On Being Square

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. – Matthew 5:48

In the last post we talked about the problem of good being in the world.  How is it that we determine good?  We know that someone like our current president has said that, for him, sin is doing something not in alignment with his own values.  Virtue for such a person might be summed up by the Shakespearean edict “to thine own self be true.”  We acknowledge the need to be honest and straightforward, that deception is wrong at all levels.  The full quote from Hamlet says, “This above all:  to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”  There is virtue in this, but it is not a virtue much practiced by politicians, including Mr. Obama.  You might recall how quickly in 2008 Obama discounted and abandoned his mentor and surrogate father, Jeremiah Wright, when Wright’s sermons and utterances became too embarrassing to his campaign.  Wright even somewhat graciously recognized the need for duplicity in the political realm saying that Obama had to denounce him to win the election.  Was that a sin by Obama’s standard?  Or is that merely a reflection of his values? 

When we compare ourselves to ourselves, we find that our measurements are less than reliable.  A psychopath or sociopath can be “true” to himself.  Pol Pot, Mao, Che, Stalin, even Hitler may well have never sinned by their own subjective standards.  Did you ever try to measure something by holding your hands apart?  It might do in a general sense – you can probably accurately ascertain that your new Boxer will not be able to use the Yorkie’s old carrier, or that when they said the Prius seats five, they did not envision five NFL offensive linemen.    

It is hardly surprising to find that we deceive or attempt to deceive ourselves and others.  I think it is more surprising to see how much energy, psychic or otherwise, we invest in justifying or camouflaging our attempts.  It is almost as if we know instinctively that something is out of plumb -- as if we can somewhere, somehow perceive an objective standard of truthfulness, righteousness, and perfection which we know we are violating. 

Now, there are going to be some people who say that these are instilled into us by family and community, by our education.  I’m sure this must be partially true, for a child raised under inhuman conditions will be inhuman.   Yet we are not merely products of our environment.  We are born with potentials that can be shaped and guided or thwarted and perverted.  Again, that there are and have been cultures and societies that deviate and have deviated from the Absolute should not surprise anyone.  The astounding thing is that we are able to perceive those deviations. 

I refer to this passage frequently but that’s because it seems so profound to me:   Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.  He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.  (Hebrews 1:1-3)

If we look at Jesus we see the perfection of God framed and defined in human flesh.  The Incarnation is the ultimate – so far – Revelation.   

It is certainly no easier to be perfect than it is to set a post plumb.  One of the reasons is that a post, like a human, generally has a few crooks and warps and twists you have to work through in order to get it straight -- as you might say, overall.  What we cannot do is accommodate our crookedness and say that we are merely being true to ourselves.  We cannot look at the post planted in the next hole and say that we are pretty straight compared to it.   

Unlike a breathing, mobile human, obviously, a post is a piece of dead wood.  While you and I may have some dead flesh that needs trimming, some overgrowth that needs pruning, we are still living and malleable, still capable of being formed and shaped toward “true and square”, toward perfection.  And we can see where we miss it.  We can know that we were we are not precisely on the level because we have something -- SomeOne by Whom we may measure and compare, Jesus Christ -- the same yesterday, today, and forever.  Look upon the tested, tried, and true Cornerstone.    

[T]herefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid 1 as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation:  ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’   And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”  (Isaiah 28:16-17)