“Be
perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Jesus calls his
followers to be perfect. Jesus calls his
followers to be like God. He didn’t say,
“be almost perfect.” Jesus didn’t say,
“try to be perfect.” The call is simply,
“Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
This
sure sounds like an impossible task, doesn’t it? How can we be perfect? We are sinful creatures. We are a people who are destined to die. How can we be perfect like our heavenly
Father?
As
you can gather, I am struggling with this statement from Jesus just as much as
you are. Even more, how can I preach a
sermon about being perfect when I know I am not perfect? At some point during
the week the Holy Spirit tapped me on the shoulder and whispered, “if this reading
isn’t causing you fits, then I’d be worried.”
Okay, whew!
Today’s
lesson is supposed to challenge us and if these words from Jesus didn’t
challenge us, then we are only lying to ourselves. The instructions that Jesus
gives today go against everything I understand to be true about human
nature. When someone hurts us, our first
reaction is to hurt them back. When evil
strikes, our first reaction is to strike back.
We are all just overgrown toddlers.
Several
years ago I did a presentation on the Seven Deadly Sins at St. John’s
Montgomery. After presenting on the
deadly sin of anger, a veteran of World War II made the comment, “If we didn’t
act on our anger toward the Hitler and the Nazis, then the whole world would be
under the rule of Germany today. Tell me
how is that bad?”
I
was, of course, tongue tied. I don’t
remember what I said but know it was a lousy response. I should have said something like, “Jesus’
instruction to turn the other check, to love the enemy, to pray for those who persecute
you is a great way to lose a war.” And
just left it at that.
Throughout the ministry
of Jesus even up until his death on the cross, Jesus makes it perfectly clear
that his is a non-violent movement. He
is not on a mission to raise up a group of rebels who will bring down the
mighty Roman Empire by force. Instead,
Jesus is on a mission to gather a group of followers who respond to the evildoer
with love and prayer.
But wouldn’t it be great
if we could somehow quarantine those who do evil, if we could somehow contain
the wicked to one area of the world, and then just drop a bomb, dust off our
hands, and say, “it is finished.”? Well,
in case you forgot, God already tried that with Noah and it didn’t work.
The problem with evil
isn’t simply – there are good people and bad people. Instead, the problem with evil is that evil
draws a line through the middle of every heart.
So if we were to try and wipe out evil by lethal force, then we, too,
would be wiped out. There would be no
more.
Jesus comes to tell us
that the most effective response to the way of evil is the way of love. I know
what you might be thinking, well that sounds like a great way to get yourself
hurt or even killed. And you’d be
right. The way of love got Jesus killed
as well as most of his disciples.
And let me be clear. The love that God gives us in Jesus is not a
sentimental love that you get from reading Chicken Soup for the Soul. The kind of love that Jesus brings is a sacrificial
love, an authentic love, a love that is more than being nice to your
neighbor. Walter Brueggemann said,
“Jesus did not get crucified because he was a nice man.”
The article for the week
in your E-pistle is entitled, “We are called to make disciples, not
converts.” The basic premise of the
article talks about how our conversion story is what compels us to be followers
of Jesus, to be people who are glad to risk pain and death for the sake of the
gospel.
In other words, if our
conversion stories are no more than stories that make us feel better about
ourselves, then we have not heard the gospel – we’ve only read a really good
self-help book. The gospel calls followers
of Jesus outside of themselves, calls them to risk their lives and livelihood
in order to show the world that Jesus’ story of love really does defeat the
story evil and death.
Of course, we are going
to be a little anxious to live into this new story of love because of the
consequences. Of course, we will be
tempted to turn back to the safety of our own homes. Of course, we will be tempted to respond to
evil with evil. We are human!
But Jesus is trying to
tell us that these very human responses only lead to more destruction and more
death. Jesus has come to turn this
sinking ship around by showing us again that the way of love is the way to
life. And I firmly believe, that when we
follow the way of love, the way of Jesus, we become perfect.
Jesus’ way of love creates
space where we can go and be perfect just as our heavenly Father is perfect. Jesus’ way of love creates space in this
broken and sinful world where all people can come and know the healing power of
God’s love – and the Church at her best is the place where all people can come
and be perfectly themselves and rest in God’s love.
Being a follower of Jesus
is all about creating space where all can come to be loved and valued as
children of God. And as crazy as it
sounds, some will not like that you want to make space where all are
valued. Some want this space all for
themselves and their closest buddies.
Some want to regulate who is in and who is out but Jesus issues the
invitation to all and as his followers so do we – even to the enemy.
Jesus’ way of love, a
love that extends even to the enemy, is the only way this world can be saved
from certain death and destruction.
Otherwise, we will continue to go bouncing off the walls until there
nothing and nobody left. And in fact,
the world has been saved from the total destruction of evil on the cross.
Which reminds me that God
did figure out a way to quarantine evil.
God did figure out how to draw evil to one spot and defeat it. But God doesn’t defeat evil with kind of
instrument of war that we humans have ever tried. God defeats evil through a radical kind of
love that embraces even the enemy.
Think about it – the ministry
of Jesus draws all evil out into the open – beginning with Satan, then the
Roman empire, the Jewish establishment, and eventually the evil that exists
inside the hearts of even his closest followers. Ultimately, the evil powers and forces of
this world combine to put Jesus on the cross.
At any point Jesus could
have called on the power of God to rain fire down on these evil doers like the
prophets of old did, but he didn’t for Jesus knew he would destroy God’s entire
creation if he took that route.
Instead, Jesus looked
evil in the face and said, “do your worst.” Even more profoundly, looked at the
sea of humanity and uttered those famous words, “Father, forgive them for they
do not know what they do.”
And this is the moment
when the whole world is saved from the totality of sin and death; this is the
moment when the true instrument of salvation, the instrument of unending love
breaks into this world and saves humanity from total despair; this is the
moment when a glimmer of hope starts to shine in the darkness.
Jesus on the cross is
where God makes space for us to first recognize the horrors that humans bless. And from here God begins to move our hearts
to love even the enemy and those who wish us harm because on the cross Jesus
shows us that love of the enemy is what brings salvation to a world that will
otherwise destroy itself.
Beloved, do not be afraid
to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. The good news tells us that
Jesus has come from heaven to earth to create space in this world, space at the
foot of the cross for all to come and know the healing power of God’s
love. And as Christ’s hands and feet in
the world, go forth into the world and make space where all – even the enemy –
can come to know God’s salvation story through the sacrificial love of Jesus
Christ. Amen.
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