The Blind Guiding The Blind
Preaching
Preaching the Parables
Series II, Cycle C
Object:
39He also told them a parable: "Can a blind person guide a
blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? 40A disciple is
not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will
be like the teacher. 41Why do you see the speck in your
neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 42Or
how can you say to your neighbor, 'Friend, let me take out the
speck in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log in your
own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye,
and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your
neighbor's eye.
43"No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; 44for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.
46"Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I tell you? 47I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. 48That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house."
The passage for today has what is described as a parable. It is a one-sentence parable, more like a saying than a typical parable. It is only one or two sentences long. The passage actually contains four such parables or sayings. While the passage is part of a longer discourse of Jesus addressed to "a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people" (Luke 6:17), this section seems more directly addressed to the disciples.
The first of the parables or sayings deals with an analogy to a blind leader or teacher. The second carries forward somewhat the same theme by speaking about an impediment in the eye that keeps one from seeing clearly. The next two shift the nature of the image to a productive tree and a house on a solid foundation. They continue the theme of the character of the disciple who follows Jesus.
Thus you can find a unity in the four parables or sayings. They all treat the issue of the character of one who wants to be a disciple or follower of Jesus.
Context
Context of the Church Year
Note: Since Easter comes on April 12 this year (1998), this is the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. Therefore this Proper may be replaced, in those churches using Transfiguration readings on this day, by the reading for the last Sunday after Epiphany.
Context of the Lectionary
The First Lesson. (Isaiah 55:10-13) Isaiah presents a song in praise of God's actions. He compares the results of God's word to the rain and snow that water the earth and bring forth abundant growth. The earth and nature join in the joy and peace as signs of the fulfillment of God's promise to his people.
The Second Lesson. (1 Corinthians 15:51-58) Paul bursts forth in a hymn about the hope for resurrection when the physical body will be transformed to an incorruptible one. He ends with an admonition to be steadfast, immovable, and always excelling in the Lord's work in light of the Lord's promise of an eternal reward.
Gospel. (Luke 6:39-49) Four images are used to urge the followers to have a life consistent with their profession. A warning is given about the consequences of a life which does not conform to a high profession of commitment to the kingdom of God.
Psalm. (Psalm 92:1-4, 12-15) The psalm begins with a song of thanksgiving and joy because of the work of the Lord. It ends with an affirmation that the righteous produce fruit like a flourishing tree. The psalmist declares that the upright Lord is the rock on which he is founded. These two images of the tree and the rock are found in the last half of the gospel reading.
Context of Luke
The four parables are the concluding section of what is often referred to as the Sermon on the Plain. It has many parallels to what is called the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5- 7). Luke has echoes of the Sermon on the Mount scattered through chapters 6 to 16. The most concentrated and parallel passages are found in chapter six, from which the gospel reading for today is taken.
Context of Related Scripture
Matthew 15:14 -- A parallel to Luke 6:39
Matthew 10:24 -- A parallel to Luke 6:40
Matthew 7:3-5 -- A parallel to Luke 6:41-42
Matthew 12:33-35 -- A parallel to Luke 6:43-45
Matthew 7:24-27 -- A parallel to Luke 6:46-49
About Teachers:
Proverbs 6:23 -- A father's teachings are a light.
Psalm 119:99 -- Meditation on God's decrees is better than all teachers.
Matthew 23:16 -- Woe to blind guides.
John 3:2 -- Nicodemus calls Jesus a teacher sent from God.
John 13:13 -- Jesus accepts the definition of himself as teacher and Lord.
James 3:1 -- Teachers are judged with greater strictness than others.
2 Peter 2:1-3 -- A warning against false teachers and prophets.
Following and Discipleship:
Matthew 16:24 -- Disciples must take up their cross and follow Jesus.
John 8:31 -- True disciples continue in Jesus' word.
John 12:22 -- Whoever serves Jesus must follow him as a servant.
1 Peter 2:21 -- Follow in the steps of Jesus as an example.
Content
Precis of the Parable
The pericope begins with the question about blind guides leading the blind. If so, they will all go astray. That leads to the observation that people generally see little problems with others and overlook their own big problems.
The next section of the pericope deals with the good tree that produces good fruit. It proceeds to the application to persons where good people do good works and evil people produce evil.
