"...with a holy kiss."

Romans 16:16 "Greet one another with a a holy kiss."

Now I don't think we should go around making out in Jesus name (actually I do) but where did this practice go.

If you know anything about me you know I think that the bible is contextual. I don't believe it is limited by anything. After all it is the revelation of God and how dare we say God is limited in any way.

I do believe that there are mistakes in scripture. Not mistakes in the Truth (with a capital T), but mistakes that were caused by the human agency involved in writing them.

Back to the subject. So if scripture is contextual then that would mean that we don't have to take this passage literally to mean we should do the same. If we do a study of the culture at the time, we find that kisses were a common greeting. Like everything else "unique" to Christianity this was a practice stolen from Roman culture and "twisted" to make it new, and Christian. Paul adds holiness to the greeting kiss.

I really have no idea how a kiss is holy. The word holy means set apart for religious purpose, or relating to the divine. I guess it just means it was set apart as a greeting between believers. Who knows. The question is: What happened to this?

It is still common in European, and especially Mediterranean cultures for men and women alike to greet each other with a kiss (or multiple kisses!). In America that is lost. Why?

My thought is that we have become an isolationist country in every way possible. For a while we wanted nothing to do with any other countries. No treaties, high tariffs, embargoes. Then we realized we could financially benefit from other countries and trade. So we opened trade up some, but still limited it to benefit us (this is a whole other blog).

We value individualism. The man who can succeed on his own without any help receives all of the glory and is measured higher than team workers.

Getting help is a sign of weakness. If you accept help you are admitting to your own imperfection. Maybe rather than value isolationism we just worship it as a result of self-perfection.

This has led to many many many unhappy people. It separates us from each other, drives us to find community in other ways, or numb our brains to avoid the pain. It teaches us to hide our imperfections and act happy. It means that the needy (in whatever way) live with needs unmet.

It means that we separate ourselves from one of God's most powerful forms of revelation. It means we cannot follow God's will to the fullest. It means we kill Church (with a big C).

It leads to depression. It leads to mental illness. It leads to crime. It leads to crises of faith. It leads us to rely on ourselves and deny God's will.

How do we move from isolationism to community?

With a holy kiss. Greet the next christian you see with a fat smooch on the kisser.


or not...

At my church we have the obligatory meet your neighbor period after the invocation and before the second worship set. (I don't think you can call it worship without the meet 'n greet) One of the deacons recently brought up a great point (very passionately I might add!). We spend maybe 30-45 seconds greeting our "neighbors." This often ends up being the time we chit chat with our friends we are sitting with. Ziggy (the deacon) said that this is entirely too little time, and suggested we start increasing the time every week until we feel more comfortable with the time range.

How much can you get to know 4 or 5 people in 45 seconds? I am terrible with names, but usually if I learn something about you, I will remember your name. I don't have time to chat when I'm meeting 5 people in 45 seconds!

Increasing the time was a brilliant idea. But it is a very small solution to a very large problem (we have to start somewhere). You cannot create community. You can love, and you can try to show other people how to love.

So community went down the drain, and we realize that. Where do we go from here?