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In God’s Eyes

28 Monday Jul 2014

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This post is based on a sermon delivered at St. Paul United Church of Christ on July 27, 2014.

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. ~~ 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

It was a cinematic grand romantic gesture that has been spoken about and referred to in pop culture throughout the past 25 years.  In the movie Say Anything, Lloyd Dobler, played by John Cusack, stands outside of his ex-girlfriend’s window at dawn holding a boombox over his head, playing the song “In Your Eyes,” in the attempt to win her back.

The act has been imitated in pop culture again and again.  It’s a very sweet deed.  Maybe a teen or twentysomething would think that this is the greatest act of love, and as a young person, we would expect someone to hold up a boombox outside of our window to win us over.  Maybe at 16, when this movie was released, I would have believed that this was the ultimate act and display of love.

But is this love?  And why do we see this surface love in so many movies and pop culture references?

Let’s move from the grand gesture of standing outside of a window with a boombox overhead to the song that’s playing on that boombox.  A few years before the movie came out, musician Peter Gabriel released the song “In Your Eyes” which was featured in that scene.

The lyrics of the song resound a love that goes deeper into the heart of God, a love that’s more than a grand romantic gesture:

“In your eyes
The light, the heat
In your eyes
I am complete
In your eyes
I see the doorway
To a thousand churches
In your eyes
The resolution
In your eyes
Of all the fruitless searches

Oh, I see the light and the heat
In your eyes
Oh, I want to be that complete
I want to touch the light
The heat I see in your eyes”

Both this song and today’s scripture are reminders of this complete self that exists in God’s eyes, and the hope to see each other through God’s grace-filled, unconditional loving lens.

Today’s text is one that is often read at weddings.  It was probably read at many of your weddings and if not, you have undoubtedly heard it at a wedding.  Unfortunately, the most important part, at least in my belief, is often left out.  Some people stop reading the text at the point where it says “love never ends.”  To me, the most sacred part follows this.  The text reads: “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face.  Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.”  I believe this is an extremely important piece of scripture to be read at every wedding.  It’s a great reminder to a couple that you won’t see each other as God sees you all of the time, and it’s something you’ll have to work at over and over again.  In this lifetime, we see God, our neighbors and ourselves through that dimly lit mirror.

Granted, true unconditional love is patient and kind, not envious, boastful, arrogant or rude.  But there is something deeper about this love that we are called to have – not only with our significant other but with all people.  It’s a love we can experience when we use God’s lens in seeing one another.

The second most important piece of this text, again in my belief, is the verse “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.”  The love we experience and give will transform over time.  Sure grand romantic gestures are a wonderful and refreshing surprise in a relationship – even in a marriage after 25 or 40 years.  But our understanding of love continues to evolve as we grow and as we continue to set aside our childish ways.  When we are a young person, we think love is the feeling we have when we fall in infatuation the first time.  We want to hold boomboxes over our heads as we proclaim to the world how we feel about this person.  But love is much much more than a feeling.  Our view of love continues to transform from fireworks going off in our hearts to something deeper – a relationship which indicates that we are trying to see the other person from the lens of God’s unconditional love.

The third most significant piece of this text in my view is the verse “It  bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”  The amount of hope that is in this verse can transform any type of relationship from one that could fall apart to one where possibilities can happen.  Looking through the eyes of God to our loved one, our neighbor, a stranger and our enemy brings about possibilities that we may never thought were possible, including healing and peace.

In our marriages and all sorts of relationships, we’re going to mess up.  We’re going to be our awkward, messy selves.  The question is: will the people who matter see us as God sees us?  Over time, we realize that in our health and in our illnesses, people show us love.  In our deepest grief and in our greatest celebrations, people are around to love us.  Love is greater than the chaos in our lives.  The people who see us in just the slightest way God sees us will stick by us in almost any situation.  They will see a more complete version of ourselves

The reaches of love as refer to by Paul extend to all sorts of relationships.  From that of a married couple to the relationship between Christian brothers and sisters, this love is one that calls for us to look through the lens of God’s eyes, to continue to grow in the way we look at love and to hold on to hope even when relationships seem hurt or broken.

