Seeing Jesus

The Rev. Nancy E. Gossling, Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts

             A few weeks ago, I had my annual optometrist’s appointment. Since the 8th grade I’ve needed glasses in order to see things in the distance; and recently I’ve discovered that there is a benefit to aging. My vision is actually improving.

I am a visual person. I like to see people. I like to read. I like to watch movies and observe nature. How, then, did the people of Nazareth not see Jesus? If they were there, and He was up close and personal, how could they miss Him?

 Matthew Arnold, in a daily meditation entitled Today’s Gift, wrote, “The endeavor, in all branches of knowledge, is to see the object as it really is. Often we can look right at something and not see it. Sometimes we see what we expect to see, sometimes we see what we want to see, and sometimes we just plain miss what’s right there in front of us. If the brain and heart aren’t involved, an eyewitness account may be little better than a guess. We need more than our eyes to get the picture; for things are not always what they appear to be.” (Days of Healing, Days of Joy: Daily Meditations for Adult Children, 01/03/2022)

Over time, my eyesight has changed along with my mind, my heart, my body and my soul. “When I was a child. I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, and I reasoned like a child.” I used to think that love came in pretty packages and fairy tale romances. With every passing decade, with every wedding and funeral that I have attended, and every anniversary that I have celebrated, when I hear this passage from Corinthians, and measure my own ability to love, I often feel like a failure. 

Truth be told, St. Paul was chastising the Christians in Corinth for their failure to love. Writing his letter from a distant city, St. Paul could see what was going on in Corinth, and he didn't like what he saw. Some people thought they were better than others because of their wealth or intelligence. They thought they understood all the mysteries of religion; for they could speak in tongues, and had prophetic powers. Indeed, they even had faith; but they didn’t have love.

Consider the context and the culture of Corinth at that time. The city was built at a strategic location in Greece, on a crossroads between the Middle East and Rome, like the United States between Europe and Asia. Internally, the city connected the northern and southern parts of its country, like Washington D.C. between Boston and Miami. At the time of St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians the city was ethnically, culturally, socio-economically, politically and religiously diverse, just like the United States. 

Understandably, the Christians in Corinth were confused about Jesus and, despite their arrogance, they were still immature in their faith. Some people thought that Jesus was coming again very soon, and so they indulged in every kind of extreme behavior. Some people had become tired of waiting; and so eat, drink, and be merry was their credo. Or they didn’t believe in Jesus at all. In essence, socio-economic differences, pagan rituals, multiple religious faiths, civic and religious laws, as well as cultural customs and family traditions, pulled the people in Corinth in many and various directions.

In effect, St. Paul thought that the Christians in Corinth were being too tolerant of some behaviors while being too rigid in others. They were acting like immature children, fighting with one another, and taking each other to civil courts instead of working it out among themselves. They aligned themselves with certain religious leaders, like Apollos and St. Paul, rather than with Jesus. They were divided and quarrelsome. 

According to St. Paul, they were envious, irritable, resentful, impatient, and unkind to one another. This church in Corinth was not a model of a faithful Christian community. Nor were they exhibiting idyllic human behavior. “Look in the mirror,” St. Paul wrote to them. Think again about what you are doing and saying. It doesn’t matter how good it is, or how generous you are, if you do not have love, you gain nothing.

Look and see what Love looks like, wrote St. Paul. Love is patient and kind, not envious, boastful, arrogant or rude. Love doesn’t allow for certain kinds of behavior. It speaks the truth without being a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. It treats every person with dignity and respect. And yes, it involves changes in our brains and our behaviors because we begin to see things differently. We look at things from a divine perspective, or even from our opponents or enemies. When we see our human natures more clearly we can also begin to understand our faith more fully.

Lanta Davis, an associate professor of humanities and literature at Indiana Wesleyan University, wrote an article entitled “A Vandalized Imagination” suggesting that our current Christian culture has hijacked or distorted our faith. We see Jesus in our own image and not in God’s. Rather than seeing Jesus as a white male of European descent, or the leader of a certain political or religious organization or country, we can see Jesus more realistically by using early Christian icons and cultivating our imagination as a spiritual practice.

With Ignatian contemplative prayer we can imagine ourselves back in Corinth, even back in Nazareth. We enter into the scripture stories as if we were there in Greece or Israel. So why is it that the people of Nazareth didn’t see Jesus? Maybe their expectations of Jesus were wrong. They wanted him to heal them and not the foreigners; they thought they were privileged because he was their hometown boy; and so they were blinded by their rage when he didn’t do what they wanted.

