Meditation: GRASPED BY THE TRUTH by John de Gruchy

GRASPED BY THE TRUTH

Psalm 51:6-12

John 18:33-38

"You desire truth in the inward being."

"For this I was born, and for this I came into the world. to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." Pilate asked him, "What is truth?"

I unexpectedly ended up in hospital last Friday and Saturday with a nasty stomach bug.  Dr. du Toit told me that I was seriously ill, and I certainly felt seriously so!  But medical skill and wifely care has helped me onto my feet again.  And in the process I met a splendid nurse who looked after me very well.  His name was Emeth Madlauzi, a striking figure with a long pony-tail and dressed in an immaculate blue uniform.  Efficient and professional, pleasant and friendly, and obviously enjoying his work.  He told me he was born in Murraysburg in the Karoo, a small town near Beaufort West.  I asked him how he got his name "Emeth."  He told me that his mother had a very sickly daughter before he was born, and that the doctor who looked after her very kindly had the name "Emeth."  He did not know what it meant, so I told him it was Hebrew for "truth," and I surmised that the doctor must have been Jewish.  The story of that doctor's care for his mother and sister, which led to his name, must have left a deep impression on Emeth, and perhaps was the reason he himself became a nurse.  And, I think a clue to the meaning of truth itself lies in the story. For truth is not simply something we believe but something that grasps us, something that we seek to embody.  "You desire truth in the inward being," says the Psalmist.

"What is truth?"  This question which Pilate asks Jesus before condemning him to death, is fundamental to John's gospel.  It is in John that we read that truth came into the world in Jesus, and that Jesus is, himself, "the truth."  So it is not surprising that at the final moment before Pilate condemns Jesus to death, Jesus says: "For this I was born and for this I came into the world. to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."  It is in response to this that Pilate asks him, but "What is truth?"  He was not asking about scientific truth, or historical truth, or the truth about the charges laid against Jesus; his question went much deeper, it was about the meaning of life.  A question asked long before Pilate came on the scene, and one that has resounded through the centuries ever since. 

There have been many answers given, for every philosophy, every religion, every ideology is guided by some conviction that its adherents claim is the truth about the meaning of life.  Even those who say that there is "no truth," that there is no meaning to life,  are making a truth-claim, because for them the truth is that there is none!   The truth, many people believe, is relative and subjective, it is what you make of it, and we should simply allow people to be guided by the truth as they see it. But if that is so, it is not a very helpful answer to Pilate's question, in fact it is dangerous, for then anything goes.  On that basis you can shoot people on a beach or behead them on the street, for that is according to the truth they claim to live by.   

So Pilate says to Jesus, "okay, you are claiming to speak the truth, but so are your opponents and everyone else, what, then, makes your claim to speak the truth right, and their claims wrong?"  Pilate was in a difficult position, especially as he was walking on a political knife-edge created by internal Jewish religious demands and those of Roman justice, and that was as complicated back then Middle Eastern politics is today.  No wonder he washed his hands of the whole affair and left it up to the crowd to decide.  Truth thus became subject to popular opinion, and the people sensing blood, were in no mood for legal process or rational debate.  Truth had become the victim of social and political forces.  All of which makes the work of judges and commissions of enquiry not only more difficult but also problematic.  Now that the Marikana Report is out, do we really know the truth of what happened that awful day?  How come it is always the victims who seem to be found guilty and the powerful get away with just a rap on the knuckles?  What is truth?  Who decides and on what grounds?

So let us go back to the central theme of John's gospel.  What does John mean when he says that Jesus is the truth?  Does it mean that only Christians have the truth, and all others, whether they be Muslims, Jews, Buddhists or secularists, live according to a lie?  But saying "Jesus is the truth" is not the same as saying that our religion has all the answers.  That is what fundamentalism is all about, whether it be Christian, Muslim or any other.   This  is one of the main reasons why there has been so much religious conflict and war over the centuries.  But can the claim that Jesus is the truth be the basis on which Christians reject other people as pagans and even put them to death, or go to war against them and bomb their cities?  Doesn't that go against everything Jesus taught and did?

