Separate Yourself

Our lives are filled with confusion. Our technology and our material possessions only contribute to this confusion. These cell phones and computers, they keep us from each other. Despite the claims of Facebook and the other Social Media Trends, this technology has not served to bring us closer together. We are more isolated from one another than ever before, as there is a wall of zeros, ones, electrons, and micro-chips that is growing. We can communicate with people on the other side of the world instantaneously, but is it worth it when we increasingly seclude ourselves from the people around us? Our lives are filled with chaos. We must separate ourselves from the chaos, and prepare a place for God to dwell in our lives.

In the Book of Genesis, God confronts chaos to create the world. We hear how God's face moved over the waters, with water being an ancient symbol for chaos and confusion. Then God begins to speak and the action that results from God's choice in vocabulary is the act of "separation." God "separated the light from the darkness" and the land from the sea. By separating things from one another, God created a space for us, all of creation, and himself to occupy. We can see clearly in these first passages of the Bible that God based our reality in a very strict order. Separating and organizing.

Ask yourself one thing: how do I establish order in my own life? Do I not separate and categorize the things in my life? This action creates a clean and ordered space. This action is natural to us, we use this simple method to fight the chaos of our own stressful existence. God uses this method in every moment to not only create our reality, but to sustain it and bring it salvation.

Let us see how:

My life is supposed to welcome God. Does a messy life welcome God? Can a messy life be a Holy life?

And so how do we become Holy, first we must know what Holiness is and for that we reach into the Scriptures. But it is here that we learn a principal. Something we can take with us to develop and own our Christian Faith. We do not have to become Masters of the Theological Study, we simply have to remember to separate ourselves from the chaos that unfolds in our lives; because with chaos comes confusion, and with confusion comes sin. With this principal we can take the scriptures with us everywhere we go on just the smallest kernel of knowledge.

This is a Biblical Theme (as unpronounced as it may be). Within Scripture the idea of "separating" ourselves from that which represents chaos and evil, is available at nearly every turn of the page. Sadly, in our own generation that message has gone unappreciated. So, it is no wonder that as a result, our world and our families in particular have fallen much deeper into chaos and confusion.

A quick overview:

In the Old Testament holiness was marked by a systematic approach towards purity. You cannot touch blood, you can only eat certain food, marrying outsiders was frowned upon. ... The idea is that what is “Holy” must be separated from that which is “profane" or unholy. The ancient Israelites had to separate themselves from all other people. This is what we call the Covenant, with the Covenant came the Ark, the Ten Commandments, the Temple, and eventually the Holy Virgin Mary.

Jesus fulfilled the purpose of this covenant system, he fulfilled the law as it was often said of him.

But how?

The Purpose of the Old Covenant (the Ten Commandments, the Law, the Prophets, the Old Testament) was to separate one group of people (the Israelites who by Jesus’ time were called the Jews) from the sin of Adam and Eve, so that one day a New Covenant could be made between God and everyone, not just the Israelites.

As others in Jesus’ era (the Pharisees) forgot the very purpose of this law system, making it a means to its own end, Jesus, fulfilling the Old Covenant, separated humankind from its former sinful self so that we may be restored to God in a New Covenant. This means that Jesus did not separate some people from other people, as the ancient Covenant did, but instead as the New Covenant Jesus truly separates people from our former sinful state brought on by Adam and Eve. He fulfills the purpose of the Old Covenant so that the New Covenant can be made.

What does this mean for you? Scripture can give us true principals that we should use to order our lives and separate ourselves from chaos and sin.

An explanation with more detail if you prefer:

In Scripture this idea remains consistent from the time of Adam through the New Testament:

Let us look closely at some examples that come out of scripture.

God created the world in a way similar to how we clean up our own space. In days 1, 2, and 3 God created space by the process of “separation,” separating the light from the dark and the waters above from the waters below. As a result of separating things from one another, a "space" was created. We see this again with the Ten Commandments (when God has Moses prepare the Ark of the Covenant) and with the Virgin Mary.

Elements in creation are separated, space is created, then God uses that space.

In days 4, 5, and 6 of creation God filled this space with creatures that were meant to dwell in each space, the land, the air, and the sea. In the final day God separated and prepared a space for himself to rest, this is what we call the Sabbath. God separated it for his own purpose: God's purpose is Holiness, and His day was kept separate from all the rest.

When God's Created Order was made in Genesis, it was Good and Complete. However, with the fall of man and the introduction of sin, the created order was spun into chaos. As a result of sin, God's creativity has been acting in history and in the lives of individuals like yourselves to make us all new creations in Christ, God's goal in all of this is to separate us from our former sinful state.

God begins to act in human history with a goal in mind in order to restore humanity, the first thing he does is separate us from the reality of sin inaugurated by Adam and Eve. To do this God baptized the entire world with a great flood and separated one human being, Noah, bringing him to the other side of that event. Every human from then on, having descended from Noah, was separated to a certain degree from the sin that Adam and Eve introduced in our world. However, a certain continuity still remains. The Covenant between Noah and God began the separation.

Separating humans from the chaos of sin began with Noah, and then History moved on:

With Moses and the Ten Commandments, God began to “separate” the Ancient Covenant People with the other nations and peoples that surrounded them. God acted in human history as he had done at the beginning (he separated things) and as a result of separating holy people from unholy people a space was created at the center of the Israelite community, in that space God placed his own name to dwell, this was embodied in the Ark of the Covenant, the Ten Commandments, the Temple, and eventually the Holy Virgin Mary.

