"Seeing Things Your Way"

Pastor Nagle
01/23/2005

“Seeing Things Your Way” Is 9:1-4 1 Cor 1:10-18 Mt 4:12-23 The Third Sunday after the Epiphany January 23, 2005
January can be an awful month. Not just because it’s cold, though it is that. Not just because it’s bleak and dark, though it is that too. Not even because it’s a time when resolutions that were made are so-soon broken, but because January is the month of our great divide, the time when we tend to be antagonistic. January is when people choose sides on the great abortion debate of Roe vs. Wade. January is the month when Democrats and Republicans insist their own inaugurated leader can handle things best. January is the month when people quarrel about the contributions of Martin Luther King, Jr. This January, people are divided on the right way to deal with Iraq, and the school system offers new re-assignment plans, and our church has offered recommendations on how to deal with the issues of same gender blessings and the ordination of non-celibate gays. All of which is important, but all of which can be divisive, and often is. Though it wouldn’t have to be a problem if you’d just see things my way. But of course, that’s the problem isn’t it—that you and I don’t see things the same way.
Such was the situation in that Greek city of Corinth. In the relatively small congregation of Christians there, people divided themselves at least four ways, with each group claiming social and theological insight and each honoring a particular leader and each presumably saying about the others that they were doing things the wrong way. Which is the real difficulty, you see. Not simply that there are preferences. Not even that there are divisions. But that if you don’t see things my way, you’re doing it wrong. Which ought to be obvious. Which is obvious to me. Why isn’t it obvious to you?
Into that situation stepped Paul, the great Christian missionary who mustered up all the authority he could and told the Corinthian Christians that they had to stop this nonsense of disagreement. “I appeal to you,” he said, “that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.” But not much changed, because everyone waited for everyone else to start seeing things their way. And the divisions that were continued on. Though in truth, if people had finished what they started, some progress would have been made.
Remember that I said each group waited for the others to see things their way. And that’s exactly what would make things work—if I would see things your way. Not necessarily buy into everything you say or agree with why you say it, but at least take the time and make the effort to understand how you are and why you choose the way you do. True, many people, in their zeal for the truth, maintain that there’s only one way, one real way, one accurate way to see an issue. Two ways, really, but the other way is wrong. And sometimes it is wrong, but that more is expected of people like you and me.
Ten days ago, our national church released the findings of the study many of us went through a year ago. The questions were simple: should the church bless same-gender unions, and should the church ordain non-celibate persons. The questions were simple, but the answers were not. Were not simple because they were so varied. Were so varied because of the difference in stories that people told. Stories that were at the basis of the 28,000 responses which were sent off for counting and advising. Stories which led the study commission to say, Let’s leave things the way they are, with the understanding that marriage is a promise and bond between a man and a woman, and that if any leaders of the church are homosexual, they should be celibate. Not surprisingly, the most conservative among us thought the report said too little, because it didn’t go far enough. Not surprisingly, the most liberal among us thought the report said too little because it didn’t go anywhere at all. Which leaves us with a biblical and theological and social bickering that’s never going to stop.
But for me, the best part of the whole report—and it ran to some pages—is the recommendation that encourages all of us to be pastoral. Not just that the pastors be pastoral, but that the whole church be pastoral. That each of us takes the time to see how the other bunch sees things. Because there’s a reason we each see what we see, isn’t there? If your child or niece is stationed in Iraq or if you served our country in the military, you have feelings about our government’s priorities. If you ever got pregnant at a time when you didn’t want to, you have some feelings about abortion. If you were ever beaten up by a bully at school or had to ride a bus to a too-distant school, you have feelings. If you lost a promotion because of your race or gender, you won’t sit quietly by. Nor should you. There is nothing wrong with dissent, not here and not in the Corinthian church. There is nothing wrong with dissent, but there is everything wrong with an attitude that says there’s only one right way to live life. And I say that, knowing that some of you disagree. Strongly disagree, saying, aren’t there some things that are non- negotiable? Yeah, probably so. But I’ll bet we don’t agree on what those non- negotiable things are. You and I might both agree that Jesus Christ is non-negotiable. Even doing things Jesus’ way. But I’d say that Jesus’ way was one of listening, caring, healing and forgiving. And in all of that, enlightening.
