I Peter 1:13-25

&nb= sp;

Holiness means living the life Christ gives us.<= o:p>

A sermon preached by

Rev. William O (Bud) R= eeves

First United Methodist Church

Hot= Springs, Arkansas

May 4, 2008=

I have some great news for you today. Recent s= tudies have shown that chocolate is good for you!= I always knew it seemed that way, but now it is a scientifically pro= ven fact! Chocolate contains some= very helpful substances, like copper, a mineral that promotes collagen growth to give your skin a youthful appearance. Chocolate contains several antioxidants, chemicals which battle heart disease and cancer.

Chocolate stimulates t= he body’s production of endorphins, the pleasure chemical of the brain, which you can also get through vigorous exercise. Chocolate, of course, is more fun.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Chocolate also increases the level= s of serotonin, which is your body’s natural antidepressant. See, now there’s a scientifi= c reason to eat chocolate when you’re feeling depressed! And if you’re lactose intole= rant, take heart: milk is more digestible when it is mixed with chocolate.= = [1]

Chocolate is good for = you, except for a couple of things—extremely high content of fat and sugar, which add calories and clog up your arteries. Except for that… So what is it: good or bad? Like most things, it’s a mix= ture, and you have to make the decision.

I think many people lo= ok at holiness as sort of a mixed bag, like chocolate. Yes, it would be sweet to be consi= dered holy, but do we want to do what it takes to get there? Holiness seems like such a great concept, but it can get so overdone. There’s a fine line between holiness and self-righteousness. You and I have both known people t= hat were “so heavenly-minded they were no earthly good.” Today let’s think about three aspects of holiness.

First of all, we are called to be holy. God expects us to be holy people.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> God is holy: pure righteousness, n= o sin or evil whatsoever. God is altogether good all the time. And from the earliest relationships of God with his people, God’s children have been called to holiness. I Peter quotes the Book of Leviticus when it says, “As he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduc= t; for it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’”= = [2] The holiness of God’s p= eople means that we are set apart. = We are special. We are supposed to be different. The King James Ver= sion uses the old word “peculiar”; we are a “peculiar people.”

That is the problem, isn’t it? The world vie= ws holiness as peculiar, in the sense of strange, odd, or weird. It is not easy to live as God̵= 7;s person in an ungodly environment.

Jim Caviezel is a Hollywood actor who had his first leading role in t= he film The Count of Monte Cristo. He shocked the moviemaking wor= ld during the filming of that movie when he insisted that his co-star, Jennifer Lopez, be covered up during a steamy romantic scene in the movie. Out of love and respect for his wi= fe, he insisted that J-Lo do the scene with her top on—no nudity. Indeed, they shot it that way.

In an interview with CCM magazine, Jim said, “I don’t expect anyone else would agree with my views, but I wouldn̵= 7;t be where I am today, I wouldn’t have had the courage to do what IR= 17;m now doing, if I hadn’t had the direction of something greater than me…. If I didn’t = have faith in God and my religion, I would have gone the wrong way, because there are too many temptations out there. It’s prayer that allows me to have peace in my life. Temptation isn’t going to ma= ke you happy.” Then this rare Christian movie star said, “When you think you know it all, you don’t. You should never= be at a point where you do. You hav= e to strive to become more holy. I believe God has ultimately called me to inspire others to do the same.̶= 1;= = [3]

A couple of years late= r, Jim Caviezel starred as Jesus Christ in The Passion of the Christ, inspiring millions with his portrayal of the suffering of Jesus.

John Wesley, our Metho= dist founder, insisted that holiness was a mark of a Methodist. Methodism was originally a holiness movement. Wesley had three si= mple rules that he gave to the original Methodists to help them be holy:

1. Do no harm. Stay away from evil thoughts, words, and activities. Keep away from sin and situations of temptation.

2. Do good. Use your time, energ= y, and resources to do positive things. Help people. Build up = your church and community. Save the planet.

3. Stay in love with God. W= esley actually said, “Attend upon the ordinances of God.” What he meant by that was to use t= he means of grace—worship, Scripture, sacraments, prayer, service, and fellowship—to maintain and grow a strong personal relationship with God. Like any relationship, w= e have to practice the presence of God, spending time with the One we love.

This is how God wants = us to live as holy people. If it we= re all up to us, this would be a burden, a chore.= We cannot be holy by ourselves.&nbs= p; But we are given the gift of holiness through Jesus. T= his is amazing grace! Holiness is a = gift God gives to us when we respond to him in faith. Holiness is something we receive i= n the great transaction of salvation. Jesus is the Son of God, and he is holy like the Father. We are sinners who have fallen sho= rt of the glory of God. When we acc= ept the grace of Christ and commit our hearts to him, there is a wonderful tran= sfer that takes place. Jesus takes= our sin upon himself; he did this on the cross for the whole world. At the same time, the holiness of = Christ is transferred into us, into the believer.= It is added into our account, so to speak. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, &= #8220;For our sake he made him to be sin who= knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”= = = [4]

You might look at it l= ike in this diagram:

Christ’s righteousness = &nb= sp; = O= ur sin

†

Sin of the world on Christ &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; Our righteousness

Holiness is based on o= ur relationship with Christ. “Yo= u know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, = not with perishable things like silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ…Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him up f= rom the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.= 221;= = [5] That’s good news! We can be holy, not because weR= 17;re good, but because he is. On t= he cross Jesus gave everything to rescue us from sin, from death, from hell; holiness is our response.

