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I am going to ask one half of
the room to close their eyes for a moment. While they do, I
am going to ask the other half of the room to study this
image. Do you see a woman? How old would you say she is?
What does she look like? What is she wearing? In what kind
of roles do you see her?
I now am going to ask the groups
to switch. The group who had their eyes closed will now look
at a similar image while the others keep their eyes shut. Do
you see a woman? How old would you say she is? What does she
look like? What is she wearing? In what kind of roles do you
see her?
Now I am going to ask everyone
to look together at this image. What do you see? Do you see
a young woman, say around 25 years old? Or do you see an old
woman in her seventies or eighties? Do you see a young, very
lovely, rather fashionable woman with a petite nose and
demure presence? Or do you see an old woman who looks sad,
has a huge nose and is certainly no model? Let me ask the
men of the congregation, when you see this woman, would you
want to ask her out (providing you are single, of course) or
would you offer to help her across the street? So what do
you see here…a young woman or an old woman?
Well, the answer is both. That’s
right, both. In this image, there is both a young woman and
an old woman. How can that be, you might ask? What we
see when we look at this image, whether we see a young woman
or an old woman, will depend. It will depend on how we look
at the image, and what we see will depend on the expectation
we bring to the image.
Can you see them both? Can you
see both the young woman and the old woman?
With some effort, you can switch from one to the other. The
young woman’s chin becomes the old woman’s nose; the young
woman’s ear is the old woman’s eye; the old woman’s mouth is
a band or a necklace on the neck of the young woman.
With some effort and some insight from the other
perspective, we can switch from one way of seeing the image
to another. Here, everyone take a look at the first image of
the young woman. And now everyone look at the second image
of the old woman. And again, at the image that brings them
both together. In this image there is both a young woman and
an old woman. It just depends on how you look at it.
Author Stephen Covey wrote about
this exercise in his now-famous book, The Seven Habits of
Highly Effective People. He recalls the first time he
encountered this exercise at Harvard Business School. He
remembers that the instructor passed out cards to the class,
half of which had the image of the young woman and the other
half, the image of the old woman. After having them
concentrate on their image for less than ten seconds, he
projected the combined image on the screen. Covey recounts
that almost every person in the class who had first seen the
young woman’s image saw the young woman in the picture, and
almost everyone who had seen the old woman’s image on a card
saw an old woman in the picture. The image one carried in
their mind influenced the way they saw things.
This exercise caused Stephen
Covey to ask himself, “If ten seconds can have that kind of
impact on the way we see things, what about the conditioning
of a lifetime?” We all carry with us images, mental pictures
in our minds and in our hearts that shape the way we see the
world. These mental images shape our vision. And the vision
we have for the world will do more to affect the way in
which we will live in the world than just about anything
else.
For example, if I say the word
“success,” each of us will have a mental image that will
immediately come to mind. For some, the word success will
immediately conjure up images of fancy homes, expensive cars
and expanding bank accounts. For others, the word success
will immediately bring about images of trophies, awards,
titles and accolades. And yet for others, success will be
measured by time with children and parents and service to
community. The same word, success, can conjure up different
images for each of us, and the image that appears in our
mind will affect the very ways in which we will go after
success. The image that success conjures up will determine
how long and how hard we will work, what and who will be
priorities in our lives, and the ways in which we will spend
our time and money. The image we attach to a word like
“success” shapes the vision we have for our lives.
Perhaps one of the most powerful
mental images that we carry, one that will shape most
dramatically our vision of ourselves and the world, is the
image we carry for God. When we think of God, what is the
image that emerges? Is it of a Cosmic Cop, a God who is
keeping a list and checking it twice, and definitely knows
when we’ve been naughty and when we’ve been nice? If the
image we have for God is one of judge, then we will envision
God as hostile, we will envision our relationship with God
as adversarial, and envision the world as full of
temptations and dangers to be found out, caught, charged and
sentenced. The image we carry about God will shape our
vision of God and our vision of the world around us.