In the first lesson today, you heard words that you may associate only with Christmas Eve. Near the end of our services then, we hear that “the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined.” And then we all raise our little white candles so that everyone sees light in the darkness. We heard the words from Isaiah, from today’s first lesson, repeated in today’s gospel lesson, when Matthew claimed that Jesus himself was the light that overcomes people’s darkness. And as Christians we’d agree with that. Though we ought to know that the first lesson told the truth about God’s light long centuries before Jesus.
According to Isaiah, the people who walked in darkness, who lived in darkness were those who didn’t depend on God. Those who, in the face of an enemy’s terrible threat, tried to depend on their own mind, their own wits, their own strength and their own alliances with other people who also depended only on themselves. Not surprisingly, the invasion that threatened those people sort of swept over them, and they were carried off. But Isaiah, living with hope more than despair, said that the days were coming—sooner, later, just ahead, eventually—when anyone who trusts in God would be freed from terror. Freed from personal terror and national terror, from all the trials that mess up life. Certainly we believe that Jesus was such a light. But Jesus himself passed on the ability, even the necessity of being light, when he called people to be his disciples.
For those of us who pay attention to the church year, today is another one of those Sundays in the Epiphany season—when we emphasize the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and how he calls us to ours. For several weeks in a row, we hear about the early disciples signing on with Jesus. And we try to figure out how we should live as disciples. Whether or not we should study to be pastors or Sunday School teachers. How we can be better parents. Seeing the importance of world missions. Connecting Monday with Sunday. Understanding that every day’s work can be faithful to Jesus’ calling. But specifically today, I see, in this awful month of division, that we are called to enlighten. To enlighten and to be enlightened. Oh, but that’s a hard thing to do.
For instance, concerning abortion, I give people the right to choose whether or not to continue a pregnancy. I do not see God’s will furthered when pregnancy occurs because of rape. I value the health of a mother more than the health of a child. On the other hand, I don’t believe that abortion should be used as a kind of birth control. On the other hand, I believe in birth control. On the other hand, birth control is too often a part of sexual promiscuity. Well, some of you agree with that and some of you are horrified. A couple of you stopped listening after the first sentence, and a few more of you pigeon-holed my remarks in a way that you think you know my politics and my morals. But I have feelings about war too, and peace. I used to care more about school re-assignments than I do now. I’ve come to grips with organ transplants and capital punishment and I know where I stand on the ordination of homosexual people. And so do you, I hope. I hope that you’ve taken the time to study and pray and figure out and discover how you feel. That you use your common sense and the holy scriptures and the stories of other Christians to make decisions. And in all of that, you may consider yourself enlightened. But I say you are really enlightened when you listen to someone else’s story, when you see things their way. Not that it changes your way, but that you care enough, love enough, to see things their way. That you live as a pastor, a shepherd, one who cares for the sheep and how they are.
For when you see things a different way, when you take the time and effort to see things the other way, you may understand the situation more fully. May see how personalities come into play. May see prejudices or passions. May see faith and trust as something foundational. May understand your own assumptions better. May deal more with the announcement of good news than with dread darkness. Which is what the people of God are called to do for the rest of the people of God—to offer light more than darkness and life more than death. In truth, we disagree when life begins and what the quality of life ought to be, whether the giving and taking of life should be equal or not, whether eternal life begins now or later. But if we listen to each other, listen to each other with the words of Christ in our ears, who knows what we will see in our walk together.
Jesus said to those first disciples, Follow me. And they did. But it’s my view that the path they all took wandered all over the place. Wasn’t a straight line from here to there. Maybe doubled-back on itself. Had an end-point always in sight, but took detours to be where people were in need. Where people were in pain. Where people were in darkness. And when all was said and done, Jesus and his disciples brought them light. The problem today is that, as disciples called to follow Jesus, when all is said and done, more is usually said that done. Which makes January an awful month, in that what we could do is swallowed up by what we do say. But if we will see things from another’s perspective, how much we might understand. How we could be enlightened. And how we would be a light for others.
Paul said, “I urge you to be united in the same mind and the same purpose.” In January, it may seem that will never happen. But if you promise to look at things my way, and I promise to look at them your way, who knows what February will bring.