So notice what Jesus actually says to Pilate: "Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."  This does not mean that only Christians belong to the truth, for historically mainstream Islam regards Jesus as a prophet, and all great religious traditions have a respect for his teaching that is, "to his voice."  In other words, Jesus' words about "being the truth" are not about whether Christianity is true and other religions are false, but about the truth that sets us free to live life faithfully and responsibly in relation to God and others.  In other words, Jesus does not teach a doctrine we have to believe, but he embodies the meaning of the life we are called to live.  Jesus is the message he proclaims.  And "his voice" tells us God is loving and just, gracious and forgiving, compassionate and merciful.  This is not some kind of wishy-washy sort of religion, on the contrary, in a world of religious and political intolerance and violence, it is the most demanding and costly way of living in the world.  After all, Pilate was about to put Jesus to death in an effort to silence "his voice" at the demand of his accusers.  And those who listen to his voice are often those who suffer for doing so.

As Christians we do not claim to know all the truth, but we do seek to embody the truth.  This truth, revealed in Jesus is not relative for it  has to do with what is fundamental to human life and relationships, to justice and peace, and to the flourishing of the world.   To grasp this truth is more than simply believing some doctrine, it is about how we live.  This is what "emeth," the Hebrew understanding of truth, is really about: living the truth.  It is why the Psalmist says that God desires "truth in the inward being."  To grasp the truth means to be grasped by the truth.

John de Gruchy

Volmoed 2 July 2015

Meditation: WAITING AND HASTENING by John de Gruchy

WAITING AND HASTENING

Psalm 27:7-14

Matthew 3:1-3

Wait for the Lord

Prepare the way of the Lord

My brother-in-law and I agree that waiting for our wives is something we agreed to do in our marriage vows, when we said "for better or worse."  I do not know how many hours of our lives have been spent in waiting for them to get ready to go out or waiting for them to finish shopping.  Yes, waiting for wives is just how it is and prospective husbands had better get used to the idea.  But we also spend much of the rest of our lives waiting.  Waiting in queues and lines, waiting for doctors and dentists, waiting for visitors, waiting for holidays, waiting to hear the bell ring for chapel.  Some years ago Isobel wrote this poem:

I operate, from deep within,

On the premise that each minute counts,

It should be productive,

Idleness is not allowed,

Never waste time,

So what to do with waiting?

And so much of life is waiting,

At the airport, at the doctor,

For assistance on the phone,

For friends who are always late,

For a message from a loved one.

Is there a secret, a magic formula,

To transform the irritation,

The anxiety, the frustration,

Into time of worth and value?

If so, please let me know.

I don't have an answer to Isobel's question, perhaps a question we all ask, but I suspect that when God designed us he decided that waiting should be part of the human condition, and that it would be good for us.  To be human is to wait, to be a husband is to wait, and then the Bible even tells us that we have to wait for the Lord.  Maybe God operates on African time, not according to Swiss Rolex watches.  Like any master craftsman, God takes time to produce his masterpieces.  Patience is the name of the game as all craftsmen and women know.

Now I can almost hear our good friend Theo Krynauw, the mastermind of Sparklekids, crying out.  Surely we cannot wait any longer.  We have to get on with it!  We can't sit around waiting for the kingdom of God, we have to act, help the poor and needy.  What the church needs is not bums on seats, but feet on the ground doing what is required of us.  The patience of the poor is running out.  They have been waiting on the Lord and on us for far too long.  The time for action is now.  The kingdom may eventually come, but we don't have time on our hands to idle away waiting.  Just get on with it! Is not today the day of salvation?  Is not the "now" the time for action?

So are waiting for God patiently, and acting now, urgently and passionately, opposites?  Is African time good and Swiss time bad, or Swiss time good and African time bad?   Does God only want us to wait for the kingdom to come, or does God want us to act now in ways that will hasten its coming?  ? Is this not much the same as we talked about last Thursday: contemplation and action?  We need to be silent and we need to struggle; we need to pray and we need to do justice; we need to take time off and we need to start working, we need to be both Mary and Martha.  This is the rhythm of Christian living and discipleship.  Patiently waiting and passionately striving.  The two need each other, belong to each other, can't function without each other. 

One of my favourite passages in Bonhoeffer's writings is where he talks about the relationship between the ultimate and the penultimate.  Let me explain what he says.  There is a great deal in Jesus' teaching about waiting patiently for the coming of God's kingdom, which only God can bring about, and only God knows when and how it will happen.  That is part of the mystery of God's kingdom -- it is not ours to control, manipulate or bring into being. We have to wait for its coming with patience.  It is the ultimate, beyond our control.  The kingdom will come in God's good time and way, not ours. But at the same time, Jesus tells us to take care of the poor, seek his justice, and generally get on with doing those things that need to be done.  And in doing this we are witnesses to the coming kingdom. 

