January 18, 2009 Sermon
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Epiphany 2 - B 2009
Allan Conkling Emmanuel, San Angelo
It was literally one day after my 42nd birthday when I discovered one Sunday that I could no longer read the print in my Prayer Book. No amount of holding it at arms length would do. I was sad to admit it, but I was not as young as I used to be. Yet I forgot all that in the wonder of a whole new way of seeing. With the right glasses, the correct lenses, I could see every letter on the page. I could see every leaf on the tree in our front yard, and more than I wanted to, I could clearly see my own face in the mirror.
Today's lessons are about being able to see life in a whole new way. They are about being able to perceive what is right in front of you. They are about seeing as through God's eyes.
The first reading is about a boy no older than an acolyte for whom God had mighty plans. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians one would think is just about "the sins of the flesh," but even here we can discern God's handiwork:
"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?"
And in the Gospel reading, Philip and Nathaniel open their eyes to see Jesus as he really is:
"Can anything good come out of Nazareth" one of them asked?
In that moment all was made clear. They see what is right there in front of their nose. Some folks can go through their entire lives without this awareness. But with the right lenses all is clear. Like the Psalmist we say:
"Lord you have searched me out and known me; you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar..." (Ps 139:1)
H. Richard Neibuhr once observed that all people regardless of who they seek some form of higher power. Neibuhr wrote:
"It is a curious and inescapable fact about our lives, which I think we all become aware of at some time or other, that we cannot live without a cause, without some object of devotion, some center of worth, something on which we rely for meaning. In this sense all men have faith."
Just what that "object of devotion" is can be as individual and unique as people in the world. For some it is to amass a personal fortune. For some it achieving a personal best in life, or leaving a legacy for the future. For some it is the ultimate golf shot...the nicest car on the block...the smartest children...the best lawn...or the best clothes. But Christians are given an invitation to see life through a different set of lens. Put on these lenses and all will become clear. That which we value most in life, what we are searching for will, in the end, not be satisfied simply by the things of this world. The promise and the hope are far greater.
When we gather together as the family of God, when we kneel in prayer, when we come to the Holy Table for the Body and Blood of the Lord, we are given a glimpse of life through the eyes of God. Remember the old hymn:
"Day by day, dear Lord, of thee three things I pray:
To see thee more clearly,
To love thee more dearly,
To follow thee more nearly, day by day." (Hymn #654)
Tomorrow as the country honors the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, and later in the week as we watch an historic inauguration, we are reminded of the words of King's final speech where he said,
"I have been to the mountaintop...I have looked over and I've seen the Promised Land...Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."
Martin Luther King never got to the Promised Land. He was assassinated the day after he gave this speech. But his dream lives on. It has helped us to see past the color of our skin, and see possibilities for this great land.
"Follow me," says Jesus. That is our call. Sometimes the journey seems perilous, the way dark and scary. But put on the gospel lenses, and we will be given a glimpse of who God has created us to be.
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Revised: 02/02/09