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God has told you, O man, O woman, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God.
-Micah 6:8
"You must, therefore, be perfect, just as your heavenly Abba is perfect."
-Jesus (Matthew 5:48)
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We are on a great pilgrimage to the Kingdom of Heaven. There are days when we get too absorbed in day-to-day problems and forget to look at the Big Picture. Let's take a few minutes to examine our lives as Christians, disciples of Jesus, and remember what is really important. Let's use the prophet Micah and Jesus as our guides.
The Old Testament prophet, Micah isn't very familiar to Most Christians. Too bad. This man of God had his act together. He is overshadowed by the much more famous prophet, Isaiah, who spoke to the more elite crowd. Micah took God's message to the streets. In true prophetic style, Micah comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable. He was a champion for the oppressed. And he did it at the risk of his own life and reputation.
Negative preaching, beating up people in the name of God, and attacks by the ultra zealous, can make good, simple people wonder what they should do, since they only hear warnings and tirades of condemnation. This wasn't Micah's style. He didn't just denounce and attack the folks and leave it at that. He let them know what he despised, but he also let them know what he believed was the way of God. Micah saved his best words for a positive message to the people, and he did it with simplicity.
God has created for God! God wants you and me to do our best. It's a shame some preachers and teachers of the Christian faith resent the way of Jesus as so difficult, complicated and sacrificial. Their message makes it impossible to please God. If God is always peeved with us, how can we be in a loving relationship with God? Christianity shouldn't be a series of painful acts to please the Abba of Jesus.
Our Christian tradition includes the Jewish Scriptures, as we read the gospels, (the Good News), we can hear Jesus building on Micah's words. Micah gives us a great definition of simple faith: do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. How are we living this faith life in 2003?
At the end of the Beatitudes, Jesus seems to complicate
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our faith lives when he tells us, "You must, therefore, be perfect, just as your heavenly Abba is perfect." Talk about the impossible! The English translation of the Greek word telios is almost always translated as "perfect" and the word has taken of strict and demanding tone. For example, don't make any mistakes; always appear as correct, etc.
But, the actual meaning of the New Testament Greek word telios is whole, complete, balanced. Jesus is really telling us to be whole, be complete, and be balanced in your everyday life for the sake of the gospel. It almost seems strange to hear these words coming from Jesus, too pop psychology. What do these words mean for us on our spiritual journey?
It might help to look at the opposite meaning of these words. Whole versus unwholesome, (both morally and developmentally), unholy. Complete versus, split off, unfinished. Balanced versus off balance, exaggerated. In order to be complete, balanced and whole, we NEED a living personal relationship with God, whose love frees us and challenges us to hold nothing back. As we develop and grow as Christians and as human beings, we are called to reach out in friendship and love to all who come our way, but especially to those in need. God calls us to be open and available in God for whatever might come our way. Our relationship with God helps us live a full life versus and empty life.
As disciples of Jesus in 2003, be perfect goes something like this: Be all you can be. If you are facing challenges, stay with the process and let God accompany you through till the end, so that you may be whole, complete and balanced and enter into the fullness of life that God promises, not the emptiness of life that the culture promotes. Or, as St. Ireaneus the Theologian said so well, "The glory of God is the human person fully alive." …Always to be understood in the terms of the Reign of God.
We must be balanced: it is the heart of His gospel, a call to relationship and discipleship.
Fr. Bill
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