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Mark Wheeler
Matthew 5:38-48
02/27/2022
“What Is God Saying? ‘Completely Perfect and/or Perfectly Complete’”
Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church
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Take My Life and Let It Be – verse 4 . . . Jake Davis
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Hello everyone! Welcome to worship at Lidgerwood!!
Take my love; take my self; I want to be completely Yours, and perfectly in Your service! What a beautiful prayer with which to begin this time of gathered worship! (Thank you Jake for opening our worship experience again today!)
Today happens to be SOMEONE’s birthday – Vern Lightbody – receive our love … Happy Birthday to you …..
Welcome! We are glad you are here with us today!
Our worship theme this month deals with some hard, or weird, scripture passages or churchy themes – based on questions I have received from folks in our church over the years. My prayer is that we might learn something, but even more that we grow into being the Church God calls us to be – together here, and with THE Church wherever we meet to worship and serve in the variety of ways and cultures and languages we are God’s church together!
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Thank you, on behalf of our Elders’ Council, thank you for … continuing to be a place where we love each other and our families by:
“Wearing your mask while inside the building.”
This is not because we are afraid, but because we want to love our neighbors. We truly want that no one should feel judged, and everyone should feel safe, so continue to be gentle with each other. Listening to the Philippians 2:4 passage:
“ in humility, each counting others better than himself; each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.” Philippians 2:4
We are gathered in our church sanctuary – a holy place – and it’s also a safe place – where the divine and the human connect together. Welcome to this holy sacred and safe place today.
CAMERA
Let’s take a second to welcome each other, and those in the room, look at the camera and say HI to your friends who are at home. Tell your loved ones, whoever you can see , “The Love of the Lord be with you – and also with you – and also with you! And you! And you!!”
Welcome to this “gathering” in God’s name. We are assembled in NorthEast Spokane, WA, along with people from all over the world. We are very glad you are “here” with us.
Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit presence and power, in your homes, through your phones and computers, in this building here, and in your lives. Pray with us … and hear and be transformed by God’s Word.
Today Scott Calls us to Worship from the Lord’s Prayer:
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Our opening song of praise and devotion –– #89 – Our Great Savior – led by Gene & Deanna Peden!!Please stand and join them powerful song of praise.
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Prayer of Illumination
Gracious and loving God, we thank You for Your divine providence in our lives that has so ordered the course of our living that You have intertwined our lives together in this Church. We pray that by Your grace, by the deep working of Your Spirit in our midst, You would help us to be so released to You in what we do together that You may be able to fulfill in us and through us the good and perfect will for our wholeness for which You have brought us to this place at this time. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
Intro series – difficult passages or theological ideas for us to understand or follow or even accept as from God, perhaps.
Today’s is a topic that every person that has ever walked this planet has had to deal with. Probably everybody in this room this morning is in the middle of something that makes this topic extremely relevant. What is today’s topic? Forgiveness. How to; why to; when to: how do you know if you have; etc. I think we can all understand God’s teaching on this subject … and it’s simple enough to accept it as God’s truth … but, man it is hard to do!
Specifically, today’s topic came to me like this: “I have had two people do repeated vicious acts toward me, and I feel I have forgiven them; yet I fail to trust them. Have I truly forgiven?”
We might also ask, “How can saying ‘I forgive you’ wipe away all the pain and hurt that person has inflicted on me?” If I asked for a show of hands from anyone who has ever wondered this question at some point in our lives, I’d bet almost all of us would have to honestly raise our hands.
Another way to approach that question is to say, “I have forgiven her, I just can’t forget what she did!”
CS Lewis once said, “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have someone to forgive … and then, to mention the subject at all is to be greeted with howls of anger.”
He’s right, isn’t he? We all know that forgiving another person their wrongs is the right thing to do – Paul said in Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind and compassionate to one another; forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” – but when we have to do it nothing about it seems right anymore!