How have you looked at someone through the eyes of God recently?  How did it change your view of them?  How have you looked at your spouse or significant other lately?  What about your children, other family members or friends?  And how about the person you can not stand?  If you were to close your eyes right now and put on your God-glasses, how could your relationships grow stronger?

Yes, God is the God of romantic gestures, of boomboxes overhead as music plays at dawn to woo a lost love.  God is the God who would hold the boombox outside of our window to draw us to Her or Him.  God is the God of weddings, of romantic moments that refresh us and first loves.

And God is the God of dimly lit times in marriages and shadow-filled friendships, of sickness and bad times, in poverty and loss.  God is the creator of hope and endurance in our relationship journeys.  God is the one who helps us see that we are complete in each others eyes.

May we embrace the romantic love of youth and the deep love that we find in the dimly lit spaces.  And may you find the lens of God to see others as God sees all of us.  Amen.

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Our Ideal Selves… Transfiguration Sunday

02 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by in Current Events, Life, Movies, Pop, Pop Culture, Religion

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This post is based on the text Matthew 17:1-9.

Lupita Nyong’o

Tonight, those of you watching the Academy Awards, or Oscars, will see someone nominated for one of her first roles: Lupita Nyong’o.  For those who may not know, she is a supporting actress in the movie 12 Years a Slave.  Lupita’s parents were from Kenya, and she is of Luo descent.

Recently, Lupita was awarded the Best Breakthrough Performance by Essence magazine.  When receiving the award, she gave a very moving speech on the beaming dark color of her skin.

When we see African American women on television and in movies, we often see women who are extremely light-skinned.  Yet Lupita’s skin is darker than most women we see in the media.  Growing up, she was discouraged by her skin color, praying that God would change that part of her:

“I remember a time when I too felt unbeautiful. I put on the TV and only saw pale skin, I got teased and taunted about my night-shaded skin. And my one prayer to God, the miracle worker, was that I would wake up lighter-skinned. The morning would come and I would be so excited about seeing my new skin that I would refuse to look down at myself until I was in front of a mirror because I wanted to see my fair face first. And every day I experienced the same disappointment of being just as dark as I was the day before. I tried to negotiate with God, I told him I would stop stealing sugar cubes at night if he gave me what I wanted, I would listen to my mother’s every word and never lose my school sweater again if he just made me a little lighter. But I guess God was unimpressed with my bargaining chips because He never listened.”

Eventually, through the slowly changing image on television, Lupita began to see beauty in a very different way.  She said “finally, I realized that beauty was not a thing that I could acquire or consume, it was something that I just had to be… What is fundamentally beautiful is compassion for yourself and for those around you.  That kind of beauty enflames the heart and enchants the soul.”  Lupita radiates as she smiles and presents her authentic self wherever she goes.

If we watch the pre-Oscar Red Carpet tonight, we’ll see people who look like everyone else attending.  Most people will be white.  Overall, women are required to be thin.  The ideal is lighter skin, unless you are a pale white woman, and then you need a spray tan.  Men need to be tall.  They are allowed to age a little more gracefully, whereas women in Hollywood are almost required to cover up the gray.

Undoubtedly, we are in a culture where there is an ideal race, gender, sexual orientation, class level, religion and even marital status.  We hold those standards often forgetting that the image of God abides in those who look and act differently than we do.

Today is Transfiguration Sunday, the day we recall the story of Jesus radiating on the top of a mountain.  It also marks the end of Epiphany, a season which begins with the magi finding the light of Christ and ends on a mountaintop with a beaming Christ.  Epiphany is a season that helps us to recall that the light is among us, whether in an infant child, on the top of a mountain or within us, as we are the light of the world.

The definition of transfigure is to “transform into something more beautiful or elevated.”  Jesus, a seemingly ordinary man, has a face begins to shine before his followers.  The disciples present, Peter, James and John, see this overcoming beauty and want to keep “beaming Jesus” on that pedestal or in an elevated state.  But Jesus knew that’s not where he beamed the most.  It’s not where he was the most beautiful, and that light radiating on the mountain needed to be spread around, not just kept far from others.

