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Brothers and sisters, pray for us. Greet all God\u2019s people with a holy kiss. I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. (1 Thessalonians 5:25-28)

Kissing people who are not my family is not something I do. \xa0Or at least, it wasn\u2019t until I met my wife. \xa0Now I regularly kiss friends and acquaintances as well. \xa0Why the change? \xa0Some of you may already know. \xa0

Americans have no cultural practice of kissing people with whom you are not already in some way, intimate. \xa0But the Dutch do\u2014as do any number of cultures around the world\u2014and my wife is Dutch. \xa0The Dutch have a standard tradition of \u201cthree Dutch kisses\u201d that one performs as a greeting when encountering anyone you know reasonably well. \xa0Not on the lips mind you, but kisses applied to the cheek, or just to the air next to the cheek\u2014first to the right, then flipping around to do the same thing on the left, then flipping back round to the right. \xa0Three Dutch \u201ckisses.\u201d

This cultural convention at first seemed terribly intimate and intrusive to me. \xa0When I said so\u2014my wife noted how she found the American greeting\u2014which tends much more often to be a hug with those same friends and acquaintances\u2014to be far more intimate and invasive. \xa0The Dutch, after all, do not press their bodies together like the Americans do.

It\u2019s all in what your used to, I suppose. \xa0The \u201choly kiss\u201d of Paul\u2019s writing is one of those Biblical commands that we assume to be culturally constructed--just like the American hug or the three Dutch kisses. \xa0Even though the Holy Kiss shows up four different times in Paul\u2019s letters as a command to the Christian community\u2014you will notice that we do not obey this command (and to my knowledge, the Dutch churches don\u2019t either). \xa0Herein then lies one of the interpretive principles of Bible reading. \xa0

When we read Paul\u2019s letters, we are reading someone else\u2019s mail. \xa0We are not the Thessalonians Paul was writing to. \xa0Nor do we live in the times with its cultural customs that the Thessalonians lived in. \xa0So when we interpret things like this, what we\u2019re looking for is the intent or purpose of the command\u2014a principle that can be applied in our own time, place, and culture.

So what was this \u201choly kiss\u201d? \xa0Later in the early church, it became known as the \u201ckiss of peace.\u201d \xa0In some church traditions still today there is a section of the worship service called \u201cpassing the peace\u201d which carries some residue from this practice. \xa0Even our own periodic \u201cgreet one another as God has greeted you\u201d moments at the beginning of our service carries something of it.

The \u201choly kiss\u201d was a moment in worship, often connected with the Lord\u2019s Supper, where fellowship and unity was affirmed, but also where reconciliation was worked out. \xa0To offer this sign of intimate fellowship and unity required seeing the other as one whom Christ had forgiven and who I ought also to forgive (or confess before, as the case may be). \xa0A sense grew up in the churches of \u201ccon-spiring\u201d together through this kiss\u2014quite literally a \u201cbreathing together\u201d or a sharing the \u201cSpirit together.\u201d \xa0For, as Paul says in Ephesians 4: \u201cthere is one body and one Spirit,\u201d right after he implores the church to \u201ckeep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace\u201d (Eph 4:3-4). \xa0

Whatever the cultural form\u2014this remains an important command and a good reminder at the end of this letter. \xa0 We ought always to continue to seek to manifest the one Spirit of Christ that makes the church Holy through working out\u2014as tangibly as a kiss\u2014our reconciliation with one another through confession and forgiveness. \xa0As we do so, may \u201cthe grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.\u201d

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together\u2014spirit, soul, and body\u2014and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he\u2019ll do it! The amazing grace of Jesus Christ be with you! (1 Thessalonians 5:23,24,28 The Message).

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