Let’s hear from Jesus this morning, too. Today, from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:38-48 …. —-
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38 “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. [Yeah! That’s what I’m talking about! That’s also from the Bible, Deuteronomy 19:21] 39 But I tell you, don’t resist an evildoer. On the contrary, if anyone slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. 40 As for the one who wants to sue you and take away your shirt, let him have your coat as well.
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41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and don’t turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
43 “You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
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44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
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46 For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
That’s an order, a commandment, from Jesus, to forgive, isn’t it? Deuteronomy 19:21 gives us the “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” rule (and Deuteronomy is quoting from Exodus 21:24!). That was a good rule, too. Without that rule, people would say “an eye for a scratch, a tooth for a bruise”. At least this Exodus/Deuteronomy rule was fair!
But Jesus says that “fair” isn’t good enough! Jesus says to give him your other eye, too! Don’t just not be fair … but also offer your assailant another chance to double your victim-hood.
First, take note that this instruction was given to Jesus’ disciples – not just the 12 apostles, but the whole larger group of followers, too. It was spoken, therefore, for Christian individuals and probably Christian communities – churches. It was not spoken to political entities or civil governments. If the political/civil entity claims to be a Christian one, than perhaps even that secular gathering should be expected to follow this command. But otherwise, it is for us as individual followers of Jesus Christ, and us as a community of followers. We should forgive others and offer others the other cheek.
But Jesus does not stop with that commandment – as hard as it is to follow. He takes it to the next level: Love not only your friends and family … but love also your fiends and foes! Understand? Yeah, but …. Accept it as coming from Jesus’ mouth? Yeah, but …. Follow it in our own lives? Yeah, right!
This teaching from Jesus closes with the most difficult thing to follow.
First He says to turn the other cheek. Alright – hard, but … maybe.
Second He says to love your enemies and pray for your persecutors – Pray for them maybe, love them, not likely – but the truth is that when we practice praying for our enemies we discover a love for them we never knew could be there – that’s a gift from God.
Then He says, “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect!” Yeah, right!
Here’s where we really get to the heart of today’s concern. How do I know if I’ve really forgiven them when I can’t trust them?
What is at the crux of the Christian faith? What grounds the Christian believer – the follower of Jesus Christ, the lover and server of God Almighty – in biblical faith? It is the truth that our perfect God has perfectly forgiven us of our sinful behavior. You and I have sinned – we continue to sin every day – and yet God has forgiven us through the act of Jesus Christ on the cross, resurrected from the grave, ascended to heaven to reign on the throne of grace forevermore!
Just as Abraham proved His love for God by obediently following instructions against all reason to sacrifice his son; so God has proved His love by sacrificing His Son for us. In Jesus Christ we are forgiven! Do we deserve it? Yeah, right! But we are forgiven! God forgives us and welcomes us into His Kingdom. What is our responsibility? To receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior – that gives us the right to be called children of God!
What does Paul command? Be kind and compassionate to one another; forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Just as in Christ God forgave you! That is just perfect, isn’t it … or should I say, perfect justice!
But I can’t be perfect! I’ve tried … and failed. Nobody can be perfect! Max Scherzer (2021’s best MLB pitcher) wasn’t perfect. Tom Brady wasn’t perfect. Stephen Hawking isn’t perfect. Ludwig von Beethoven wasn’t perfect. Not one single person ever has been perfect. But Jesus says, “Be perfect just like God is perfect!”
There is a trick to this statement … and it is this trick which helps us understand the answer to today’s dilemma. The trick is this: in Greek the word for “perfect” is teleios, which can also be translated – and often is translated – “complete” or “finished”. When Jesus says to be perfect like our heavenly Father is perfect, part of what that means is to allow God to finish His work on us.
In order for God’s forgiveness on us to take effect – in order for it to work – we have to accept it. That is the first step toward becoming perfect, complete. We have to accept His forgiveness.
