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It's OK, just be perfect.....

 It's OK... just be perfect...

I have one word to sum up the Sermon on the Mount so far... (and we're just getting to the end of the first of its 3 chapters today [Matthew 5]):

OUTRAGEOUS

To be blessed I must be spiritually poor, in mourning, meek, hunger and thirst for righteousness, be merciful, pure in heart, a peacemaker and persecuted.

No pressure then, just sit back and be blessed.

Oh and then don't simply obey the Law, let's make it even harder... don't even get angry,  don't have lustful ideas, don't promise, oh, and love your enemies.

It just gets better and better.

Be lights in the world... salty lights and by the way, you have to be more holy than the saints, well, the pharisees anyway.

So, to put it quite simply, be perfect like your Father in heaven.

Well, thanks Jesus, why didn't you say so in the first place? I'll be perfect then.

OUTRAGEOUS

What is Jesus trying to do? I've done my best, well sometimes, now and again, ok, very occasionally.

And now you want me to be perfect.

Either you're completely bonkers or there's something else going on.

Hang on, this is Jesus talking.

Of course there's something else going on.

So, what?

Well, the clue is at the start of Matthew Chapter 6... about not "doing our alms before men". Jesus is about to take us on a journey that is the most important journey we will ever start.. the journey inside. This is not a selfish act of introspection, but a journey with God to open us up to God's grace.

It is this journey inward that will make us more open to other people... less judgy, more loving of our neighbour.

Jesus has been showing us that all our own personal efforts at being good, behaving well, trying to be moral, are impossible to succeed. What we need is the contemplative journey, which, as we will see, is what Matthew 6 is all about. And at the heart of that is prayer, and that prayer is the Our Father....




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