The people asked John the Baptist if he was the one who was to come.  He told them that he was not.  But he was one preparing the way, and thus making possible his coming.Like John the Baptist we are preparing the way for the coming of the king.  This is all in the penultimate, it is here and now, it has to do with our actions, our doing.  But it is connected to the ultimate, to that which is coming and for which we wait patiently.  To act now for the sake of the kingdom is to hasten its coming. 

Waiting and hastening, praying and doing what needs to be done,  patience and impatience,  the ultimate beyond our control, and the penultimate that has to do with the choices we make and the actions we perform here and now.  And because these witness to what is coming, to God's peace and justice, we prepare the way for the coming of God's kingdom.  That is why nothing we do that expresses the good news of Jesus, not one act of love and compassion, not one visit to a friend in hospital, not one protest against injustice, not one letter in support of a worthy cause, not one act of generosity, not one AHA moment or support for Sparklekids ... not one is lost, not one is of no value.  For they all hasten the coming of God's kingdom simply because God is at work in and through us weaving our acts into his design for the future.

Let me leave you with these words by Karl Barth, one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century:

We are content to await God's time, yet filled with the impatience of God himself that his kingdom should come. (Action in Waiting, amended, p.12-13)

John de Gruchy

Volmoed,  25 June 2015

Meditation: CONTEMPLATION by John de Gruchy

CONTEMPLATION

Psalm 46:8-10

Luke 11:1-4

Be still and know that I am God

Lord, teach us to pray

Last year I spoke at a conference for pastors of the Apostolic Faith Mission, the oldest Pentecostal Church in South Africa.  The conference was held in Modimole in Limpopo, and was attended by about 200 pastors.  Surprisingly some of their leaders had read my book on Icons and had become interested in exploring the insights of Christian tradition as I discussed in my book, something quite alien to their own experience.  But they had discovered Icons and with that also the contemplative tradition within Christian spirituality.  I found the whole experience of being with them thought-provoking.  After all, they were discovering something important in Christian tradition that most of the mainline churches had also forgotten about. This was reinforced last weekend when a group from the same Pentecostal background called "In Via," or "On the Way," came to Volmoed for a workshop on learning to pray in silence.   They, too, had in the past been more familiar with praying in tongues and singing with gusto accompanied by bands and loud music.  But now In Via is exploring the place of silence in the life of faith, and so last weekend their focus was also on contemplation.

On one occasion the disciples of Jesus asked him to teach them to pray.  They had observed how he himself on regular occasions drew aside from them and the crowds and went to pray on his own.  They would have been familiar with praying together in synagogues, but not with praying alone and in silence, though on occasion Jesus' prayers burst into cries of agony and tears.  So it was understandable that on the occasion we read about in Luke's gospel, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them also how to pray.  In response, he introduced them to what we now call the Lord's Prayer, but he also told them not to babble away like the pagans (at least according to Matthew's account) and that when they pray they should go into their rooms and shut the door.  In other words, there were times when they could pray together using the prayer he taught them as a model, but other times when they needed to be alone in the silence of their own hearts or what St. Augustine called our innermost sanctuary.

There are no prayer experts.  Most of the great saints of the past, including some of more recent times like Mother Theresa and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, spoke or wrote of the difficulties they had in praying.  And that, I think, is true for all of us..  So we continually need to ask, "Lord, teach us to pray," and we need to pause every so often to reflect on what it is we are doing when we pray.  Are we just uttering words, wondering whether they are simply hitting the ceiling and bouncing back?  Is God really listening? Are we praying in order to break the silence as we sit together, or impress others with our piety, or knowledge?  What are we trying to do?  Are we bluffing ourselves and others?  Are our prayers for real?  Have we simply given up in despair and decided praying is not for me?   "Lord teach us to pray."

The Lord's Prayer itself can easily become a meaningless routine, something we simply say because it is our custom to do so.  It is in the liturgy and regularly comes at a certain point.  But it is actually a model that helps us focus together before God on all the basic needs of life, what is fundamentally important: daily bread, forgiveness of sins, courage and freedom from fear in times of testing, deliverance from evil.  Each of these can and should make us pause to reflect on our lives in relation to God and others, and so pray more meaningfully.  Jesus' words help us to focus, and make us more aware of our own real needs and those of others in need.  So too does our listening to the gospel as we read Scripture together. For prayer is a response to God's love and human need.  Listening for that Word is essential if we are to pray meaningfully.  Unless we listen we cannot pray, for all we will do is utter words, maybe eloquent ones, but not prayerful ones.  Meditation and reflection is the basis for prayer.  But this also requires entering the silence, moving beyond meditation to where listening leads us, to contemplation in which we are simply at home in the presence of God.  Where words become unnecessary.

