Last week, we dovetailed Pentecost and loving our enemies, both of which required the Spirit’s help. This week is no less challenging as we couple Father’s Day with Jesus’ challenge that “we are to be perfect, even as our Father in Heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48, NLT). Yikes! Yikes?
Oftentimes, translation makes a difference. We are reminded again today that Greek doesn’t always translate well into English. The following two translations bring us a little more clarity”
Therefore, just as your heavenly Father is complete in showing love to everyone, so also you must be complete. – Matthew 5:48 Contemporary English Bible
You, therefore, must be perfect [growing into complete maturity of godliness in mind and character, having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity], as your heavenly Father is perfect. – Matthew 5:48 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
That helps, doesn’t it? Not so much about perfection as it is about maturity. Do you wish, though, that Jesus would let up on the Heavenly Father stuff? So many people have unhealthy memories or experiences or impressions of fathers. Why was he so devoted to talking about his Father?
Since we’re on the subject, and because we all have “Daddy issues”, what are yours? They can be good, bad, or both, but coming to grips with them is very helpful as we wrestle with God as our Heavenly Father. How has your experience of fathers shaped your paradigm of God as Heavenly Father?
Translation, again, isn’t our friend here. When I hear the word “Father”, I think about someone in authority who is particularly stuffy, not approachable, powerful, not warm, and probably grumpy. Jesus’ favorite title for God, however, was Abba, the Hebrew word that is translated into Father. But the better translation is “Dad” or “Daddy”, with all the lovely, related imagery it conjures. Approachable. Supportive. Loving. Kind. Why was this Jesus’ favorite image? Because it was born from his experience.
What if your vision of God was shaped by profound love? Love for you no matter what. Love for everyone else, too. How might you view yourself differently? How might you approach God differently? How might you view others differently? How might you treat yourself, your faith, and others differently?
Learning to live in this paradigm is a lifelong process of (hopefully) growing and maturing, which is why The Message translation of Matthew 5:48 resonates with me:
“In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.” – Matthew 5:43-48 The Message
Addison Hodges Hart offers the following in response to Jesus’ instruction:
The objection that most people have to Jesus’ exhortation to love all – as also the objection many have to “forgiveness” – is often based on the false idea that Jesus is saying that one must feel love for all. And, of course, that is impossible for us to do. But we can be prepared to do good to all who cross our path or come within the sphere of our influence, regardless of how we might feel about them. Indeed, the point of the passage, and its parallel in Luke (6:32–36), is precisely that we should work against our prejudices, anger, dislikes, hatreds, and maybe even our desires for revenge, and do good anyway. “Love” is “doing good,” pure and simple, and doing it to all – “the evil and the good,” “the just and the unjust,” or, in Luke’s terms, “sinners.” Frankly, we can do it. We just choose not to do so time and time again. – Addison Hodges Hart, Following the Call, 149-150
Chiara Lubich offers these reflections:
If we let ourselves be guided by this word of Jesus, we will have new eyes and a new heart for every neighbor coming across our path, every time this chance is offered by our daily life. And wherever we are (home, school, work, hospital, and so on) we will feel urged to be distributors of this love which belongs to God and which Jesus brought to earth, the only love that can transform the world. – Chiara Lubich, Following the Call, 153
This is delightful yet difficult work, isn’t it? If anyone thinks it is easy, I wonder if they are being honest, or perhaps they are living in a bubble. The words of Jesus are an invitation to live by the beat of a different drummer, a higher Way, and greater love. His words are aspirational, keeping us reaching forward. Yet even he struggled at times to follow his own instruction! Yet he is remembered as one who, even when suffering the execution of being lynched, spoke words of grace.
How is the Spirit of God nudging you in all of this? What do you sense you are being called to do? What’s at stake if you choose to say yes? If you choose to say no? Who are you becoming? What is dictating your behavior – past pain that robs us of life or a new way of being that fosters wellbeing for all?
To a Dear Friend I Disagree With
by Rich Orloff
My love for you is not based on agreement
I do not demand that you see the whole picture
Any more than I am capable of doing so myself
I do not need to understand you to love you
I do not even need you to fit the picture
Of the you I sometimes wish you to be
Rejecting people I disagree with is such a lazy choice
The excitement of turning a friend into an enemy
Erases history and rewrites the future
Besides, if I only hung out with people who agreed with me
And then I changed my mind
I’d be all alone
So let us walk together in our pain and fear
Neither of us can control the world
Or force the world to be as we wish it would be
I see how you struggle to make sense of the incomprehensible
I hope you can see how I struggle to do the same
My love for you is stronger than the winds of opinion
Beyond any thought is the beauty of your soul