"Look Again," the Senior Sermon of Janice Jones, Class of 2008 from the Diocese of Texas, given on February 5, 2008 in Christ Chapel

Mark 8:11-26

" The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, asking him for a sign from heaven, to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, ‘Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.’ And he left them, and getting into the boat again, he went across to the other side.

"Now the disciples had forgotten to bring any bread; and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, ‘Watch out—beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.’ They said to one another, ‘It is because we have no bread.’ And becoming aware of it, Jesus said to them, ‘Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?’ They said to him, ‘Twelve.’ ‘And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?’ And they said to him, ‘Seven.’ Then he said to them, ‘ Do you not yet understand?’

"They came to Bethsaida . Some people * brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, ‘Can you see anything?’ And the man * looked up and said, ‘I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.’ Then Jesus * laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Then he sent him away to his home, saying, ‘Do not even go into the village.’ *"

It’s a 153 mile ride, mostly on the back road highways.

Along the roadside, spatterings of red -- yellow -- and blue. Then patches of color. Entire fields of bright yellow – and the bluebonnets – jaw-dropping in the audacity of their sheer expanse to one who’d tried for years to help lupine live in New England dirt.

As I neared Austin , the fields turned to silvery green – I called Rick – “It’s like OZ!”

30,000 miles and 100s of hours later, I continue to be amazed. I’ve glimpsed shooting stars along FM 1488 before dawn - watched sunsets behind me going home and sunrises behind me coming in.

I’ve learned there really is a moment of sunrise.

There’ve been deer and of course all sizes of horses, sheep, goats, and donkeys, goofy legged newborn calves wobbling to their mothers, possum, skunk, armadillo --- even zebra.

Hawks on the fence posts so close I could see feathers meet yellow scaly stump legs.

I pulled over one morning and locked gazes with a 3-legged coyote – ‘til he turned to lope unevenly off as I reached for the camera on the seat beside me.

Another spring, there were Tibetan monks in saffron robes crouched grinning in the blue bonnets on the roadside.

And last winter’s covering of ice scattered the sunlight along the south side roofs and fences, all the way from here to Carmine.

South Texas in ice is something else.

2½ years of road surprises should have had me prepared for anything – But not quite. On the Friday before Thanksgiving, as I pulled around the Hempstead Jack-in-the-Box, there it was –

Ready for a fill-up at the Shell Station next door – a giant coach bus - mobile billboard, announcing itself through word and painting as the hell-on-wheels road home of “Girls Gone Wild.”

For those who never suffer from insomnia’s middle-of-the-night TV clicker syndrome, Girls Gone Wild is a traveling production company that produces videos of young drunk women making young and very drunk and lewd permanent reminders of temporary feelings.

Got the picture?

SO–Here is the bus–and Here sits me. At the slowest drivethru on earth.

You know that saying: ‘you are who you were when?’

Well I was… New Haven … 1971… Betty Freidan – Gloria Steinem –

Get the picture? Mm-hmm.

Read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested.

So as the middle-aged over-beered rode hard and hung up wet driver got out of the bus to pump the gas, my incredible hulk mode came into its own.

What do I do? Go shake my finger and yell at him?

Storm the bus and rescue under-aged girls trapped inside? (That part could be true by the way–Some of this company’s founders are in jail.)

I prayed - But the whole scene stayed right there. Ten giant steps BACK for all of women-kind – feminism at the precipice.

Oh but it just gets better – 1488 is a long and lonely road and as it happened, I also needed gas!

And the only empty pump was ---- right next to that bus.

SO. I drove in - started the pump – and got back in my car totally ignoring the poor excuse for a human being only feet away.

Totally against everything in the nature of one sometimes accused of practically talking to rocks - but I just disdained HIM.

Soon enough, my little car was full but that bus was still pumping. SO I got out to detach the hose –

Grace alone let me speak… although not without the taste of venom.

“Where are you headed? Up to College Station ?”

Texas A & M was about 40 minutes north and colleges are the prime hunting grounds of this film squad.

“Nope – Just to Houston .”

“To a college there?”

“Nah – I’m leaving this thing off at a bar. Then I go to the hotel.”

I clicked my gas cap shut as he continued.

“I feel like I sell my soul to the devil just driving this thing. But it pays 360 days a year and nobody else does.”

I can see people, but they look like trees walking.

“My wife gives a lot of the money to our church.”

No collar – not even a cross hanging around my neck – Where’d all this come from?

Hmmm – An idea -

“You must get hassled sometimes driving that thing.”

“Oh yeah – The cops just pulled me over in Bryan – No plate back there.” (He indicated the trailer pulled behind the coach.)

“The kids keep pulling it off – I’m gonna bolt it to the frame next time.”

I turned back to the pump and pushed the button for my receipt.

Heard the sigh from what now just looked like a worn-out head.

“Will you make it home in time for Thanksgiving?” I asked.

“Nope – I’m from Arkansas . They’ll all be there, but it’s too far for me… I’ll be there for Christmas though!”