So Jesus not only taught his disciples to pray, but also by example, taught them to take time, and go somewhere to be alone, to "be still and know God."  Contemplation takes us beyond meditation and prayerful words into the silence of God.  This is not a replacement for prayer but a way of encountering and experiencing God's gift of love and grace beyond words, in the very depths of our being, it is at the heart of our a journey into the mystery of God. 

I am by no means an expert on contemplation, nor a great practitioner, but like those who came to Volmoed last weekend I recognise its importance in our world of busyness, electronic devices, and noise.  To live and work in the world, to be busy people engaged daily in actions of one kind or another, eventually wears us down and undermines whatever spirituality may be left in our parched souls.  As Thomas Merton so eloquently taught, action needs contemplation, just as contemplation should lead to action.  The two belong together.

So for the next five minutes we are going to journey into silence.  It won't necessarily be easy because when we enter into silence our mind begins to take over and all kinds of thoughts buzz around in our heads.  That is quite natural, so there is no need to fight it.  Just allow them to buzz off into the distance as you focus on the words "Be still and know that I am God."  Its like trying to fall asleep.  Your mind with its racing confusions of thoughs has to be emptied bit by bit.  "Be still and simply know who are in the presence of the One in whom you have your being.  "Be still and know that I am God" is the mantra that leads us into the silence of contemplation. Don't try and formulate a prayer, don't plan anything, don't try and resolve all the problems of the world, just be still and know you are embraced by God.  The truth is, in God's presence you don't have to impress anyone,  you can simply be your "self."

John de Gruchy

Volmoed 18 June 2015

Meditation: FEARLESS EXPRESSION by John de Gruchy

FEARLESS EXPRESSION

Genesis 1:1-12

Matthew 18:1-5

And God saw that it was good.

Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

If you have not yet walked along the path from Ficks Pool to Gearing's Point since it was renewed and seen the wonderful sculptures that have been erected along the way, then you have a great treat waiting for you.  It has all been done to coincide with the Fynarts Festival which is, as we all know, taking place at the moment in Hermanus.  What an exciting celebration of the arts it is, and hopefully you able to share in it in some way.  But if you do nothing else you simply must visit "Fearless Expression," the art exhibition at Bellini Gallery in the Village Square.  Those of us who already have can testify that it is truly amazing or, as the grandchildren say, awesome. 

"Fearless Expression"  is the exhibition of paintings done by three-year old Hermanus artist Talula.  Yes, you heard me correctly, three-year old.   And it has all the art critics buzzing with excitement.  The story behind the art is remarkable.  Talula's mother is an artist who was tired of being interrupted while she was working, so in desperation she laid out a large tarpaulin on a floor in her house, provided pots and tubes of paint, an assortment of brushes and scrapers, and some large canvasses, and  let Talula get on and do her thing,  Well she certainly did that as you can see both from the results hanging in Bellini Gallery and from the DVD her father, a Hermanus film maker, made of her at work.  The exhibition is called "Fearless Expression" because that is precisely what it is.  Talula has painted without fear, the fear of being scolded for making a mess or being rubbished by art critics.  She has just enjoyed herself, following her intuition and  freely applying paint to canvass.  And in the process she has created beauty, an explosion of colour and design.  And it is hoped that through the auction of her work, a new project will be initiated in Zwelihle to help nurture a new generation of pre-school Sparklekids.

When you walk along the coastal path in Hermanus you can look at what you see through at least two different spectacles.  The one belongs to the scientist.  What you see is the result of the formation of the world over millions of years as continents were formed then drifted apart, and as plants and other forms of life evolved into such a myriad of types and forms that it boggles the mind to even think about it.  The other spectacles are those of the poet and artist.  These eyes see the same reality but describe it differently.  It is majestic and beautiful; the colours and textures in all their variation blend together in rich harmony.  What you see is beautiful.  The artist and the poet are seeing the same reality as the scientist, but seeing and describing it differently. Of course, the scientist can also be a poet and say it is all beautiful, and the poet also knows how the world came into being through countless millennia according to the laws of physics.  And both can speak of it all as a mystery, even a divine mystery, for why should it exist at all, and why should it exist so beautifully despite flaws and ugliness?

