Perfect versus Imperfect
Notes
Transcript
Perfect versus Imperfect
Perfect versus Imperfect
On the ride home from Brent and Robin’s party last night, Daisy and Poppy had a game of “Would you rather.”
They stumbled into a discussion about heaven and what it will be like.
Daisy was saying you will be perfect
Poppy was saying she does not want to be perfect
So I interjected or perhaps they asked me what I thought.
I said, it is not about perfection
It is about being complete, whole
I thought, hey, that might be a good thing to talk about.
How does scripture describe humans in God’s house?
We have a problem when it comes to the concept of ‘heaven’ and what that means to a Christian.
We have a very Greek view of the afterlife
Listen to this and see if you have been influence by this thought:
Heaven is a place like a mountain where God and his angels live. They live above the earthly plane. (Mount Olympus, Jupiter, etc.)
Heaven is a realm of perfect form and an ideal place. Things are made of a spiritual aether that is not like the physical world we live. (Plato and Aristotle)
How does one make it ‘to heaven?’
You need to be an exceptional human and heaven is a reward for good deeds.
Your soul needs to be purified to ascend to heaven. (Plato)
You are in a spiritual state rather than a literal physical state (Orpheus, Dionysus)
How does scripture describe God and Humans living together?
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
It is clear that God is walking on the earth with humans in the place he made for the humans to live. And that place is called ‘good.’
So Moses rose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them.”
Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.
Where is Moses?
He is on a mountain, he is still on earth.
There is a tent, a tabernacle that God has the people build. A place that he will come to dwell and visit and walk among people.
We are going to talk more about that.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
What is John’s perspective?
He watching something ‘come down’ meaning he must be on the earth.
It is a city, with a river, a tree of life
Giving its leave each month (so there is a sense of time or periods)
Healing for the nations (so there are different groups of people)
When Jesus returns, where does he return?
Earth, where we live.
In a recent Torah Tuesday, last week, I asked a thought question:
What if the world in which we live is not physically different than the world to come.
But all evil has been put away from creation.
What would that world look like?
What if you journey to the temple of God to bring your praise?
Let me ask you another question, and this might jack your brain a bit:
If God is merciful, then on what will God have mercy in New Creation?
Well, there is a Psalmist that thought and meditated on this and wrote a small 5 verse Psalm about it.
What he notes is interesting and it answers the question from my two youngest daughters.
O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?
Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
This is a perennial question people ask.
But we ask it from a selfish perspective.
We concentrate on the Who (which the psalmist does) and we miss something obvious.
Who will be a guest in your tent…
In other words, God made a tent and came to live among the humans on earth
He did this when Israel was comprised of people who were not perfect
The question is who and where!
And these locations are on earth, not a Greek model at all!
Let’s look at what follows
He who walks blamelessly and does what is right
and speaks truth in his heart;
who does not slander with his tongue
and does no evil to his neighbor,
nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
in whose eyes a vile person is despised,
but who honors those who fear the Lord;
who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
who does not put out his money at interest
and does not take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things shall never be moved.
Did you count them?
Let’s go through them again.
Blameless (tamim) it means whole, complete, as you were meant to be.
It does not mean perfect.
Right (tsedek) it means righteous, in faith
It means your deeds are done in faith
Truth (emet) it means true, faith, it is the Amen
Your heart is faithful, trusting, and your words reflect that.
And, they are put into three groups.
He who walks blamelessly and does what is right
and speaks truth in his heart;
who does not slander with his tongue
and does no evil to his neighbor,
nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
in whose eyes a vile person is despised,
but who honors those who fear the Lord;
who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
who does not put out his money at interest
and does not take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things shall never be moved.
The first section is about your character
The second section is about your neighbor
The third section is about your blessing
The ones who do these will not totter, wobble, be shaken.
So, it is not about being perfect.
In other words, any of these are possible.
It does not say walks blamelessly at all times.
Part of being a ‘whole’ person is recognizing what you intend to do and correcting it
By nature, intentional abuse is abuse you thought about. You knew better.
Unintentional abuse is different
Truth or faith in the heart is something you can do.
You can do your best to control your tongue.
You don’t have to do evil to your neighbor, etc.
Let’s think about this in New Creation
O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord; who swears to his own hurt and does not change; who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.
Perhaps there are some things that are not going to be a problem in New Creation:
Will there be vile people? I don’t think so.
Will there be bribes against the innocent? I don’t think so.
It very much seems that humans are going to interact with other humans.
And today, now is your time to practice this.
It is not going to merit your place in New Creation. You cannot earn it.
But we are commanded to practice it.
Perfect versus Imperfect
Perfect versus Imperfect
