1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23
Matthew 5:38-48
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God says to Moses, Tell the people of Israel, “You shall be
holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.”
Jesus says to the crowd assembled on the hill, “Be perfect,
therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Paul writes to the Corinthians, “Do you not know that you
are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?”
Wow. This is a pretty tall order. God is holy, is perfect,
and we are called to be as well, since, after all, God’s Spirit dwells in each
and every one of us.
How are we supposed to be holy, like God; what does it mean
to be perfect, as God is perfect?
Well, fortunately for us, God gives Moses specific details
on what being holy is all about. And Jesus, when he says, “therefore”, be
perfect as God is perfect, is summing up the instruction he has just given. And
in both cases, it’s all about relationships.
The details of being holy, of being perfect (and the Greek
word that is translated here as “perfect” also means “complete”) – the details
describe how God desires to be in relationship with us, and how we are to be in
relationship with God, and THEREFORE how we are to be in relationship with one
another – because, as Paul says, each of us is God’s temple, and God dwells in
each and every one of God’s children.
So in Leviticus, we get a list of ordinary actions in
everyday places, in everyday relationships. This is how we are called to be
holy.
·
Leave behind some of your harvest in the field;
don’t strip it clean. Leave it for the poor, for those whose crops failed or
were insufficient, so others do not go hungry.
·
Don’t steal what belongs to someone else.
·
Don’t tell a lie, even when it seems harmless to
do so.
·
Be a good employer, and pay someone on time for
work they have done.
·
You are holy, according to Leviticus, when you
try not to make life more difficult for someone with a disability, when you don’t walk by a neighbor in trouble,
when you don’t gossip, or slander, or hold a grudge.
·
You are holy when you treat everyone fairly and
equally, when you are not influenced by pity or by greed.
·
You are holy when you don’t say, “Oh, God”,
unless you really do want God’s attention.
·
Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Why?
Because I am the Lord, and I love you, and I love your neighbor, too, just as
much. So you shall do that too, because you are called to behave like me – in a
holy way.
With this in mind, when we turn to the words of Jesus, we
can see the parallels between what God tells us it takes to be holy, and what
Jesus tells us it takes to be perfect. To be complete.
Jesus is talking about the same behaviors, providing really
strong examples; ones that, frankly, make it sound a lot more challenging.
Jesus is not just talking about how to treat those who are
in need, who you feel pity and compassion for – the poor, the hungry, your
neighbor. Jesus is telling us how to treat those who oppress us, those who make
us poor, or hungry, or diminished. And when Jesus walked on earth, there was
plenty of oppression going on. People understood what it was like to have their
cheek struck for no reason, or their coat to be taken, to be forced to carry a
Roman soldier’s pack for a mile. When Jesus instructs kindness even in these
circumstances, it’s not that he’s saying accepting oppression is easy, that
loving your enemy is a simple and straightforward thing. What he is saying is,
when you do this, you let go of the burden this oppression creates for you
otherwise. You cease to worry about protecting your possessions, your coat or
your cloak or your time on the road, or even protecting your life. It’s when we
are compelled to protect all these things we accumulate, we want, that life
becomes complicated. And it’s when we want to maintain a line between our
friendly neighbors and our enemies, that we become focused on fear, and when we
can no longer do those things that make us holy, make us like God.
So, yeah. Being perfect can be hard, even when the
individual elements are straightforward. And being perfect takes practice. Lots
and lots of practice.
As I watched the Olympics ice dancing team competition last
week, paying particular attention to this event because of all the Michigan
connections of so many of the teams, from all over the world, I began to notice
how the commentators would point out, for those of us who were not so familiar
with the intricate details of the sport, where the errors popped up. Those
little things that would cost points.
And then Charlie White and Meryl Davis came out for their
short dance performance, the night before they won the gold medal. And it was
perfection – the highest score ever for that competition. No errors here. Let’s
take a look.
Clearly, to compete this perfectly takes years of practice
and hard work. And those Olympic athletes who have not been perfect in Sochi
also have been working hard and practicing for many years. For them this is a
total commitment, a top priority. But that does not guarantee perfection.
Likewise, we cannot be perfectly holy, no matter how hard we
try. But God is not looking for us to win a gold medal. God wants us to try, in
our relationships with everyone, to be holy in the way God has described
holiness. And God loves and forgives us,
no matter how well we do.
That’s because we are God’s children, and God loves us
unconditionally. Much like the “mom” commercials they’ve been showing during
the Olympics, where we see how these athletes were supported and encouraged by
their moms as they grew, that’s what God does for us as a loving parent. God
forgives us when we fall, or fail, or turn away. God encourages us to try
again, over and over. God helps us when
we ask for help. Like a loving mom or dad. God is always encouraging us to do those
things that, with practice, will let us be more holy, be more perfect, be more
complete in our relationships, both with God and with God’s children. We love,
because God first loves us.
A week from Wednesday begins the season of Lent, which is a
time for us to reflect on who we are, and whose we are, and on the meaning of
the gift of salvation through the resurrection and death of Jesus Christ. The
first day of Lent we will worship together, here, on Ash Wednesday, at 7 PM.
This will be a service where you will have the opportunity, if you choose, to
come forward and be marked with ashes on your hand or your forehead, to remind
us of the mystery that, even as we are God’s temple, that we are also dust.
I ask the ushers now to hand out, and you can pass them
along down each pew, a question for each of you on a small piece of paper. It
says “You are a child of God. What keeps you from becoming the person God
created you to be?” Please think and pray about this question, and write down
one thing (not THE one thing, but also not EVERY thing; just one thing) that
you feel holds you back from fully becoming the holy, perfect, complete person
God created you to be? Please fold up your paper – it’s between you and God, it’s
not meant to be read by anyone else – and either place it as an offering when
the offering plates come around, or else bring it to Christ’s table after
worship and leave it on the table there. Give it to God, and let it go. I will
gather them all up, and I will set them aflame, all together, this week
(safely) - and they will become the ashes we will use on Ash Wednesday.
Let us pray.
Gracious God, we thank you that we are your beloved
children, and that you want the best for all of us. And we thank you for the
many ways you show us how it’s up to each us to make that happen for all your
beloved children. Lord, you have shown us the Way. Lord, because of you, the
Way, the living Word, has walked among us to show us what it means to be your
beloved children. Help us to acknowledge, and to let go, of those things that
keep us from being holy, and complete, and perfect. Keep forgiving us, and
encouraging us, and lifting us up so we can try, again, and again, to truly
love one another as you love us, all to your glory. We ask this in Christ’s
name, Amen.
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