THOUGHTS OF A MONK

The Perfect Plan [Council Fathers]

John 11:47-52
Febuary 2, 2005

Oh perfect! Or is that, Oh perfect!! Just by the inflection in our voices we can give opposite meanings to the very same words. The first implies something is perfectly awful and the second that something is perfectly wonderful. We haven’t said anything different; it’s how we’ve said it that makes it different. But whether something is perfectly awful or perfectly wonderful, the perfect aspect of it means that nothing can surpass it, for better or for worse. And we use these expressions because there is something that attracts us to the idea of perfection. Those clothes are a perfect fit. That chair fits perfectly in that room. The meal was just perfect. What a perfect hostess. What a perfect evening!

And aren’t we proud when we come up with the perfect plan. Say the perfect plan for our new garden or the perfect plan to redesign the gift shop or the perfect plan for the wedding banquet or the perfect plan for the high school prom, and the list is endless. And then there is today’s gospel:  What a perfect plan that one man should die for the people. Caiaphas thought so. Actually, so did God, which is where the twist in the story comes in. Caiaphas was thinking in terms of his and his country’s political survival, God’s plan was for the salvation of all people. But God’s plan was articulated by someone who was actually opposed to God’s plan, a plan that included recognizing Jesus Christ as Messiah. Wasn’t Caiaphas the wrong person to articulate God’s plan? No, he was perfect!

Seeking out perfection has a godly imprint on it; after all, when we use the word virgin we are talking about perfection. The Ever-Virgin Mary is the archetype. The idea here is that the human vessel that would bear God’s son would have to be virgin, that is perfect, since God is perfect. Anything less would not be able to produce the right result.

In our society we have intense political battles over things virgin. There are deposits of oil in northern Alaska, but to drill for that oil would then introduce a human disruption to this virgin territory in Alaska. As the rain forests of the Amazon jungle are cleared for farming, virgin territory is lost. And the connecting thought is that once the virgin rain forest or Alaskan wilderness is lost, it cannot be recovered. This is the nature of virginity. And for those who are conscious of this, the loss is palpable.

But, when perfectionism becomes a noticeable personality trait, trouble may soon follow. And yet within all of us there are areas of our lives where a desire for perfection seeps in. I know this from personal experience since I am known for tendencies toward perfectionism. The dishtowels must be folded and stacked in a certain way or else chaos will soon follow. I also remember a man who was our church choir director back in the early 1960s. He was definitely a perfectionist. He owned a white convertible DeSoto and he kept that car polished and clean beyond anything you could ever imagine. When he went for a drive he wore white gloves and would not let anyone touch the door handles to the car.  He would open and close the door for you with his white gloves on.  No finger prints on his perfectly clean car! But, what about us? What if we’re preparing for in-laws to visit; do we want the house to be perfect?  How would we prepare for a visit from our Bishop?  Even planning for our upcoming Pilgrimage, there is the tug within us that wants everything to be perfect. Furthermore, our common life must be perfect. We search for and find that perfect monastic example and tell ourselves that that is the standard to which we must aspire, anything less and we are deficient, and far from perfect. And when we come up short in our desire for perfection we can suffer from anxiety.

And yet, over and over again the scriptures remind us that God, while perfect, works with and through our weaknesses and imperfections. The miracle of God’s grace is how strength passing through weakness comes out as strength.  In this morning’s Gospel lesson, Caiaphas becomes the vessel for God’s word, and Caiaphas is far from perfect, outside of his own mind. God uses all creation, strengths and weaknesses, to accomplish his will. Hence the phrase, we are perfect in God. In other words, it is God who is perfect and God gives us that perfect guidance, despite our weaknesses, to produce his goals. 

Look around us, God’s will is being worked through all of us, even though we, and are plans, are far from perfect. This does not mean that perfection in the sense of striving to do one’s best is bad. It means that God’s will can be accomplished through us even though we are not perfect.  But that is God’s perfect plan, to use us as we are.

Today we remember the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, who through deliberation and prayer, and lots of arguments, let us not forget, laid the early foundations for the dogma of our Christian faith. We might be tempted to assume that they were all saintly in everything they ever said or did. But lets be honest, they were human beings just like the rest of us. Only Christ was perfectly human in every way but without sin. All the rest of us are perfectly human, including sin, all of us, even the Fathers of the church. It was not their supposed perfection that led to the outcome of that first Council; it was the help they got from the Holy Spirit to carry out the will of God. And as we prepare this week for Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit, let us make this a time to reflect on how much the Holy Spirit, that glorious and holy breeze, brings us the breath of new life and new possibilities. Let us see the Holy Spirit, even in our weakness and frailties as a perfect companion in our journey to the Kingdom. 

Christ is in our midst.