June 7, 2026 "Nobody is perfect"
- pastoremily5
- Jun 9
- 5 min read
2nd Sunday after Pentecost
Hosea 5:15-6:6
Psalm 50:7-15
Romans 4:13-25
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you
from the one who gives life to the dead
and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Amen
Abraham was not perfect.
Paul really oversells Abraham
as he lifts him up as the exemplar of faith,
of what an ideal relationship with God looks like.
Which is kind of funny
because doing so runs contrary
to the message that Paul is trying to get across,
the message that God prefers faith over perfection.
That God would rather be in relationship with an imperfect person
who acts out of love and trust (however imperfectly),
than a person or people who do all the right things
but only because they think they can get something for being perfect.
And perfection is impossible.
Yes, Abraham trusted God to remarkable degrees
He trusted when God told him to leave family and ancestral land
and to go to the place where God would show him,
and there make him a great nation blessing the whole world through him.
But Abraham also takes matters into his own hands
in time of drought, moves to Egypt
and in a bid to further preserve his life
lies and tells the Egyptians that Sarah is his sister
rather than his wife,
and when Pharaoh saw a beautiful and seemingly unattached woman
he took her as a wife and made her “brother” a rich man.
Of course she was actually his wife
and God plagues Pharaoh until Abraham’s deception is discovered
and Pharaoh returns Sarah and sends them on their way (Genesis 12).
Now lest we think this is just a one off,
we are told that Abraham later pulls the same stunt
with King Abimelech of Gerar (Genesis 20).
And God still makes a covenant with Abraham,
still promises offspring as many as the stars,
and Abraham believes God.
Abraham believes God
and he once again tries to take matters into his own hands
in the fulfilling of the promise
in the production of an heir
and so Ishmael is born.
And God says ‘no that’s not what I had in mind,
I will still bless Ishmael
but the descendant I’m thinking of
will come from you and Sarah’
and God renews the covenant
and Abraham believes God,
and so it goes,
God making promises
Abraham taking matters into his own hands,
and God sorting out the mess that Abraham has made
and continuing in the relationship.
To be fair to Abraham
it’s not that he didn’t believe or trust God’s promises,
if anything he was too eager,
‘this is the promise, okay let’s see how we can make this happen’
and perhaps that is why God stuck with Abraham
who trusted God’s seemingly impossible promises
so much that he tried in his own human way
to make the impossible possible
even if he made a big mess in the process.
Abraham is kind of like a child “helping” cook dinner or “weed the garden”
with that kind of help
dinner takes twice as long to cook
and the weeds stay firmly in the ground
while the flowers get pulled out,
but it’s hard to say no to that enthusiasm,
because in the end the truly important thing
is not getting dinner on the table in a timely manner
or having a weed free garden
but nurturing the relationship with the child.
God prefers faith, relationship, over perfection.
Like a hands-on parent
God would rather have messy enthusiastic participation
over cold transactional perfection.
This is the point that the people that Hosea is preaching to are missing.
They turned away from God
and when that didn’t work well for them,
they turned back to God
but not for the sake of the relationship
but so that things will go back to normal.
“Come, let us return to the Lord, for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.”
They are taking for granted God’s goodness and presence,
saying ‘if we go back to the right worship practices
we’ll be good with God again,
it’ll take two days, maybe three.’
No, you don’t get it’ God responds
“For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” It’s about the relationship
not the end result
and yes God’s appearing is as sure as the dawn and the spring rains
but that is because of God’s love and care
rather than response to sacrifices
or to satisfy some cosmic balance sheet.
God is going to continue to be good
because that is who God is
and the goodness of God
is shared by being in relationship with God,
by trusting God
not by trying to earn it.
This is what Jesus is trying to convey to the Pharisees
who question his actions of eating with sinners.
“Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’” he tells them
and then goes and lives out this mercy,
acting in the lives of three people
who have no choice but to rely on the grace and mercy of God
who are imperfect,
yet trust God.
Matthew- a tax collector
who by virtue of his profession
will never be able to justify himself through actions
but who responds to Jesus’ call to follow.
The leader whose daughter has died,
whose only hope is to place trust in Jesus,
God is the only one who can do anything now
and he boldly, humbly professes that belief and trust.
The woman who had been sick for twelve years,
you can be that she’s tried everything and then some
to get well
and now all she has left is Jesus.
And to all these hopelessly imperfect people
Jesus brings new life.
Matthew has a new vocation,
the daughter is raised from the dead,
the woman is healed
all because they dared to trust the grace and mercy of God.
God is going to continue to be good
because that is who God is.
Nowhere is this demonstrated more than in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection,
all undertaken out of love,
for the sake of our relationship with God.
‘Look’ God says ‘if you need to think in terms of accounting
I balanced the checkbook,
through Christ you are right with me,
this is my gift to you,
there’s nothing you can do to change it,
I took care of it!’
“For this reason the promise depends on faith, in order that it may rest on grace.”
Grace that offers full relationship
with the one “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence that things that do not exist.”
A relationship that prefers messy enthusiastic loving participation
to perfection
and extends that preference to how we treat others,
because nobody is perfect,
but when we follow God
and seek to show mercy to others,
to build relationships based on mercy and love,
trusting that God can redeem the mistakes we make along the way,
then, then we will witness the dead raised to life
and the impossible becoming reality,
not because we deserve it
but because God is good. Amen
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