He radiated the most as he gave dignity to the marginalized, healed the sick and fed the multitudes.  Jesus was his most ideal self when he was serving the children of God.

However, I believe the Gospels give us a story of a Jesus who wasn’t perfect when it came to his perception of others.  Remember story of the Syrophoenician woman (or, as Matthew’s Gospel refers to her, the Canaanite woman)?   His disciples had such disdain for this woman who was greatly concerned for her daughter.  Even Jesus questioned her background and pretty well referred to her as a dog.  In the face of Jesus, she stood up for herself, her value and dignity.  I believe Jesus’ greatest transfiguration was the moment that he could see the Canaanite woman for the beautiful person she was – even though she wasn’t of Jewish descent like him.  In his transformation, he was a light to the Canaanite woman in front of him.

One of my favorite texts in scripture is 1 Corinthians 13:12: “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face.  Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I am fully known.”

On this side of heaven we can’t see people in the way God sees them.  We can’t see ourselves in the ways God sees us.  So we create much heartache in judging others and ourselves through our human eyes.  In every part of my soul, I believe that on that side of heaven, when we can experience God in our fullest, we will see everyone’s best selves.

Maybe it’s time we stop thinking that one type of race, religion, gender, orientation or class is more beautiful and transfigured than another.  Maybe it’s time to stop judging others because God knows every single cell of their body and feeling in their heart.  Maybe who we think is a sinful or lazy person is the individual who God needs them to be right now.  Maybe it’s time for us to embrace what God was saying about Jesus – – that God is well pleased with all of us.

Sure, we all have growing edges.  We all have ways to improve ourselves.  It’s good to be aware of those ways and work towards correcting them.  But maybe what God is requiring of us is to work on ourselves, give ourselves abundant grace when we fall short and look through the lens of God’s eyes as we love our neighbors.

Because God loves us all so much for who are at this very moment.  God sees our ideal selves.

Our flaws could be some of the most beautiful parts about us.  We should look at ourselves as stunning no matter what size we are or what we’ve accomplished in life.  It’s time to affirm that our neighbors are beautiful no matter what their skin color, who they love, what type of work they do, how they identify with gender, how they celebrate the presence of God or how much money they have in the bank.

And in doing so, we will notice others glowing like the radiating Jesus on a mountaintop.

Sermon: Clean or Unclean? We’re All One.

16 Sunday Jun 2013

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This sermon was delivered at St. Paul United Church of Christ, Old Blue Rock Road, Cincinnati on June 16, 2013.

Luke 7:36-8:3
Galatians 2:11-21

Back in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. said that the 11 o’clock hour on Sunday morning is the most segregated time of the week. People of different races, ethnic groups attend their own churches. People of various political or theological views also huddle together in their own faith communities.

Even in a 2012 article, it was found that only seven percent of churches with less than 1,000 attendance are multiracial.

We think we’ve come far in this world. No more segregated water fountains. Interracial couples are legally allowed to marry all over our country where it wasn’t legal a few decades earlier. Yet, very often people of a certain color live in one neighborhood while another race lives in a separate area. And, like in 1963, we still celebrate God in very different spaces.

People always use scripture or faith to find ways to separate the “us” from “them” and to distance themselves from “the other.” Back in the 1800’s people used to scripture and faith to justify both slavery and abolition. Texts from Ephesians 6 and Titus 2 were used to affirm slavery whereas proponents of abolition looked at the ongoing Biblical themes of justice and equality to affirm their stance. Still today, there are multiple issues that one side affirms with Scripture as the other side opposes the issue with Scripture as well. And this keeps our communities divided and ever so segregated.

Why do we have this mentality of us versus them? Of course, it’s not new.

In the gospel reading from Luke, we see Jesus eating with a Pharisee. So, yes, Jesus associated with those with greater societal standing. And then a woman who the world sees as the “other” or somehow “less than” comes in and showers Jesus with attention. Jesus affirms that he experiences more love and hospitality from the woman with the lesser reputation than the Pharisee with the better reputation.

