Looking But Not Seeing

Anton DeWet

Ex. 20:1-4

There is something about a man’s eyesight that I cannot explain. Or perhaps I should say, there is something about a women’s eyesight that is hard to explain.

The other day I was looking for a favorite sweater and I just could not find it anywhere. I searched the whole house and my closet three times. I knew that if I asked Henza she would find it in a minute and I wanted to make sure I did not overlook the most obvious places before I called in her help.

At last, satisfied that I had missed no place I went back to my closet and searched it again. Now I could call in help.

“Henza, I think I lost my beige sweater,” I admitted, knowing that would send her into the search mode.

I kid you not, a minute later she throws the sweater in my lap with a “you just didn’t look too hard…”

“Where did you find it?” I demanded.

“In your closet, where else.”

Now, explain that to me! I looked and looked, but I did not see.

Our constant and regular exposure to the concept and ideas that shape our faith can blind us to certain realities and truths. We look, but we do not see.

The ten commandments were read every Sunday in the church I grew up in. It is like saying the Lord’s Prayer every Sunday. There comes a time when we look, but we no longer see—you speak, but you do not hear.

The state of our Christian faith in the Western world is a good example. Christianity in the first world has become so domesticated and tame that when our Latino brothers and sisters came up with Liberation Theology we nearly had a fit.

Now, with new voices added along the way including Black Theology, Feminist Theology and a cacophony of new voices each with exciting possibilities, mainstream theology often finds itself struggling to answer the relevance question.

Some feel that it has become a theology of the status quo. It affirms our economic system; it affirms our right to dominate as first world powers; it affirms our nationalism and patriotism—see the national flag in the sanctuary? It affirms my life choices and it condemns those who are not like me. Jesus becomes a middle class hero who would vote for the political party of my choice and blesses me with a home and two cars and a good 401K.

And when we read something such as the Ten Commandments we barely find any of these commandments threatening to our lifestyles because after all, I don’t carve wooden masks and pray to them…and I don’t cast golden calves and worship them. I don’t even feel the inclination to worship any other god. So this first commandment we read this morning I pass with an A+. Or do I?

No, we certainly do not carve idols to worship or cast golden calves. But do we not create idols in other ways?

An idol is something we value more than what God intends for us. If we place our nationalism above the values of our faith—we have created an idol.

If we place our national security above the values of our faith—we have created an idol.

If we place our financial security and accruements above the values of our faith—we have created an idol.

If we place our own comfort above the values of our faith—we have created an idol.

Is there really anyone among us who can truly declare that they have not been guilty of creating idols that have distanced them from the values of what God gave us in Jesus Christ?

When we look, but can no longer see, we may need to be willing to look deeply again and perhaps be willing to call in another pair of eyes to help us look at ourselves and our life choices.

Its easy to declare our faith and to fight for prayer in schools and to have the 10 commandments displayed in public, but its so much harder to keep those 10 commandments and to live prayerfully. Have we become more obsessed with the wrappings of faith that we have discarded the true gift of our faith?

Even worse, have we taken our faith and adapted it to endorse our lives and our values—or do we make the painful adaptations of our lives to mirror the values of our faith?

Are we even “looking”, never mind “seeing” how our faith is being abused to serve the interests of the status quo? Do we still have the ability to care?

Christianity appears to have become a fashionable pastime in the First World. Its where “decent” people often go. We want our kids to be exposed to it so some of the God-stuff can rub off on them.

Jesus warned that to follow him comes at a price. It does not come cheap. He demonstrated that but giving his own life in the struggle…and a struggle it is. It is a call to radicalism. It is a call to turn our backs on all our other gods…our favorite idols…and to embrace a different kind of life. Its either that or we make a mockery of the call of Christ to be his disciples.

Jesus angered his society because he spoke of a radically altered society where those with money take care of those without any. Where those who were sick would be lifted up and taken care of and be restored to their families and their communities by those who were well. It would be a new society where the “haves” would respect and look upon the have-nots with a deep compassion do something to lessen their burden.

The integrity of our Christian voices is in question. People are abandoning Christianity in droves. Some still listen to the hysterical voices of fundamentalism which gives you a way out with the promise of a blissful afterlife if you follow their religious recipes to the letter of their laws.

But in general, the world has looked at us and they see. What they see are communities seemingly more interested in their own agendas than in God’s calls to humility, service, compassion, forgiveness and peace. They catch us out too often when we don’t practice what we preach.

We will argue amongst ourselves about how we should worship; what we should wear; how many times we need to have communion in a year; whether we should us the Lord’s Prayer in every service—but you never hear any arguments about our call to “go, make disciples of all the nations and baptize them in the name of the Father and the son and the Holy Spirit”, as Jesus called us to do in the Gospel of Matthew.

There are few voices in any mainstream congregation advocating for this kind of Evangelism. Its more like, we need more members to help pay the bills. And so even our communities become idols we attend to for all the wrong reasons.

We argue about the stained glass windows but we never argue about who will give their possessions to the poor this year. We view our tithing to our faith community and its ministries as an act our OUR generosity, which it is, rather than an affirmation of our faith.

Can it be—and I absolutely include myself in this question—can it be that we look, but we do not see? Are we so blinded by self interest that we no longer see that we have lost our way?

“I have a dream…” declared Martin Luther King. Do we still have a dream for our world and our lives that include the radical call of Jesus Christ to a new world?

I think it is time for those among us who claim God as our God…who claim Christ as our Christ, to rethink what it is that we have become as churches and as individuals.

There is a world of hurt around us. There are people hungering for a faith community where integrity and authenticity is alive.

Let’s look at ourselves again. But let’s ask God to help us to actually see with new eyes. And then, let’s stand together and support one another to make the hard choices and difficult changes in our lives.

Let’s jettison those values that have kept us captive to ideology and societal values that may serve us well, but at too great a price to pay for our neighbor…the one Jesus spoke about.

Let’s ask God to help us see, truly see, when we look at ourselves. And let’s commit ourselves again today to be Jesus Christ’s disciples, giving ourselves away in service of others. Finding new ways to love each other and our neighbors. And even joining the struggle Christ called for to love your enemies and answer their anger with kindness.

Its not an easy task. But it’s the way to true meaning and a full life. Let’s join hands as together moving forward as God’s people, bringing the light and hope of God to our communities and to our world, and thereby, to our own lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

PRAYER

Precious God, it is so easy for us to conform to the world we live in. It is so hard to live our faith as Jesus taught us. We discover many idols in our lives when we look and our eyes are opened to see.

Today we want to rededicate our lives to living fully. We pray for strength to eradicate those idols that ruin our lives and our world. We pray for more compassion, to overcome our prejudices. More love where we are treated with anger. More faith when we cannot see how this world can go on like this. More peace in our hearts when anguish over the suffering we go through threatens to break us.

We look to this group of friends in this church and we give thanks for their lives. They make a difference in ours. We see your face in theirs. We see your compassion in their actions. We see your kindness in their acts of giving. None of us are perfect, but together we do celebrate the efforts we represent in our striving to be your people.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to friends who are ill and friends who are recovering from illness. We pray for those among us who are troubled by worry. It may be their circumstances, a family member, or simply the state of this world. Loving God, may your spirit of compassion rest upon them.

And now, as we prepare to participate in the communal table of your hospitality, we pray for insight into our own lives, we offer our confessions and we accept your blessings of new life. This we do in Jesus name. Amen.