The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it (Psalm 24:1).
The church and its members are holy to the Lord, especially through the Holy Spirit, who dwells within them (1 Corinthians 3:16).
A husband is holy to his wife, and vice versa (1 Corinthians 7:3-4).
In many places, automobiles are holy to the road, in which pedestrians are unclean. If a pedestrian transgresses (i.e., crosses the boundary) into the road, then he or she is likely to be cut off from the people. While most vehicles will brake for invading pedestrians, the fatal risk of jay-walking is punishment enough to obviate policing of this crime. Sane adults rarely "struggle" to keep this commandment of the state, but are always reminding and watching their own children as they walk along the way, trying to train them to walk in safe holiness.
All life is holy to the Lord, but death a necessary part of the curse because of Adam and Eve's first sin (Genesis 2:17 and 3:19). In the Old Testament Law dead bodies were unclean, but Jesus sanctified death on his cross and defeated it when God raised him from death back to life. Death then is perhaps not "unclean" per se. For many Christian martyrs have followed Jesus to his loving death in their confession of his kingship of all the world (not only "of the Jews"). But it is a necessary evil.
All death, that is. So while firearms are only holy to animal game as food for humans, this was not the case originally, and should not ultimately be so in the age to come. This leads some (such as my good friend Matt) to be vegan. [Please note: there are other reasons to be vegetarian and/or vegan besides opposing violence to animals. For example, read athada.]
Can anyone else think of strange examples of holiness, like some of the examples above?
2 comments:
I see death itself as being a very holy thing indeed. It's the one thing that every living thing on this planet will experiance. This in itself creates a strange holiness that connects all living things through having to go through the same process of dying.
The release of the holy spirit from the physical body is something we all will experiance and is not something to be feared, but to be embraced, anticipated and accepted with humble gratitude.
Holiness to me is more an issue of my relationship with my wife. Things are "good" between us... but I know with some intention into the relationship they can become "better." In all of this our marriage relationship never shifts in its identity, yet the texture of the connection does.
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