The Holiness Stream: How Broad Is The Kingdom Of God
Feb 5, 2006
Intro:
How broad is the Kingdom of God? That is the question we have begun exploring throughout January. To review quite quickly – thus far we have looked primarily at two “streams” of Christianity – the “evangelical” or “word-centered” stream which would historically describe Laurier, and the “charismatic” or “Spirit-empowered” stream most familiar to us through the Pentecostal movement, many elements of which have been pouring back into evangelical churches such as ours. Throughout January, I’ve been calling us to unity and to a deep love for one another that would find the strength and power that comes as we bring the best of those two streams together.
In the midst of those corporate “streams”, we have also identified individual “spiritual temperaments” or what Gary Thomas calls “pathways”. This is the quiz with which we began January. The “evangelical” stream, with its focus on the Word, has often attracted intellectual/conceptual people, while the “charismatic” stream has often appealed to enthusiasts.
This morning we are going to reach a little further out from many of our own experiences, and into a third “stream”, called the “holiness” stream which focuses on the “virtuous life”. This stream has often appealed to people called ascetics, who value simplicity and silence and tend to find God when all the clutter of life is stripped away (note, not aesthetics, which is about beauty).
How’s Your Heart?
As we begin, let me ask you a question: how is your heart? Is it well with your soul, are you in a good place, content, do you feel like you are deepening in your Christian life, like you are living in obedience to God and like you are living in a closeness to God?
That question, to which I will return a little later on, sort of encapsulates this particular stream. How is your heart? is the chief concern… The simple, one line response to the question, “what is the Holiness tradition?” is this: “A life that functions as it should.” It is about a life that works, with a pure heart as a source of Godly living.
This is important – the focus of the holiness stream is not on external activity, it is on a right heart out of which those behaviours flow.
Examples
The book of James, in the New Testament, is a good example of a focus on the holiness stream. James talks a lot about right action, which must flow from a right heart. James writes things like: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (Jas 1:22); “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (Jas 1:27); “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?... Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.” (Jas 2:14, 18).
Throughout church history, we have examples of people and movements that exemplify this stream. In very early church history, during a period we know as “The Desert Fathers and Mothers”, a group of Christians removed themselves from their society and culture in an effort to find a pure heart and thus a holy life. A few took to sitting way up high, on the top of tall poles, to try to get away from influences that might lead them into sin. One of the great contributions from this period is their testimony that sin comes from within, from the “deceitful heart.”
More familiar to many of us are the monastic traditions, which made a similar decision to separate from mainstream society; likewise, the Puritan movement in America, and the Hutterite communities which are prevalent here in Alberta and Saskatchewan. All are examples of Christians who take the call to holy living so seriously that they attempt to live away from many of the temptations of our wider society. All would be considered part of the Holiness stream.
Jesus
But perhaps the best example of this stream is found in Jesus. Paul tells us quite clearly, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us” (2 Cor 5:21). Jesus lived and modeled for us a truly holy life. Hebrews reminds us that Jesus was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet Jesus never sinned. The reason for that is that Jesus’ heart was completely pure, and His actions flowed out of that pure heart. It is not that Jesus had more “self-control”, or more power to keep His actions and thoughts in line, it is that Jesus’ heart was complete and pure, and thus Jesus’ “life functioned as it should.”
When we study Jesus’ sermon on the mount, we see that as the main point. It is all about our hearts, and that is why Jesus’ message was so radical and different from what the people around him were used to hearing. All they had heard was about the outward actions – Jesus broke through that to the heart. Obviously this morning we are not going to study the whole sermon on the mount, but let me give you a few examples:
“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” (Matt 5:23-24). Jesus is teaching that the outward forms of religion are not as important as the heart that is reconciled and in unity with a “brother”.
“You have heard that it was said, ’Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt 5:27-28).
“when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matt 6:3-6).
What Do You Do “In Secret”?