…and he looked intently and his sight was restored

I looked again and I saw NOT the scourge of the universe, determined to undermine the futures of our sons and our daughters town by town. But instead, a lonely and tired little man who’d had a lot of road time to think about his life.

“You know,” I offered tentatively, “I think God’s here with us – whatever we have to do.”

My gas-fill-up was completed and my courage exhausted.

“I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas.”

“You, too,” I heard as I climbed in the car to leave.

I saw a long ride home through the eyes of a heart humbled – and grateful to have seen in time that I’d been so wrong.

How blind we can be – even when we think our eyes are working.

Jesus’ disciples were not immune to blindness. “Do you have eyes, and fail to see?” He asks them. “Do you still not perceive or understand?”

Face it – perception - that strange lens between our eyes and understanding – so often creates our reality.

Sometimes it lets us see the real deal-

-- but sometimes the view we get is more like a funhouse mirror.

Look at the old woman, bent over on her cane. Wait - She’s the nurse who spent World War II on the ship Hope in the Pacific.

And how about that 17-year-old fireplug of a junior ROTC cadet - barking out commands to even littler ones?

Not some cocky war-monger – but a survivor, always cognizant of the chaos that until recently was his world of childhood leukemia.

That chic flight attendant in First Class?

Glamour all the way --– Until the young widow goes home to the empty house – and wonders if her runaway child will ever be back.

Everybody has a story – It’s just a matter of seeing past the trees.

Now – Let me stop here for a minute and make one thing clear – While I am speaking about the transformation of the sight of our hearts – Make no mistake about Jesus’ healing of the blind man along the road in our Gospel – I have no doubt that this was a real and physical healing –--------- Cataracts? Injury? Infection?

Maybe we are hearing of the healing protein of the SLPI molecule in saliva - that only in this century the Journal of the American Dental Association has described –

Or opiorphin – the painkiller in saliva, discovered just sixteen months ago - six times more potent than morphine –

Interesting that in our view, saliva’s healing had been relegated to myth –

At any rate, the details of the disease and the mechanism of cure don’t matter – What matters is that Jesus did and does heal us still – our bodies and our souls.

The latter can be the more difficult – For it’s an ongoing process of healing by continual relinquishment of the lens to him – rather than focusing on what looks good at first sight.

Think about this warning:

“Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.”

What is this about yeast? It’s a good thing for bread and beer – to a point - It puffs up – It adds bulk – but with gas bubbles, not substance. It makes the loaf more palatable – easier to bite and chew –

But if left too long, the taste of fermentation comes thru – good for beer to a point, but not bread.

And if left even longer, the yeast uses up the very resources it needs to live, so begins to die – leaving the loaf pretty flat or a beer spoiled. Pharisaic piety – self-enhancing rules – the puffery of power and role and office – Everything Charlie warns us of – Beware.

The yeast of the Pharisees and Herod. It’s easy to be blinded.

Jesus is clear – What you think you see may not be what you get.

So often our behavior and image of another – is based more on what we expect to get from this person – how they will enhance US - than just pure involvement with creation. This is contrary to God’s sight – sight that looks beyond the moment and sees His own face.

Our task – to open the eyes of our heart – to look beyond the cup to the image of God inside.

I think we get a peek at this sometimes –

Take a look around right now – You know our stories – you know the interactions – you know the pleasures and the painful pokes of our relationships – and our questions and fears –

Am I good enough? Too young? Too old? Too dumb?

Leftwing liberal? REPUBLICAN?? To tattoo or not to tattoo?

Questions between us – Always questions -

But look again – See anybody you don’t love? I doubt it.

We get glimpses all the time of that perfect peace God intends for us. You know what I mean - Maybe in prayer for someone, especially in a disagreement – or how about that instant of God’s pure love that flashes between our eyes and hearts at the communion rail as we offer one another the cup of salvation. Sometimes we CAN see.

Now what does this mean for the truly hideous wrongs people can do - and Girls Gone Wild? Well definitely NOT approval –

but we’re more likely to find reconciliation if we haven’t summarily dismissed the apparent offender.

In my story, it was compassion for the man confused by the place he was caught up in. A need for prayers for help in providing for his family.

And prayers for a culture that too often judges the first quick appearance, diminishing and sometimes destroying the potential of the creation.

The recognition that there is no blindness beyond Jesus’ healing power.

We live in hope – And seek to keep our eyes open so that we can see hearts – the reality of the person beyond the first glance.

Because so often when we think we see – We are just plain wrong.

So what’s the task? – to Remember – Remember whose we are – To peer beyond the haze of blindness -

• To burn the image of love so brightly into the eyes of our hearts that the goodness of the Other shines through, no matter what the situation.
• To beg Him – each day – to touch us – to lead us by the hand – to place his hands upon our eyes, our ears, our hearts that our perception might be like His.

To keep us aware at every moment as we walk through this creation that blindness can seize us quickly -

So we remember each time - that when we see trees walking, Stop – and look again –

For in that moment of sight restored, we just might glimpse the face of God.

Amen.