Be Perfect…

This is the Gospel passage that held me bound for years. It left me feeling inadequate and wanting. Be perfect… Be Perfect. I have always been too aware of my faults, failings, and limitations to pursue perfection. But it is simply not good enough to feel inadequate. We must try and figure out what Jesus is asking of us.

When I read these lines, I often see how far I have to go. Over the years, I have twisted and turned this command of Jesus, modified it, and made excuses for it. I have tried to make myself feel better. But in the end, I was left with the thought that I was not good enough. I know now that is wrong.

Bottom line, I don’t think Jesus used analogy, hyperbole, or even exaggeration to make a point. I believe Jesus meant what He said. “Be perfect as my Heavenly Father is perfect.” No kind of wordplay or unpacking changes the call of Jesus. What has always needed to change is my understanding of God’s perfection. What needed to change was my perception of myself.

I have always had a soft spot for Process Philosophy and Process Theology. Maybe that can help me now with this call of Jesus to perfection. In Process Philosophy and Theology, there is an understanding of continually changing things. There is no way to synthesize process thought in a paragraph or two. But, to give you a taste. In process thought, God has two natures, one being primordial and the other being imminent. The primordial aspect of God is the God from all time, beyond a limit, creator, that which is all in all. This is God whole and complete, perfect in every way. God imminent is God expressed through us, his creation. God is known through our desire for union with God and our actions becoming more and more one with God in our lives.

The relationship between them is God Primordial is calling or luring all creation to perfect union. God imminent is down in the mud of living. The God within us becomes more whole each time we choose good over evil as individuals and as a human community. God imminent is our human family, all of us together, moving closer to God. That occurs when we choose love and unity over selfishness and division.  

Being perfect is taking the next step on the journey to God. Being perfect is witnessing to our world the way to wholeness. Being perfect means being complete. Jesus is calling us to be whole. He calls us to make each step, every decision, and every act of love and forgiveness a step toward unity with God. Perfection is fidelity to our faith journey. It knows God is luring us and having every cell of our being responding to that lure. Being perfect is being faithful to the journey toward unity with God right now and forever in heaven.

God calls us to fidelity to the faith journey in our lives. Being perfect is about falling in love with God and living out that love. Being perfect is not about never making a mistake. It is about the relationship we have with God that is not stagnant. Perfection is about falling madly and hopelessly in love with God daily.

I have often let myself off the hook when I read this passage. I have thought it hopeless, and an impossible ask by Jesus. That hopelessness is a copout. It is a copout when I believe I cannot be perfect in my love for God because of my human weakness. Being perfect is knowing the lure of God’s love. I can, with absolute confidence, move toward God’s fullness, knowing that in the unconditional love of God for me and me for God, even my failings are made perfect.

God is love, and we who abide in love abide in God and God in us. In that is the wholeness of the perfection Jesus calls us to.

In God’s Unending Love,

Gwen