Wholeness

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. -Leviticus 19:1-2

The reading this Sunday from the book of Leviticus is concerned with holiness. In fact, our reading is included is a section of the book of Leviticus often referred to as “the holiness code.” The first verse of chapter 19, above, says it right out: you shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

Most of Leviticus contains instruction for priests, but the holiness code was meant to describe practices for all faithful people. Its was meant as a guide to help people pattern their lives on God’s template, rather than their own. Jesus quotes verse 18:18 in our gospel this Sunday, citing it as one of the most important of all the commandments: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

When I was a child, it seemed like Sunday School was there to teach me how to be a good neighbor - a nice person. We would not have talked about striving to be more holy - that’s just not the language we used. But nice was not enough of a word, and I’ve come to think of being ‘nice’ as really thin gruel as a spiritual goal. Nice is taught, especially to girls, as synonymous with being polite. There’s nothing wrong with being polite, but sometimes girls are trained to be ‘nice’ no matter what is happening around them - or to them. It can kind of erase them from the the world. It can restrict full, whole living, because there are many places in life a ‘nice’ person would not want to be, and often these are very important places to go.

Being ‘nice’ can lead to avoiding standing up for yourself or others, avoiding conflict that really needs to be brought out into the open and processed, or simply not engaging with difficult but important issues that you or others are called to face. ‘Nice’ won’t speak about religion, politics or money, even though those three things are crucially important topics we need to be open and honest about.

I think it is powerful that Leviticus asks us to strive toward something much more substantial than nice. To me, becoming holy is becoming more who God made me to be - more whole. That includes becoming more comfortable in my own skin with all my real feelings, it includes developing the ability to speak the truth even when it is hard or scary to do so, and it includes showing up and being present for others just as they are - even when they are suffering decidedly un-nice difficulties. There is so, so much more to the wholeness of holiness than just being nice.

We’ll get to practice our holiness this Sunday when we step out of the ‘politeness’ of not bringing up to topic of money and speak frankly about how St. James needs money to continue its mission and ministry. Our faith calls us to actively and faithfully engage with how we choose to steward our resources - especially our money. Money is energy and it helps us and others move forward with the energy we all need. If we don’t contribute to the flow of money through the church, we will not have the financial energy to keep doing church the way we do.

Our financial pledges make our community ministries possible and makes our ministry visible in the wider community. Pledges provide us with our lovely music and liturgy on Sunday mornings in a beautiful building that keeps rain off our heads and puts joy in our hearts. Pledges provide us with our staff, without whom we’d need require a lot more volunteer hours that the many we already offer. Pledges make sure the church has spiritiual leadership and pastoral care available at all times. These are more than just nice things. These are what the church does. And in order to keep doing them, we require the resource of money.

So let’s all help St. James become more whole. Come to Giving Sunday and place your giving intentions for 2024 on the altar. If you can’t make it in person, please go to our giving page and submit your pledge online - anytime now. We hope you will consider increasing your pledge by 10% if you can.

Please do not wait until later to offer your pledge - let the WHOLE congregation respond with their financial intentions this month so that together we can plan ahead in a timely and accurate way for an abundant and energetic 2024.