What Do You See?

Readings for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Click the image to listen to the sermon

Rabbi Lawrence Kushner is a scholar and author who has spent his life studying Kabbalah – the mystical tradition of the Jewish faith.  As in the mystical tradition of the Christian faith – that word – mystic or mysticism implies a deeper knowing.  More like wisdom than knowledge.   It’s the spiritual side of religion – I guess, simply put.

If religion is what answers the question – what does God want me, want us to do – mysticism concerns itself with knowing God.  I want to know what God knows.  I want to see how God sees. Paul points to it I think when he prays – that the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened to know the hope to which we are called. (Eph 1:18).  Many believe we are all mystics – we lose sight of our innate knowing as we grow older.

So Rabbi Kushner tells a story of being in his synagogue in San Francisco and giving a tour to the children of their congregation’s preschool.  He was pleased because he had planned this climatic moment at the end of the tour – getting the class to assemble on the bima or prayer stage where, behind a floor to ceiling curtain there was the ark which held their Torah scroll.  So he gets them up there is about to shout “open the ark” when he sees the teacher at the back of the room tapping on her watch…the universal symbol for – wrap it up!

So he turned to the kids and said – I’m sorry boys and girls – our time is up for today – but next time we see each other – the first thing we will do is open this curtain and I will show you what is behind it.

Momentarily disappointed – off the children went.

The next day the teacher shows up in Rabbi Kushner’s office.  She wanted him to know the fierce debate caused by the hastily concluded lesson – because the kids all thought they knew what was there.  One kid had said – nothing – it’s all a ruse – that’s why he didn’t show us, because there is nothing to see.

Another child thought there was something big and holy, some sort of artifact – and another kid who’d obviously watched some game shows said – behind the curtain there was a brand new car!

But the fourth child, he said – nope, you’re all wrong.  When the rabbi man comes and opens that curtain, behind it – there will be a giant mirror.

From a four year old – Rabbi Kushner said – “Somehow, that little soul knew that through looking at the words of sacred scripture, he would encounter himself in a new and a heightened and revealing way.” (On Being)

That is the deep knowing the bible offers.  I think it would be great if someone made a bible that when you open it – and the first thing you see is a mirror.   A reminder that this isn’t a book filled with stories about other people – it is a stories written by other people to try and understand God.  How God sees, thinks, feels – God’s being.  And the only way to wrestle with “that” is to be honest with what the stories tell you – about you.

We have two stories this morning where someone holds up a mirror and people confront themselves in a new way – invited to see themselves through the eyes of God.

In the first we have David– now king, now anointed – who as the prophet Nathan points out – God has given everything – King David still wants more.  In the person of Bathsheba.  Before this moment he’d seen her sunbathing on her roof one day.  So David sends her husband – Urriah – to the front lines of battle – where he is killed.  Getting David what he wants.

We don’t know how much time has passed before God sends Nathan to confront David.  In just one verse we go from hearing of Urriah’s death – to David and Bathsheba having a son.  In my wonderings – it occurs to me that maybe God thought David would figure it out on his own.  One night, one morning – he’d look at his wife – his son – and see them as people, not property, and realize what he had done and ask forgiveness.

But no.  The prophet appears and with cunning and courage – tells a story to describe someone who abuses their power to take what they want – blind to anyone else.  Through the story – David clearly sees the abuse of power, the rich man destroying what the poor man loves. And once David sees – he immediately recognizes his fault, responsibility, his sin – and he asks God’s forgiveness.

I always find my stomach clench when we all respond “Thanks be to God” after we’ve heard that God “strikes down” the child Bathsheba bore David – in some horrific retribution for David’s sin.  Some scholars wonder even – did Nathan go to David after everyone could see his child was sick?  Believing there had to be divine reasons for his illness?  We can’t know but it is a theological understanding Jesus will refute – in several of his healings – growing people past the belief that suffering is deserved or that the sins of the parents are visited on their children.

It is a difficult ending to their exchange, regardless.  And it’s difficult too because we can relate to that feeling of “ah-ha” – seeing ourselves – our actions – through the eyes of another.  Getting just enough distance – the distance of time – or of place – and we can see past actions in new light. We recognize exactly what we need to ask forgiveness for.

The mirror is held up a bit quicker in Luke’s account of this woman and Jesus’ feet.  Jesus has been invited over by another religious leader – and we can only imagine why he’s extended the invitation – does he want to get to know Jesus better?  Or is it all a set-up to show Jesus as a fraud?  How did this woman – who Simon the Pharisee obviously knows, get into his house at a party if she’s such a source of shame?

We don’t know what Simon was hoping to see – but Jesus sheds light for him – and all of us – on where to fix our gaze – he asks – Do you see this woman?

Simon can’t – because, like King David, at the moment he can’t see past himself.  The woman is not a person – she is one of those people – people like Simon hope to avoid. And like Nathan – Jesus tells a story to try and open the eyes of the heart.  Jesus not only focuses Simon’s attention on all the acts of hospitality this woman performed – which Simon, as host, did not – he also tries to explain forgiveness in terms that Simon will understand.

Jesus wants Simon – and us – to see that we are all that woman.  We all sin – we all break our relationship with God many times throughout the course of our life.  We all judge others – judge ourselves to be unworthy – but God will never turn us away.  Jesus’ story shows that no one can be turned away – whenever we come clean – and let it all out at the feet of Jesus.

No matter the distance between us and the people in scripture – we are in every story.  Where is the mirror being held up for you this morning – which person – a powerful ruler – a grieving mother – a prophetic truth-teller – a judgmental host – a woman who gives thanks through her tears – who do you need to see this morning – to see deeper into yourself.  In both the Old and New Testament we see and hear people reckoning with who they are – seeing themselves for a moment through the eyes of God.

For in seeing deeper into our own hearts – we make room for the overflowing forgiveness God is offering to us – right now.  And in accepting our need for it – we turn towards God. And the eyes of our heart are opened to see ourselves – and to see those around us – as the children of God we all are.
Hopefully leading us to live out our belief that through God – all are worthy – all are accepted – all of us have to opportunity to see the ways in which – we can bring God’s forgiving love into our world.   Amen.