"How to set square pegs into round holes"

At the heart of today’s lesson is a reading from the Gospel of Matthew, widely known as “The Beatitudes”.

But I wonder if it should be better known as “What to do when you have a board with round holes, and you only have square pegs?”

For there is a way to solve the challenge -- Removing corners by using a lathe or by hand chiseling, sawing, or sanding the piece until the sharp corners are gone.

A skill that Jesus may have known from his days at his father’s shop in Nazareth.

As far as I understand our Lord’s teaching, Jesus was smart enough to know that for people to live as He preached, it would take time, hard work, and a commitment to get rid of the sharp corners of humanity’s very well ingrained and self-serving ways.

In other words, Jesus understood for some people it would take longer than for others, and that as long as one keeps sanding away the stuff that stops us to get into the plenitude of God’s ways, we would be alright.

Of course, the challenge then and now is that in confronting the challenge, some would try to hack the holes so that the OUR square pegs would fit.  It was the attitude of the religious leaders of our Lord’s time and continues to attract devoted followers.

For what is more convenient?  To change and transform our own lives, even if one must go through some tough “processing” or trying to have God become pliable enough to change His ways unto ours?

In the words of the Psalmist, even when the religious practices of his days were firmly centered into carefully managed rites and ceremonies, the question still burned into his heart.  “Who may worship in your sanctuary, LORD?  Who may enter your presence on your holy hill?  (Verse 1).”

And his own heart answered.  It was not the religious score keeper.  It was not those who spent their days throwing Bible verses to “the sinners”.  It was not who had been born on the right side of the Temple tracks.  No.  Doing so is like painting a square peg in the expectation that it will fit a round hole.

According to the Psalmist, those who enter the presence of the Lord are those “Who walk with integrity and do what it is the right thing to do.  It is those who do not cause offence to their friends, nor discredit their neighbors, or take a bribe against them for their own personal gain.  Indeed, whoever does these things will never be shaken.” 

Those affirmations are the round holes of the Kingdom of God and which Jesus presented to the people of his time – all the way to ours.

So, perhaps what the lessons are trying to teach are about the need to realize that daily life is like a peg board sitting on our laps.

In the prophetic words of Micah (6:8), “doing justice, loving kindness, walking humbly with God”, in allowing God to smooth out the rough edges of our lives, and in letting go of those things that keep us from fitting right into God’s purpose always beats adherence to form rather than to function.

Let me suggest that every time we follow the path to blessedness, not only we will be transformed, but our witness, our behavior, our choices, and our aspirations will become the leavening agent to raise the new society which God long envisioned and which Jesus came to flesh out for His generation and for all generations.

Yes, it is good to pray, “Thy Kingdom come” but it is just one part of the deal.  But what Jesus taught is that the other half – “Then go and do likewise”, (Luke 10:37) is as essential as the first.

In my own journey of faith, I feel particularly blessed not only for your fellowship and love, but by the way in which in your own ways are committed to the “praying” and the “doing”. 

“Being Joyful, Keeping the Faith, and Taking Care of the Small Things” is not just a gimmicky tagline.  It witnesses to the reality of the people of St. David’s following the road to blessedness. Thanks be to God!

These daily choices may seem insignificant, but together they form the fabric of a life lived in communion with God and neighbor.  When we live this way, our lives become testimonies of hope and grace, encouraging others on their own journeys, and bringing us closer to the Heart of God and to one another.

May peace and grace follow you all the days of your lives.  Amen.

Fr. Gustavo