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2/7/10 - 5th Sunday After Epiphany - Judges 6:11-24; 1 Cor. 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11 PDF Print E-mail
Written by Mark Giroux   
Sunday, 07 February 2010

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"They tell you nobody is perfect, then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they'd make up their minds."


Whoever said that made a good point.

I've read the Bible cover to cover, and it's clear to me: nobody's perfect.

Here is a partial list right from the Bible:

Noah was a drunk.
Abraham was too old.
Sarah was too old, as well.
Jacob was a big fat liar.
Joseph was abused.
Moses had a problem with stuttering.
Samson was a womanizer.
Rahab was a prostitute.
Jeremiah was too young.
David was an adulterer and then a murderer.
Elijah was suicidal.
Isaiah preached naked.
Jonah ran away.
Mary was an unwed mother.
James and John fell asleep while they were supposed to be praying.
Martha was a worrier.
Zacchaeus was too short.
Timothy, like Jeremiah, was too young, and also, he had an ulcer.
Mark was a runaway.
Lazarus was dead.

None of them were perfect, but they are all part of God's story. God works with imperfect people. God has a job for each of them.

Look at today's readings.

Gideon was timidly hiding in a wine vat, and when the angel calls him to work for God, Gideon says he's just a little guy from a little family. Gideon is fallible, frail, and has some issues. But God still has a job for Gideon.

Then there is Paul. In his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul describes how Christ appeared to the apostles after the resurrection. "And last of all," Paul writes, "as to one untimely born, he appeared to me. For I am least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God." Paul is fallible, frail, and has a lot of issues, but God has a job for Paul.

And then there is Peter. When Jesus provides Peter with the miraculous catch of fish, it dawns on Peter who this Jesus might be. And he falls on his knees and says, "Go away, Lord, I'm just a sinful man." And Peter is not kidding. He will continue to misunderstand and mess up. He will even deny Jesus when Jesus needs his loyalty most. Peter was fallible, frail, and had a lot of issues. But God had a job for Peter.

This is the story again and again.

From beginning to end, the Bible is full of people who have issues...people who are fallible and frail...people who are sometimes even fake. Nobody's perfect. But God works with fallible, frail, imperfect people.

Because that's the only kind of people there are.

It's true of all God's people everywhere. Including right here. No one sings the praises of St. Mark's Church more than I do. You know how proud I am of you, how delighted I am by the life and work of this church.

But my love for you is not blind. This is not a perfect parish. There are no perfect people listed in the parish register. Every one of us has issues. Every one of us is fallible, frail, and sometimes fake. Every one of us is imperfect. Include me in that category.

But that does not stop God. Imperfect people are the ones God chooses and uses, because that's the only kind of people there are. We are not perfect, but we are forgiven. We should always be called The Church of the Second Chance. We have a God who can write straight with crooked lines. That's the mystery and the paradox and the gospel.

I think so often of the story of an art class in an elementary school. The kids were using plasticine. It's like clay, but it does not harden. So you can use it over and over again.

One girl in the art class made a very nice looking creature with wings. She held it up and said to the other kids, "Look! An angel!" The other children liked it.

Then the girl quickly rolled her sculpture back into a ball. She held up the ball of plasticine and said, "Okay, what's this?" One boy guessed, "A ball?" "Nope," she answered, "it's a hiding angel."

A few days later, the principal happened to visit the art class. One of the boys pointed to a ball of plasticine on the shelf and said to the principal, "Know what that is? It's a hiding angel!"

That's the God's-eye view of us. We all have angels hiding inside us, waiting to be molded and let out.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, put it this way: people are needy, and people are needed.
 

When I started out as a preacher back in the 1970s, I thought the main thing I was supposed to say was very simple: God loves you.

I'm older now. I still think the main thing I'm supposed to say is very simple, but has one extra thing: God loves you and has work for you to do.

Forget the excuses. They won't work; I've tried a bunch of them myself. (Well, I haven't tried the excuse of being dead like Lazarus, but I've tried some of the others: too shy, too short, too young, too old, too sleepy, too much of a worrier.)

Think about all those Bible characters. They were fallible, frail, and sometimes fakers. The thing is, they all had angels inside, waiting to be sculpted and let out. Same is true of you and me.

Nobody's perfect. But that does not stop God. Imperfect people are the ones God chooses and uses, because that's the only kind of people there are.

People are needy, and people are needed.

You've got angels inside of you, waiting to be sculpted and let out. God loves you and God has work for you to do.

Nobody's perfect.
But everybody is loved.
Everybody is welcomed.
Everybody is invited.

People are needy, and people are needed.

And the mystery and the paradox and the gospel is this:

Every one of us can do amazingly good things for God,
for God's creation,
and for all God's children.

Why?

Because God is really good at sculpting beautiful angels out of common clay.
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 09 February 2010 )
 
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