Perspective
Job 42:1-6, Mark
Perspective changes depending on where one is standing. Job's perspective changed dramatically from a position of self-assurance to a position of utter humility. The difference of the perspectives, say, of Bartimaeus, the blind beggar and the "rich young ruler" is also dramatic. Job, who had everything, saw nothing until he had nothing and saw everything. Bartimaeus had nothing and saw everything. The rich young ruler had everything and saw nothing. Furthermore the disciples saw Jesus up close and personal everyday but were apparently completely blind to what he was saying as they were squabbling about places of honor while Jesus was teaching servant leadership. It should not be overlooked that Jesus asked Bartimaeus the same question that he had asked the disciples before: What do you want me to do for you? The contrast in the responses is revealing. That same question asked of us would also be revealing. What is it that we want from Jesus? Is it not always about what we want? Bartimaeus was blind but could see who Jesus was and what Jesus wanted perhaps because he was so powerless, power was the last thing he thought of and was not a factor in his perspective. What he wanted was his life back so that he could use it to serve the healer. He was not simply healed and left behind. He was included in the adventure, in the going forth, in the healing of others. It is interesting how many examples there are in Mark of the powerless getting access to Jesus. Bartimaeus' story reminds me of the woman who touched hjs garment. Neither had powerful friends. Both were outsiders, marginalized, both boldly approached Jesus for healing. As Bruggemann said of the Bartimaeus story in particular but of the narrative of Mark in general: the adage that the first will be last and the last first is already coming true. In each case what was seen was at least in part a consequence of where the one doing the seeing was standing. The dictionary says that perspective is the relationship of the parts of a whole, regarded from a particular standpoint or point in time. Where do we stand? What do we see? Does where we stand blind us? We tend to think that what we have and the more we have of it is a blessing but maybe it isn't. Maybe what we have separates us from God. And if it does, so what?
Job was a man who played by the rules, wanted to do the right thing, was reasonably successful, very much like most of us, I suspect. Because he played by the rules, because he wanted to do the right thing, and because he was reasonably successful and thought that these realities would keep him safe from harm, that if he just did the right things, he would be alright, because he thought he had it all figured out, he was sorely tested. His perspective was from a position of strength and confidence that he knew what he was doing. His perspective was, though he might have denied it, that he had faith in himself, in his own ability to do the right thing, and that would be sufficient to meet the challenges of life. His perspective changed when all he had counted on was suddenly gone. Job had to lose everything in order to see his life depended on God's mercy and not upon his own strength or righteousness. Weaknes is not in itself a virtue, but rather, an expression of the essence of our nature. . . what Job had to learn the hard way was his own essential nature because only when we know where we are can we see what we are looking at for what it really is. Looking to God from a perspective of strength is very different from looking to God from a perspective of weakness. I suspect that a major difference between those who have an authentic relationship with the living God and those who do not is that that those who do know how much they need God and those who don't have any idea of needing God; are, in fact, satisfied that they don't really need God at all, can take care of themselves thank you very much.
In A Good Man is Hard to Find Flannery O'Connor writes of a family interrupted on their journey by a killer. The killer is called the Misfit because in his own words I can't make what all I done wrong fit what all I gone through in punishment. While the Misfit's gang is murdering the lady's family off in the nearby woods they are having the following conversation:
"If
you would pray," the old Lady said, "Jesus would help you."
"That's
right," The Misfit said.
"Well
then, why don't you pray?" she asked trembling with delight suddenly.
"I don't want no hep," he said. "I'm doing all right by myself."
Later the Misfit goes on to say: No, lady, I found out the crime don't matter.
You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his
car, because sooner or later you're going to forget what it was you done and
just be punished for it."