The final section starts with the failure to move from verbal profession to commitment to Jesus as Lord to actions which support it. It concludes with the contrast between houses built on a firm foundation that withstand stress and those on shifting grounds that collapse when under stress.
Thesis: Disciples are obligated to be true guides and teachers.
Theme: True disciples of Jesus have integrity between profession and actions.
Key Words in the Passage
1. "A Blind Person." (v. 39) Jesus is probably referring to the Pharisees and the scribes but it can refer to those who use their teaching responsibilities falsely. In this case it is a warning to those who would be his disciples.
2. "Disciple." (v. 40) The role of a disciple is to follow one who already knows the way. Jesus becomes the guide who is worthy of followers as disciples.
3. "Speck ... Log." (v. 42) Jesus uses hyperbole, which makes the point by exaggeration. Persons could not fail to notice a log in their eye. Other examples of Jesus' use of hyperbole are found in Matthew 23:24 in the contrast between a gnat and a camel, or in Mark 10:25 and Luke 18:25 in the contrast between a camel and the eye of a needle.
4. "Heart." (v. 45) The heart for the Hebrew people was the seat of the intellect and understanding. It was not the seat of feelings and emotions as is the view more recently.
5. "Lord, Lord." (v. 46) The word in Greek is Kurios, which can be translated as "master." It came to have meaning loaded with implications of deity. To repeat it twice moves to the comparative emphasis.
6. "House on the Ground." (v. 49) This expression, which differs from Matthew, shows Luke's cultural background. He apparently did not know of conditions in Palestine where a house might be built in a dry stream bed during the dry season. It would then collapse under the rush of water during the wet season.
Contemplation
Issues and Insights
1. A Higher Standard. People sometimes question whether we should hold people in leadership to higher standards than other people. It is an awesome responsibility to assume leadership and especially so if it is as a teacher or preacher.
Leaders are expected to direct people to worthwhile goals. They exert a great influence on where people are going. A leader who takes people in the wrong direction can lead to great disaster, not just for the leader but for many others as well.
Many churches are wrecked by leaders who seek personal power and lead people into destructive conflicts. Many people become disillusioned when leaders demonstrate that they do not honor Jesus as Lord in their personal and public life. They have succumbed to other temptations that govern their desires and actions.
Teachers are expected to mold the lives of future generations. If they are false teachers they affect the future beyond their own lives. They extend their influence much further than the limits of themselves. To see former students exceed the accomplishments of the teacher is one of the rich rewards of teaching.
Leadership and teaching have double responsibilities: for themselves and for those whom they influence. They can also have double reward.
2. Confronted with Choice. Jesus clearly delineates a choice for his followers. He spells out the inevitable consequences of differing kinds of conduct. He calls his hearers to choose the opposing types of life by a variety of images.
Many decisions we have to make do not have a great impact on our lives and conduct or that of others. It does not matter too much whether we choose apple or cherry pie when that is the choice. It does not usually matter much whether we choose to wear blue or brown on any given day. Those are not earthshaking decisions. Yet some people probably spend more thought and time on those kinds of decisions day by day than on the life-forming choices that may confront them daily.
Jesus calls his disciples to choose continually to bring their life and conduct into unity if they are to follow him. They also need to make such decisions if they are to be responsible as leaders and teachers.
Point to Ponder
When is it hypocrisy to speak far better than we often do? Someone has suggested that it is not hypocrisy to talk about your highest ideals. In so doing you help to support your efforts to live according to your best intentions.
If you go on record in public as to what you propose to do, that strengthens you in doing it. It is harder for you to live lower than what you want to be since you have stated to others your highest purposes.
Is it perhaps a difference between the demand you place on yourself as opposed to a claim you make as to what you have achieved? To pretend that you have already arrived when you are not truly aspiring to get there is perhaps the crux of hypocrisy.
Homily Hints
1. Good Disciple-Teacher Relations. (v. 40) Jesus says that a disciple is not above the teacher. What should our relationship be to Jesus as aspiring disciples?
A. Knowing the Teacher. The first requirement is that we are intimate enough with Jesus to understand fully who and what he was.
B. Growing Like the Teacher. The second requirement is that we strive to bring our lives in conformity to Christ's teaching and example with the help of the Holy Spirit.
C. Showing the Teacher. The third requirement of discipleship is that we demonstrate to others who the teacher is and point beyond ourselves to Christ.
