God's Eyes

God’s Eyes Luke 6:17-26, The Beautitudes 6^th Sunday of Epiphany Year C

Preached February 11, 2007 at Hope UMC

As I read the scripture today, close your eyes and picture it in your mind. What does it look like? What do the people look like? How are they responding to what they are hearing?

I see this story from the eyes of a tourist, 21 years old in a cotton skirt on a hot summer day. That’s how old I was when I traveled to Israel, and I have a photo of this location, of the Church of the Beautitudes and me standing on the portico in the sun.

Many Christians see this story as a gentle telling of blessings, people sitting peacefully listening to Jesus tell them they are, despite everything, the blessed of God.

A historian might see the peasants of an occupied country gathered on the hillside to listen to a man they wish would bring revolution. A biblical scholar might see the people longing for healing and wholeness in their lives. A mystic might see the people longing to connect with the Holy.

The people sitting there – what was it like in their eyes? Did they think this man was crazy? Proclaiming the very people no one wanted to be near as blessed? Or were they shocked to be included themselves in that grouping?

How did Jesus see it? In Jesus’ eyes, what were the people in front of him like: these people who likely had enough food for just the next day at any given time, who were on the edge of poverty or right there, who ate grief for breakfast and despair for dinner. What did he see?

In God’s eyes – what was this scene like?

In God’s eyes – what did God see? What did Jesus know of that view? What do we not see that has us still stumbling over these words after so many years? I don’t know about you, but these words are not easy ones. In these descriptions I see scarcity; Jesus describes abundance. I see pain; Jesus declares blessing. I see disappointment and danger; Jesus sees hope. I know my eyesight isn’t so good but what is happening here?

A photo was taken of the Helix Nebula, a dying star near the Aquarius constellation, and posted on the Astronomy Picture of the Day website on May 10, 2003. It looks like an eye, and was quickly dubbed “Eye of God” as it made its way around the internet. You can find it on my blogsite. Funny how we imagine God’s Eye to be far away, so far it takes our most recent and powerful instruments to see it.

But that is how we think of God seeing us. The popular song, “From a Distance,” describes God this way: From a distance God sees us, and God sees us the way we wish we were, in peace and harmony and beauty. Maybe the poor and the hungry and the grieving look blessed from that view, from that perspective somewhere out there in the universe.

Then I could understand how Jesus says, Blessed are the poor.

Except that scripture tells us that God sees us up close too.
God knit us together in our mother’s womb.
God knows the hairs on our heads.
God sees the sparrow fall.
God knows the word before it is on our tongue.
God walks with us, even in darkness. This is no distant God.

In God’s eyes we are as we are, in glaring, embarrassing detail,
and as we were created to be.
In God’s eyes our potential and our past are held together in grace.
In God’s eyes the spark of life deep within us is always visible,
even if the world has done much to put it out.
In God’s eyes those who make us most uneasy are called blessed and
those we most admire are given woe.

I don’t know much about God’s eyes. God see things differently than I do.

But if I’m going to follow this Jesus, I’m going to have to try
to get a new prescription, a new perspective,
a new point of view
because if the beautitudes are real,
I’m gonna have to learn to see the world through new eyes.