Striving for Perfection

Matthew 5:48

 

        Who among us is perfect? Well that is a loaded question. Claiming perfection pretty much eliminates one from being perfect. I went bowling with my grandchildren a few weeks ago. Despite the distraction of seven very bad bowlers on his right the person next to us had a streak of 12 straight strikes. Unfortunately this streak was accomplished as part of two games. I asked if he had every rolled 12 strikes in one game. He smiled and said, “Ah the elusive 300 game. I have only two in the last twenty years.”

        Perfection is hard. Over the last 140 years over 210,000 major league baseball games have been played. 23 three have been recorded as perfect games and only one of those happened during a World Series. Amazingly this feat was accomplished by Don Larsen, a guy with a career losing record. Even in perfection Larson was flawed.

So why does Jesus insists on perfection? What kind of nonsense is that? Even though I keep working on my knuckle ball, I am really too old to consider major league baseball as a second job. And as for bowling, I average one game every four years and have only broken 200 once. Perfection doesn’t seem to be much of an option. I would like to think each of us are really good people. But perfect? Give me a break!

As you might have guessed this particular proclamation came from the scriptures known as the Sermon of the Mount where Jesus is a both dreamer and pretty ornery at the same time. Everything he says is way over the top. And that creates a problem. Folks would love to boil the sayings of Jesus down to a pithy non-threatening Hallmark card, but that is not the way it works. Jesus not only demands perfection, he says the road to perfection begins by loving our enemies. Are you kidding? I have a hard enough time loving friends and family members.  So where do we start?

We could ignore the text. The easiest way to do this is to explain it away. Maybe Jesus was only speaking to his disciples. If Jesus selected them they must have been extraordinary guys. The problem is we know the resumes of all 12. They were a stumbling bumbling bunch that never had the right answers and were seldom found to be in the right place. Truth is, if Jesus had wanted an amazing dozen he probably would have started with Mary and Martha.

We might suggest the words of Jesus are far too simplistic for our modern world with its complex relationships and global economics.  Today who would ever set perfection as the goal of their business? In fact name  one company other than Ben and Jerry’s that has reached that goal. I’m just kidding. Even Ben and Jerry’s made one mistake. It’s called Confetti Cake.

Maybe Jesus set the bar so high knowing it could never be reached. I find that kind statement to be insulting to both us and God.  Why shouldn’t perfection be the goal? As flawed as Don Larson was he did catch lightning in a bottle once. Perhaps instead of dumbing down the text, we should reconsider what we need to do to make the text possible.

Let’s face it, loving anyone, not just our enemies, but anyone who might not think exactly as we do can be difficult. How could anyone possibly see the world different than me and if they do what is wrong with them.

In the 1930’s Richard Rogers wrote the gorgeous tune My Funny Valentine. Twenty years later Chet Baker covered it while playing trumpet with the Gerry Mulligan’s band. But the most stunning version may have been in 1965 by Miles Davis. After hearing Miles version Rogers declared he wished he had never written the song. Why do we so easily assume there is only one way of achieving perfection?

Maybe it is just human nature. We have just gone through an election where many folks on both sides of the aisle saw their candidate as a god and their candidate’s opponent as the devil incarnate. We do the same thing in sports. Anyone who is not from New England think the Patriot’s cheat and most folks who don’t live in Texas hate the Cowboys. Could our most glaring imperfection be our obsession with identifying the imperfections of everyone else? Could the first step toward perfection be empowering someone with whom we disagree?

In a couple of weeks we will enter the season of Lent as seen through the eyes of writer of the Gospel of John. We will meet four flawed personalities that Jesus encountered. The first was Nicodemus. He was a righteous man, greatly honored among his peers. But the peers of Nicodemus declared Jesus to be a dangerous heretic. Nicodemus was caught between the mystery of God and his own understanding of reality. To claim Jesus as Lord would mean to disclaim his very nature. How is that done without losing one’s soul?

Then we encounter the woman at the well. Remember her? Nicodemus meets Jesus at night where in the book of John nothing good ever happens. The Samaritan woman who has been divorced five times meets Jesus in broad day light. Is she flawed, at least in the eyes of her community. So how does this “imperfect” soul recognize perfection?

Next Jesus encounters a man who is blind. To the culture, his blindness signifies his imperfection. His blindness is believed to have been caused by the sins of his parents. Then when Jesus heals the man, the religious elite denies the man was ever blind. Even when Jesus perfects the imperfect, people with memories refuse to forget.

Finally Jesus encounters Lazarus, a man who was dead. What perfection can be discovered in death? If Jesus was perfect why did he let Lazarus die? Mary and Martha certainly questioned the perfection of Jesus’ timing.

John gives us four imperfect people. We have a teacher, a divorcee, a blind man and a dead friend . It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke followed by the punch line, “What does the one who is perfect do when he encounters imperfection?” What is the answer?  Jesus empowers them to be more than they could ever imagine.

There is no doubt that the road to perfection is made messy by the imperfection we constantly encounter. Those around us are lazy or crazy, or worse yet, bleeding heart tree huggers. And they dare to stand right in our way! We can’t avoid them anymore than Jesus could avoid Lazarus or Nicodemus or everyone in between.  So what do we do?

What would happen if instead of fighting with those with whom we disagree, we work harder to empower each other? Now that is a crazy idea that could never work because those folks with whom we disagree are such idiots. How could anyone dream of discovering perfection in a guy who spends his Saturday’s drinking beer and eating pretzels at a bowling alley? Likewise can you imagine how that same guy would characterize many of us who spend too much time riding around in a golf cart searching for a hole in one?

Jesus said, “Strive to be perfect because your heavenly father is perfect.” Jesus had the gall to say that to a bunch of folks who are as imperfect as ….. you or me. And then Jesus empowered them to begin a journey toward perfection that could not commence until they were willing invite the idiots who were blocking their way to join them. That must have been one holy mess. But could it be any worse than the unholy mess we have on our hands today.  I am not sure any of us really have a clue where we are going. But I am sure of this. Through God’s grace we are invited to take a giant step toward perfection. Of course there is a catch. Along the way Jesus challenges us to graciously invite those with whom we disagree to join us on the journey.

Nobody ever claimed the Jesus way was easy.

To God be the glory. Amen.