2. Spiritual Cataracts. (vv. 39-42) Cataracts are a clouding of the lens of the eye so that we do not have clear sight. What is the clouding of our spiritual eyes that keeps us from insight into Christian living?
A. Hypocritical Attitudes. An unwillingness to recognize our own guilt and faults so we can improve.
B. Egocentric Problems. We are centered on our own interests. Christ has not become master of our motives.
C. Unresolved Problems. Areas of our lives where we keep hidden sins. We nurture false desires that are not dealt with honestly.
3. Eye (I) Surgery. (v. 42) More critical of others than we are of self.
A. Recognize the Source of Our Infection
B. Casting Out Old Habits. True repentance for our failures. Seeking to replace old patterns with new and better ones.
C. Clear Vision of Christ. Letting the Holy Spirit show us more fully the light of Christ in our lives.
4. The Fruitful Tree. (v. 44)
A. Removing the Bugs and Diseases
B. Producing Fruits of the Spirit
C. Showing Works of Righteousness and Justice
5. Saying Lord, Lord. (v. 46)
A. Public Profession of Faith. Making a public commitment reinforces intentions.
B. Translating Words into Actions. To put into practice our public profession demands deliberate resolve to bring integrity between words and deeds.
C. Reformation Forever. We never fully arrive at the perfection of Christ. To seek to be Christlike is a lifetime effort that calls for constant self-examination and openness to new insights and change.
Contact
Points of Contact
1. The Speck and the Log. We generally are more harsh in our criticism of others than we are of ourselves. We tend to think our intentions are pure while we ascribe bad motives to others in their actions.
Two approaches may help us to work at the problem. The first is to see other persons as Jesus would see them. He generally saw people as they could become rather than as they were. He saw people as in need of forgiveness, help, and healing. He did not begin with condemnation and punishments. He invited people to a better life rather than rejecting them.
The second is to hold ourselves against the pattern of Jesus' life. We must jump outside our figurative skins and see ourselves from his point of view. In so doing we can see ourselves as others see us.
2. Blind Spots. All people are formed in part by the family and society in which they have grown to adulthood. The culture influences our customs, habits, and values. It is difficult to change the assumptions and values we have because "things have always been done that way."
One of the values of a cross-cultural experience is that we are forced to experience other ways of doing things and to see other value options. That tends to throw light on our blind spots. We have new ways to look at our ways of doing things. We then have a basis for making choices.
An area where people frequently have blind spots is in economics. We tend to put our property and material welfare ahead of the welfare of other people. We tend to think we deserve the wealth and benefits other people do not have. They are lazy, shiftless, have poor working habits, and in other respects do not deserve to have better conditions.
Another area of blind spots arises from racial and ethnic stereotypes. It is hard to overcome prejudices against people based on superficial appearances, such as color, hairstyles, size, language, and similar characteristics. Again, these prejudices are often inherited uncritically from our culture or our particular in-group.
3. Spiritual Pride. Two kinds of persons are particularly susceptible to the kind of spiritual pride that leads them to feel superior to ordinary mortals. The first are those who have had the grace to grow up in a family and a church with a long and strong historical tradition. They come into the church with no great spiritual struggle. Having been nurtured in a supportive family and church, entry into the congregation has approached being automatic.
The particular temptation of persons with such a background is to feel superior religiously to others who have not shared this benefit. They can readily identify cultural forms and practices as being a part of being Christian. If someone else does not adopt these traditions, they can be looked upon as not fully Christian. It is the peculiar sin of the Pharisees.
The second type is those who have had a severe struggle to overcome major sin in their life to become Christian. Their sense of liberation and joy gives them an exuberance that others may not share because becoming Christian would not have been such a contrast for them. As it is sometimes expressed, they never knew a time when they were really not Christian. The peculiar temptation of those who have had a radical conversion experience is to assume that anyone who has not gone through a similar experience does not really know what it means to be Christian. They may also be tempted to believe that it was their personal effort that gave them victory and that they are therefore superior religiously to those who have never had to make such effort.
Illustrative Materials
1. Falling into a Ditch. I believe it was George Washington Carver who early made the discovery of the trap found in getting even with other persons. He found that if he fought with a bully and put him down in a ditch, he had to go there with him to do it.
