Sanctification

Here is the text to my talk, in PDF format! Enjoy! What is "Sanctification"? The easy answer is that it's the process of making something 'sacred', which is another word for 'holy'. The basis of this word is set-apartness or specialness. The word in most languages comes from the religious realm, and it signifies that some things or people have been marked out as special, as different, as acceptable or welcomed by the god. Underlying this concept is a recognition that there's something about the world that's not quite right, and that special measures must be taken in order for something to be fit to be in the god's presence. And that's what we see in the Wilderness. Egypt is not the Promised Land. Slaves are not free. The Dead are not living. God is the god not of the dead, but of the living. Not of slaves, but of free. Not of Egypt, but of the Promised Land. So when we ask how we're sanctified, how we're made holy, we're asking how we learn to live as God's children instead of Egypt's slaves. And as we saw last week, that happens out here in the wilderness, in that place between Egypt and the Promised Land, between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.

Podcast: Download (0.0KB)