The Fynarts Festival is a celebration of the human imagination and creativity;  as such, to the eyes of faith, it is also a celebration of God's imagination and creativity.   For when we look at it all through the eyes of faith we say that the cosmic power that brought everything into being and gave it life, is also a consummate artist, and that the whole earth is full of his glory.  So  as we celebrate the Fynarts Festival we celebrate God the source of life and beauty, the God who is both the creative artist who brings everything into being out of nothing, and discloses who he is in an ongoing act of fearless expression.  And, like any artist, when he stands back and looks at the result of his creativity, this God declares "it is good."  Creation is the fearless expression of God's being and love, a bringing into being something beautiful out of nothing.    The Catholic theologian von Balthasar speaks of creation as "the masterpiece of the divine fantasy." (The Glory of the Lord, 1/172)  Isn't that an amazing insight?   Creation as "the masterpiece of the divine fantasy," a revelation of "the inner depth of God," a fearless expression of love.   

But there is something more to keep in mind as we reflect on the remarkable outcome of Talula's "Fearless Expression" and that is  her parent's willingness to take the risk of allowing her to express herself without fear.  Her parents could have said. let us first teach Talula how to paint, how to mix colours, how to keep to the rules of proportion and the rest.  To allow her simply to express herself will be disastrous!  Yes, that would be too big a risk that most parents would be unwilling to take.  Obeying the rules and discipline is our watchword, and for good reason.  Even the artist has to be disciplined.   But keep in mind that God took an enormous risk when he brought us into being and set us in the garden to freely express ourselves,  as he soon discovered.  That's because we find it very difficult to handle the freedom God gives us in ways that are creative not destructive. We either abuse our freedom to the hurt of ourselves and others, or we timidly fear it and so fall back on laws and rules because it is safer that way.  And, indeed, we need rules to keep us on track, guide books to show us the way, boundaries and discipline to help us live and act in responsible freedom.  But we also need imagination and curiosity, otherwise we become boxed into structures and conventions that prevent us from expressing our true selves, our deepest thoughts, and above all our love for others with spontaneity rather than calculation.  Christ has set us free,  says St. Paul, not to act irresponsibly, but with joy and compassion, generosity and, yes, sometimes even with bold, fearless expression.

Bonhoeffer wrote some wonderful words from his prison cell about this.  The person, he said, "who is ignorant of this area of freedom may be a good father, citizen, and worker, indeed even a Christian; but I doubt whether he is a complete human being and therefore a Christian in the widest sense of the term."  That is why, he goes on to say,  we need "to regain the idea of the church as providing an understanding of the area of freedom," a space in which art, personal growth, friendship and play are all possible.  In short if we are to live in the freedom that God gives us as our parent, and to do so without fear, we need to see things with the eyes of a child even when we have grown up.  Because, says Jesus, "unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" or see its beauty.

John de Gruchy

Volmoed  18th June 2015

Meditation: SACRED COWS AND HOLY KISSES by John de Gruchy

SACRED COWS AND HOLY KISSES 

Isaiah 6:1-5

Romans 16:12-16

Luke 7:36-38

                        "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."

"Greet one another with a holy kiss."

What on earth is a "holy kiss?"  Is it a kiss on the cheek, a kiss on the lips, a sensual kiss, or a hesitant shy peck?  Is it the "kiss of peace" which we share in worship each week, a hug of greeting or a handshake?  Whatever its form,  what makes it "holy"?  In fact, what makes anything "holy" or "sacred"?  Such words seem to have dropped out of our vocabulary.  Except, that is, when we debunk "sacred cows," pour scorn of "holy Joes," or, as some do, use it as a preface for some or other swear word.  But there was a time when it was usual to speak about the Holy Bible, holy matrimony, holy people, holy baptism, the holy eucharist and one holy church. And Catholics still refer to the pope as the holy father,  But most of us don't normally speak like this anymore, and when we do it sometimes sounds rather pretentious.  We prefer "wholeness"  to "holiness"  even though they are not the same.

David, my grandson. asked me the other day "What is a secular state?"  Secular is the opposite of the sacred; it is the worldly as distinct from the religious.  Whereas once upon a time, much of Europe was part of the Roman Empire ruled over by Caesar, with the rise of Christianity it became the Holy Roman Empire ruled over by the pope, and emperors and kings divinely appointed.  But at least since the French Revolution, Europe has gradually become a conglomerate of secular states with democratically elected leaders even if in some places there is still an established church.  Whatever the role of religion, neither the church or other religious institutions have controlling power.

