Perspectives
I need two volunteers this morning. First, is there anyone here who has perfect or very good vision without glasses or contacts? Second, who has the worst vision and is wearing glasses?
If we take the strong glasses off of the person who needs them, they cannot see properly. Likewise, if we put strong glasses on otherwise good, strong eyes, they cannot see properly either. It isn’t a matter of effort; each can try as hard as they can, but that won’t help much if at all. We cannot see unless our perspective is correct. And we really do not see the world the same way.
In this morning’s Gospel, Jesus is trying to teach the Pharisees and scribes a crucial lesson about perspective. They are criticizing Jesus for eating with sinners. In their view, they lived by standards set by God. “Those people did not and do not. We live by them, they don’t.” That seems very straightforward to them, but clearly it is not.
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The Runner
Several years ago, I told a story about a runner, I imagined that he was me, on his morning run in New York City. He was up very early, laced his shoes and slowly found his way out the door. His run started quite slowly, his legs were heavy, he was still sore from his long run on Saturday. His training course carried him through Central Park. The feeling of fall is in the air. The New York Marathon is now 8 weeks away on November 3. As he continued along the course, he pushed the pace, his breathing was labored, uncomfortable. He was focused on his training schedule, thinking about the finish time required that he might qualify for the Boston Marathon in the spring. Would this finally be the year that he could qualify? He finished the run, grabbed a quick shower and a bite to eat, then off to work in the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The date: September 11, 2001.
What’s the first thing you think of when you hear of falling towers and people dying. I think for many of us, our minds jump right to 9/11. Why us? Why here? Why now? All questions that certainly filled people’s minds and troubled the hearts of many of us who stood in shock and horror as we watched the events unfold that day.
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Faith and Trust
When I was a kid, despite our not having much money and living in the middle of the state, my parents bought a 30-foot sailboat. We only had that boat a few years, and those adventures are among my favorite memories.
One of my very best memories was the night we sailed from Stuart, Florida to West End on Grand Bahama. Grand Bahama is about 80 miles from Stuart, if you could go straight there. That line is called the “rhumb line” – R-H-U-M-B – which is the direct line on a map between your point of origin and your destination.
But a straight line is not how the ocean works, especially not for a sailboat. You have to deal with an array of variables: wind, currents, tides, and other boats. And between Stuart and West End, the Gulf Stream flows like a river that is 30-50 miles wide. You can’t go straight there.
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