Matthew
5:38-48
The last verse of this morning’s
gospel lesson is one that gives a lot of people pause:
“Be
perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” [Matthew 5:48]
Well
it should, too, as I don’t know anybody without shortcomings. The kind of perfection that Jesus asks of us,
though, isn’t that kind of perfection.
It’s more a matter of being the person that God wants us to be at the
point we find ourselves, accepting that there are limitations simply because
(news flash!) we aren’t God. From there
the Lord can and will make more of us.
To be perfect doesn’t mean that you are done, but that you are on the
way.
I may have used this example before,
because it’s one of my favorites, so forgive me if I’m repeating myself. One time, many years ago, a little girl was
asked to introduce herself and she said, “My name is Martha Bowers Taft. My great-grandfather was President of the
United States. My grandfather was a
United States Senator. My daddy is
ambassador to Ireland. And I am a
Brownie.” For a child her age, that is
really and truly a great accomplishment.
I have no doubt that she was as good a Brownie as there ever was, and
that she ended up with a whole sash covered in badges.
God doesn’t ask us to go beyond our
capacity, but he does look for us to expand our capacity. No girl stays a Brownie forever, you know. A girl that has been a Brownie, however, will
understand the whole Girl Scout thing better when she reaches that age, though,
and (here’s a plug for all kinds of Scouting – and all kinds of intentional
ministry with children and youth) a girl who has been through Scouts and maybe
even Explorers will have a better understanding of who she is as an adult.
God pushes us to find more within us
than we know is there. Think of what it
takes to do those things that Jesus mentions in the Sermon on the Mount.
“I say to you, Do not
resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the
other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your
cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second
mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who
wants to borrow from you.” [Matthew 5:39-42]
That
takes courage. That takes a kind of stubbornness. That takes the kind of refusal to hate that
is far from automatic, but requires a conscious act of will. When the Civil Rights Movement sent people to
sit at lunch counters across the South, knowing that they would not be served,
they did not send people out at random or without first informing them what
kind of abuse they would likely face while they sat there and offering specific
training on how to withstand it with dignity.
When the atmosphere turns ugly it is natural to change with it. People had to be taught to rise above it, as
Jesus said to do, and as he himself did when he was hauled away and mocked and
tortured. Again, that has to be learned.
Learning the rules like, “Don’t meet
force with force,” or, “When they go low, go high,” is only part of it. Moving on means paying attention to the
deeper questions of “How?” and “Why?”
How do you move toward greater
perfection? It takes love and it takes
prayer.
“Love your enemies and
pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your
Father in heaven.”
The love may not be
there but the prayer always can be, and one of those prayers can be, “Lord,
teach me to love this …okay, this child of yours.” Now, wouldn’t that change your outlook? It might lead down a whole different
path. It might be narrower and rockier, because
if you learn to care about a difficult person then God may send you another one
who also needs love, but Jesus said that narrow and rocky is what the road to
heaven is like.
Love is the “why” part
of it. Love is what keeps a soul growing
into the image of God, which is the goal.
God’s love is given to the person who needs it, and that’s
everybody.
“He makes his sun rise
on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the
unrighteous.” [Matthew 5:45]
I mentioned the Civil
Rights sit-ins, so of course I cannot neglect Dr. King’s insight when he said,
“When we look beneath the surface, beneath the
impulsive evil deed, we see within our enemy-neighbor a measure of goodness and
know that the viciousness and evilness of his acts are not quite representative
of all that he is. We see him in a new
light. We recognize that his hate grows
out of fear, pride, ignorance, prejudice, and misunderstanding, but in spite of
this, we know God’s image is etched ineffably in his being. Then we love our enemies by realizing that
they are not totally bad and that they are not beyond the reach of God’s
redemptive love.”[1]
God’s love isn’t
earned because somebody is good. It is
given freely to the most or least loveable, and when received in faith sets to
work making us good, however long the project takes. God’s love itself is there all the way along,
start to finish.
I was struck by
something I read the other day, which was a reflection by someone I only sort
of half-know, who shared what in old-fashioned language might be called her
witness. It was about where she went off
course and how she got back on track.
She wrote,
“Today is a milestone because I have been sober for 9 years and drug
free for nearly 20 years. My life is more wonderful than I ever could have
imagined, and it all began with a small amount of willingness when I decided to
give up alcohol. For today, I am humble and grateful to those people who stood
by me through my struggles. I lost a lot of people I extremely care for due to
my choices. I fell a million times, and yet kept pushing forward. I am truly
grateful for so many people and things in my life. I am so
grateful for the ability to say, ‘I am sorry,’ waking up to sunshine on a
Sunday morning and my recent choice to go back to school to pursue my degree in
Web Design. [My son,] who suffered the most from my drinking, has turned into
an awesome young man and our relationship still continues to grow stronger.
Today, I smile from my heart and I’m so happy to finally be the real me. Thank
you to GOD, my friends, family, co-workers and so many more people for their
prayers, support and understanding through this journey in my life. Thank you
all for being part of my life. I am humble for this journey.”
That was
her story, and everyone has their own.
People come up against all sorts of enemies, both external and internal,
and there are all sorts of struggles to be faced. Addiction, pride, resentment, fear,
loneliness, greed, apathy – this and so much else we meet in other people and
in ourselves, and each roadblock has to be passed somehow, and with God’s help
we get through or go around.
It’s an overused expression, but we
are all on a journey. We are moving on
from where we are to where God wants us.
If we are moving in God’s direction, we are moving the right way, and
even if we pass through the valley of the shadow of death, he is with us.
Simply
to walk with God, come what may, that itself is perfection.
[1]
Martin Luther King, Jr., “Loving Your Enemies” in Strength to Love (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), 36.
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