Similarly, if the image we carry
of God is that of Divine Butler—a God who stands at the door
dressed in a white shirt and black bow tie, a God whose sole
purpose is to lavish blessings on us, a “your wish is my
command” kind of God—then we will envision God solely as a
giver, and we will envision that our own personal needs sit
at the center of the world. If God is only a butler, only a
lavisher of great gifts and great blessings, then in those
moments of suffering and darkness, in those moments when
blessings seem hard to find, perhaps in our toughest times,
we won’t be able to see God at all.
That is why our Christian
understanding of the incarnation is so important. The
incarnation is the image that should shape our understanding
of God. The incarnation is the central Christian belief that
the full nature of God is revealed in the person of Jesus
Christ. When we want to know who God is and what God is
like, the image that should most define and shape our
concept is that of Jesus. In Jesus, we encounter a God who
became flesh and walked among us—a God who is not a distant
God, a God who is not just “out there.” Instead, we have a
God who is “right here.” In Jesus, we get a vision of a God
who reaches out and touches us in our weakness, and a God
who walks with the poor and the outcast. In our attempts to
understand God, if it is the image of Jesus that is
imprinted on our hearts, then we begin to see God in a whole
new light.
Once we begin to see and
understand God through the image of Jesus Christ, then we
can begin to ask ourselves what is the image, or lens, that
should shape our vision of the world. Again, there are many
images from which to choose. If we see the world through the
image of a race, then life is a contest to be won or lost—a
contest where there are probably more losers than winners.
If our vision of the world is shaped by the image of a
party, then we will most likely see that life is about
pleasure and gratification. If we see the world through the
image of a machine or wind-up clock, then our vision of the
world might be one of seeing things as running down or
slowly moving towards an eventual breakdown or standstill.
So if the image through which we
see the world can affect our vision so dramatically, then it
begs the question: Through what image would Jesus have us
see the world? There comes a point in our scripture where
Jesus makes pretty clear to all of his disciples the image
through which we should see the world. Mark’s gospel tells
of that moment like this:
Then he called the crowd to him
along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come
after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and
follow me. For whoever wants to save his life
will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and
for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to
gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a
man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of
me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation,
the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his
Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
“If anyone would come after me,
he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
There is the image: the cross. If we are going to follow
Jesus, then it will have to be with our cross in hand. This
is the image that should shape our vision for the world. So
what does the image of the cross communicate?
First and probably most obvious,
the cross is the symbol of Jesus’ death. It was upon the
cross that Jesus died, and we Christians believe that Jesus’
death on the cross was a sacrificial death, a sacrificial
death for the sins of the world. Therefore the image of the
cross is one of sacrifice. And if we are to carry our cross,
and if the cross is the image that must shape our vision for
the world, then it is an image of sacrifice that shapes how
we see the world.
Sacrifice. Frederick Buechner
describes sacrifice like this: “To sacrifice something is to
make it holy by giving it away for love.” Jesus gave his
life away for love. To have the cross be the image that
shapes us and our vision of the world, then we must do the
same. To carry our cross, to let it be the central image of
our faith, means that we will be open to the moments that
ask us to put others before ourselves. To let the cross
shape how we see the world is to suggest that there will be
times when we give up time, give up money, give up our
prestige, give up our pride for the betterment of our
families, community, churches and world. To carry our cross
is to let sacrificial love be an active part of our lives.
But this central image of the
cross has an even deeper meaning, a meaning that has been
virtually lost in our modern time. You see, to the first
century world in which Jesus lived, the cross was an image
of Roman terror. It was the method of execution reserved for
enemies of the state, reserved for traitors and those who
threatened the sovereignty and authority of the Roman way of
life. The public, humiliating and torturous death suffered
on the cross was designed to send a clear message: “Don’t
mess with…Texas”….I mean, Rome: “Don’t mess with
Rome.”
Jesus was crucified on a cross
because he dared to question the very Roman way of life.
Jesus questioned the way the society of his day treated the
poor and the marginalized. He questioned the way the world
of his day treated women and foreigners. He dared to declare
to the world’s lone superpower that there was another
kingdom breaking into their midst, a kingdom based on
righteousness and a kingdom based on justice. Jesus was
crucified on a cross because he stood up to injustice. He
stood up for what was right. While the cross for ancient
Romans was a symbol of execution, for Christians it was an
unmistakable sign of justice. Jesus died on a cross because
he stood up for what was right, even though it would
cost him dearly. The cross is a sign of justice.
