Holiness That Crosses the Street

When Peter wrote "be holy in all you do," the Greek word hagios didn't mean pristine or untouched. It meant set apart — dedicated to a purpose larger than yourself.

A friend of mine pastors a small congregation in Portland that lost half its members when they hung a rainbow flag outside. The ones who stayed started showing up earlier on Sundays — not for worship, but to clean up needles from the church parking lot where unhoused neighbors slept during the week. They installed an outdoor outlet so people could charge phones. They set out water jugs in August heat.

One longtime member told me, "I used to think holiness meant keeping myself pure — staying away from the wrong people, the wrong places. Now I think holiness means being so committed to the Beloved Community that you cross every street your comfort tells you not to."

This is what progressive faith recovers when it reads 1 Peter 1:15-16 honestly. The God who says "be holy, because I am holy" is the same God who — as Walter Brueggemann reminds us — consistently sides with the vulnerable and disrupts every system that sorts people into worthy and unworthy.