Matthew 5:38-48
Have you ever asked Google how to be perfect? This is how you know that you are not the only person in the world who has ever wondered the things you are wondering, you ask Google. Because there are answers out there, my friends. Google has answers.
If you google “How can I be perfect?” this is what you will find: There are lists of 25 ways to be a better person. There are lists of 52 simple ways to be your best every week.
There is an article that says being perfect, or as close to perfect as possible, can be broken down into three basic areas: taking care of the outside – that is how you appear to others; taking care of the inside – how you feel both physically and mentally; and finally, carrying it all out, things like learning new skills, setting goals, treating people with kindness. So, there is that.
And, right below all of this, there is a link you can follow to find out how to stop worrying about being perfect all the time.
Last week we began this series of statements that follow the format “You have heard…but I say to you…” As you began to read through them, you might have felt a rising sense of panic about what Jesus is saying. “You have heard that it was said you shall not murder…but I say to you if you are angry with a brother or a sister you will be liable to judgment” Now, steering clear of murdering someone is something I think I can manage. But never being angry at anyone? How is that even possible? And each one of these statements seems to get harder than the one before.
As we finish this series of statements today it reaches its apex of impossibility with verse 48: Just. Be. Perfect.
So, maybe you are someone who hears this and says, “Be perfect? Check. Okay, what else?” If this is you, congratulations. But stick around. I think you need this sermon as much as the rest of us.
If that isn’t you, then maybe you are someone who reacts to this first by thinking, “Be perfect? Yes! How?” But then there is another part of you, the more reflective part of you, the part of you that is usually lagging behind the part that says, “Yes, how.” This part of you begins to say things in your head like –
You know that’s not really possible, right?
You remember how you tried that before and it only led to problems?
Can I steer your attention to this nice link down here about how to stop worrying about being perfect all the time?
The real problem with a statement like this – be perfect – is that so many of us, and Christians, in particular, do expend a good deal of effort trying to be perfect by trying to hide our imperfections.
We want so much to be good enough to be here. Because we get the seriously mistaken notion in our heads that we actually have to be good enough to be here. We somehow get the idea that church has a high standard of admission.
It is a way we hurt ourselves, but unfortunately, we also end up hurting others. Because in our heads we are frequently judging – ourselves and by extension, and perhaps without even meaning to, judging others.
Many of us who are taking part in the Big Congregational Read had some discussion last week about this very thing. The authors of our book, Why Nobody Wants to Go to Church Anymore, took a video camera out on the street and started asking random people why they don’t go to church. Among the most frequent responses they heard was something along these lines: “Church people are so judgmental. Why would I subject myself to that?”
We wondered if that includes us, and if so, what are we doing that comes across as judgmental? As we thought this through together, we began talking about things like how uncomfortable it was for you the first time you came to church without a necktie. Because you have known your whole life that, in church, men wear neckties. It’s a rule.
It turns out that there are many of these kinds of things – unwritten rules that we have learned by osmosis and that we end up communicating to others, whether or not we intend to do so.
But you know what’s really funny about all of this? So many of the things we obsess about and so many of the unwritten rules are meaningless things. All too many of them are unimportant but manageable things. All too often we highlight the things that don’t really make us any better but might make us feel like we are … better.
A few years ago, I read VD Vance’s memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. And one small section that stuck with me was his description of what it was like to go to his father’s and stepmother’s church with them. Never having been to church before, he saw it as a newcomer. He said one thing he noticed was the primary concern in this church seemed to be criticizing other Christians – those who weren’t Christian enough. Vance said he heard a lot more about the “war on Christmas,” for example, than he did about any particular character trait that a Christian should aspire to have. He came to realize that morality was defined by drawing the lines far away from the things that would likely be a part of their personal experience. Morality was defined as not participating in this or that thing, which these church members wouldn’t be likely to participate in anyway. He said, “church required so little of me. It was easy to be a Christian.”
Easy. As easy as it is to refrain from murdering somebody – which is easy, most of the time. Under normal circumstances. Right?
One thing we know by now, after four weeks in Matthew 5, is this: Jesus did not mark out a path that would be called easy. We know that the way is not easy, but what exactly is it? How should we understand the way of Jesus?
Is the point of Christianity to just pile on the requirements until it hurts? To just keep raising the bar until you can’t get over it?
Because if that’s the way it is, then I’d be very tempted to go join the church JD Vance and his daddy went to, where you can just keep raising the bar on other people.
Where you can worry over the speck in someone else’s eye and comfortably ignore the log in your own.
When Jesus says to his listeners “You have heard that it was said … but I say to you” it might look like he was taking the bar and jacking it up a few hundred feet. But I think he was up to something else. I think he was asking us to consider just how absurd it really is to think you’ll grow in holiness by following a checklist of rules.
To think you’ll become perfect by following 52 simple steps.
Wouldn’t it be saner to see the law as a tool God has given us to use for our benefit, in whatever ways benefit us and our world? Something to be useful to us as we strive to become more like Christ. As we strive to grow into the image of God. Wouldn’t it be great to shift our focus away from sin and onto what is truly good?
You have heard that it was said, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you: What’s with this whole retribution thing? Is it making you a better person? Is it making the world a better place?
You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you: and who, do you think, is your neighbor? Maybe some of your neighbors disagree with you. Maybe some of them vote differently from you. Maybe some of them even seem to be fighting against your best interests.
Love your enemies. For if you love only those who love you – even the Democrats do that. If you care only for those who care for you – even the Republicans do that.
Tell me: is it making you a better person? Is it making the world a better place?
Love your enemies, Jesus said. Pray for those who persecute you. They are also children of your heavenly father.
Be perfect as God is perfect. For God gives us the way.
And if this should sound like a deal-breaker to you, know this: Everything in scripture acknowledges what we know to be true – that perfection is really not an option for us. We know too well our own shortcomings, even if we try to hide them from ourselves and others. But we are assured that in every way we are lacking, God’s grace can make us whole.
Jesus marked out for us a new way, a new life, and invites us to see just what and who we are in this new life. God has made you salt of the earth, able to change the flavor of things wherever you are just by being who you are. God has made you light to the world, light that can shine out the image of Christ for anyone with eyes to see.
Seek to be like God as you see God’s light in Jesus. As one who has been formed in God’s own image, now make that your definition of perfection. To live into the qualities that define God is to live into perfection. And among these qualities, first and foremost, is love.
You don’t have to try to be perfect in every way. Only try to be perfect in love.
Jesus marked out a new path for us – not just an extension of the old path, not just a slightly higher road parallel to the one the world is on. It’s a new path, one that will free us to live in the joy of the kingdom of God. Discovering that path is our journey.
