This past weekend I came down with a cold. A full on,
grab-the-kleenex-and-a-pot-of-tea-and-a-blanket-and-hit-the-sofa kind of cold.
Not pretty. Even the dogs kept their distance. So I watched a new DVD. The new series of BBC’s “Sherlock” has just
been released – a modernization of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic mysteries.
Needless to say, I’m a fan.
There’s one scene that made me giggle – and re-watch.
Sherlock and Watson have just had – well, not their finest moment together.
Sherlock’s been a insensitive twerp, Watson’s (rightly) angry, and they end up
fighting it out – literally. The conversation goes something like this:
Sherlock Holmes: [being strangled by John] I
think we're done now, John!
Dr. John Watson: You don't remember, Sherlock,
I was a soldier! I killed people!
Sherlock Holmes: You were a doctor!
Dr. John Watson: I had bad days!
It’s amusing. I won’t give away too many spoilers, but
needless to say, Watson does NOT kill Sherlock, they solve the crime, and on
they go to the next mystery.
Point being this: we’ve all been there. Not literally, I
hope, with our hands wrapped around our best friends’ throat. But at the point
where we’re ready to cry out “I had bad days!” Where the frustration level is
so high that our emotions get the better of us. Where we start acting a bit out
of character because – well – it’s a bad day.
We’ve all been there. Because we’re all human. We all have
emotions, we all have pressure points, we all have triggers. There’s only so
much we’re willing and able to tolerate at any given time – and those factors
can change. Personally, I’m more prone to get to that frustration level if I
feel sick. If I’m overtired. If I’m feeling stressed in other – even unrelated
– areas of my life. There are some days when someone’s snide remark will get my
eyes rolling and then be forgotten; there are some days when that same remark
can see me starting to resemble something normally contained behind “CAUTION”
tape.
So. We’ve had bad days. We do have bad days. We will have
bad days. How, then, are we to hear the closing sentence from this
morning’s Gospel, with any integrity? “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father
is perfect.”?
Hmm. Not easy. It can feel almost – DIScouraging, rather
than ENcouraging. Not at all helpful on those bad days – we’re already feeling
blah and ick and grrr, and now have been told we’re not measuring up.
Hmm. Not easy. So let’s look at this another way. TELEIOS is
the Greek word used here that’s translated as ‘perfect’. Yet that doesn’t full
capture it… especially in our modern understanding of perfect. Perfect: without
blemish, without mistake, as good as it gets. Teleios – mature, fully grown,
having arrived at an objective. Not so much as “faultless” but rather as
“absolute” or “complete”. Hmm – let’s hear that again then…
“Be complete, therefore, as your heavenly Father is
complete.”
Well now – that sounds an awful lot more do-able, doesn’t
it? It sounds possible and inspiring, not harshly judgemental. It’s become
inclusive, not exclusive.
Be complete suggests a journey, an on-going work. It’s not
something that happens immediately, but something that has been given care and
effort in an attempt to reach its absolute state.
Like us. Like us on our good days, like us on our bad days.
Being complete invites us to consider where we are on our
journey: are we complete? No, not yet.
What does that mean – is it bad? Nope –
not bad – just that there’s still some work to be done. And THAT is the message Jesus leaves us with. ‘You are a
work in progress, but I don’t want you to give up. I want to see you persevering,
every day, knowing that it’s not over. Be patient with yourself, put the past
behind you, learn to move beyond your comfort zone, do better than you’ve done
before.’
Quite the message. Quite the learning for us. Bad days
happen – and that’s okay – so long as we stay behind that metaphoric CAUTION
tape instead of lashing out. So long as we acknowledge the possibilities in
front of us with love and compassion instead of criticism and negativity. So
long as we live each day as a today instead of as an extension of the past.
Jesus has been saying to us “you have heard it said” with
some harsh statements from the old testament – an eye for an eye; forced to go
a mile; hate your enemy: and he challenges us to see these from a different
perspective. He invites us into non-violent response in ways that show the high
road, the loving nature, the Christian way. The old ways are just that – old
ways. Those are the yesterdays. The responses are NOT going to be easy – turn
the other cheek so I can be hit again? Give my cloak after my coat has been
taken? Walk even further away from home and security than I’ve been forced to
go? Eek. Sounds indeed like a bad day to me.
But that’s where we’ve been called to.
It is there that we will grow, mature, move towards
completeness. Maybe in turning the other cheek rather than hitting back, we
will learn to overcome a fear and stand up for what is right. Maybe in giving
cloak and coat, we will see the desperation and need fuelling the actions of
those who are unjustly taking from us, thereby allowing us to show compassion
to someone who needs it. Maybe by going the second mile, we will meet a new
friend on the road and enjoy a conversation that you might otherwise have
missed.
Maybe in loving our enemies – not just our friends – we will
recognize that at some point, someone loved us first, whether we deserved it or
not. Maybe this will remind us that everyone needs to be loved, and prayed for,
no matter what their actions. Maybe these prayers will remind us that everyone
has a bad day – and that some people deal with it better than others. Maybe
these prayers will remind us that loving our families and friends is easy, but
loving our enemies and praying for our persecutors is part of the journey
towards completeness – for them, and for ourselves.
It takes effort, and practice, and perseverance. But it is
worth it, so long as we do it for the love of God. Because that love IS perfect
– in every sense of the word – and ought to be celebrated. So let us too aim
towards that love, that completeness, that perfection – just as our heavenly
Father is perfect.
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