Week Two: Holy

Gather the cup, the plate and the bowl that were set aside last week 
and set them before you as you consider the following:

Scripture
Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look ash this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” - Exodus 3:1-5

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people. 
- 1 Peter 2:9-10

Reflection
Holy. The author, Frederick Buechner, wrote that “Only God is holy, just as only people are human. God’s holiness is God’s Godness. To speak of anything else as holy is to say that it has 
something of God’s mark upon it. Times, places, things, and people can all be holy, and 
when they are, they are usually not hard to recognize.” 
To be holy means “to be set apart.” It’s the ordinary dirt on the ground in front of Moses, the ordinary group of people named in 1 Peter that are set apart for God and God’s purposes. At the Lord’s Table, an ordinary plate of bread and cup of juice are somehow holy, a meal set apart for God and God’s purposes. At the baptismal font, the ordinary bowl of water is somehow holy, a washing set apart for God and God’s purposes. And we, those of us who love to come to the Table and who have washed in the Font, we are also called holy. We have “something of God’s mark upon” us. We are people who are set apart by God and for God because of God’s great love for us.

Questions
1. What are holy places, spaces, moments that you’ve experienced or encountered?
2. How might we, as the church, live into our call to be a holy people? How might you live in a way that is set apart for God and God’s purposes?

Prayer
God, You are holy, set apart and like no other. Thank you for your holy love and the holy gifts of communion and baptism. Help us to live holy lives set apart for You and Your purposes. Amen.

Featured Artwork: Fruits of the Spirit  by John Stushie