January 2010
Reflections -"The Perfect and the Imperfect, Perfect Together"
Ex-Governor Tom Kean many years ago was the pitch man for an ad campaign for the state of New Jersey. His tag line was “New Jersey and You, Perfect Together.” I always liked the way the Governor said it with his preppy, educated, upper class, Ivy League, sophisticated, Episcopalian, cultured voice. Usually you’d see the Jersey shore with a happy, young, loving couple walking the beach as he’d promote our state. The ad made me feel good about living in the Garden State. I suppose if Vinnie from Bayonne did the voice over “New Joisey and you puurfect together,” it wouldn’t be as effective. It would just perpetuate our stereotype. But with the Governor speaking, our much maligned state was trying to redefine its identity. In the Christmas/Epiphany Seasons, God’s word enters our world and profoundly redescribes our reality as hopeful, not hopeless - as being wonderfully found, not irredeemably lost - as being a grace filled, not a God forsaken existence.
We see in the Incarnation, the lengths to which God will stoop in order to stand with us. And yet far from being a sign of God’s weakness, Christians believe this stooping of God, this enfleshment, this incarnation to be a sign of God’s greatest strength.
The 4th Century Theologian Gregory of Nyssa states that “The Incarnation, God’s intimate involvement with the world, is the supreme sign of God’s power. God’s power, while displayed in the vastness of the heavens, or the luster of the stars, or the orderly arrangement of the universe, or the creator’s perfect oversight of it, is nothing compared to God’s condescension to our weak nature.”
No risk is too great for this God, this God who loves without limits. We learn that none of us can ever sink to such depths that God’s love will not reach down and stoop to save us. After all God was born to a poor family in a dirty stable, lay in a manger, an animal’s feeding trough for us. What reckless love! The perfect and the imperfect, perfect together.
I always enjoy Christmas meltdown stories as they remind me how I’m still healing from a Christmas attack from my mother-in-law 30 years ago. This past October when we had our Blessing of Animals service I was given a déjà vu moment of that uncomfortable memory in my life. I had just thrown holy water to bless Tessa Sherman’s cat. I asked Tessa if this would be a good idea, as I knew cats don’t like water. I was told to go ahead, and I did. And the cat responded in his cage with a scary, loud hiss, baring fangs and showing claws.
That was my mother-in-law 30 years ago when I didn’t put tinsel on the Christmas tree properly. Hssssss! Fangs and claws showing. And that is the precise reality God is born into, an imperfect reality, with imperfect hurting, angry, sad, confused, grieving people looking for something to latch on to. Born smack dab right in the middle of imperfection, miraculously bringing forth beauty in the midst of it all. The Perfect and the Imperfect, Perfect Together.
In December my SAMA clergy group was privileged to have Peg Wright, founder of Great Expectations as our presenter. We knew that Great Expectations offered a residential home for pregnant women in Somerset County, but we didn’t realize the scope of its mission. We learned that they actually provide residential housing in Somerset, NJ for the whole state of New Jersey for homeless adolescent pregnant women and homeless pregnant adult women in substance abuse recovery. They do not jus house these women, their babies, and their other children. They are also attempting to break the cycle of poverty for these babies and their families with psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, pastoral counselors, substance abuse counselors and volunteers. What is so powerful about their work is that they are trying to help change lives, just as God does – one person at a time.
Peg Wright was asked why she does what she does. She responded that she was adopted, that she herself had adopted children, and that she as an adult has dealt first hand with substance abuse issues in her life. She humbly shared, “I have a passion for this mission of healing. It’s something I need to do. Something I want to do. I have a gift to do it. I have lots of ideas. If God agrees, we’ll get the job done. If not, we move on to Plan B.” Perfect God with imperfect humanity, being perfect together.
The Seasons of Christmas and Epiphany are seasons of hope. Times of singing, times of looking, times of gift giving and receiving, times of enjoying the Goodness of God in our very midst. Civil Rights Leader Howard Thurman writes, “But when the songs of the angels is stilled, when the stars of the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherd’s are back with their flocks, then what? Then the work begins….. to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among people, to make music in the land.” The Perfect and the Imperfect, perfect together.
Merry Christmas! Joyous Epiphany!