We don’t know much about this woman except that she was a sinner. We don’t know what type of sins she engaged in. They could be referring to her more as a law-breaker rather than a sinner. But wasn’t the Pharisee a sinner too?

The Luke text reminds us that Jesus associated with all types of people: women, the unclean, those who were sick. In fact, he didn’t just hang out with them, but he touched them when healing. He allowed them to touch him too. Whether it was touching dead corpses, people with leprosy or the woman with the hemorrhage, when Jesus came in touch with these people, he became unclean like them – at least according to Jewish Law. Scripture never says he went through purification rituals each evening. As our Wednesday study class had learned the other night from the Saving Jesus Redux video, Jesus had become unclean to relate and save the unclean.

If anyone was allowed to be judgmental, it was Jesus. But even Jesus wasn’t that judgmental about sins. He focused his life and ministry on showing love and grace.

In the reading from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, Cephas used to eat with the uncircumcised Gentiles even though he was circumcised. Cephas would eat with those who followed very different food rules.

Then James and the group who followed the law, the Jewish members of the early Jesus movement, came back into town. In order to keep people happy or to have people continue to like them, Cephas and Barnabas ditched their relationships with the Gentiles. This is when Paul confirms that there is something greater that the law that some of them followed: grace. Through that grace, both Jews and Gentiles learn to place their differences aside.

During the first century, people segregated themselves because of their rituals and food choices. Sixty years ago it was water fountains and eating spaces. What are today’s issues?

This gives us the opportunity to ask ourselves from whom would 21st century Christians divide themselves and who would Jesus hang out with today? Those who have engaged in drug use in their past? Those who swear? Our gay brothers and sisters? Interfaith or interracial couples? Those who pass a hungry man on the street? Those who own guns? Those who are against guns? Democrats? Republicans? Liberals? Conservatives? Divorced people or people who live together before they’re married? Maybe all of the above???

Wherever Jesus was, it was probably one of the least segregated places in Israel because people from different groups of people wanted to hear about love and grace. They wanted to experience healing. And Jesus himself hung out with both the Pharisees and the unclean. If Jesus showered all sorts of people with love instead of intense judgment, should we do the same?

We may not agree with our neighbors on how they live their lives. As individuals, we each build our moral codes based upon how we relate Scripture to our sense of reasoning, experience and traditions. And we don’t see Scripture, reason, experience and tradition in the same ways. But we aren’t necessarily given a free pass to shun people just because our faith and their faith doesn’t line up. Just the opposite. We are called to be in the presence of those with whom we would never intend to associate.

Jesus was one who prioritized relationships over rules. He healed the sick on the Sabbath, touched the unclean making himself unclean and ate with all sorts of people. Might Jesus be asking us to place our relationships with others over legalism and minute differences? If Jesus, who some think was perfect, was able to associate with all sorts of people and become unclean to be like them, then we who are definitely not perfect are absolutely called to associate with other imperfect people. And as for me, I’ve experienced some of the greatest hospitality and unconditional love from those who many people consider “unclean” in our society.

The way we each look at faith, at our beliefs are going to be different. At a church like ours, it’s not what you believe because, let’s face it, we’re across the board. And thank God we’re not told what to believe. But even when we are different and we’re individuals, we’re still part of the body of Christ. We’re not called to agree with one another but be one in Christ. We are still in covenant with one another even as we live autonomously. There is the Great Connection, and whether we see it on this side of heaven or that side of heaven, we will see that all of us are loved by God and called to do the same.

So as we go forward in asking ourselves “Where is God calling us” do we need to ask ourselves who is God calling us to invite and include? Are we needing to reflect on who we include and reach out to? What would this church look like if it were filled with those who are so different than us? This would be scary – – yet how would this help us to grow and live out the great commission that the Spirit has be nudging Christians to do for centuries?

As we abide in this most segregated hour of the week, let us find ways to bridge the great divide as there is no longer slave or free, male or female, clean or unclean, us or them, but, instead, one in Christ. Amen.