“Imperfect People”
Rev. Dr. David E. Gray
Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church
Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Psalm 51

How many of us have spent the past few days watching the Olympics? Each evening Bridget and I stay up watching the games. It’s amazing to watch those athletes. Incredible physical and mental strength and tremendous gifts. Any of us who have ever skied or skated have great appreciation for their level of ability.

The Olympics are a search for perfection. A person has to be spot-on perfect to win a metal. Figure skating, skiing or ski jumping, in any individual event, if there is one slight stumble or miscue, you can’t win. One has to be nearly flawless to win.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s recent book, Outliers: The Story of Success, Gladwell writes about some keys to why some individuals are so successful in what they do. One idea that Gladwell posits is that it takes about 10,000 hours of deliberate practice for a person to really master a subject area or skill.

And to be one of the best in anything a person must practically be relentless. We hear of Bill Gates obsessing over computer programming. the young Mozart, practicing music with ferocious intensity for years, or of Bobby Fischer’s utter obsession with chess. Gladwell describes the similar obsession Bill Gates and Bill Joy had with programming as young men. How can one match this level of devotion? Practicing for 10,000 hours, that’s a long time to practice.

Watching the Olympics and thinking about the 10,000 hour rule. Many of these Olympians are only teenagers or in their early 20’s. And yet some of them pass the 10,000 hour rule. They have been practicing their skills for their whole lives.

Some of these figure skaters, they have been practicing their whole lives. There is a true obsession for some of these teenage Olympians.

And yet what happens when they don’t win. The Olympics have shown some real gratitude when some folks don’t win, such as the first American to win alpine cross country. But also some real heartbreak and discouragement when they do not win. And there is only one gold medalist.

To see some of the faces of some athletes when they have fallen on an ice skating jump or crashes racing down the hill in skiing. There is not only physical injury but emotional trauma. You can see it on the faces of the competitors after they have crashed or not performed as they would like. Yet when they fail there can be depression. There is real depression when the pressure is so great. And when in the obsession for perfection we come up short. The human desire for perfection . There is a drive to be the best we can be.

We are not capable to be perfect. Today and througouth these 40 days of Lent, we will be engaging on Sundays in a sermon series called Good News for Imperfect People. Ash Wednesday is a day to recognize our imperfection. Even celebrate it.

Today we celebrate that we all are part of that imperfection.

Lent is a time for considering our condition, the human condition, including sin and its consequences for individuals and society. Lent is also a time for considering the new possibilities offered to us in Jesus Christ. It is in lent where we really come face to face with our powerlessness, ultimately we are mortal and with our helpfulness and with our humbleness and with our woundedness and with our limitations.

On Ash Wednesday, the church declares to us something that we know all to well but prefer to ignore, that “We will die someday and our bodies will decay. We are imperfect. Our bodies our imperfect.”

Within the biblical tradition we often think of great leaders such as David but he was far from perfect.
Our lesson from Psalm 51 tells King David, the great King of Israel, at his darkest moment. The prophet Nathan came to call David to repentance after David broke about half of the 10 Commandments by committing adultery with Bathsheba, murdering Uriah for starters. And so David calls out to God to have mercy upon him according to God’s love. To “cleanse him from his sin.” Psalm 51 calls us to the reality of sin. As David states, “I know my transgressions. My sin is ever before me.”

A. Whitney Brown has said of human history, "Any good history book is mainly just a long list of mistakes, complete with names and dates." But there is value. How do you learn to make good decisions? From Experience. And where do you get experience? From bad decisions.

David is an example of real sin. Psalm 51 is written after his seduction of Bathsheba and his murder of her husband, Uriah. The psalm makes the point that we begin Lent with, that we are sinners. We cannot escape our sins. We know that. Individually and corporately.

But Psalm 51 is also at its core about God’s grace. Just as mortality, sin and imperfection are at the core of human condition, so grace and love are at the core of God’s condition. Near the end of Psalm 51. David declares that the sacrifice that is acceptable to God, is a broken spirit. A contrite heart. God wants us to be humble and open to God. When we begin Lent with the thought of sin, there is no greater sin than the sin of idolatry and thinking too much of oneself.

When I heard Senator John Edwards talk about his affair and fall he talked about his pride during the campaign when he was being built up. King David was similar. And so God wants a contrite and humble heart.

Psalm 51 is not just Davis and the Israelites’ story but our story. And it’s not just about our nature but about God’s nature. God does forgive sinners, shows grace and recreates people. As David states, he will teach “transgressors your ways.” As God calls us to participate in the redemption of the world.

Lent is a spiritual time. A time of reflection and preparation. Why do we celebrate our imperfection? Because the recognition of our imperfection is the launching pad for spirituality.

Spirituality begins with our acceptance that we are imperfect. When we stop looking to blame someone for the state of our being, our relationship or imperfection and see ourselves as what are. When we recognize our imperfection we are more willing to turn to God. David turns to God in his prayer once Nathan calls him on his sin. Saying of God, “Against you alone have I sinned.” Imperfect, but loved by God, then spirituality can begins. We realize that we are imperfect and that this life will be full of pain. But that there is still healing and joy available within the pain, and above all there is grace.

If we are not moving forward in faith we often are moving backwards. If we have moved away from the focus of our faith, Lent is a time to restore and refocus ourselves on our relationship with God. .

I am not arguing for perfect, and I am not suggesting we spend 10,000 practicing each of our spiritual practices. However, much like practicing ice skating, skiing or piano for that matter change us, so that many years later we are still able to skate, ski, play piano or do a variety of activities we could as a child, practicing spiritual disciplines can drive deeply into our religious psyche. So our practicing meditation, Bible reading, Sabbath observance or active prayer life for six and half weeks now, can become permanent additions and change our lives. And our adult education program on “Ways to Integrate Spiritual Practices of Christian Faith into Our Everyday Lives” is a good attempt to do that.

But at the end of the day, it all depends on grace. Your spiritual disciplines are important even critical, but they will not save you. You and I are still imperfect. David cries of God, “Restore in me the joy of your salvation.” All of David participates in the redemption. Psalm 51 is as much about God’s character as about David’s. Ultimately, while there was pain and suffering, God forgave David and he remained king. Our goal in our practices is to remove the barriers that we put up in the way of our relationship with God.

We live on Ash Wednesday and throughout Lent with the conviction that the Apostle Paul felt so strongly, that we live because of God’s grace.

Thanks be to God. Amen.