At the end of Exodus, beginning in Chapter 34 and through the Book's conclusion we witness the Israelites preparing a very special place at the center of their camp. In this place God’s name was meant to dwell among the ancient people. This place was the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Tent that was meant to surround it, later the Temple was built to house the Ark. The importance of this structure and the Ark is centered around the Ten Commandments. This structure housed the Ten Commandments. So when God was providing the ancients with the covenant and the commandments, he did so for a very specific reason:

Leviticus 20: 24-26, "... I am the Lord your God, who have separated you from the peoples ... You shall be holy to me ; for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine."

So now we have a Holy creation, our reality. We have a Holy People, the ancient Israelites, but that is not enough. We still are too corrupt of a world to welcome God. Sin is still present.

So for God to enter our world and dwell among us, the most immaculate of spaces must be prepared for the ultimate purposes of God. This space must be immaculate and separated from the profane.

As Christians we call the Virgin Mary "Holy" because she was separated as Holy from an already separated and Holy people, for the ultimate purposes of God. Like the Ark and the Temple before her ... So that God may dwell in our reality. So that his presence can separate us from our former sinful state.

Before we conclude let us look at this Scriptural outpouring a little closer:

Why?

All of the Law (10 Commandments), the Ark, the Temple, the entire Old Testament was meant to produce one thing …

Through all the struggle and turmoil, intermittent periods of Temple and Prophecy, one person sits at the top of the entire ancient and Holy covenant tradition (the Old Testament) ...

A human being that is free from the effects of Sin caused by Adam and Eve (Original Sin) …

Mary. Mary is the Immaculate Conception, born free from all sin. Born Pure. Born Holy. That is what the Old Covenant was capable of bringing, one Immaculate Conception. God Separated Mary and her Womb.

With Mary, God can finally enter the world.

So, with Mary we reach a zenith, a climax, in purity and Holiness that allows God to enter our world incarnate (in the flesh). The Old Testament is the cocoon, Mary is the pinnacle of the narrative, Christ is the Butterfly that emerges.

Let us conclude by first talking about Jesus and then reflecting on our own lives.

When Jesus enters our reality he begins the process of including everyone into the fold of God's people. No more separating people from other people, now we are all one community as the world has been prepared for its salvation in Christ.

Jesus including everyone, and no longer separating people, is a radical change and this change is centered around Jesus’ ministry. It is of course in tune with the way the Bible depicts and expresses divine activity but it adds an ethical component to the idea of holiness:

Please allow me to explain:

Holiness is always defined by ones proximity to God (closeness to God). The Ancients had to separate themselves from others to grow closer to God; to fulfill God’s plan in the midst of a highly sinful world. The Christian worldview, however, determines ones proximity to God by how they interact with others.

You are only as close to God, as you are close to your family, friends, and neighbors.

So now we are to prepare the space for God in our lives by loving and accepting everyone into the community of God. In doing this we recognize that we ourselves, are in constant need to prepare for communion with God. We must prepare the space within us if we desire for God to dwell among us. So we prepare by properly ordering our lives, Separating ourselves from the confusion and chaos, and by being a welcoming and charitable community.

When we clean up and organize our own lives, we make ourselves and our shared space –at one- with Jesus who restores people to God and shrouds what comes out of the O.T. in a redemptive light which reclaims a sinful people to God by separating them from their former sinful self. Not by separating them from other people.

As we move through this exercise we have already began the process of personal purification. By the power of the Holy Spirit Jesus becomes the vessel by which God’s Kingdom enters our reality. And God's kingdom, unlike ancient Israel is inclusive for the sake of Holiness.

There are no Outcasts …

Jesus is not contaminated by impurity but instead embodies a type of holiness that is contagious and can confront what was once impure, to make it pure and holy. We see this in Jesus’ encouragement to share meals with outsiders (Luke 5:27-39; 15:1-2; 19:1-10), here Jesus restores the marginalized to communion with God. We see this in Jesus’ willingness to make contact with the traditional sources of impurity (leprosy, blood, corpses), here Jesus is also restoring a particular population (outcasts) into the community fold, and into communion with God.

Jesus is not separating the outcasts as was custom, he was bringing them into the community fold so that the entire community may be separated from humankind's former sinful state. All notions of “separation” have evolved in the lens of the Christ event. The goal is to restore and reclaim God’s people, with Christ inclusiveness has come to serve holiness.

We no longer separate ourselves from each other, but instead a whole community we separate ourselves from humankind's former and sinful ways. As a community we separate ourselves from chaos and confusion.

Separate Yourself because: We Are Holy

2 Corinthians 5:17: "So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come."

The new creation that is I and you, is SEPARATE from our former-selves.

We are a Temple for the Holy Spirit, ask yourself: IS THE SPACE PREPARED? - What in my life do I need to separate myself from so that I, so that we, might become closer to God?

These barriers are also the same barriers that keep us from fulfilling our own identity and character. They keep us from answering our baptismal call and they keep us from answering our vocation in life.

they could be physical - messy room, scattered home life;

they could be social - do I have the right people in my life;

or emotional - am I becoming the person I want to be?

What do you have to separate yourself from so that you might become Holy?

Our lives are becoming increasingly filled with anxiety and stress, our days grow chaotic, our purpose becomes confused. We need to separate ourselves from the Chaos and create order in our lives - to show that in Christ we are indeed new creations.

Finally, Our Families are the Domestic Church - we contribute to our families Holiness. Have we preserved our families holiness or have we compromised it by acting inappropriately, by bringing the wrong people into your life and under your families roof, or by embracing the chaos of our modern reality and allowing that to infect your personal space. It is never too late to do the right thing.

Separate Yourself.