Pentecost 7.
July 3rd, 2005.
Genesis 24.34-38, 42-49, 58-67, Ps 45.10-17, Romans 7.14-25, Matthew 11.15-19, 25-30.Personally, I hate being imperfect. I hate slipping up. I hate making mistakes. I hate, sometimes, the fact that I’m human.
I think in this I have much in common with Paul.
We can see that Paul struggles with his humanity.
The excerpt from his letter from the Romans that we read this morning talks about it, his personal struggle with the fact that humans cannot be perfect. The heart of it is this – “I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.” The perfection of following the Torah, the Jewish Law, is desirable, yet is unattainable. Paul struggled with the fact that for what the perfect idea of a lover of the law, a true follower, a true believer, a righteous person, and the reality that the law cannot be observed successfully. If we try to observe it, we run around in circles, we chase our tails, we spend so much time making sure the cups are clean, we are not eating with sinners, and all the other garbage that we forget that the law is supposed to be about justice and love for one’s self, ones neighbours and our God. We will end up driving ourselves nuts, and if we are really unlucky, driving those around us nuts as well.
It all comes down to the concept of perfection. There is a duality operating here, in that there is the perfect idea on the one hand, and its projection into reality in the other, its form in reality, if you like. The perfect idea, for example, the law of the Old Testament, as a concept, might seem ok. It’s a set of rules meant to govern interaction between peoples and God. It sets out guidelines for looking after each other, for property transactions, for justice. The idea was good. But the implementation is flawed. Because as soon as people get involved, with their natural self-interest, it gets perverted, and the perfect idea of the law becomes subordinate to the whims of those who interpret it. The powerful become more powerful, because they control the interpretation and policing of the Law, which makes them able to control others. The Pharissees, as interpreters of the Law, become able to control who is in and who is out of society. They can decide what is right and wrong, because they have the education and the knowledge to do this, they can make the laws fit what they want to achieve. So the “perfect laws” become imperfect as soon as they are transmitted to humanity, as soon as they are made manifest in reality.
Perfection is impossible. The ability to obey this law, all of its many, many rules, is just not possible for us to do. Attempting to do so will drive us, and probably those around us, insane. And you know what? God knows this. That’s why God did something about it, because it was too hard for us. And this is where Paul is coming from, the fact that even though we are incapable, through our human nature, of being perfect, of being able to keep the law, it is still made possible for us to be in a good relationship with God. Paul spells it out – “Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The world might be imperfect, we might be imperfect, but we find redemption through Jesus Christ.
So then, we know that God doesn’t demand perfection. A faithful heart is all that is needed, and the desire to show the fruits of that faith. But so often we expect perfection. We expect perfection in others – we can see that in the Pharisees, who are dissatisfied with John the Baptist because he eats little and abstains from alcohol, yet they also judge Jesus because he eats and drinks too much they say. Never happy, never perfect enough for them. IM sure we are all guilty of this at times, expecting levels of perfection in others we would be totally incapable of achieving ourselves. But an equally damaging habit is to constantly and unreasonably expect perfection in ourselves, and then beating ourselves up about it. Jesus talks about heavy burdens and hard and easy yokes. How heavy a burden is it when we fall short of our own high standards? I’m a classic, and when I read between the lines of Paul’s writings I see that he probably had that problem as well. He knew, as I and many others know, that heavy weight carried by a person who is never pleased with themself, who never loves themself. It even shows physically some times, the drooping shoulders, the hunching of regret, the sad look. It’s too much for us to bear, because we are not meant to bear it. It is a hard yoke, as opposed to an easy yoke. Everyone has a burden to carry – that’s life I’m afraid, its hard sometimes and good at other times, and even in the good times there are things we must do that seem burdensome. But if we make it hard for ourselves and for others, we make the yoke hard. A hard yoke, in physical terms, might be a yoke that is ill-shaped, is uncomfortable, digs into us, chafes us, that rubs us up the wrong way. It might give us splinters even, pricks our conscience. It is a yoke that lets us know constantly that we are carrying it. It’s not nice. Trying to observe the full body of the Law is this heavy yoke, this hard yoke, this yoke that can only drive us into the ground. With Jesus, with the new covenant God made with us through Him, the yoke is easy. It’s not that everything is simple now – living as a Christian is a trying life too. A person who witnesses to others that their life has only been wonderful ever since taking the Lord into their life is not telling the truth, or perhaps has yet to have a crisis of faith. They are misleading others. Often when these people do have their faith tested, they turn away from Jesus because it becomes too hard to follow Him. So, it can be a burden being a Christian, yet its easier, n the long run, than not being one. The yoke of the Law for a Christian is easier. We are to seek God, and to seek to do justice to others, and care for them, and love them, as much as we can. We aren’t called to be perfect, we are not called to be that which we cannot be. We are just called to believe and do the best we can, and turn to Jesus for assistance. We are called to be what we can be. That’s all. It reminds of a car bumper sticker I’ve seen about, a bit clichéd perhaps, but relevant and true nonetheless. It reads “Christians aren’t perfect – just forgiven.” Sums it up really.
So the lesson for this morning?
The lesson is to stop trying to be perfect, and to stop beating ourselves up about being imperfect, about being human.
It’s also an encouragement to take on the easy yoke that Christ offers us, and live according to His word, believing in Him, loving Him, and doing good and just works in His name, showing forth the spirits of His love for us.
It all helps.
