How? - 2nd Corinthians 5:16-22
How many of you remember
the country song from the late 1970’s by John Conlee entitled, “Rose Colored
Glasses”? In this song, John sings of a
man who has a girlfriend that has cheated on him, possibly lied to him, and
just treated him wrong in general. However,
John sings that he looks at the girl through “rose colored glasses:” “But these rose colored glasses that I’m
looking through, show only the beauty cause they hide all the truth.” He sings that these glasses show him only the
good things of their relationships and help him ignore all the obvious problems
and reasons he should dislike and dismiss her.
We’ve asked “Who?” contemplated “Spiritual
Alzheimer’s” and the temptation to forget who and whose we are, and asserted
that we are Christians called to remember that we belong to God. We’ve asked, “Where?” and remembered that we
are “citizens of heaven” called to place our trust and reliance upon God as we
live as aliens on this earth. Last week
we asked, “Which?” and asserted the need to choose life by repenting of our
sins and living according to God’s Word.
This week we ask, “How?” and contemplate how we see things, as we
continue our self-reflective Lent before Easter.
There’s the story of this pastor who has
been preaching to the congregation about not judging anyone by their
appearance. The congregation assured him
that they would welcome with open arms anyone who came to worship with
them. One week, this pastor told the
congregation that he was going to go on vacation and that a guest preacher
would bring the message the following week.
The next Sunday, as the folks come to worship, they saw a figure sitting
on the back pew of the church. They had
never seen this man before. The man had
long hair and looked like he hadn’t shaved in a week. He wore a t-shirt, torn jeans, tennis shoes,
and a worn-out baseball cap pulled over his eyes. No one in the church talked to him before the
service started, and instead poked and elbowed one another while making
gestures back toward the man and then began whispering. When the collection was taken, the ushers
wouldn’t even pass the plate down the row where this man was sitting. When the service was over, everyone was
careful to avoid him on their way out.
It was the talk of the church for the next week. On the following Sunday, as the pastor was
talking about how good it was to be back in the pulpit, someone asked him where
he went on vacation. “Nowhere,” he said. “I stayed right here and worshipped with
you.” The folks in the congregation
laughed, and said, “We didn’t see you.
Where were you really?” The
pastor said, “I was sitting right there,” as he gestured to where the ragged
looking man had been sitting. You could
have heard a pin drop as most of the congregation bowed their heads, and the
pastor pulled out his Bible, turned to 2nd Corinthians 5:16 and
began reading.
“From now on, therefore, we regard no one
from a human point of view,” Paul says.
Paul wants to talk about how we see things—whether we are wearing the
right sort of glasses. Now don’t go
pulling out your Bibles, Paul doesn’t actually mention glasses there, but think
about it. What do glasses do? They control ho we see things, often times
altering the way we see things. If a
far-sighted person puts on glasses adjusted for them, they are able to read
things closer up, and vice-versa for a near-sighted person. If a person goes out into the bright
sunshine, the dark coating makes everything appear darker, and, depending on
the color of the lenses may give everything a colored tint. Here, Paul wants to address how we see
others.
Paul says that we are not to regard anyone
from a human point of view, or as some translations put it, we are not regard
anyone according to the flesh. Oh, but
how easily that occurs every day. We get
in line behind a young girl with a child in the grocery store, and when she
pulls out food stamps, we think, “there goes another teenage girl having babies
and abusing the system.” We learn that
someone is a school drop out, and think, “that lazy kid just didn’t want to
learn.” We learn that a convicted
criminal has just moved into our neighborhood, and we think, “their goes the
neighborhood. Gotta make sure that
everything’s locked up tight. Gotta tell
the children they can’t walk down the sidewalk that way anymore.” We notice someone of Latino background or
hear someone speaking Spanish and think, “there goes another illegal take
advantage of the system.” They ways go
on and on as we look at folks and judge them on the basis of their economic
condition, educational level, age, skin color, or history.
When confronted with “How,” namely, “How we
see things,” the answer tends to be, from an “I-centric” position. That is “I” as in me, myself, and I. We look at things, at people and
situations, from a self-centered, self-focused position. If it is not like us, if it is not what we
like, then we are ready to disregard it, dismiss it, or, worst of all,
disrespect it.
