holiness and perfection (2.20.11)

Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18
1The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 2Speak 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.
9When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the LORD your God.

11You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another. 12And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the LORD.
13You shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning. 14You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the LORD.

15You 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. 16You 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.

17You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. 18You 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.

Matthew 5:38-48
38“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; 40and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; 41and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. 42Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

43“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. 46For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
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Holiness and perfection; those are two pretty intimidating words, but they are our calling in scripture today. Moses declares God’s calling to the people to, “Be holy, as I, the LORD your God, am holy.” Jesus teaches the crowd, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Let’s dig into these passages and see what God’s calling to holiness and perfection means for us today.

Holiness is a word we don’t use very much anymore, except when we talk about holidays, which are really holy days. Sometimes we think about holiness in negative terms, like when we say someone has a “holier than thou” attitude.

So what does this passage from Leviticus have to say about holiness? It doesn’t talk much about specifically “religious” issues. You might have noticed that we skip a few verses in the middle of this passage. The verses we skip do touch on more traditionally religious law. To be holy we observe the Sabbath as God commanded. We also honor our parents and make our offerings in the right way.

But the focus of this passage is how we live our everyday lives. Holiness is about how we live everyday, not just on Sundays. That’s easy to say, but what does it actually mean? In Leviticus it means making some strange choices like not gathering all the grapes in our vineyard and not harvesting the grain all the way to the edge of the field.

That’s a strange idea because it means giving up some of what we’ve paid and worked to plant. But that unharvested crop provided security for the most vulnerable members of society. The story of Ruth shows a practical example of how gathering the left-behind grain at harvest allowed two women who were alone in the world to survive.

What does it mean to leave the edges unharvested today? Maybe it means rejoicing instead of being resentful of the part of our taxes that go to support those in need. In some ways that is the edge of our field because it is part of our work for which we don’t reap the benefit.

Leaving the edges unharvested might also mean buying fairly traded products even when it costs more. Maybe it means investing in companies that build up peace and justice rather than those that “profit by our neighbor’s blood.” Maybe it means shopping for others too when we go to the store. Maybe it means donating to charity and justice. What do you think it means for you today?