Justice as a question of piety vs. holiness

Last updated on: July 17, 2014 at 2:25 pm by Morgan Guyton

Justice as a question of piety vs. holiness 2014-07-17T14:25:24-05:00 Morgan Guyton

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

With it being Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, we preached on justice as our sermon series topic this weekend. For my text, I used Isaiah 58, where Isaiah confronts the people of Israel for fasting without justice. God’s people have often pursued devotional practices that “honor” God not only to the exclusion of treating other people justly but as a means of legitimating their lack of justice. I often call this pitting love of God against love of neighbor. As I was contemplating Isaiah 58, it hit me that our sensibilities about justice are often derived in whether we are seeking piety or holiness in our religious life. Here is my sermon audio.

I. Piety

Piety is a zeal for doing and saying the right things according to your value system. This need not be a religious phenomenon. Political correctness would be an example of a certain kind of piety, just like buying all organic food or only listening to music from underground record labels. The information age and social media have made piety largely about taking positions in support of or opposition to certain issues. The political polarization of our society makes being “moderate” into an attractive piety, which allows for some variety in coming up with combinations of “likes” and “dislikes.”

Since Protestant evangelicalism defines itself against “religious ritual,” evangelical religious piety consists almost exclusively in saying the right things about God, although having a “daily quiet time” and a rigorous Bible reading schedule would be two major exceptions. What’s paradoxical about evangelical piety is that one of its most important sensibilities involves a disavowal of our pursuit of piety. We say that what we do and say is “all about Jesus,” when in fact it’s all about us saying that it’s all about Jesus. The more emphatically we deny having any personal agenda in our piety, the more clearly we illustrate the importance of being seen disavowing our personal agenda.

In Isaiah’s day, fasting was the means of expressing religious piety. The purpose of this piety is revealed in Isaiah 58:3 when the people complain, “‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’” When fasting is done for the purposes of showcasing one’s zeal for honoring God, then it only serves its purpose if God notices it.

II. Holiness

People pursuing holiness do many of the same things as people pursuing piety. The difference is that the motives for a person seeking holiness are more openly selfish and emotionally needy. They don’t need to explain their actions in pious formulations, because holiness is not about showcasing correctness; it’s about experiencing sacredness. A person seeking holiness engages in spiritual practices to get away from the stress, anxiety, grief, and other turbulences of fleshly existence that are created by sin. It is a question of finding peace and connecting with God, or as Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 5:4, getting “swallowed up by [eternal] life.”

Holiness is not as much a quality that we exhibit in our character as it is a reality that God allows us to enter. When we are intimate with God, His holiness becomes part of our reality. One of the casualties of the evangelical manufacture of God experience as stadium hype is that we have created the false impression that it is easy to get to close to God. It really isn’t. God isn’t the goosebumpy feeling that you get from a Christian rock song or a motivational speaker who knows how to architect a “powerful” experience with the right combination of funny, serious, tear-jerking, and heart-pounding. Much of the time when we talk to God having been infused with these expectations, we’re putting on an act of piety for someone we are projecting as a conversation partner.

Here’s how this all connects back to Isaiah 58 and the question of fasting (or practices of religious devotion in general). While those seeking piety fast in order to demonstrate their zeal for God, those seeking holiness fast in order to come to the place of weakness and dependency in which God is authentically encountered. While the pious person packages what they’re doing to say that it’s “all about God,” what they’re really seeking is recognition for being theocentric. The person seeking holiness has no problem saying that they’re exploiting religious practices in order to stop feeling like a train-wreck, because what they want very selfishly and impiously is a real taste of God.

III. How does this relate to justice?

I think that the question of whether we are pursuing piety or holiness in relation to God is decisive in determining our attitudes about justice toward other people. Since piety is about correctness, justice to a pious person is about treating other people correctly by not showing favoritism in rewarding good behavior and punishing bad behavior appropriately. I can help other people as part of my display of piety, but that isn’t justice per se. To a pious person, sharing food, providing shelter, and clothing the naked (Isaiah 58:7) can only be called justice if I directly caused someone else to be hungry, homeless, or naked.

But the pursuit of holiness in fasting and religious devotion results in a very different perspective of justice. If I am fasting not to showcase my correctness but to gain an encounter with God’s presence, then justice has to do with whether others are able to have the same encounters I am privileged to have. It is unjust for there to be any circumstance in other peoples’ life that would get in the way of their ability to know God as I have known Him. Furthermore, it is unjust to God’s name for His existence to be misjudged on the basis of my aloofness to other peoples’ suffering.

God instituted the fast days and other mitzvot of the Jewish Torah not to give His people an opportunity to showcase their correctness, a.k.a. “glorify Him” (in pious language), but in order to provide the means for their transformation into disciples who were zealous about caring for one another. True holiness makes us want to honor the Hebrew justice of mishpat, a quest to discern what will bring everyone in our community shalom, and not just the Roman justice of iustitia, in which I have fulfilled my obligation as long as nobody can claim any trespasses or debts against me. Let us not allow our piety to keep us from tasting God’s holiness.

Previous Post

January 20, 2013

Who is Romans 9:22-23 talking about? (A response to Greg Boyd)

Next Post

January 21, 2013 I'm glad my church pays for my birth control

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Beauty Will Save the World Bible Big Picture: Ephesians Bloggers Book Christian salvation and the Beautitudes Culture Daily Office Danceable Homiletics Deadly Sins Deep Roots: Genesis Devotions Dominican Republic May 2011 El Principio Misericordia (The Mercy Principle) Five verses God tattooed on my heart Fundraising FutureGospel Good Biblical Words Henri Nouwen Interview Jennings' Christian Imagination Jesus inside the beltway Jesus Is My Candidate Jesus vs the Pharisees Jesus vs. Plato Journey to Eternity Looking Back on 2012 Love Actually Monday Merton Monday Merton Music Occupy the manger On Earth As It Is In Heaven Original Sin Podcast Poetry Politics Prayer Psalm 119 Radical Jesus 101 Reviews Sermon on the Mount Sermons Spanish Bible study Special Series Spiritual but not religious Synchroblog Theology Things that made me think Thomas a Kempis Ugliness Into Beauty Uncategorized Viaje Dominicano 2013 Walking in the Valley (Lent) Welcome: It's More than a Mat Wild Goose 2013 Wrestling

Select a Month March 2022 January 2022 December 2021 September 2021 April 2021 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What is the distinctive cup used in receiving communion in many traditions?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Plate Chalice Bowl Jug