“What Does it Take to See With God’s Eyes?”

Meditation

Spirit of Peace United Church of Christ

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Scripture:  Matthew 6: 25-34; Matthew 7: 1-2

Rev. Jean Morrow

6: 22-23  The eye is the lamp of the body.  So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

6: 25-34  Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet God (your heavenly Father) feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?

And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?  And why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? 

Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’  For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed God knows you need all these things.  But strive for the kingdom of God and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.  Today’s trouble is enough for today.

7: 1-2  Do not judge so that you may not be judged.  For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.

When I was a sophomore at Iowa State, and my roommate and I both needed an elective, we took an intro to cultural anthropology class…because we had heard a rumor that Tony Elliot, the very cute tall blond who lived on the floor below us, was taking the class.

As I recall, it was a much harder class than I anticipated.  Measured in reading and study time, it was not worth the walk to and from our residence hall with Tony Elliot, who turned out to be not all that interesting.  But I don’t regret taking the class, because I learned something valuable there…a lesson that has opened itself up to me, time and again, through the years.

At some point in the semester, our instructor told us that we could not come close to fully understanding another culture unless we lived in that culture for 2-3 months.  Vacations or a two week mission trip would begin to inform us about a culture and at least expose us to the top layer or two, but before making any judgments about what was good or bad about a culture that was new for us, you had to actually live in the place long enough to begin to feel the culture, to see the culture through the eyes of its people…to see the culture for itself and to begin to understand the values and the social mores of the people for whom that culture was home or native.  It required taking off the worldview from your home culture…like taking off a pair of dark sunglasses… so that you can see the true colors, sights, beauty and richness of the culture you were experiencing. 

Although I don’t remember that she named it as such, my professor was giving us a lesson in judgment…or better yet, a lesson in what it takes to be non-judgmental and fully open to the richness of another way of life. 

Biblically speaking, within Jewish tradition, there is an absolute prohibition against judging others.  In the Matthew text we read today, the Greek word for judge means condemnation.  And, about condemnation, Jesus was clear.  His lessons of love required a non-judgmental approach to relationships. 

He lived this out by being in relationship and community with people from all levels of society.  He sat at the table of the rich and the poor, with women and men, with foreigners, outsiders and Jews.  He seemed to be always able to understand and appreciate their perspective of the other, to understand where they were coming from…which tells me he observed with clarity and listened with an open of heart.  The stories that survive don’t tell of him judging others, but they do tell of him showing and sharing a way of life that was life-giving and life-affirming.  His way of life was not a strategy for winning friends and getting ahead in this world…it was a call to live in the light of God’s love…and to bring the light of God’s love into this world.

Our scripture reading opened with an interesting lesson in how we are called to bring the light of God’s love into the world.  Jesus is reported as saying,  “The eye is the lamp of the body.  So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” 

The ancients did not have modern science when it came to eyesight, but they did have insight about our eyes and how they worked as windows for the soul. 

We know the basic science about eyes…they detect light coming into the body and the retina takes the light and changes it into nerve signals so that the brain can understand what the eye is seeing.  The science mostly involves how light is transformed or refigured in the body. 

But our ancient brothers and sisters didn’t know all that.  They believed the eye was more like a lamp, a mechanism that projected light…that projected the inner light of one’s being onto objects so that they would be seen clearly.

Projecting an inner light out into the world…I think they may have been on to something.

To understand their perspective, if my inner light is one of judgment, that is the dark light I will cast around me.  If my inner light is one of openness or eagerness to experience everything that is unfolding around me, that is the light I will cast. If I have successfully peeled off or removed my preconceived notions of what is best, or right or good, how much clearer I will be able to see that which is right before my eyes. 

Our ancient brothers and sisters of faith may not have known the science of the body, but I think they had incredible insight into how easily our inner sight can be dimmed or distorted by judgments and criticism…and how that can lead to a darkness of spirit as we engage those around us…and will get in the way of our ability to experience the richness of other cultures.

In seminary, I learned this important lesson from a different angle.  The faculty and staff taught that, before we could truly see, understand and appreciate a different culture, we had to examine and take responsibility for our own social location.  Until we fully understood the ways in which our social location had shaped and influenced our view of the world, we would not be able to see through it…to see through our social location…with the kind of clarity that is required to absorb, understand and truly appreciate a different culture for what it is.

So, as a quick example, my social location includes being a white, heterosexual female raised on a farm in Iowa.  I am well educated and well employed.  I am married and I’m a parent of a daughter.  So far, what I have given you is just the top layer.  To truly locate yourself within a social context, you have to take the layer off to see what is underneath…and then take off the next layer…and the next.  As you explore through the layers, you often find those places where judgments are buried.

Take, for example, my education.  I have been reading since before kindergarten…my sister would come home from school and teach me what she was learning.  Deep down, I value reading above all else.  I value it so much that I think that everyone should know how to read.  In fact, I value it so much, that I might, in the right circumstances, judge another culture to be uncivilized and backwards because they don’t read.  And that would be a mistake.  A culture without a written language is just that…a culture without a written language.  But, not examined and understood, I might misread what the culture is about…and I might want to force reading upon a village, because it is something I have judged to be a characteristic of a civilized culture whose values reflect mine.

Reading and education is just one aspect of my social location that could potentially get in the way of my seeing clearly what another culture has to teach or offer to me.  It takes a commitment of time and courage to examine one’s life with a critical eye, but it is worth it, because unchecked biases and judgments have led civilized cultures to interfere and perpetrate many injustices against other cultures deemed uncivilized. 

Not too long ago, I read a poster that says what I am trying to say, much more succinctly.  The poster read, “The world in which you were born is just one model of reality.  Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you; they are unique manifestations of the human spirit.”

Examining and recognizing the power of ones’ social location to distort one’s view of the world is perhaps, one of the most promising tools we have for bridge-building and peacemaking.  And the result of such examination, seeing with clarity of spirit, is perhaps as close as we will ever get to seeing the world through God’s eyes.

We have a rare opportunity this morning to experience a part of the world that is very different from ours.  Katie Barth spent spring semester in Stallenbosch, South Africa.  In conversation with her, it became clear to me that she was there long enough…and went with so few pre-conceived ideas of what it would be like there…that she was able to experience the people of South Africa with an openness that gave her insight into that culture…and her own. She has come this morning to share that insight with us.

KATIE BARTH SHARES EXPERIENCES OF SOUTH AFRICA