It struck me with this latest reading of O'Connor breathtakingly terrifying story that Job could have been The Misfit. Neither one of their actions fit with their logical expectation of consequences. Job started from a position of righteousness and the Misfit from the opposite pole of unrighteousness. Both were punished but neither was sure of how the punishment and the act fit together. The difference being that the Misfit chose to rely on himself with horrible consequences and was utterly lost while Job chose to admit he needed to rely more on God and was found, his life restored. Job could have responded to what happened to him as the Misfit did assuming that the meaning of life is meaninglessness but he didn't. Instead he found the meaning of life in God and that it matters not only what you do but why you do it. Job found meaning for his life in his suffering not that the meaning of life is suffering but that the meaning of life is overcoming and redeeming suffering through faith in a good and merciful God. The Misfit found that life was meaningless but that the meaning of his life was the random suffering of himself and everybody who crossed his path.
Jesus
was the only One that ever raised the dead." The Misfit continued,
"and he shouldn't have done it. He thrown everything off balance. If He
did what He said, then its nothing for you to do but throw away everything and
follow Him, and if He didn't, then it's nothing for you to do but enjoy the few
minutes you got left the best way you can- by killing somebody or burning down
his house or doing some other meanness to him.
I wisht I had of been there," he said
hitting the ground with his fist. "It ain't right I wasn't there because
if I had been there I would of known. Listen Lady, he said in a high voice if I
had of been there I would have known and I wouldn't be like I am now."
Shortly after these words he shot
the lady who joined her whole family and one of his gang was laughing and the
Misfit summed up his perspective with the final words of the story: "Shut up, Bobby Lee," It's no real
pleasure in life."
Perspective. We may think in our
self-reliance and prosperity that having faith in a good and merciful God is
nice but not essential, we can get by without it. But maybe the decision is a
little more crucial than that. Maybe we haven't taken seriously enough how much
we rely on ourselves and what we possess to get us by. Maybe we don't take God
or our need for God seriously enough. God and Church are not exactly the same
thing but the Church is a representation of our relationship with God. It is a
place where we can realize our commitment to God and be held accountable. How
serious are we about that relationship - between God and Church, between self
and God and Church? What if our faith community collapses for lack of support?
What difference would it make? There are other faith communities. We could all
make do, couldn't we? What difference does it make that we exist? Maybe the
question should be turned around: What would your life be like without this
church? This place does not have to exist. It depends entirely upon you, upon
your generosity. In the same way we
depend entirely upon a merciful God and there is a direct connection between
those two dependencies and if we fail to make the connection between our
dependency on God and this congregations' dependency on us then we may have
overlooked the essential relationship between gratefulness and generosity,
between faith and love.
Our perspective is crucial. If we can see from where we stand a good and merciful God we are more likely to find meaning in love. If we are grateful to God for God's merciful blessings, aware of our profound and very personal need for God's mercy, we are more likely to be generous with what we have wanting nothing to come between us and God. If we cannot see a good and merciful God from where we stand we will be more likely to shrink the meaning of live down to whatever gets us through the day no matter how small or mean that might be. Not many reach the level of the Misfit but, God help us, it is possible. If we are not grateful for life we are not likely to find much value in life, in our own life or anyone else's. If all we have to count on is ourselves and our possessions we are doomed to find that we have nothing at all. At one level what we say about what we believe is just so many words. This may satisfy us until we are tested and then we will find out what we really believe, what we count on. We don't have to wait and be surprised. We can give ourselves without condition to Jesus like Bartimaeus before us by throwing down our cloak, his only possession, and rising to meet with joy the God of love and mercy that we can see with our own eyes and find in the giving and in the rising itself that we have received our life back and can see clearly that love is real and will save us after all.
Our perspective will reveal the relative value of everything. The decisions we make everyday about what we give and what we don't give reveal to us what we love. What we decide to do about anything will reveal what we believe about everything. God does not offer life to us so that we can take it or leave it as if didn't matter. God offers us life so that we will transcend simply living for ourselves and live for God and thereby discover why we live at all.
When Jesus asks us, What do you want me to do for you? May
we be at a place that will give us the perspective to say: O master let me see again!