A sign of our response= is Holy Communion. It is a gift—= ;the bread and wine are given to us as a sign of the sacrifice of Christ and his continuing presence with us. = We partake of the communion as a sign of our acceptance of his grace. It’s not because we are alre= ady good or holy or worthy; it’s that we want to be a part of what God di= d in Christ.

In his Letters to a= Young Evangelical, Tony Campolo shares a story from his youth about taking Communion:

Sitting w= ith my parents at a Communion service when I was very young, perhaps six or seven years old, I became aware of a young woman in the pew in front of us who was sobbing and shaking. The minister had just finished reading the passage of Scripture written by Paul that says, "Whosoever shall eat the bread and drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood= of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 11:27). As the Communion plate with its small pieces of bread was passed to the crying woman before me, she waved it away= and then lowered her head in despair. It was then that my Sicilian father leaned over her shoulder and, in his broken English, said sternly, "Take it, girl! It was meant for you. Do you hear me?"

She raise= d her head and nodded—and then she took the bread and ate it. I knew that at that moment some kind of heavy burden was lifted from her heart and mind. S= ince then, I have always known that a church that could offer Communion to hurti= ng people was a special gift from God.[6]

The grace of God, symb= olized in Communion, is a gift that empowers us to live our life in holiness. It’s all about living the life God wants us to live. Once we have received t= he holiness of God as a gift of the grace of Jesus Christ, then holiness is an ongoing process. It is a cont= inual work of the Holy Spirit, a partnership between us and God.

If there is one characteristic that identifies this ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, if the= re is one quality of the holy life, it is pure, spiritual love. Our Scripture says, “Now that you have purified your souls = by your obedience to the truth, so that you have a genuine mutual love, love o= ne another deeply from the heart.”&= nbsp; This is the evidence that “You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.”[7] Holiness shows in the way that we = love one another. Godly love flows= from holiness; it’s genuine, pure, unselfish, and unconditional. It’s peculiar, in the King J= ames sense.

On October 2, 2006, Ch= arles Carl Roberts IV walked into an Amish schoolhouse near Nickel Mines, PA, dismissed all but ten young girls, and proceeded to shoot them all before fatally shooting himself. Five of the= girls died, five survived. The most amazing thing about that horrible tragedy was the response of the Amish community. They grieved their= loss, buried their dead, and then reached out in love to the widow and children of the man who had killed their daughters.&nb= sp; The Amish people offered their forgiveness and prayers and took up an offering to help with the family’s expenses. Rod Dreher of The Dallas Morning News wrote, “Sometimes faith helps ordinary men and women do the humanly impossible: to forgive, to love, to h= eal and to redeem. It makes no sense. [Yet] it is the most s= ensible thing in the world. The Amish= have turned this occasion of spectacular evil into a bright witness to hope.R= 21;= = [8]

It’s the strange= st thing in the world, but it’s the way God wants us to live in the worl= d: holiness expressed in love. B= ut in fact, this is the most effective and productive life you can live day by day. Holiness is simple and f= ocused living. Yet it is not sparse = or dry living at all; it is the abundant life Jesus was talking about. Think about it. Things get complicated when we los= e our focus on holy living. We try = to be a citizen of the world and play the games of wealth and power and status. We give our love based on how this= love will ultimately meet our own needs. We forget the eternal consequences of our daily life. In my life, almost every downheart= ed, destructive, depressing time I have ever experienced can be traced to losin= g my focus on holiness. And every = really productive and effective period in my life has been tied to my relationship with Jesus Christ, the source of whatever holiness and goodness is in me. The more holy and God-focused we c= an become, the more we will be what God created us to be, the more we will be = his masterpiece of life.

From 1508 to 1512, the artist Michelangelo created one of the greatest masterpieces of all time on= the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. It is an incredible fresco depicti= ng the Creation, Fall, and Flood stories out of Genesis. But almost immediately, the great artwork began to fade. Covere= d with dust and grime and air pollutants, the true beauty of the magnificent paint= ing was hidden. One twentieth-cen= tury artist said it was as if the Sistine Chapel ceiling were being viewed throu= gh smoked glass.

In 1981, a scaffold was erected and two Italian artists began to use a specially developed solution= to clean the Sistine Chapel fresco. Working meticulously, it took them twice as long to clean the painti= ng as it took Michelangelo to paint it. Finally on December 31, 1989, the new Sistine Chapel ceiling was unveiled, and people discovered a Michelangelo they had never known existed= , a master of bright colors and patterns and texture that had been hidden under centuries of grime. For the f= irst time in over 400 years, they saw the masterpiece the way it was intended to= be, in all its color and beauty and glory.[9]

Let me tell you, frien= ds: there is a masterpiece hidden within each one of you. God made it, and the grime of sin = has obscured it, but it is still there. Accept the gift of holiness, and work in partnership with the Eterna= l Artist, and you will come clean. Your= true colors will shine. You will b= ecome what you were created to be, the awesome masterpiece of a holy God! Amen!