When we forgive another for the wrong they have done – some say we can’t really forgive unless they ask for forgiveness – but that’s not right; we can – and should – forgive them – they still have to accept it, whether they ask for it or not, for it to be completely, perfectly effective. Whether they accept it or not, it is good for us to do the forgiving, but it is far better when it is received!
Trust fits into that same category. God loves me and forgives me, and He asks me to do His work – He trusts His Gospel message into my lips! But His trust is not yet complete – it is not yet perfect! The more I prove my faithfulness to Him, the more trustworthy I become, the more perfect I will be. In the meantime, God has to help me every day!
If I forgive someone who has seriously injured me – they spitefully attacked me in a meeting; they purposely keyed my car; they beat me with a baseball bat – I don’t think I need to trust that person to care for me until they prove themselves capable of showing that care. I still forgive them – there’s no grudge, I do not repay their evil with my evil; but I don’t need to sit with them in a meeting, or park my car next to theirs, or stand idly by when they’re swinging a baseball bat!
If accepting God’s forgiveness is the first step toward becoming perfectly complete and/or completely perfect, what are the next steps?
The art of forgiving is a spiritual grace every Christian should develop. Here are some practical steps on the road to completion:
2) Begin by assuring yourself that compared to Christ‘s suffering you haven’t been seriously wronged at all.
3) Recall the many kind deeds that have been shown to you, perhaps even by the person who has harmed you.
4) List the benefits you have received from the Lord. “Count your many blessings, name them one by one.”
5) Thank God for blessing you with His love and forgiveness each day.
6) Make an honest effort to pray for the one who has injured you.
7) Go even further by looking for an opportunity to help him.
8) If the offense is especially hard to forget, try to erase the memory by thinking gracious and generous thoughts.
Dutch watchmaker Corrie ten Boom and her family were put in horrible concentration camps during World War II. Their crime was hiding Jews from the Nazi invaders. Her father, sister and other family members died there. Corrie, then in her 50s, had a lot of people to forgive: the Dutchman who betrayed her that led to her family’s imprisonment, as well as the brutal prison guards.
Many years later as she travelled the globe preaching, she gave an illustration on releasing bitterness coupled with unforgiveness. Yes, she said, it is hard to forgive. But Jesus requires it of His followers.
She said she had forgiven the guards who had abused her and caused the death of those in her family. Then some close friends behaved like enemies toward her and she was having a hard time. “So, you forgive but the bitter memories might keep surfacing,” she admitted. Then she shared an illustration that helped her.
“When a man rings a church bell, it goes bim bam—bim bam. Then there comes the moment he stops pulling and lets go of the rope. But the bell still goes bim bam a few more times. Yet he knows it will finally stop ringing.
“When we forgive, the memories might surface again and again, but you simply bring them again to the Lord. He is Victor. Soon He makes it possible for the Holy Spirit to help us become free of the bitterness. When other people make it hard for us, then we must pray that the Lord will use that for our sanctification.”
9) Finally, before you fall asleep at night, repeat slowly and thoughtfully that phrase from the Lord’s Prayer,
“Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
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Father Robert Spitzer, former president of Gonzaga University, now he speaks on a philosophy blog called “Spitzercenter.org”. He says,
“And now we hear Jesus literally turning everything on its head – in two ways.
“The first thing that Jesus says is look, love your enemies. In this way you’re going to be perfect like your heavenly Father is perfect. What does our heavenly Father’s perfection consist in?
“The most radical thing that defines the nature of God is that He loves His enemies. Even His enemies He loves unconditionally.
[Then Father Spitzer points out a “slight translation error”]: “It’s not ‘be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect…’ Otherwise we’d be dead and in Heaven. Rather it’s ‘be perfected as your heavenly Father is perfect.’ This is a slightly different nuance of the text.
“So, our objective is to try to move, to be perfected as it were, ever more closely toward the Father who loves His enemies and loves them even unconditionally.
