Be Perfect ...

A sermon preached in St. Columba's, Knock on Sunday 20th Feb 2011 at 10:30pm


Jesus, in the sermon on the mount presents us with huge challenges. Any quick glance through Chapter 5 of Matthew’s gospel highlights HUGE areas of life which we are called to be working on/

The beatitudes call us to be peacemakers, they also tell us that we will be persecuted

We are called to be salt and Light to the world

Keep the commandments

Not to get angry

Be reconciled with Brothers and Sisters

we are called Radical purity in terms of our thoughts and deeds, last week we had in our Gospel reading if your eye or hand causes you to sin ... which when we were discussing it on Wednesday evening at Bible Study proved to be quite horrific at the thought of such things - but basically that bit is about the causes of sin in each of our lives and removing that temptation from our lives.

We are called to Love our enemies

go the extra mile

Then at the end of today’s gospel reading we are called to Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect!

We are called to be perfect ... If I am honest this morning that bit of the reading I have struggled with all week ... what is Jesus saying/commanding?

Keeping the commandments... most of them are OK

Being reconciled with Brothers and Sisters ... yeah!

Purity of thoughts and deeds ... still working on that

Not getting angry ... most of the time that is OK ... but I know I loose my temper sometimes.

But being perfect... I am sooo far away from that it is unbelievable.

We need a way into this passage, we need to know that Jesus has hopes for his disciples, he has dreams for those who are listening, he is calling them to a radical life, a life which will change them, a way for them to see amazing things, a life which will see them do amazing things. A topsy turvy life which will turn their values on their head - the last first, the first last. A life which will call them to deny themselves, a life which will see them in the world but not of the world.

I am sure that there is not one of us here today meets the standard which Jesus sets out Be Perfect

Which is great, it is a great leveler - from the youngest here to the oldest, from teachers or students, rector or visitor, curate or choir member, vestry person ... who ever you are this morning.

We are in loads of ways we are messy - perhaps we do have immaulate houses or not, perhaps we are wealthy or not BUT under the surface we undoubtably have weaknesses we have messed up - all of us if we are honest are messy ... people who need to be made less messy

But the exciting thing is that whoever you are, whatever your role is we can all begin a journey, a journey with Jesus, finding out more about him, finding out more about ourselves.

As Disciples we are all called on a journey through life of sanctification ... of becoming more like Jesus, day by day.

yes we have and will mess up

yes we will do stupid things

yes we will say stupid things

The great news is that we can succeed at this, we can, if we let God change us do amazing things, we can strive to do better.

Three weeks ago the Rector looked part of the sermon on the mount as a kind of MOT for us, looking at things which could be better.

I wonder as we read through today’s reading is there anything we could pick up as things which could be improved upon?

perhaps in certain things we need to go the extra mile
perhaps in other things we need to discover love for those we do not like, or indeed love those who we actually hate the sight of.

A warning has to go out with all of these illustrations about our view of God.

He is not a policeman ready to catch us out, or a ticket warden ready to slap a ticket on us

but rather as heavenly father who has our best interests, who is willing us to do the right thing, who is ready to forgive when we get it wrong -as long as we learn from those mistakes and try better next time, he is ready to help us pick up the pieces and begin again.

We are all called to a radical lifestyle, showing our culture that there is much more to life than meets the eye, more purpose than simply making money, more love, more power, more adventure in a life dedicated to God.

The church, us, you and me are the hope for our nation, for our world - but we, each one of us has the power first to transform ourselves and then to transform our workplaces, community. This is the great news which we have contained in the pages of scripture but we need to be transformed ourselves.

But we do need to get rid of the mess ... offer the mess to God and get on with living life ... mess free

Amen.