Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Wisdom Wednesday: Imperfect

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, July 19, 2023 Throughout the month of July, we at Peakland have been reading and discussing this book: God in the Wilderness, written by Rabbi Jamie Korngold. This book has been important to Andrew, Peakland’s amazing deacon, and I’m grateful he’s introduced this book to us at Peakland. We’ve been using this book in our Sunday worship and last Sunday, Pastor Dave spoke about Sabbath and the ongoing question of how we keep the sabbath day sacred and holy. Used to be under the blue laws, most of the world shut down on Sunday, so after Sunday worship folks visited family and friends and not much else. In today’s world, Sunday can look very much like any other day of the week, so Rabbi Jamie encourages us to find those activities which bring us close to God and closer to one another. For her and her family, that means hikes in the mountains. For some of us worship at church or online, gardening and mowing, reading, cooking, and napping are sacred activities. This month, we at Peakland have been meeting on Monday nights and Tuesday mornings for further discussion of the book. I led both groups this week, and I have to say, Chapter 5 of the book, Stop Trying so Hard, even God isn’t perfect, was a controversial chapter. I was at the YMCA early the other morning. 6:00 a.m. is when the dedicated folks are working out. I am usually surrounded by men and women who are in much better shape than I am, and it would be so easy to be discouraged about my own state of physical fitness if I compared what I can do at the gym to what they can do at the gym. They are perfect, I am not. Rabbi Jamie warns us against that kind of unobtainable perfection. Physical fitness, wealth, grades, professional status – anything we have, anything we do, we can find someone smarter, faster, stronger, richer and, I don’t know, better dressed. The reality is nobody is all perfect. In chapter 5, Rabbi Jamie writes some words which many in the discussion groups did not like at all. She writes, Nobody and Nothing is perfect. Not even God. Nothing is perfect. Not even God. Well now. Rabbi Jaimie discusses at length the Bible stories where God seems to make mistakes. God creates humanity giving us free will, which we abuse and use to make poor choices. God floods the earth to get rid of corrupt humanity, but the second Noah and his family got off the ark, they fall right back into destructive behaviors. God calls Abraham and Sarah to be the parents of a new family and a new nation, and right from the start, Abraham and Sarah whined and wheedled and doubted. God calls Moses to lead the exodus from Egypt, but he was a nervous speaker and an uncertain leader. That’s just in the first two books of the Bible. What Rabbi Jamie notices in this is that each time God’s plans for humanity fail, God tries again with something new. When the people turn away from God’s laws and commandments, God sends to prophets to call them back into right relationship. We Christians believe that because humanity was stuck in sin and no amount of divine laws or Godly prophets could get us back on track, then God comes to us as one of us in Jesus to teach us and heal us and to be our way back to God and away from sin.. Rabbi Jamie says perfection isn’t possible for us or for God, but that’s ok. God is resilient and determined to love us come what may, and that’s something we can achieve. In the face of setbacks and trials and our own messy imperfections, we are to be resilient and determined to love each other, and our neighbors and strangers alike, come what may. Now we United Methodists have our own ideas about perfection. John Wesley, who started the Methodist movement nearly 300 years ago, wrote that perfection is possible in this life, we can love God and love each other perfectly if we surrender ourselves completely to God. If we let ourselves be a leaf on the river of God’s will, carried forth only by God, then we can be perfect. John Wesley never claimed perfection for himself and I for one am far from being always and everywhere perfect, but I do know there are sometimes in life when we do follow God’s will completely. When we forgive one another, when we are generous with our time and talents, when we are advocates for peace and justice, when we are out in the creation and let ourselves feel awe at the wonderful works God has made, those are the perfect moments. So in the days to come, take a walk outside, give thanks to God for the perfectly imperfect trees and plants and streams you see, and give thanks to God for your own perfectly imperfect self. Thanks be to God.