That’s been going on for a long time. Jesus dealt with it through the gospels. The Pharisees and scribes came upon Jesus and
saw him eating with the tax collectors, prostitutes, and other sinners, and
immediately began to judge him as a sinner among sinners. They watched him cast out demons and
determined that he must be in league with the demons. All too often we join them and look at things
around us through, not rose-colored glasses or bifocals or any other type of
glasses we can buy, but through those “I-colored-glasses.”
Paul says we can’t look at folks and
situations in that way any longer.
“Behold,” Paul says, “if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation:
everything old has passed away, see, everything has become new.” At first glance, it would seem to us that
this would mean that when folks are joined to Christ through Baptism, that they
are made new and we have to see them in that way. This is true.
It means that whether a person is white or black, rich or poor, educated
or non-educated, male or female, felon or a goody-two-shoes, that once they
have passed under those Baptismal waters that all those characteristics have
disappeared and we are not to understand them as our full brothers and sisters
in Christ—we don’t see those characteristics that the world sees that would
separate them from us.
However, that is not all that Paul is
telling us. Paul is not only reminding
us that those who come under those waters are a new creation, but he is also
reminding us that we are a new creation.
Paul is telling us that we have to make sure that we are no longer
wearing those “I-colored-glasses” when we look at those outside the church
either. We are called as new creations
to put on a new pair of glasses. We are
not told to put on those “rose-colored-glasses” which hide the truth, but we
are called to put on “Christ-colored-glasses” which reveal the truth.
We are called to see people as Christ would
see them, as God would see them. We are
to be ambassadors of Christ who came to reconcile the world to God. As ambassadors of Christ, we are called to
live as Christ’s presence in the world, for, as Paul says, “we have been given
the ministry of reconciliation.” We are
to see people as Christ would see them and treat them as Christ would treat
them. We are called to see the sick and
the suffering, and whether they are church members or not, reach out to them
with a healing and helping hand, by going to them and being with them. We are called to see the lost and confused,
regardless of their membership status, and offer them guidance in the Word of
God. We are called to see the lonely and
outcasts and offer them friendship and love.
We are called to see the struggling, and offer them a helping hand. We are called to see those in mourning and
depression and offer them encouragement.
We are called to see that everyone is a created child of God being
called back into relationship with the Creator.
They are all someone Christ died for, and that Christ rose for. They are of value. They are meant to be loved.
My brothers and sisters, how are we looking
at things? May it not be through John
Conlee’s “Rose-Colored Glasses,” but may we offer this prayer with Brandon
Heath:
Look down from a broken sky / Traced out by
the city lights / My world from a mile high / Best seat in the house tonight /
Touch down on the cold black top / Hold on for the sudden stop / Breathe in the
familiar shock / Of confusion and chaos / All those people going somewhere /
Why have I never cared
Give me Your eyes for just one second / Give
me Your eyes so I can see / Everything that I keep missing / Give me Your love
for humanity / Give me Your arms for the broken hearted / The ones that are far
beyond my reach / Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten / Give me Your eyes
so I can see / (Yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Step out on the busy street / See a girl
and our eyes meet / Does her best to smile at me / To hide what's underneath / There's
a man just to her right / Black suit and a bright red tie / Too ashamed to tell
his wife / He's out of work he's buying time / All those people going somewhere
/ Why have I never cared
I've been here a million times / A couple
of million eyes / Just move and pass me by / I swear I never thought that I was
wrong / Well I want a second glance / So give me a second chance / To see the
way You've seen the people all along.”[i]
In the Name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[i] CCLI Song # 5359222, Brandon
Heath | Jason Ingram, © 2007 Peertunes, Ltd. (Admin. by peermusic), Windsor Way
Music (Admin. by peermusic), Sitka 6 Music (Admin. by Sony/ATV Tunes LLC), Sony/ATV
Cross Keys Publishing (Admin. by Sony/ATV Tunes LLC), For use solely with the
SongSelect Terms of Use. All rights
reserved. www.ccli.com, CCLI License #
2555612
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