Let me bridge out of that last verse, specifically the line “your Father, who sees what is done in secret,” with a question: what does God your Father see you doing in secret? Does He see you giving to the needy? Does He see you in prayer? Or does He see you doing things that break His heart and destroy your life?
The Holiness stream asks us these kind of hard, heart questions. And when we listen, we hear some encouraging things. You see, I expect that for most of us, that question brings to mind things in our lives that we are ashamed of. We don’t like Jesus’ teachings on anger and adultery, on reconciliation to a brother needing to come before we bring an offering of worship, because we know what is in our hearts. We know that we fall short. And then we feel ashamed, and that feeling of shame has the opposite effect from what God desires – most often feelings of shame cause us to stuff things further down, to bury them deeper, to want to run and hide from others. We run because we fear judgment and rejection, we retreat from one another and we run away from God. And then we miss the freedom from those sins. Instead of running from God, let me suggest that it is far better to run from the sin.
The Holiness stream has much to teach us. In Russia, in the 1800’s there lived a man now known to us as St. Theophan the Recluse. He was a priest in the Russian Orthodox church, became a bishop, and was widely respected for his goodness of character and his virtuous living, which by the way included starting numerous schools for girls. He loved God absolutely, and because of his desire to focus on God alone he retreated from his job and entered a reclusive life. (bio info from http://home.iprimus.com.au/xenos/theophan.html). As we ask ourselves that hard question, “what does God see us doing in secret,”, let us learn from Theophan:
St Theophan the Recluse: On Turning Away from Sin to God
[Repentance] is a decisive change for the better, a breaking away from sin and a turning to God, or a kindling of the fire of zeal for exclusively God-pleasing things, with renunciation of the self and everything else. It is above all characterized by an extreme breaking of the will. If a person has acquired evil habits, he must now rend himself. If he has offended God, he must now grieve in the fire of just judgment. . . . With the repentant person there is first fear, then the lightness of hope; sorrow, then comfort; terror to the point of despair, then the breath of the consolation of mercy. . . .
It is something painful, but it saves. It is therefore inevitable that whoever has not experienced such a painful break has not yet begun to live through repentance. It is impossible for a person to begin cleansing himself in everything without having gone through this crucible. Decisive and active resistance to sin comes only from hatred of it. Hatred of sin comes only from a sense of evil from it; the sense of evil from it is experienced in all its force in this painful break within repentance. . . . Without this painful experience, even if he begins cleansing himself in some other way, he will be able to cleanse himself only slightly, more outwardly than inwardly, more in actions than in disposition. . . .
Such change is brought about in the human heart by divine grace. This alone can inspire a man to raise his hand to himself and bring himself to God in sacrifice.”
What God Really Sees:
Theophan puts it well – repentance is extreme, but it saves. We must see sin as the evil and destructive thing it is, and then we will hate it. And we must recognize that change only comes by the grace of God.
From the Holiness stream, we learn the truth and necessity of repentance, of pure hearts, of righteous living that comes from those pure hearts, and we learn one thing more: what does God see, even when He looks into in the “secret” places we might be ashamed of? God sees His children. Yes, God is grieved by our sin. Yes, God hates it. Yes, God calls us to walk away. But when He looks at you and at me, He always does so with love. That is why it grieves God, because He loves us. God hates the sin because He sees what it robs us of, how cheap the imitation is, how much less the sin is then the goodness He wants us to have, and so freely offers to us. He never looks at you or me with rejection, He looks with a desire to truly save, to truly liberate us from the pain and heartbreak of sin, because He wants our lives to “function as they should.”
Gathering Around The Communion Table:
Part of the rhythm of our life together is our monthly gathering around the Lord’s Table, to celebrate communion together. Our ceremony begins with self-examination, in accordance with Scripture.
This morning, we are going to take an extended time in silence. As you do, I ask you to consider one question: what does God your Father see as He looks at you? My prayer is that you might see yourself as God sees you – the things that make God leap for joy and the things that grieve Him, and that our communion celebration might be your response as you freely accept God’s gift to us in Christ.