So to carry the cross, this
symbol of justice, and to let it shape us and shape our
vision of the world, means that we prepare ourselves for the
times when we will have to stand up for what is right. We
prepare ourselves for the time we will have to take a stand
for justice. And because the cross is the image that shapes
our vision, we choose to stand for justice, to stand up for
what is right, fully aware of the cost. If the cross is the
image that shapes how we see the world, then we are
preparing ourselves for a time at the office when we might
have to stand up against unethical business practices. It
might mean we will have to ask questions about how money is
being spent or being invested. It might mean we will have to
take a stand when it comes to layoffs or wages being paid to
laborers or other support staff. To stand with the cross of
justice means we might have to stand up when racial slurs
are being spoken or sexist jokes are being bantered around.
To have the cross shape our vision means that when given the
choice between standing up for what is right and protecting
ourselves, we will take a stand for righteousness. To carry
our cross is to allow our vision to be shaped by justice.
Tomorrow our nation will take a
day off, a day to remember the life of one who so clearly
demonstrated what it means to have their life shaped by the
image of the cross. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
was a Christian minister whose life and legacy was shaped by
an understanding of what it means to be a disciple of the
crucified carpenter from Galilee. From a jail cell in
Birmingham, Alabama, King penned one of the most important
letters ever written. In this letter he clearly articulates
why, as a Christian, he was compelled to carry his cross, a
cross that eventually cost him his life, as well. From
behind those bars he wrote:
My Dear Fellow Clergymen:
…I am in Birmingham because
injustice is here… Moreover, I am cognizant of the
interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit
idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens
in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of
mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever
affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
Dr. King reminds us that there
will come a time when we will have to choose between the
complacency of silence and the justice of the cross. If we
are to take Jesus seriously, then we can’t simply let that
moment pass.
But there is one more thing
about the cross that is important to remember. The cross is
not just an image of death. For Christians, it is a symbol
of life. You see, we know that while the cross did have its
day, it was denied its dominion. Jesus’ stand for justice
and his willingness to live a sacrificial life were not
simply crushed by the powers and principalities of this
world. We know that one Easter morning some two thousand
years ago, Jesus rose from the dead. We know that God
honored his willingness to carry the cross, to carry it as
far as anyone could ever carry it. Jesus Christ rose from
the dead. For Christians, the cross is a reminder of hope.
It is the image that should always remind us that although
the faith may cost in the moment, may even cost us dearly,
God somehow is at work in ways we could never have imagined
to bring about something completely unexpected. The cross
reminds us that any defeats we suffer or losses we incur for
standing up for what is right are only momentary losses,
that somehow, out of that loss, God will bring about a new
tomorrow. The cross is a reminder of hope.
On his last day on earth, King
delivered a sermon. He delivered it in Memphis, Tennessee.
He delivered it to a group of striking garbage men. His last
stand was a stand for justice. And in this, his final
sermon, we get a sense that King knew the cost that he would
soon have to pay, the cost of carrying the cross of justice.
In that last sermon he said:
Well,
I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult
days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now.
Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like
anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its
place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to
do God’s will.
Then his words, those famous
last words, turn to the hope found in this central image of
our faith, the hope found when we carry our cross. In these
prophetic last words, King declares for all time that even
though his stand for justice will cost him his very life,
God will use his faithful stand for what was right to help
bring about a new world. Hear these words from King once
again:
And
He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked
over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there
with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a
people, will get to the promised land! So I’m happy tonight.
I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
That is the hope of the cross.
The hope that we will get there as a people, that we will
get to the promised land. The cross, this central image of
our faith, gives us the vision to believe that “deep in our
hearts…we shall overcome…someday.”
Notes: The images referred to at
the beginning of the sermon can be found in Stephen Covey’s
classic, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
The Buechner quote comes once again from his classic book of
definitions, Beyond Words. And the King quotes come
from the seminal work, A Testament of Hope: The Essential
Writings and Preaching of Martin Luther King Jr.
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