Easter 2025 Sermon: Broken, but Still Perfect

Sermon begins at 20:35

Happy Easter, everyone.  

“In case nobody told you today You're special In case nobody made you believe You're special Well, I will always love you the same You're special I'm so glad that you're still with us Broken, but ..., you're still perfect.” 

I’m moved to preach to you on this blessed Easter morning, Broken, But Still Perfect. 

What started out with a dinner interrupted on Thursday night 

Turned into a realization on Friday that the world is intent on breaking things that are good. 

We know that’s true.  

It’s as true today as it ever has been. 

And so, looking at Jesus on the cross we asked the question, “can a thing which is broken ever be unbroken?” 

The answer to that is, as far as I can tell, “no.” 

For the most part, things that are broken stay broken, even Jesus. 

Then we looked at the promises of Jesus and our theology that says that it is through Jesus’ suffering that we are healed. 

Jesus fulfilled the expectation of the ancient prophet Isaiah that the Messiah would undergo suffering, that he would take on himself the sins of the world, and that he wouldn’t say a mumblin’ word. 

And then, that all things are being brought to their perfection through him. 

But, this prophecy and our theology bring up some difficult questions. 

“How can something broken be perfect?” and “How can one broken thing fix another broken thing?”  

In our experience of life, how often is it the case that one broken thing can fix another? 

But that is exactly our Easter hope. 

That is the message of truth that we have been waiting for. 

And I think that it is put perfectly by our modern sage, whom I quoted just a minute ago when Lizzo tells us, “[you’re] broken, but... you’re still perfect.” 

The issue we run into, when we wonder whether God can restore brokenness by becoming a human being who undergoes suffering and brokenness is that we don’t understand God’s perfection. 

We don’t understand what actually makes Jesus perfect. 

If you look at our society and how we perform perfection, 

How we idolize purity, how we imbue the unblemished with import, 

You see what we think perfection is. 

We see perfection as the possibility of never making a mistake, never stepping a foot wrong, always being put together, always being “on,” always pretending. 

It’s a weight that so many of us try to bear, and it’s exhausting. 

We think about God this way as well. 

The ancient philosophers known as the Epicureans argued that divine perfection meant never being disturbed, always being in equilibrium. 

They imagined that their gods were like the planets that they could see in the sky. 

Always in the same place, always in perfect balance. 

They imagined them as spheres, whose edges are all exactly the same distance from their center and nothing ever touched them, or caused them to waver. 

So many, today, want to have this type of perfection. 

We want God to be perfect like this, we want our lives to be perfect like this.  

In this view, to be broken is the opposite – the antithesis – of being perfect. 

And, if we view perfection through this lens, then Jesus’ life and sacrifice make no sense. 

Once something is broken, it’s not perfect anymore, and it cannot be perfect again. 

But the truth of Easter is that God’s perfection is completely different than this type of unblemished perfection. 

Because there is another type of perfection that is available to us, and it is the kind of perfection that we actually need. 

The ancient Greeks had another understanding of what it meant to be perfect; 

It comes from language. 

Perfection meant “to be complete.” 

Like the perfect tense in linguistics, perfection means that the action is over. 

It takes Dionne Warwick’s powerful words of defiance out of the future tense, “I will survive,” and makes them concrete, “I have survived;” ‘and no one can take that away from me.’ 

No matter the circumstances, no matter the suffering, if you finished, it is perfect. 

This is why Jesus’ last words are, “It is finished.” 

This is why the Apostle Paul says in his letter to Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 

With this type of perfection, God doesn’t stay apart from us, doesn’t stay removed and uncaring like an Epicurean, perfect god. 

God became a human being, because to become completely perfect, God had to experience creation from the inside and experience our brokenness in-person, and show us what it means for those things to be completed. 

God needed to show us that broken things, though they cannot be unbroken, can be transformed and can be renewed. 

That is what resurrection is all about, that is what we celebrate on Easter; 

We have a savior who still walks around with His scars to show us that suffering does not have the last word, that things which were cast down are being raised up, that what is broken can still be perfect. 

What we thought was the end of the story is just a new beginning. 

The reason one broken thing can fix another broken thing is because it knows what repair and restoration look like, it knows and can show the Way. 

Jesus sets a path forward for us and shows us the way to eternal life not in spite of what he suffered, but because he lived the same kind of life that we do and the same evils that we face did not conquer him. 

What makes Jesus special is his perfection – his completion - of life through resurrection, 

And by being followers of Christ, we claim for ourselves a faith that we are also special like him, that we will also be raised on the last day, that our perfection will be like his, and not like the perfection that the world tries to present to us and project on us. 

So Happy Easter to you, St. Andrew’s! Happy Resurrection Sunday. 

We can do all things, because Christ has shown us the way. 

Whatever you’re facing right now, you can overcome it. 

Whatever special cares you have, God is with you. 

If things aren’t perfect right now, that just means they’re not complete. 

If there are things that seem to have died, be patient, for surely they will be resurrected. 

Jesus is Holy, He is loving, He is broken and special and perfect, He will show you the Way, because Jesus Christ is Risen today; 

And he wants you to know... 

“In case nobody told you today You're special In case nobody made you believe You're special Well, I will always love you the same You're special I'm so glad that you're still with us Broken, but ..., you're still perfect.”