"Them Holiness Folks"

Not far from the small town Methodist Church that licensed me to preach was an empty lot that stayed vacant except for one week out of the year.  On that exceptional week a big brown tent would suddenly appear along with at least a hundred wooden folding chairs and several hundred funeral homes fans.  The people who showed up in the evening to sit in those chairs and wave those fans were not like the orderly dignified Methodist folks who drove by this tent revival after dark to see what all the singing and shouting was about. 

When asked, the keepers of righteous order would say, "It was them holiness folks!"   Never did it occur those of us being shaped by the Methodist Church on the corner that "them holiness folks" was really us.  Holiness was not mentioned much on Sunday morning.  When the words, "baptism of the Holy Spirit" sounded across town from that turned wide open speaker system at the tent, we were mystified.  Sanctification might have been a part of the spiritual heritage of those Methodists on the corner, but it was mostly kept a secret.  

It was years later when I went to a college that had, "Holiness Unto the Lord" written in large bold letters across the front wall of the auditorium that I began to see and understand a different understanding of holiness.  It was true that the Scripture called believers to holy living (I Peter 1:15-16) and a familiar and much quoted word said, "Blessed are the pure in heart..." (Matthew 5:8), but it required a season of soaking before such words settled in my heart.  In a world in which the church seems to have lost its spiritual identity, maybe it needs to have a season of soaking in the words of Peter, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people..." (I Peter 2:9).