Introduction: Making the Cross Count
David Porter

Comment: We Don't Have to do Anything
Denis Bambrick

Affliction
David Bolton

When Worlds Collide
Alwyn Thomson

The Way of the Cross
David Porter

Parades Commission
David Porter

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WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE
The Politics of Holiness

The world of Roman might and rule was on a collision course with the world of Israel. It was a political collision, but more than that it was a collision between Israel's call to holiness and the godlessness of the Gentile rulers. Jesus' life and ministry was shaped by these two worlds in collision.

The world of Israel was shaped by the covenant. They were called to be a holy people, reflecting their holy God. This call to holiness was also a call to separation from all that would defile or corrupt. While politics and holiness may seem strange bedfellows, for the people of Israel they were intimately connected. The whole of life, their life in community as a people, was to be shaped by and to reflect the holiness of the LORD.

Yet the reality in Palestine in the first century was that the Jewish people were no longer sovereign in their own land, living instead under a Gentile nation which neither knew nor feared God. Local vassals set aside the demands of God to accommodate the demands of their overlords.

In this world, how were the people of God to maintain their identity and their purity? The answer was the politics of holiness. However, within Judaism different groups worked out the politics of holiness in different ways.

No Surrender to Rome
On the one hand were 'the men of holiness', the children of light' known to us through the Dead Sea Scrolls. Since holiness was impossible within society they withdrew to the desert and established a community marked by strict discipline - especially in relation to ritual purity. They awaited the day of divine intervention when Rome would be destroyed, a corrupt Judaism would be judged and they - the faithful -would be vindicated.

On the other hand were those who would not wait. These were the groups who believed that "holiness could be achieved only by expelling Rome, the impure and idolatrous occupier" (Marcus Borg). These resistance movements looked back to earlier victories and looked forward to a new victory in their own day.

A Kingdom of Priests
The Pharisees advocated neither withdrawal nor rebellion. Instead, as a lay movement, they advocated and practised standards of ritual purity previously required only of the priests who served in the Temple. While Roman rule was tolerated most of the time, it would be resisted where it was seen to come into conflict with the demands of the law.

Breaking Up
Borg concludes. "With their different strategies, all the renewal movements sought to preserve the Jewish social world by shaping it increasingly in accord with the politics of holiness." And the wider community was also influenced by these different understandings of the politics of holiness for that was "the cultural dynamic shaping the society as a whole."

However, attempts at preservation led to fragmentation. There were competing groups within Palestinian Judaism in this period each offering different ways. Beyond that was the problem that the increasingly radical demands of these groups led to increasing numbers of people who could not live up to those demands. These latter were the outcasts (the 'wicked' and members of certain occupational groups) and sinners (the non-observant, often so because of economic pressures rather than through choice.)

Thus Jews were set against Gentiles, committed Jews against other committed Jews and committed Jews against those Jews who could not attain the level of holiness demanded. The politics of holiness, however understood, was leading to conflict with Rome - there was a perception of real injustice and there was a loyalty to a deeply ingrained way of life. Borg concludes, "To a large extent, the politics of holiness, coupled with the insensitivity of the Roman imperial power, was responsible for the conflict [that erupted in AD 70.]".

Northern Ireland and the Politics of Holiness
What has this to do with Christians striving to live Holy lives in Northern Ireland? Simply this - holiness still has political consequences. The different approaches to holiness that existed in Jesus day still exist in our day. Our stress on personal piety may have obscured this but that in itself has political consequences. So what kinds of holiness can be seen among Christians in our community?

Personal Holiness
Holiness is understood almost exclusively in a personal or private sense. At best it includes the family or the wider family of the local Christian fellowship. Holiness is severed from the rest of life - not only politics in the limited sense, but many other areas of daily living.

This consequence is that the demands of holiness are not seen to be relevant to the same degree in business and daily life. Thus the ethos of social life, community life, business life, relationships is shaped by the culture of our society more than by the demands of holiness.

In some circles society is seen to be the sphere of evil. Encounter with it is minimised and the demands of holiness are met through belonging to a group of believers who view the world in similar ways.

Renewal Holiness
Within this tradition some of the themes noted above are common, but there is also a quite distinctive stream. Involvement with society is sometimes seen as a distraction. Instead, the focus of Christian life is on receiving and practising the gifts of the Spirit, on worship and on prayer. Through the faithfulness of God's people, God will act to bring about the required transformation.

In some strands there is an echo of the apocalyptic visions of Christian and Jewish literature. The decisive battle is spiritual, fought out between the forces of God and the forces of evil. Christians must fight the spiritual battle on God's side with spiritual weapons. However, quite often the understanding of what is spiritual is quite narrow.

Social Holiness
When the demands of holiness become formal, institutional and traditional then, despite being presented as spiritual requirements, they can often become social requirements. Holiness becomes a matter of setting boundaries - markers that separate those who are holy from those who are not. These boundary markers define the limits of a holy life; crossing the boundaries is considered a transgression of standards of holiness. In the New Testament many of Jesus' conflicts with the Pharisees in particular were driven by their outrage at his willingness to cross their boundaries - Sabbath observance, ritual purity, table fellowship.

Among contemporary Christians attitudes to Sunday observance, alcohol or forms of entertainment can be boundary markers. In particular, in Northern Ireland attitudes to political matters can be seen as boundary markers.

Remnant Holiness
Remnant holiness often considers other Christians to be hopelessly compromised. The faithful remnant alone has maintained or striven for the purity - often doctrinal rather than ethical - demanded.

Remnant holiness can be linked to withdrawal from the world but it can also be crusading, against both other Christians who do not belong and the wider society with its corrupting and godless attitudes. No compromise is acceptable on any issue.

Jesus and the Politics of Holiness
Why does Jesus eat with tax collectors and sinners? Mark 2.16

Why are the disciples doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath? Mark 2.23

Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with 'unclean' hands? Mark 7.5

Boundary markers defined exclusion zones. Those within were righteous; those without were sinners and tax collectors. The law that God had instituted so that Israel would be a holy witness to the holy God had become an instrument of exclusion and self-righteousness.

Jesus, the Holy One of God, shattered the boundaries and the pretensions of holiness. He took his holiness to the despised, the compromised, the marginalised, the failures and the faithless. His holiness was not about boundaries but about the centre. It was about being Holy, not about practising holiness. It was a holiness that was not afraid of being tainted by the impurity of others, but was itself infectious. When Jesus touched the leper his holiness was not compromised. Instead, his holiness drove out and destroyed what was unclean.

In his encounters he proclaimed the Kingdom of God and called men and women to repentance, transformation of life and discipleship. In breaking the boundaries he did not compromise his holiness. Instead, he displayed true holiness and fulfilled the will of God.

As with the teacher so with the disciple. Faithful followers of Jesus will not establish exclusion zones or draw boundaries. True followers are not afraid that their holiness will be contaminated by encounter with others. True followers, like Jesus, have a holiness that is about the centre, not about the boundaries. We are called to be holy - holiness follows as a consequence.

In Northern Ireland true followers, like Jesus, may have to challenge the boundaries that have been drawn by others. It may not be sufficient to practise the politics of holiness in our own lives. It may be that we cannot practice true holiness until we are prepared to challenge false holiness and false ideas of the politics of holiness that have affected our community.

Alwyn Thomson - Research Officer with ECONL He is the author of a number of ECONI publications including (Ed) Faith in Ulster.