Holiness is odd

I find it interesting that it seems that most people both in and out of the church have the impression of Christianity that it is somehow a rule based religion. I'm not surprised at this, however, but disapointed. This has effected not only my life and how I view God, but it has effected so many other people. The view of God's holiness seems to be a casualty in this fallout. I am wondering, however, if we thought about holiness in broader terms. Holiness brings images of right behavior and actions usually moral correctness (if that's a word) and this certainly is part of that image of God being Holy. What if we were to think that God in his holiness saved those of us who were enemies. What does it mean that a holy God would save and redeem those who are not Holy? Maybe some may think that holiness and redemption are not really compatible as if a holy God expects holiness to be seen as worthy. Maybe it is God's holiness that "drove" him to redemption. Maybe what it means for God to be holy is that he out of his nature redeems those that are lost. Maybe holiness is not a level of moral purity for us to achieve, but is (in addition to morality) it is a way of life that drives us to redeem the lost and to bring the reconciling nature of God to those who are still lost. Maybe when God tells us to be holy because he is holy it's not just telling us to live according to some kind of ethical standard, but is also a way to live out our life that impacts the world, transforms the world and brings the message of this amazing and incomprehensibly wonderful and loving God to a lost and broken world. Holiness then means more than an ethical standard, but is something that characterizes how and why we live our lives the way we do. If the holiness of God means that he redeems the lost then we if we are to be holy because God is holy, transformed into his image, must also be characterized by this redemptive nature. To be holy then as God is holy is to live according to an ethical standard, but it goes beyond not smoking, having premarital sex or whatever, but it tells us to look to see how God functions, what God does, and who God is and to then go and do likewise.

Tithing=Party!

I have often wondered what OT and NT evidence there was for the contemporary practice and understanding of tithing. I found some. Deuteronomy 14:22-29. It's interesting to note, however, that this (at least this section) does not really translate into the practice of tithing as we understand it today. This tithe was a collection of a family's harvest and animal herds. It is a 10% collection, but the ten percent was not used to support the temple and pay the heating bills of the building. Rather this tithe was to be used for a party. This wasn't even the 10% that should be given to support the Levites. The Scripture says to not neglect or forget the Levites, but the food that was collected as a tithe was eaten at the temple as an act of worship so that the people would learn to revere the Lord. So imagine this, you have saved 10% of your income for an entire year and are going to spend it all on a party at church. Not only you, but everyone in the church would bring their 10%!!! Now that would be quite a party!!!
I particularly like the reference to those who sell their crop and bring the money to purchase food near the temple (because they are too far away from the temple). They are told they can buy whatever food they want including "wine and other fermented drink." That's right, this party was (at least in part) a keg party!!
So how do we get from this to tithing 10% of our income to support the church? That's a good question. Surely there is something to the giving the Levites a share in the food and fermented drink, since the Levites didn't have an inheritance or land for that matter to take care of themselves. But this portion would certainly be less than 10% of the total. Maybe the important thing to remember was that there was only one temple and one caste of priests for the entire country. There was not a diffused population of priests throughout every village and major city that had to be supported by a much smaller (proportionately) population.
I think though we shouldn't overlook the obvious conclusion: the importance of the party!
Look at the OT sacrificial system. All sacrifices were eaten by those offering it (i.e. a huge BBQ), Jesus' ministry began by providing alcohol to a wedding feast, and the consumation of all things at the last day will be at yet another party. I think it a Biblical mandate then to have frequent parties at church and incorporate them as an act of worship!! plus beer of course, it's Biblical after all.

Citizens of Heaven

What is salvation? Are we simply saved from our sins and then we get to go to heaven and exist in a blissful stress free paradise for all eternity eating whatever we want without the harmful effects? Or is there something more that is going on when we become saved?
Maybe if we started thinking of salvation as a real change in our lives from one thing to another many things in our faith would line up a bit more?
I have read Philippians 3:20 (our citizenship is in heaven) and have heard it from others that this is basically a nice centiment. The thinking is that sure things go badly down here on earth and sometimes bad things happen to good people and maybe we're persecuted for our faith, but we shouldn't be too worried Our citizenship is in heaven." It's something more of a wish or a future hope that comforts us now in our misery, but what if there's more to it than that?
What if we thought of salvation as a transfer of citizenship, something that was real in this world?
I like to think of the movie the Matrix when it comes to salvation. Neo is freed from the mental prison the machines have created to enslave humanity. He has been released from one world only to learn that the world he has been released into is not what he thought. He has been freed from one and transfered to another. In a sense he is no longer a citizen of the matrix and his citizenship is somewhere else. When he reenters the matrix he sees it in a whole new light. More importantly he doesn't exist in the matrix as if he was a citizen of the matrix, rather he lives like someone who has been freed from it, hence he is chased and "persecuted" by the agents of the matrix, the gatekeepers of the prison. What Neo lives for and the way he runs his life in the matrix has been irrevocably altered because of his transfer of freedom into the real world.
This does seem to be the picture that salvation in the christian context is all about. There is an act of release from prison to sin through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But for many people this is where the thinking stops. The christian life, however, is all about living in the reality of the liberating death of Christ. Something real, profound and deeply unsettling has hapened in the life of the neophyte Christian. Her life has changed and she can not live as if she had not become a citizen of heaven. Romans 6:1-10 talks about Jesus giving us a new life, but there is no reference that this is a new life that only lies in wait in heaven. In fact the new life begins now and here on earth. There is a tension that now exists in the life inbetween this present world and the new creation. These are the two realities that now exist for those of us who have been freed from sin. This old self is something that like clothing we must take off (Ephesians 4:22-24) and the new self created by Christ is something we must put on like clothing. So salvation is not something that we arrive at and wait to go to heaven. Rather salvation is a new reality for those who have been freed by the blood of Christ in which we are to live now in this world.
So, maybe when paul says we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12-13) what he is saying is that we must live our lives striving to live in the way and by the pattern of the new creation and not of this world. Maybe if we can get beyond the quagmire of morality that gums up the issue of salvation (i.e. heaven is for good people, hell is for bad people) we can see that those who have been transfered to the new creation, in its embryonic stage, must, in order to arrive at heaven, live in that pattern and on that path now.
Additionally, there is the eschatological hope of Christians that one day the new heaven and the new earth will be all there is. Paul states that this earth in it's corruption and decay is passing away (1 Cor 7:31). How then can we continue to live our lives according to the pattern of this world expect to walk into the reality of the new heaven and the new creation? Peter states in 2 Peter 3:11-13 that since this present world is going to be destroyed by fire, what type of person should we be now. Salvation then is 99.99% related to the here and now. I think this is what James is getting at when he says in James 2:14-19ff that faith without works is dead. Think about it. If salvation really is about the here and now as we look forward to the new heaven and the new earth can someone who does not demonstrate a changed pattern of life really say that they are saved? Heaven then is not simply the end of this life, but it is the goal of those striving and working out their salvation here in this world, living with their citizenship in heaven and running in a way to finish the race. This life here and now is to be a life changing and altering experience that along the way we put off our old selves and put on our new selves created to be in the new heaven and the new earth so that when we do enter heaven it is because our life has been leading there.
Okay that was rather long