March 2--Holy Buckets

Leviticus 25:47-27:13 Mark 10:32-52 Psalm 45:1-17 Proverbs 10:22

Holy Buckets

The bakery buckets were being re-used. Formerly, they held ingredients for making food, now they were relabeled for cleaning. Pine-sol took the place of brown sugar. A black marker, probably a Sharpie, was all it took to transform these multi-purpose receptacles from giant-sized Tupperware for sweeteners into handy rag holding maintenance equipment. Those buckets would never be used for sugar again, and they were not being thrown away, just appropriated for a new use. Sound harmless? Not according to the food inspectors! Those buckets had to be thrown out as did all the food that was made while the buckets had been around! After that debacle, there was a new command. From now on, no bucket in the bakery would ever be used for more than its original purpose. Buckets were for single use, single purpose, no exceptions. Buckets were set apart. You might say, they were "holy buckets."

The book of Leviticus keeps emphasizing how the people of Israel, and we, too in becoming God's adopted children, are to be set apart, holy, made for a singule use and purpose--to follow God's decrees and keep His commands. We are like "holy buckets." Leviticus 20:6 is a key to this book of Law: "You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own." The way that God repeatedly defines how to be holy is found in this clause in today's reading, Leviticus 26:3 “‘If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands." This is the sixth time in Leviticus that an expression like this occurs, follow my decrees! There is no wiggle room here, no call for part-time compliance or half-hearted devotion. Being holy, in the sense of following and obeying God's Word results in tremendous blessing. We see this in today's readings--eating your fill, living securely, sleeping with no cause of fear, all your enemies falling before you, having a surplus of crops, even having this promise from God, "I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people" (Leviticus 26:12). Yet, like those buckets that got thrown away, or the ton of food wasted in the bakery because of a little seemingly unrelated contamination, if we fail to listen to God and follow His commands, destruction awaits--being defeated, scattered, having sudden terrors, wasting diseases, a destroyed food supply, having sins punished seven times over. Instead of security, God promises, "I will make their hearts so fearful in the lands of their enemies that the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight..." (Leviticus 26:36).

We Christians today often get lazy about our faith and holiness, thinking a little bit of following the ways of the world is ok, a little dishonesty, a little immorality, a little lust, a little pride, a little self-centeredness--just a little of what we were before we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. 1 Peter 1:14-16 refers back to Leviticus and clarifies this for us: "As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” Ephesians 5:3 is similar: "But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people."

Holiness is being set apart, it is being wholly dedicated to a life of loving and serving God, becoming like His slaves, with all our hearts and minds, with all our strength. Unlike slaves though, we are His sons and daughters, receiving all He has as we live in and for Him. Living in holiness is only possible by the power of the Holy Spirit, that gift we can receive from God, by His grace, when we receive Jesus. Romans 6:22-23 sums this up: "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Choose holiness, choose eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Pastor Paul