The underlying struggle in the Middle East today is between those who want their countries to be secular and those who want them to be holy, that is, Muslim states governed by Sharí'ah law.  Turkey has become a secular state even though Islam is very strong there; Iran, by contrast, is a Shiite Muslim country whose Ayatollah is the supreme ruler.  But the tension and often open warfare throughout the region is basically between secularists and Islamists, most notably in Egypt, and Libya.  And the same tension exists in Israel where religious and secular Jews compete for power, even though they may make unholy alliances when they need to. 

The rise of the secular state can, in large measure, be blamed on the abuse of religion.  The revolutionary overthrow of the monarchy in France and with it the power of the Catholic Church, and of the Tsar in Russia, and with him the Orthodox Church, was regarded by many as a victory for human emancipation, justice and equality. And secularisation continues to be regarded by many as liberation from the dark ages of priest-craft, superstition, and oppression.   In the process, religion is sometimes persecuted but invariably pushed to the periphery of political and social life unless governments find it useful for their own purposes.  But this rejection of "sacred cows" eventually led also to the debunking of the "holy" itself, so that it is difficult for us today to understand what on earth is a "holy kiss" because we only know kissing as a sexy worldly act and are surprised to hear that it can also be a holy one. The truth is, in a secular world, there is little sense of the sacred, and certainly neither the body or sensuality is understood in such a way, though it once was as the Song of Songs in the Bible so wonderfully describes.

But if a sense of the holy disappears, it is not long before life itself is no longer regarded as sacred.  Relationships are no longer sacred, values are not sacred, cherished beliefs are not sacred, honour is not sacred --  that is, they have no transcendent significance.  Human rights and liberties may be enshrined in constitutions, but they are no longer holy.  We can, and do, make up our own rules and these are often reasonable and good -- better sometimes than religious laws that are irrational and dehumanizing.  But too often we disregard even these or abuse them to serve our own selfish interests, whether as individuals or nations, rather than the common good.  We are, in short, no longer accountable to God.  We can become corrupt as long as no one finds us out.  In sum, the loss of the sacred reduces the value of human life, people become functional cogs in a wheel, life becomes cheap, and the earth can be destroyed for commercial purposes -- it is no longer sacred as it was in days gone by.   A kiss is a kiss not a holy kiss!

The prophet Isaiah lived at a time when Israel was falling apart at the seams.  There was injustice, oppression of the poor, and corruption and the abuse of power was rife.  At a time of transition from one king to another, in the "year that Uzziah died," so Isaiah tells us, he went into the Temple in Jerusalem to see if he could hear some Word from God that would speak to the people.  And while he lay prostrate he had a vision of the Lord high and lifted up, and heard the angels song:  "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."  This experience of transcendence or the holy, shook him so profoundly that he became aware, not only of the full extent of Israel's sins and his own, but he also became a prophet of God's justice in a society in which the sacredness of life had been compromised through national arrogance and oppression of the poor.

When the Bible says that "God's ways are not our ways, and God's thoughts are not our thoughts," it is speaking about God's holiness.  God is different, different to the idols we make, manipulate and worship, like nation, greed, or whatever gains our devotion or seduces us.  God is holy, he is the God who is justice and love, the God of mercy and compassion.  That is why God judges sin for sin destroys life, sin is oppression and hatred, sin is lacking mercy and compassion.  If nothing is sacred, sin does not matter.  But it does matter when we are converted to the sacred, and sing the song of the angels as we do every time we come to the Eucharist in the prayer of thanksgiving. "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." 

This is a regular reminder that the "whole earth is full of God's glory."  That we do not own the world, we cannot simply do what we want to do with other people or the earth's resources. The earth is sacred.  So, too, is every meal we share, every person we meet, every relationship.  They are holy.  And even every kiss, even the most sensual. becomes sacred even as it may remain sensual, not the kiss of Judas who betrayed Jesus but the kiss of a woman of ill-repute who wiped Jesus' feet with her tears and kissed them.  Recovering a sense of the holiness of God and therefore  of  the sacredness of life  transforms the way we live.  It is the way of holiness.  If God is holy, we cannot manipulate God for our own purposes; if God is holy then all God has created is holy -- life is sacred, justice is sacred, human beings are sacred, the body is sacred not just a machine, food and drink are sacred, and kissing is an act of love and forgiveness, it can be a kiss of peace and wholeness. a holy kiss. 

John de Gruchy

Volmoed  4 June 2015