Be Ye Therefore Perfect
We live in
an age where everyone’s life is perfect- or, at least it looks that way. From
the photos of models to the picture on social media, everything and everyone’s
life, dog, and family look flawless. Sometimes it even feels like everyone at
Church is perfect. They all have amazing spouses, faithful children, and
awesome testimonies. It makes those of us who don’t have a perfect life feel
like we don’t belong.
News flash:
The Marriott family is NOT perfect! In fact, our family motto is, quite
seriously, “The Marriotts: Lowering the bar since 2005.” If you ever need to
feel better about yourself, please come over to my house for 5 minutes and you
will quickly realize that you are doing just fine.
Which is
why, when I was asked to speak on the higher law found in Matthew 5, which
culminates in 5:48 with the words “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father
in Heaven is perfect,” I had to chuckle a bit. Perfection is nowhere near our
radar- we are totally on the “let’s just get by” plan right now.
Chiecko
Okazaki, former general Relief Society President, said, “Let me remind you of
another great kitchen proverb: You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.”
To me, that proverb gives us permission to take a chance, to risk a little, to
make a mistake. Sometimes we want so badly to do everything just right that our
desire for perfection paralyzes us. Well, if we’re not moving, we can’t get
closer to our goal. I don’t think that the Lord is hovering over us just
waiting to pounce on us if we make a mistake. Instead, I think he’s behind us,
giving us a gentle nudge and saying, “Take one step. That’s good. Now take
another.” Unquote.
Life is not
perfect. Some days you will cry, some days it will be hard to keep going. And
it is OK! Even Jesus wept. It is OK if you can’t bake homemade bread or if your
kids wear mismatched socks and have jam on their forehead for church. Instead
of stressing over the parts of your life that are still in development, focus
on living the GOSPEL- not the culture- of Jesus Christ and being more like Him.
Elder
Renlund said, “If we don’t try, we’re just latter-day sinners; if we don’t
persevere, we’re just latter-day quitters; and if we don’t allow others to try,
we’re just latter-day hypocrites.”
In our
faith, we are an action centered church. For years, we DID home teaching, we
didn’t minister. We SAY our prayers, we don’t pray. We DO temple work, we don’t
go to worship. We are not DEVOUT members, we are ACTIVE members. We are
obsessed with activity and work. In and of itself, that isn’t bad- work is
good. There are a lot of people that need to be fed and clothed and served.
But, we sometimes miss that meditative devotion to Christ that is required of
true disciples.
In John 8 we
read of a woman taken in adultery. The scribes said to the Savior, “According
to the law, we should stone her. What do you say?”
Then, we get
this beautiful imagery of the higher law. Christ goes to her, kneels in the
dirt, gets in the muck and the filth of the streets and tells the men that if
they are without sin, they can cast stones. They all go away leaving the one
sinless person in the dirt with the woman, and he offers her forgiveness.
In his talk
“Perfection Pending” from 1995, Russell M. Nelson clarifies that the word
“perfect” does not mean to be without sin, but rather to be “complete,
finished, and fully developed.”
Matthew 9
tells of a woman who had been diseased with an issue of blood for 12 years. She
came to Jesus and touched His garment. He turned to her and lovingly said, “Daughter,
be of good comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole.” Does that mean she was
perfect? That she was sinless from that point onward? Of course not. It means
she let Christ heal her when she was at her worst- she let Christ see her
filth, her dirt, her imperfections, and she let Him heal her.
Peter is one
of my favorite scripture characters. He is so stalwart, he is so fierce in his
loyalty to Christ.
Except when
he is not. He walked on water- until he got scared and doubted and started to
fall in. In Gethsemane, Peter keeps falling asleep no matter how often the
Savior asked him to stay awake. But then, minutes later, he draws a sword and
is ready to single-handedly fight 600 Roman soldiers who came to arrest the
Lord, and he even cuts the ear off of one. Just a few hours later from this
courageous act, however, he trembles in fear before a young maiden around 12 or
13 years old, and denies Christ three times. In essence, Peter is just like
each of us- eager and willing, and scared and unsure all at the same time.
In the
gospel, we can’t have do-overs, but we can have “do-betters” as Emily Freeman
calls them. We aren’t always going to do
right, but Christ will continue to call us again and again. After the cock crowed three times, Christ
still asks Peter to lead the Church. Christ still wanted to use Peter! Christ
never convicts or condemns us- but He constantly invites and encourages us to
do better.
Believing in
Christ is a dangerous way to live. It is hard! There are times of failure in
our testimony journey. We have all had rooster crow moments- when we did wrong
and beg for a do over.
Likewise, we
have also had “walk on water moments”- not literally walking on water, but
times when we have had our own personal miracles- feelings of being so overcome
with the spirit that we know we can do anything the Lord asks of us.
1 Corinthians
3:9 says, “We are laborers together WITH God; ye are God’s husbandry, ye are
God’s building.”
God’s work
is US- He is building US. We are His field, His building, His temple- and He is
walking right beside us in our journey, where ever we are on the path.
My all-time favorite
quote is from C. S. Lewis: “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to
rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He
is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you
knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently
He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not
seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He
is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out
a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making
courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but
He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.” Unquote.
One
question we can ask ourselves is simply: “How have I evolved as a result of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ?”
Matthew 5:44 says, “Love your
enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for
them which despitefully use you and persecute you.”
The Savior
had exactly one motivation for everything He did: LOVE. His love for God, and
His love for each of us.
To me, that
is the higher law- learning to be motivated by love. Learning to willingly get
in the mud and the filth of my neighbors, my friends, and even my enemies, to
lift them up. To learn to minister- not just to visit teach. To worship- not just attend a temple session.
To be devout, not just active.
How have I
evolved to do this in my life? Well, like all of us, I am a work in progress.
But, the key takeaway is this: I AM progressing! I feel like I am missing a
roof and the leaks keep coming, and it does hurt sometimes. But I am also
learning and growing and trying and failing and continuing. And for right now,
today, that is enough- because Christ is by my side- in the filth of my life,
helping me in all of my do-betters.
This is a
gospel of grand expectations, but God’s grace is sufficient for each of us.
Discouragement is not the absence of adequacy but the absence of courage, and
our personal progress should be yet another way we witness to the wonder of it
all.
As Neal A.
Maxwell quipped, “True, there are no instant Christians, but there are constant
Christians.”
If we so
live, we too can say, “And I soon go to the place of my rest, which is with my
Redeemer, for then shall I see his face” with pleasure, “for then will our
confidence wax strong in the presence of God,” and He who cannot lie will
attest to our adequacy with the warm words, “well done.” I so testify in the name
of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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