 Perhaps they were distracted by many things.They had demands upon their own lives, like caring for their families and putting food on the table; they were working hard and didn’t have time for changes and challenges. Perhaps overly dependent upon their brains and their religious traditions, their hearts weren’t fully engaged; and so their vision of Jesus remained superficial. He’s only a man and not our messiah. He’s only a child and not a grown man; he’s only the son of Mary and not the Son of God. 

When our faith is seeking understanding, we must engage all parts of our bodies. We must use both our heads and our hearts. Using the imagination of our minds, our vision improves. With prayer, we exercise our souls and remember that God loves everyone. We can ask God to “Open our eyes to see your hand at work in the world about us.” Then, with improved spiritual eyesight, we can look for Jesus everywhere, and begin to understand with our minds, hearts, bodies and souls that by “his blood he reconciled us and by his wounds we are healed.” 

St. Paul holds up a mirror for us to see ourselves. We see how we have failed in the Way of Love; and we know that we can do better. We admit that love is messy - in our families, our churches, our nation and the world. Through prayer and imagination, with renewed spiritual insights, we can see that Perfect Love is humanly impossible. Both then, in Corinth and Nazareth, as well as now in Chestnut Hill. We can see Jesus, God’s perfect love made manifest in his words and deeds.

Our human vision will always be partial; our knowledge will always be incomplete, our hearts will never be fully healed, and our souls will always be restless until they find their rest in God; for “now we see in a mirror only dimly.” In the meantime, we can bear all things, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things until “we finally see Jesus, face to face.” 

Today, imagine yourself with Jesus. Pray that God will help you become not only a better Christian but also a better human being. Pray, and ask God to open your eyes to see Jesus. Know Him. Love Him. And then love others as He loves us. In living that way, surely, we will gain everything. Amen.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Luke 4:21-30

Conversion of St. Paul

Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill, Evensong at 5:00, Sunday, January 23, 2022 Rev. Nancy E. Gossling

The dramatic story of St. Paul is well known by most Christians. Indeed St. Paul’s faith story is chronicled in the Acts of the Apostles, and in many of the New Testament writings, beginning with his letter to the Galatians. We read about two very different St. Paul’s: a faithful Jew who persecuted and murdered followers of Jesus and the converted St. Paul who became a faithful missionary, evangelist, preacher, and teacher. Not only was Jesus the messiah for the Jews, St. Paul claimed, but Jesus was the messiah for all God’s beloved children. Proclaiming that Jesus rose from the dead, and that resurrection life is God’s promise to everyone, St. Paul testifies that our faith in Him is never in vain.

When I listen to the news recently, I often hear doom and gloom, which can be attributed to many things, depending upon where you live and to whom you listen. We seem to swing from one extreme to another, and like free radicals in our bodies, those toxic byproducts of oxygen metabolism that can cause significant damage to our living cells and tissues, radical extremists can do infinite harm to us and to our collective bodies as well. 

Recently, the public has been invited into the courtrooms of many highly visible cases. Judges and juries become subjects of scrutiny and the importance of self-defense and our personal freedoms have been highlighted. Our legal system remains critical in handing down fair verdicts; and our laws have become subject to public debate, interpretation, and revision.

Today, we are celebrating the conversion of St. Paul, and in preparing for this sermon, I couldn’t get past the very first reading in the Acts of the Apostles. Here is recorded St. Paul’s testimony in a court trial. After being imprisoned by the governors of Judea for over two years, he offers his self-defense in front of King Agrippa. We listen to his testimony as if we are members of the media or the jury, perhaps even stepping into the shoes of King Agrippa. Appealing to the emperor, St. Paul is eventually sent to the courts in Rome, the equivalent of our states sending decisions to Washington, D.C.

Yes, St. Paul admits that he has done great harm to the followers of Jesus. Initially they were all Jews, who had hoped that Jesus would become their new king and save them from the oppressive Roman government. However, Jesus’ followers grew exponentially among the gentiles as word about Him spread beyond the country of Israel. The churches of Judea heard that, "The one who (once) was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy." (Galatians 1:24

At first, adhering to his own religious laws, and given power and authority by his own chief priests, St. Paul was “convinced that he “ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus.” Fueled by his religious fervor, Saul “shut up many saints in prison.” He “voted against” Christians, condemning them to death, sometimes even pursuing them into foreign countries. Why? Because, according to his faith story, he was “exceedingly mad!” In modern translations, he was “furiously enraged.” He thought it was his job to bring these people to justice.

