Imperfectly Perfect

Psalm 146

1 Praise the Lord.[a]

Praise the Lord, my soul.

2 I will praise the Lord all my life;
    I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
3 Do not put your trust in princes,
    in human beings, who cannot save.
4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
    on that very day their plans come to nothing.
5 Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
    whose hope is in the Lord their God.

6 He is the Maker of heaven and earth,
    the sea, and everything in them—
    he remains faithful forever.
7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed
    and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free,
8     the Lord gives sight to the blind,
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,
    the Lord loves the righteous.
9 The Lord watches over the foreigner
    and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
    but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

10 The Lord reigns forever,
    your God, O Zion, for all generations.

Praise the Lord.

I hope I don’t embarrass Joanne by sharing this but through a series of email conversations, Joanne and I have coined the phrase “perfectly imperfect.”  We use this phrase to describe events that may have not gone the way we had planned.  And in a nice thank you note left on my Facebook wall, the bride of a wedding I did on Friday used the same phrase to describe her wedding ceremony and I thought it could no longer be a coincidence.  Perfectly imperfect is the essence of the human condition.  We are made perfect through the sacrificial act of Christ dying on the cross and God raising him three days later.  We are imperfect because we just are... we are imperfect for any number of reasons.  That is just who we are.  We live in the conundrum of being perfectly imperfect to imperfectly perfect and back again.  We live life in the difficulty of trying to be everything to everyone.  We live on that fine line of trying to be who God has called us to be and then falling short only to think we weren’t meant for this.  This imperfection then calls us to question and doubt whether God really knows that he is talking.  Maybe our calling is wrong.  Maybe this isn’t where I am supposed to be.  All the questions and comments from our past that were negative creep back into our psyche.  This causes to woller and sulk in our imperfection until we are somehow, someway reminded that we are perfect again.  Things go back to normal for a bit and we continue on with life only to begin the whole cycle over.  We will go through this cycle 100’s if not thousands of times during the course of our lives.  

For me, my imperfection lies in the fear of disappointment.  I hate to entertain the thought that something I may do will lead to someone’s disappointment.  I put so much pressure on myself to be perfect due to that fear.  It causes me stress and anxiety.  Your trigger may be similar and it may be altogether different but there is likely something that causes your imperfection or at the very least, there is something that makes you feel imperfect.  And that is ok.  Our imperfections give God a chance to improve us.  Those improvements really are our ministries.  If God can make us strong where the world sees us as weak, that is where we find our calling because I guarantee there are others who feel the same way.  That is where we can help others and improve the world.  

Along with imperfect perfection, there have been two other phrases that have stuck with me.  The first one I came across when I was reading an article about hypocrites and christianity.  Jayson Bradley had this to say, “I do, however, recognize my need to be open to correction.  I have found that the church is full of people who are concealing feelings or perspectives they think will get them ostracized.  Sometimes living transparently gives permission for people around you to do the same.”  Our imperfect perfection means there room for improvement and we must be open to correction.  It doesn’t happen to me often but I can be wrong and I need to be open to the improvements I can make.  Think about raising children.  We admire their imperfect perfections until we are in public where others may judge us.  We do our best to help them to be successful.  But we have to do it in a way in which they are open to the help.  It is our job to make others receptive to our teaching.  We can help to do this by being open to correction ourselves.  Christians are called hypocrites not necessarily because we fall short.  Everyone does that.  Christians are called hypocrites when we call out the societal wrongs that need improvement and aren’t receptive to the improvements and corrections ourselves.  The second phrase that stuck with me was from an article about Rob Hall, a man who had a brain trauma and his brain lost his past memories and couldn’t conceive the future.  Hall was a very successful minister who formed the megachurch Mars Hill.  His symptoms from his trauma subsided after a month or so but that month taught him an important lesson as to how to live in the here and now.  I don’t know that I agree with everything Mr. Hall says but he did say something that stuck with me, “For many people, the sermon is how you build bigger buildings.  But the sermon is about the sacred disruption.”  God is the sacred disruption.  He is what allows us to see through the imperfections to get to the perfections.  The only reason we know perfection at all is because of God’s love perfectly summed up by the actions and words of Jesus Christ.  We know perfection because God has shown us.  Not only has he shown us he is continuing to show us.  Look at a beautiful sunset or sunrise.  Watch a child run through a sprinkler with hesitation and jubilation.  Listen to a baby laugh.  Listen to the elderly share stories about their youth.  Watch how a church family and community stand by a family as they mourn the loss of a loved.  We are offered glimpses into perfection on a near daily basis.

When we seek out the sacred disruption and combine it with an openness to correction we will be more aware of God’s grace and love.  These two phrases boil down to seeking God and following his will.  Our scripture for this morning tells of all the things the Lord does, it speaks of all the things the Lord is currently doing.  You know how he is doing these things?  Do you know how God loves the righteous?  Sets prisoners of abuse, racism, and prejudice free?  Do you know how God gives food to the hungry?  How he watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow? Do you know how God frustrates the way of the wicked?  He disrupts our lives, His grace and love shine like the sun in times of such darkness, and those who are willing and open to correction will hopefully eventually follow their calling.  The glare through their imperfections and see something greater.  They see something better.  They see a world filled with said grace and love.  They allowed the sacred disruption to move in their lives because they were open to it.  God moves in the world and we are the tools he uses.

Plain and simple: that is why we are here, this is the secret to life!  We are here to share God’s love and grace.  We are called to make disciples of all nations.  We are called by the sacred disruption to take our imperfections and put them to perfect use.  Amen.