her coffee break ruined, and already she was thinking ahead of how she would tell about this offense to her family. She folded her magazine, opened her shopping bag, and - - oooops! There she discovered her own unopened bag of cookies!

Now here was a man who exemplified the definition of holy. He was a holy man because he treated other people as his neighbor. We have the opportunity to be holy every time we relate in loving and caring ways to others.

Jesus said the same thing. When Jesus was asked which was the greatest commandment, his first response was to go to the Shema, which was repeated several times every day by all Jewish people:

"Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might" (Deuteronomy 6:4).

But after that, he went to our text to describe the second most important commandment, "And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" (Matthew 27:39). Loving our neighbor as ourselves is the definition of holiness.

Our former General Minister and President, Richard Hamm, delivered the Oreon Scott Lectures at Bethany College in 1997. In his lecture entitled, "A Passion for Justice," he interpreted this holiness in terms of justice when he said:

"If any group on earth should have been sensitive to God's desire for justice among peoples, it was the Hebrews. They knew through their own history what it is like to be unfairly treated by others, to be used by others, to be the victims of prejudice and bigotry. And yet, we find throughout Hebrew history that when they got the upper hand over their neighbors, or one another, it was often necessary for them to be reminded that God wants justice for all peoples. They embraced the notion that they were chosen to be God's special people, but they frequently misinterpreted it as being chosen to rule the world rather than being chosen to be God's servants in the world. We Americans suffer from the same delusions of grandeur…"

The call to holiness is God's call to justice. Leviticus reminds us that it is our job to make our community, our society, our nation, and our world, a place where fairness and justice flourish. We are to participate with God in rectifying the imbalances we see all around us. We are to be actively involved in leveling up the playing field of life, especially for those who are at the bottom of the heap.

In fact, Matthew represents Jesus' only instructions about how to get to heaven with these words, "I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me" (Matthew 25:35).

Holiness is a word that affects how we deal with our sin. We, too, need to be sensitized to our sin and find the forgiveness that comes through Christ. Then holiness leads us outward in loving acts and in justice causes for the "least of these."

If we heed these words, we can be holy, even as God is holy.