Consider those two little words “exceedingly mad” or “furiously enraged.” People of all political and religious affiliations are often fueled by fervor. Prophets and politicians demand justice and sometimes will go to extremes to get it. Now I’m not opposed to fervor; and there’s nothing wrong with anger; indeed it’s a perfectly good human emotion. When people don’t obey our laws, or when they harm others, it’s easy to become angry. When people violate our human rights, we get mad. And righteous anger acknowledges that there are injustices in our systems that need to be righted. But “exceeding madness”? Or “furious rage”? 

Some claim that what’s happening in our country and our world right now is “sheer madness.” Like the free radicals in our bodies, radical extremists can do infinite harm to our collective bodies. Unmedicated mentally ill people and unrestrained criminals, or extremely angry people, cause fear and violence on our streets. Like the fury that accompanies a woman scorned, a tornado that crosses state lines, or a pandemic that never ends, these things or people hurt everyone in their path.

When people act with extreme behaviors, there is no justice, only cries for mercy. There is no distinction, and there is no prejudice. Our collective body is wounded. Windows are smashed, goods are stolen, bullets fly, and people are stabbed. Subways are unsafe, cities are trashed, our streets and buildings are occupied. Threats are made, weapons are wielded, and borders are fortified in self defense. And people wonder why? How have we come to this sheer madness and how can we make this furious rage end?

What stops these cycles of harm, and these downward spirals of destruction, we might ask ourselves. For St. Paul, it wasn’t his religious leaders or the political powers of the Roman government that convinced him to behave differently. Furiously enraged and exceedingly mad, galloping on his high horse to Damascus, he was literally “out of his mind” when he was knocked to the ground. Blinded by a great light from heaven, he heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 

Persecution, as we know, can take many forms. We pursue people with a vengeance, with our words, our actions, and our laws, perhaps even thinking, like St. Paul, that it is for the benefit of our own people or party or it’s an act of religious faith. We take justice into our own hands. We claim that others are wrong; and so we fuel our madness with demagoguery and personal attacks. And yet when we “kick against our pricks” we only hurt ourselves. Despite our best intentions, the impact of our rage, madness, and extreme behavior is long-lasting. It hurts everyone for generations to come.

When I occasionally act differently from my usual behavior, my daughter will look at me in disbelief, and say, “Who are you?” And this is what St. Paul said to that voice when he was temporarily blinded by the light. Forced to his knees, he said, “Who are you, Lord?” The voice that responded was personal; it was not the voice of a heavenly Father speaking to Him from on high in a stained glass voice. Rather it was the voice of Jesus, who told him to get up, to redirect his energies, and gave him a new purpose: “to be a witness to those things which thou hast seen.” 

Insanity, as they say, is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. We often only change our behavior when the pain of our actions has become too great or we suddenly see the light. In fact change often doesn’t come until we feel the heat, and that little voice inside our head asks us, “What are you doing? Can’t you see how you are hurting yourself as well as others?”

Today we celebrate St. Paul’s conversion when he turned from hate to love. On that day Saul stopped his destructive behavior; he put an end to his exceeding madness and furious rage. Saul became a new man, and he received a new name. St.Paul.

It was not a one and done, however. In fact, St. Paul spent many years after his conversion being persecuted himself and being rejected by many people. Imprisoned several times, he was routinely beaten and betrayed by his very own people, and yet he did not waver from his testimony about Jesus. He did not return to his old behaviors. You might say he swung from one extreme to another; and yet he swung from madness to sanity, from rage to peace, and from persecution to proclamation. 

Today, if we find ourselves ineffective, furiously enraged, or exceedingly mad, we can turn to Jesus for help. Grounded in prayer, we can appeal to God to balance the scales of justice and mercy in our own lives and in our country. We can act like apostles and share our faith stories with the purpose that Jesus gives us. Tell them what you’ve seen and known; tell them how you’ve changed because of me.

Often we fear talking about our faith, and yet Jesus once told his disciples, “Take no thought of how or what you shall speak. For it will be given to you in that very same hour. For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaks in you.” Conversion opportunities will come to us daily. So look for the Light and listen to the Voice. Then be a witness to God’s forgiveness and Way of Love. Amen.

King James Versions: The Acts of the Apostles 26:9-21; Galatians 1:11-24; Matthew 10:16-22