Month: June 2021

 PERFECTION? MISSION IMPOSSIBLE!

Suggested Scripture:  Matthew 5:43- 6:1-15

Scripture Text: Matthew 5:48 KJV “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”  (1)

 Were there questioning glances of surprise among the disciples seeking some degree of understanding among themselves, concerning the opening phrase of the Lord’s prayer, “Our Father, Who art in Heaven?” Not one of the disciples, I suspect, was familiar with that vocabulary when used of the One to whom they prayed. The standard expectation is for the speaker to choose comprehensible expressions so that the speaker and the hearer can understand one another. Neither the depth of their faith experience nor the suggested familiarity with the Divine was appropriate in fulfilling the disciples’ request, Lord, teach us to pray. (Luke 11 1-3). “ When you pray, say, Our Father, Who art in Heaven. It sounds presumptuous to us still to claim such a relationship to the Creator of all that exists. Yet in the more than the hundred times in the Synoptic Gospels where Jesus uses this designation for God, our hearts rejoice and feel a sense of being home.
Jesus gives further instruction to His Disciples concerning prayer. They must supplement their initial salutation,’ Our Father”, with the qualifier, ‘Who art in Heaven.’ Would that instruction not intensify their inquiry? For instance, the disciples James and John shared labours of the fishing boat with Zebedee, their father. But the instruction given is to address their prayers to their Father, Who dwells in heaven. Would it not be perfectly understandable if James and John would have detailed flashbacks to their father, Zebedee, in the fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee?
But in this present company of Jesus with His disciples, it is Jesus alone who is living out the crucial relationship that awaits each human’s discovery! Heaven is our true home and, our Creator is our true Father. “We are here and now the sons and daughters of God.”
(1 John 3: 2)

We each leave the portals of Heaven as SPIRIT, bearing the likeness and image of God. We leave the portals of Heaven to deal with the challenge of not finding awaiting us, here on earth, the abundant supply of heavenly resources that endowed our initial existence and development. Now embedded in the rich soil of readily available things, there is the temptation to claim much of it as our own. Instead, transforming it by holding it all within our Spirit, we will help to create the Kingdom of God here on earth. 

An architect aspiring to build a structure will experiences with detailed precision the finished product in his mind. The resulting design will not likely be a perfect replica of the envisioned dream. The architect will have to use whatever material is available. Within the mind of the architect, however, the unaltered image of his intention remains. The perfect creation, existing in his mind, is in no way diminished by the accident of temporal circumstances. 

The view that Jesus manifests as the most critical truth of our creation history is that the Divine Architect, God in Heaven, holds securely in His Keeping, the perfect You!  Imagine God’s intention upon viewing this creation and seeing its goodness identifies it as you. Consider now how the ideal you would appear? Remember to allow for the restrictions the world imposes upon every mortal being in this exercise! Yet, Jesus stands beside you to demonstrate to you and all His followers the satanic threats always present. But Jesus provides the way to victory. An attentive reading of the temptations faced by Jesus reveals the ever-present diabolic atmosphere of daily living here. (Matthew 4: 1 – 11)
” Be ye perfect, as your Father, in Heaven is perfect.”
Let this always be our way of life. Know with certainty that it is possible to fulfill the image of the perfect you which Heaven preserves. Jesus is the guarantor of that promise.
The most crucial undertaking for each of us is to graft the secret of Jesus’ life into our own. He lived every second of His life conscious of His Father in Heaven. It is a fact that God reserves a temple in each human as the center for Divine communication and influence. However, unlike us, Jesus entrusts the key to His temple exclusively to His Father. The poet Alfred Tennyson captures the image associated with this reality, “Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet- Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.”
— Alfred Tennyson (2)

It seems to me that there is far too much personal, even hysterical effort, put into trying to imitate the life and works of Christ; and not near enough trust in the LIVING CHRIST within. We may not feel at any given moment that we have attained the perfection necessary. But the fulfillment of that perfection is Christ’s if our surrender is sincere and complete.” Be ye perfect, as your Father in Heaven is perfect.”

I seek your indulgence for the personal reference that follows. It is a simple testimony of how the word ” Father” used to address God impacted me while still a child. My dad died at sea when I was barely four months old. In the fourth grade, while learning to read, one day, in secret, I opened an old family Bible and attempted to read Psalm 2. I understood but little of what I read. Suddenly and entirely unexpectedly, verse 7 leaped from the page to nestle in my heart forever. In this Psalm, God was speaking to a servant long ago. ” You are my son today; I have become your father.”

Many years have passed since the day of that discovery. I have learned much, and I am still learning. I have a post-graduate degree in divinity and have been learning from my parishioners for more than thirty years. Consequently, my faith has changed and developed over time. But it remains to this present moment that the expositions on Psalm 2 by the most eminent scholars can never uproot the understanding granted a fourth-grader one day long ago. 

A PRAYER TO FOLLOW THIS MEDITATION

Father, it’s me again.
Thank you for not only expecting me but for making all things ready to deal with every fretful worry and care that threatens to set this day apart from all others. Please forgive me, Father, for my blindness and my slowness of heart to remember that You are there beside me all the time. When I become too busy to think of You, You are never too busy for me.
Father, here is a thing that amazes me; how You never show any sign of being rushed. You always take so much time with me, as though I was the only one You had to attend.
Father, all of this makes me love You more. Is there some way You can prepare me as I live here on earth to be?
     -Your listening ears for the needy ones.
     – Your patience for the trying ones.
     – Your loving heart for the broken and lonely ones.
-Your forgiveness for the fallen ones.
– Your words of hope for those incomplete?

Father, I leave the door to my Spirit, Your Temple, open for You. Visit me throughout this night and find there within a welcoming place; thus, will I be prepared to pass through the gates of a new day and live my life as Your son/daughter. In Jesus’ Name, I pray, Amen.

Hymn: How Can I Keep from Singing – Aled Jones

(Click on the link that appears below)

Lyrics – How Can I Keep from Singing?