1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master
builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder
must choose with care how to build on it.
For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has
been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit
dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that
person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in
this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. For the
wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches
the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of
the wise, that they are futile.”
So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are
yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the
present or the future—all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and
Christ belongs to God.
Matthew 5:38-48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth.’ But 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.
“You have heard that
it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you, so
that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on
the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the
unrighteous. For if you love
those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do
the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you
doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your
heavenly Father is perfect.
+++
For
four weeks we have been spending time with Jesus at the sermon on the
mount. And we have been reading from
Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth. Our
focus while reading these scriptures is on getting down to the basics, trying
to keep things simple in our faith and our life. So what are these simple facts that we can
live by?
We
began with being united in Christ. The challenge of looking at someone with whom
you disagree – maybe violently – and seeing in that person a beloved child of
God. Then we talked about being an example. When we encounter hate, our Christian calling
asks us to resist with love. The world
seems to love violence, but as Christians, we are called upon to show an
alternative way. The way Jesus put it in
his sermon, being salt and light in the world, because when we do that, we
bring a little bit of the kingdom of God into this world. Others might respond and do likewise.
Last
week we talked about being honest,
and that means, first and foremost, being honest with yourself. Once we have courageously looked at our own
flaws with open eyes, and forgiven ourselves, we can work on creating more
authentic relationships with others. It
is, once again, basically about relationships between people.
This
week we are going to talk about being
perfect. I did not choose that word
– Jesus did. I realize it is a word that
makes us feel very uncomfortable. So
let’s talk about that.
Folks
at the roundtable had stories to share about perfectionists they have
known. Listening to each of the stories,
it became clear that when we insist on perfection for ourselves, we become
unhappy. It’s miserable. Because if you are shooting for personal
perfection, again and again and again you will fail. And for a perfectionist, failure is not an
option.
I
know this well. I am a recovering
perfectionist.
I
remember the moment I fully realized this.
I was book-browsing and I came across a book cover that showed a row of
three people sitting in chairs facing the camera. They appeared to be judges in a competition –
the kind of thing you might see at diving or gymnastics competitions. After a competitor performs, the judges each hold
up a big card with a number on it to indicate how they have rated the
performance. In this picture, one judge
held up a 10, the next judge held up a 10, and the third judge held up 9.5 –
and my instant reaction was to zoom in on the 9.5 and think, “what did I do
wrong?” Because when I looked at the
book cover it looked like they were judging me.[1]
This
is what a perfectionist does. We hate to
see any evidence that we are not perfect.
But, of course, we all know that we are not perfect. In fact, our faith tells us this in so many
ways. Each week we confess our sins,
reminding ourselves that we all fall short of the glory of God. A colleague recently described leading a
group of church members in a Bible study.
When she suggested a prayer of confession, they declined, saying they
were not aware of any sins they had committed this week. But the central story of our faith is the
story about how God came down to earth, took on human flesh, and suffered and
died for the salvation of the world. The
world could not save itself. The world
still cannot save itself. We are
hopelessly flawed.
How,
then, are we to understand Jesus’ command to be perfect? How is it possible for sinners to be
perfect?
Take
a deep breath.
The
idea of perfection stresses us out. We start
to look for loopholes, or alternative understandings of this sentence –
nitpicking the definition of the word.
What do we call this?
Legalism. At the roundtable, we
looked at a different translation of the verse that said, “just as your
heavenly Father is complete in
showing love to everyone, so also you must be complete.” The word that
most versions translate as “perfect,” this other one translates as
“complete.” Somehow, this word feels
more acceptable. We said, “Perfect, I
can’t do, but complete sounds like something I can manage.” But, in this context? Can you be completely loving to
everyone? Really? Even if we substitute a different word, we
are still trapped in the same impossible situation. And it leads some of us to take some
shortcuts.
I
have been reading Hillbilly Elegy[2] for our upcoming book
discussion group, and I was especially interested in the section where the
author, JD, describes the religious experiences of his childhood. He attended church with his father where the primary
concern seemed to be criticizing other Christians – those who weren’t Christian
enough. In his church, he heard more
about what they called the “gay lobby” and the “war on Christmas” than he did
about any particular character trait that a Christian should aspire to
have. Morality was defined by drawing
the lines far away from the things that would be a part of their personal
experience. Morality was defined as not
participating in this or that, things which these church members wouldn’t be
likely to participate in anyway. JD
writes, “church required so little of me.
It was easy to be a Christian.”
One
thing I know about the Christianity of Jesus is that it is not easy. It demands something of us, something that
feels impossible at times. It demands
that we see ourselves as the temple of God, the dwelling place of God’s Spirit. It demands that we become salt and light,
that we love one another, and furthermore, that we take an honest inventory of
our shortcomings as we strive toward perfection. Perfection!
You
know, there is a huge difference between simple and easy. It is easy to say, “Don’t be gay,” if you are
not gay. There is nothing particularly
virtuous about saying, “Don’t be gay.”
It is harder to say, “Love your enemies and reconcile with those who
have harmed you.” And it is even harder
to practice it.
But
the simplicity is found when we seek the truth about these things. We find that it is only through God that any
of this is possible. Like any addict who
has worked through the 12 Steps can tell us, the first step is admitting you
are powerless over these things, whatever your particular addiction or sin
might be. The second step is to realize
that only a higher power, only God, can save you. The third step is to turn your life over to
God’s care.
I
ran into an old friend recently I had not seen in a while. He told me he just celebrated a year of
sobriety. I congratulated him, saying I
know it’s not easy. He said, “without
God it’s impossible. With God, it’s
easy.” Easy.
Maybe
it truly does feel easy to him at this moment, especially compared to how impossible
his life was before. It won’t always be
easy, because we are human beings who all fall short of the glory of God. And
it is to all us sinful human beings Jesus is speaking when he says to be
perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
what does he mean when he says be perfect? look at everything he has been saying for the
past 48 verses. He means to do more than
what is expected of you, to let your righteousness exceed the Scribes and the
Pharisees, to be salt and light. It
won’t always be easy, but it will be simple – as simple as the command to love
God and love one another. Foolishly
simple, Paul might even say.
Open
your heart, surrender your will, to God.
Become God’s instrument for peace in the world. Be the temple of God, where God’s Spirit
dwells, where – if we are willing to let go of our worldly wisdom and egos to
receive this Spirit – extraordinary things may happen.
Let
the Spirit work in you. Imitate
Jesus. This is, by the way, not a once
and done thing. It is a life-long
journey, a day by day endeavor. Each
day, let his perfection work through you, because God knows we cannot do it by
ourselves. It’s that simple.
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