“The world has changed. [We] can’t even imagine what this sounded like in first century Jerusalem. [We] can’t even imagine how different this is from the whole world view and conception they had, which Jesus correctly repeats and Moses validates: Love your neighbors and hate your enemies.
“The second radical difference is suffering.
“In the Old Testament viewpoint, even up through the time of Job suffering really is about God’s punishment of sin in past generations.
“Of course, the idea of suffering is it’s God’s just punishment for the sins. It might have been you, might have been your father, might have been your grandfather, might have been your great-grandfather, down to the fourth generation. You don’t know where it came from, but one thing is sure, suffering’s a punishment for sin.
“All of a sudden, Jesus says, no, that’s not it. ‘He causes his rain to fall on the just, as well as the unjust.’ This is earthshaking. This is like taking an entire dyadic worldview and turning it upside down. And then He says ‘He causes his sun to shine, good things to happen on good, as well as evil people.’ And of course, people are going, ‘This cannot be the case.’
“And then Jesus tops it all off again with saying, in this consists the ultimate perfection of your heavenly Father, that he causes even good to happen to people who are evil.
“He actually loves His enemies, and so He encourages us to pray for our enemies and to do good for those who hate us.
“We look at that and the image of God has changed significantly. Jesus is superseding that, as it were, the ‘justice at all costs’ view of God, the [‘eye for an eye law’], and is superseding it with the notion of God is unconditional love, Jesus Himself as the unconditionally loving Son, and of course, the commandment to love as superseding an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
“Truly, the good news for us, for all of us who are imperfect, is that God loves us!
“But of course, the challenge is to follow and be perfected in that love as we try to move through our lives.”
Amen.
Great God of Creation,
Lead us into our 2nd hundred years of worship in this sanctuary.
Prepare us for everything You would have us do and be here at LPC.
Confirm Your direction with joy and hope.
In Jesus’ authority. Amen. ……….
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20-22 Let’s come to the Lord in prayer –
- what are some praises, thanksgivings, adorations we want to offer?
- Is there a person or a situation you want to lift to our Lord for His answers and grace?
23 We pray this in the name of Jesus, who taught us to pray: [The Lord’s Prayer]
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We are living, breathing messages of God’s love for the world. This is our work of faith and our labor of love and our steadfastness of hope in Jesus Christ. Like the earliest Christians, we are here in this place because of the commitment and faith and generosity of others who shared the Good News of the Gospel in their time.
So we turn now, in our time, and share our faith and our commitment through generous giving to support the ministry of this church in Christ’s name. Let us gather our gifts together and offer them to God in gratitude and praise.
– Offering (4449 N Nevada St, Spokane, 99207 ; or click HERE, or text 833-976-1333, code “Lidgerwood”)
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Expedition Song #476 – Not What These Hands Have Done –! – Chan & Sherry Park! We opened today with a prayer of submission to God’s reign, and we close today with a declaration of God’s power and grace!
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We continue with this benediction: May we Grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit.
And give glory to God, today, and forever! Amen.
And as we do that: “May the Lord bless you and protect you;
may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
26 may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.”
30 Announcements
Resources:
Bruce, FF; The Hard Sayings of Jesus; InterVarsity Press; Downers Grove, IL; 1983; Pp. 68-76.
Mulholland, M. Robert; Shaped by the Word; Upper Room Press; Nashville, TN; 2000; P. 16.
Smedes, Lewis B.; Forgive & Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don’t Deserve; Pocket Books; NY, NY; 1984.
Spitzer, Father Robert (former president, Gonzaga University); https://spitzercenter.org/love-your-enemies/
ten Boom, Corrie; Marching Orders for the End Battle; Christian Literature Crusade; 1969; P. 53.
Wheeler, Mark; “What Did God Say? ‘Completely Perfect and/or Perfectly Complete”; Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church; 10/16/2005.
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