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Introduction:
The Politics of Holiness
Derek Poole
Comment
David McMillan
From
the Director
David Porter
Boundary
Markers
Heather Morris
A
Passion for Holiness or Dangerous Purity
Bishop Harold Miller
In
the Flowing Tide
Steve Stockman
Holy
Sectarianism
Alwyn Thomson
Book
Reviews
Alwyn Thomson
FROM
THE DIRECTOR
As commonly understood, the Christian call to holiness appears to be of
no immediate relevance to the situation currently existing in Northern
Ireland. What has holiness to do with the clash of cultural and national
identity in our community? Where is the connection between a church seeking
to live in holiness and the political conflict and negotiation we now
face?
Yet these questions have always been pertinent to the life and witness of the followers of Jesus. At the heart of our relationship with God is the question of how we then live in relationship to other believers, our culture, our nation and those in the family of humanity who differ from us in their allegiances. Equally our approach to politics and the attitudes we adopt should flow from our relationship to God and our understanding of how he works in our world.
We are thankfully not left without guidance. The celebration of the birth of Jesus draws us back to the heart of our faith - the incarnation. Jesus identifies with us in our humanity yet without loss of his identity as the holy one of God. He is set apart for the redemptive purposes of God in the world, yet he lives and moves among us, touching and being touched by all our frailties and divisions.
One of the most potent symbols of the politics of holiness in the life of Jesus is the table. It is at the table that Jesus eats the food of the socially unacceptable and shares fully in the meal and the life of his hosts. What surprises me is not so much the tables at which Jesus is welcome, but the range of tables at which he is clearly at ease.
In the homes of Pharisees, publicans and tax collectors Jesus mixed freely, drawing together his followers, critics and admirers at the table of humanity. He relaxed at table in the homes of his friends, or set out table for them on beaches and on mountainsides. For Jesus these were occasions for engagement and relationship, where hard things were said and surprising things done, but all in the context of this incarnational commitment to meet people where they were.
Indeed it is the table that becomes the metaphor for his redemptive work in this world. It is to his banquet that all the untouched and unclean were invited when the religious guests refused to come. It is to the table that he draws his closest followers apart and in the act of eating and drinking provides us with that sacramental meal at which all our pretence of self-righteousness is demolished and we are embraced by the holiness of a righteous God.
The love and grace of God is what makes his holiness bearable. It is this that enables us to dwell in the presence of God in order to sit, ourselves, at the table of sinners. For this is true holiness, an awareness of being set apart for a purpose. And that purpose is being sent as Jesus was sent, into a broken world, to identify and sit at table with a frail humanity.
At a time when much political capital is being made of being at the table or not, it is critical that Christians demonstrate the necessity for human contact and engagement if we are indeed to build a better future for all. We may accept the wisdom and merit in certain tactics around the political table. But there can be no room for moralising or the self-righteous denial of responsibility for the pain and violence of this divided community, as a cover for not being at the table.
Above all, when we are at the table we must strive to ensure that it is not merely a table of talking but of meeting. A table of commitment to find the common agenda that will help us build peace together. This is the practical politics of holiness required of us all wherever we find a place of encounter in our community.
David Porter - the Director of ECONI
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