Perfection Rarely Involves Being ‘Perfect’
Beginning next week, Major League Baseball begins the playoffs that culminate in the World Series. I’m not a rabid regular-season fan, but I do enjoy the dramatic tension and strategies of a close World Series game.
I’m also a little envious at how easy it is for baseball players to reach perfection at their positions. It seems all they have to do is make no errors during a game.
I was reminded of this a few weeks ago while listening to a National Public Radio news feature with some Major League umpires. One umpire matter-of-factly stated, “I’m right 96 percent of the time, but the fans expect 100 percent.”
Ninety-six percent right! I’d settle for that in my daily life. Wouldn’t you? The subjective complexity of most daily decisions makes the predominantly objective parameters of baseball seem pretty simple.
Now, before I have passionate baseball fans screaming at me as though I’m a blind umpire, let me hasten to say that I know baseball isn’t as easy as it might look from the grandstands. After all, “perfect” games are rarely thrown by a pitcher. Only one perfect game has been thrown in the history of the World Series. So perfection is elusive even in a straight-forward, rule-laden game like baseball.
When Jesus told the people in Matthew 5:48, “So then, you must be perfect even as your heavenly Father is perfect,” can we assume he knew even baseball players might not achieve perfection?
Following the rules is a start, but it isn’t the ultimate way to achieve perfection.
We have easily twisted what Jesus meant by “perfection” by reducing it to strict guidelines and rigid rules and our overwhelmingly competitive passions. Being faithfully perfect has much less to do with a spotless record of righteous living and more to do with our tenacious effort to function as God created us to function.
The Greek word translated as “perfect” in Matthew 5 is teleios. It doesn’t imply a moralistic philosophy, but a practical function. For example, a Phillips screwdriver is teleios only when you’re using a Phillips screw.
But when a person has a screw loose, what is teleios for that situation? It’s a much more complicated situation. A greater frame of reference is needed. So Jesus didn’t say, “you must be perfect even as the Pharisees are perfect.” (Their perfection was too easy to attain because it was based on their own limited understanding of life).
He held God’s perfection up as the goal for human perfection: “Be as God has created you to be.” And what would that be? In Jesus’ lexicon of life, I would suggest that perfection has to do with being merciful and compassionate. That is how Jesus saw God, so to be like God had to include mercy and compassion.
Before United Methodist clergy can be ordained, one of the questions we must answer is a historical one from our founder, John Wesley: “Are you going on to perfection?” We won’t be ordained unless we say “Yes.”
On a perfectionistic level, it seems arrogant to answer yes, knowing ourselves as we do. But knowing that God’s grace is ultimately more important at the end of the day than whether we stayed precisely within the fair/foul lines of the game, it is a faithful answer to say yes.
The gift of Christian perfection, a la John Wesley, is not batting a thousand or fielding 100 percent or calling a game at 100 percent. Rather, Wesley knew it involves desiring a heart “habitually filled with the love of God and neighbor.”
Perfection is striving to have “the mind of Christ and walking as he walked.”
I believe God is cheering for each of us to become perfect. But the perfection game is much longer than nine innings. It is life-long. So listen for God’s encouragement each day of your life. Look for moments when mercy and compassion call the play you make. Then: Ah … it’s perfect!