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Dear friends:
The great reformer Martin Luther once said that the Christian life is not about arriving but always about becoming. And St. Augustine at the Lord’s Supper would invite people to “receive who you are” and then “go become what you have received.”
The final verse in this week’s passage says: “Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect,” confirming once and for all that nobody I know will ever make the grade.
One key ingredient to proper understanding is that word we translate “perfect” is actually the Greek word telos and implies less a moral perfection than it does reaching one’s intended outcome. The telos of an arrow shot by an archer is to reach its target. The telos of a peach tree is to yield peaches. The sense of it is that Jesus is not commanding something from us so much as commending something in us.
Read this way, Jesus’ words are less command than promise. God sees more in us than we see in ourselves. God has plans and a purpose for us. God intends to use us to achieve something spectacular. And that something spectacular is precisely to be who we were created to be and, in so doing, help create a different kind of world. Jesus calls this new world the kingdom of God – where violence doesn’t always breed more violence and hate doesn’t always kindle more hate.
Can we do this – turn the other cheek, love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us? No, not perfectly. On some days, maybe not at all. But that’s not really the point. It’s not our job to bring in the kingdom; Jesus does that. It’s our job to live like we believe Jesus is bringing in God’s kingdom, and to realize that we get to practice living like Jesus’ disciples and citizens of this new kingdom in the meantime.
This Sunday we’ll explore who we are called to be and be challenged to begin practicing it. We’ll have the opportunity to continue receiving the identity God gives us and to become the person God has created us to be. It will be a good day.
Come, and bring a friend.
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