explore faith: Holy Fringes by The Rev. Canon Renée Miller

Calvary Episcopal Church
Memphis, Tennessee
July 20, 2003
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Holy Fringes
The Rev.Canon Renée Miller

Gospel: Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56
(A copy of this sermon is also available in audio.)

She used to say, "Holiness is not just the station for a few, "it is the simple duty of us all." And she certainly gave her life to that simple duty. I was certain that all would be well with my soul if I could just be with her for a while. I'm speaking about Mother Teresa of Calcutta. She was such a model to me of what the holy life can mean in the modern world.

When I visited two of her motherhouses--one in Manila in the Philippines and the other in Zurich, Switzerland, I was hopeful I might catch a glimpse of her, touch her hand, hear her voice, or pray the rosary with her, but on both occasions she was away traveling. Holiness had become so much a part of her that thousands of people just like me clamored after her just to touch or be touched by her. I actually dreaded the thought that she might die before I had a chance to be with her, and indeed she did. Yet, my spiritual life has still been immensely influenced by the holiness of that diminutive woman from Albania.

The fact is: we know holiness when we see it. We may not be able to articulate what it is we see, but we see it. We all, at one point or another, seek to be in the presence of a holy person because we somehow sense that if we can sit at the feet of such a person, the inner disparities of our own life will be gathered together and resolved. That is why people search out spiritual guides and gurus. There is a hope and anticipation that there is someone who is somehow closer to divine truth than we are and that their truth will somehow be conveyed to us.

When we seek out holy people and find them, what is most palpable about them is that they have a sense of "completeness"--they seem free of the anxiety, duplicity, and complex desires that so characterize and plague our daily lives. They seem to have become detached from what is extraneous. They have a single-minded focus and there is a peace and contentment about them that seems strangely absent in our own lives.

While this is attractive, we are shy about seeking to become holy ourselves. Partly this is because we misunderstand holiness. We think holiness is something that can only be acquired by heroic effort. We are sure it will require all night vigils, being a member of a monastery community, living a life devoid of fun and frivolity, meditating for hours each day, wearing out our knees and our backs in prayer, never lying or cheating or feeling lust in our heart. Or, if none of that, at least it will be a life that is dreary, so concentrated and focused as to be boringly dull. That is why we leave it to others--it is why we want holiness to remain the station of a few rather than accept it as the simple duty of us all. We have no desire to be religious fanatics, we are not willing to forsake all the joy and delight in life so that we can arrive at holiness. We may want to be in the presence of holy people, but we’re not much interested in living their lives ourselves. We would just like to have their holiness rub off on us and make our lives better.

Let me suggest to you that holiness is not what you think it is. In theological terms we talk about holiness as being ‘set apart--set apart for God. Even that, however, is a misunderstanding of the word. The actual root word is hool with "w" placed at the beginning, and it literally means whole. The simple duty of us all becomes nothing more, nothing less than becoming whole. Holiness is the process by which we integrate the loose threads of our life into a whole tapestry of beauty and divine grace. This is a creative task for the entirety of our lives. The Good News is that we can set aside all the to-do lists of things that we think are required for reaching some standard of moral and spiritual perfection, and open ourselves instead to the invitation and creative possibility of becoming whole in God.

But I am careful in my use of words. I am speaking about becoming whole in God. I am not speaking of psychological wholeness or integration of the random unresolved strands of our life. Therapy is certainly valuable in helping us come to inner integration, but it does not make us holy. To become whole in God, means aligning our lives with God through such things as: Seeing the world and ourselves through God’s eyes. Finding the way to forgive when the pain of hurt and betrayal sticks in the throat like hard, dry clay. Refusing to hold others in judgment even when their behavior makes our heartbeat quicken and our breath shorten. Having the courage to stand face-to-face with evil and overcome its power with the goodness that is foolhardy in the eyes of the world. Staying in the place of unconditional love even when love seems imprudent and so difficult as to make us want to run away.

These are the loose threads that we spend our lives weaving together into the beautiful tapestry of holiness--wholeness in God. Far from being dull and drear chores of the soul, becoming whole in God can be an adventure as thrilling and dramatic as the latest Hollywood action movie and the result is that we no longer need someone else's holiness to rub off on us just so we feel better about ourselves. We are able to look into the eyes of Jesus ourselves and say,

Love Me Tender
Love me tender, love me long,
Take me to your heart,
For it's there that I belong.
And we'll never part.
(by Vera Matson & Elvis Presley))

Consider the great prophet Elijah. He had worked many miracles and had reached a high degree of holiness. His disciple, Elisha, was with him on the day that he was taken up into heaven. In the style of Moses, Elijah took off his cloak and rolled it up and struck the water of the Jordan and the waters parted until he and Elisha crossed on dry land. When they had crossed, Elijah asked Elisha what he could do for him, and Elisha requested to have a double share of Elijah's spirit. After Elijah was assumed into heaven, Elisha picked up Elijah's cloak and went and stood on the bank of the Jordan. He took the cloak of Elijah and struck the water, and the water was parted and Elisha crossed over alone.

I think this is an incredible story, for three reasons: first, Elijah was able to share his wholeness/holiness with Elisha; second, Elisha received a double portion of Elijah's spirit of holiness not through any works or all night vigils that he did, but simply by asking for it; third, and this is perhaps the most astonishing part of the story, Elijah's holiness was made visible and tangible in a cloak--a piece of woven material that was nothing more than a necessary garment for warmth. The holy life of Elijah had penetrated even his cloak.

Now, you might think this a bit strange. How could a physical item like a cloak, have the quality of holiness in it? Consider yet another account. The Jewish prayer shawl called a tallith has fringes and knots in the fringes. These fringes are used for prayer in the same way that beads on a rosary are used. The one praying "fingers" the fringes as they pray. There's the record of the great rabbi, Baal Shem Tov's prayer shawl. His disciples said that the knotted fringes of his prayer shawl had their own life and their own soul. They could move even when his body did not move, for through his holiness, the great rabbi had drawn into them life and soul. The holy life of the rabbi had penetrated even his prayer shawl.

Or consider Jesus. Wherever Jesus went, into villages or cities, or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed. Like Elijah and the great rabbi, people knew that Jesus’ holiness had been drawn even into the fringes of his cloak. In other words there was no separation between the deeds of Jesus himself, and the deeds that could be done through the fringes of his cloak. To touch the fringes of his cloak was enough to made whole. The holy life of Jesus had penetrated even the fringes of his cloak.

What these accounts tell us is that as we practice becoming whole in God-–our holiness can be drawn even into the physical objects of our lives. The ‘fringes’ of our lives, whatever they may be for us, can be made holy as we are made whole in God.

So we come to this:

Within God's wholeness, let your life abide,
Let threads that flow loose be bound up and tied
Then even knotted fringes will carry God's grace
Through your own holiness, others will see God's face.
(Copyright ©2003 by Renee Miller)

What are the loose threads in your life that need to be gathered together? And what are the cloaks and knotted fringes into which you can draw your heart and soul as you give yourself more and more to the practice of becoming whole in God?

Gospel: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
30 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34 As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd;
and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep
without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. 53 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. 54 When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, 55 and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed. NRSV

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