Complete...Whole...Perfect

~~~ 2 Corinthians 8:1-9 ~~~ Psalm 146 ~~~ Matthew 5:43-48 ~~~

 

So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.

 

Matthew just sort of throws in this little verse for good measure.

If you are a believer then you might as well go all the way...

that is you might as well strive to be perfect.

Actually this is not what the writer meant.

 

In the ancient text perfect meant to be whole...to be complete.

It is only in Christ that we can come close to being perfect.

We can only reach this state of wholeness

when we are united with Jesus in heaven.

For now it is our daily task.

It is compounded by the fact that most of us do not realize

ourselves as being less than complete.

 

We do not view ourselves in the deficit column.

Most of the time we are half of what we could be;

certainly not perfect.

We have been offered something great to strive toward.

 

We do not love completely.

We do not give completely.

We do not forgive completely.

 

What is whole and complete in our lives?

The truth is nothing.

What a disappointment...to not have one whole thing in our life.

 

 

The closest we can come in this world to perfection

 is when we remove the focus from our self.

When we are no longer infatuated with ourselves;

then we come closer to being whole...perfect.

It sounds like a contradiction but it is the truth.

We cannot be complete until we go outside of ourselves...

until we look to those around us who are in need.

 

Every person we come in contact with

is in need of something that we can offer.

You are in each others life for a reason...to bring one another

 closer to wholeness; that is perfection.

 

Jesus came down to live among us

...he became poor although he was rich,
so that by his poverty you might become rich.

 

Jesus shows us what it means to be complete...whole...perfect.

He clothed himself with our fragile human form.

Through this supreme sacrifice he brought to perfection the will of the Father.

He made it possible for us to once again be whole and complete...

to enter into everlasting life with him in heaven.

 

The depth of our relationship with God

will be fleshed out in the wholeness of who we become.

Unless we have this God relationship

we can never be complete,

whole or perfect.

 

Work on this relationship with God and you will be

on your way to becoming perfect.

The more we come to realize how much God loves us

the more we will be able to love others.

Blessings of wholeness

stream down from the perfection of God.

The Lineage of Wholeness

~~~ Genesis 49:2, 8-10 ~~~ Psalm 72 ~~~ Matthew 1:1-17 ~~~

 

Today in the gospel from Matthew we are given seventeen verses

listing the genealogy of Jesus.

The older I get the more my ancestral history has come to be valued.

When you are young you don't think too much farther back

 than your grandparents.

It is difficult for children to grasp the concept

that their parents were once little children just like them.

 

In an effort to teach the value of ancestors teachers often

give the family tree assignment.

I remember one of my younger sisters getting in trouble

with her teacher for not placing

any aunts and uncles on her family tree illustration.

When in reality my sister was correct.

Our parents are both only children

so we do not have any aunts and uncles.

An entire section of our family tree has no branches.

Really strange when you think about it...

are the branches bare or do they just not exist at all?

 

Establishing the lineage of Jesus fulfills the prophecies,

but it gives us a human connection to him.

We can identify with and understand the importance

of family connections.

Listing, as in a litany, the lineage of Jesus

gives it a formality worthy

of who he is...the Son of God.

 

Life has a rhythm and reciting the ancestors of Jesus

also sustains a rhythm

all of its own.

 

This passage proclaims Jesus as one of us even before the

angel Gabriel appeared to Mary.

The lineage of Jesus was evolving with the passage of time.

 

I do not believe in numerology, but I think you would agree

that some numbers have

specific meaning in the Bible.

That is another whole blog post for the future.

 

I began to explore the number fourteen in the Bible.

Thus the total number of generations
from Abraham to David
is fourteen generations;
from David to the Babylonian exile, fourteen generations;
from the Babylonian exile to the Christ,
fourteen generations.

 

We know that the number seven implies perfection or completeness.

To the Jews the number seven or its multiples was significant.

The seventh day was the Sabbath.

The seventh month was holy and had three feast days.

At Passover fourteen lambs were offered.

 

Thus the lineage of Jesus is connected

for us to perfection and completeness.

When Jesus was born the Old Testament prophecies were finally complete.

From Abraham to the Nativity many generations passed,

 before the coming of the Christ child.

 

 

If one looks closely at this lineage of Jesus you see that there are several

individuals that you would not care to have in your family tree.

 

But here they are in the family tree of Jesus.

Jesus comes into our midst no matter what.

We cannot make the excuse of not being worthy.

We cannot be boastful about being worthy either.

 

Jesus enters into the good times of our life,

as well as the bad times.

 

So I guess one could say that there is some darkness

even in the lineage of the Christ.

What matters the most is that when was born all darkness was dispelled.

His light broke into the darkness making it possible for us

to inherit the grace to live a holy life.

 

This Christmas as your family comes together remember that you

have the light of Christ;

it is up to you to let it shine out to your family.

 

As part of the Body of Christ we are continuing the lineage of

the baby in the manger lying in the hay.