2. Antidote to Intellectualism. A common observation is that the truly educated person is the one who knows how little she really knows. We may adapt that to say that the mature Christian is the one who knows how far she has yet to go to reach full perfection in Christ.
3. The Christian Teacher. The true Christian teacher is not one who says, "Do as I say" or "Do as I do." The Christian teacher says, "Do as Jesus said and did." This looks beyond self to Christ as the model for instruction in what it means to be a disciple.
4. The Influential Teacher. Two kinds of teachers have the most impact on their students. The first does so because students are so impressed by the teacher that they wish to emulate the teacher. The other so alienates the students because of disagreement that the student works doubly hard to demonstrate that the teacher is wrong! A professor I had admitted that he went to a seminary where he disagreed sharply with most of the Bible and theology faculty. He particularly disagreed with an Old Testament professor. He mastered the material with which he disagreed since he needed to pass the courses. He also went beyond so that he could defend his reasons for disagreeing. He felt he came out stronger than if he had gone to a seminary where he agreed with most teachings.
5. Advice to Leaders. The saying is that you better know where you are going for you might get there. Even worse, you may lead others there as well!
6. Building on the Rock. The Kauffmann family had a series of department stores in southwestern Pennsylvania. They wanted to build a summer home near Ohiopyle. They engaged Frank Lloyd Wright to design a house that would look over a stream. He helped them build a house that was anchored in a rock and cantilevered over the stream so that it seemed that they were hanging over the water. The house stands firmly and has become a tourist attraction since the family died. It is known as Falling Water.
43"No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; 44for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.
46"Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I tell you? 47I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. 48That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house."
The passage for today has what is described as a parable. It is a one-sentence parable, more like a saying than a typical parable. It is only one or two sentences long. The passage actually contains four such parables or sayings. While the passage is part of a longer discourse of Jesus addressed to "a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people" (Luke 6:17), this section seems more directly addressed to the disciples.
The first of the parables or sayings deals with an analogy to a blind leader or teacher. The second carries forward somewhat the same theme by speaking about an impediment in the eye that keeps one from seeing clearly. The next two shift the nature of the image to a productive tree and a house on a solid foundation. They continue the theme of the character of the disciple who follows Jesus.
Thus you can find a unity in the four parables or sayings. They all treat the issue of the character of one who wants to be a disciple or follower of Jesus.
Context
Context of the Church Year
Note: Since Easter comes on April 12 this year (1998), this is the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. Therefore this Proper may be replaced, in those churches using Transfiguration readings on this day, by the reading for the last Sunday after Epiphany.
Context of the Lectionary
The First Lesson. (Isaiah 55:10-13) Isaiah presents a song in praise of God's actions. He compares the results of God's word to the rain and snow that water the earth and bring forth abundant growth. The earth and nature join in the joy and peace as signs of the fulfillment of God's promise to his people.
The Second Lesson. (1 Corinthians 15:51-58) Paul bursts forth in a hymn about the hope for resurrection when the physical body will be transformed to an incorruptible one. He ends with an admonition to be steadfast, immovable, and always excelling in the Lord's work in light of the Lord's promise of an eternal reward.
Gospel. (Luke 6:39-49) Four images are used to urge the followers to have a life consistent with their profession. A warning is given about the consequences of a life which does not conform to a high profession of commitment to the kingdom of God.
Psalm. (Psalm 92:1-4, 12-15) The psalm begins with a song of thanksgiving and joy because of the work of the Lord. It ends with an affirmation that the righteous produce fruit like a flourishing tree. The psalmist declares that the upright Lord is the rock on which he is founded. These two images of the tree and the rock are found in the last half of the gospel reading.
Context of Luke
The four parables are the concluding section of what is often referred to as the Sermon on the Plain. It has many parallels to what is called the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5- 7). Luke has echoes of the Sermon on the Mount scattered through chapters 6 to 16. The most concentrated and parallel passages are found in chapter six, from which the gospel reading for today is taken.
Context of Related Scripture
Matthew 15:14 -- A parallel to Luke 6:39
Matthew 10:24 -- A parallel to Luke 6:40
Matthew 7:3-5 -- A parallel to Luke 6:41-42
Matthew 12:33-35 -- A parallel to Luke 6:43-45
Matthew 7:24-27 -- A parallel to Luke 6:46-49
About Teachers:
Proverbs 6:23 -- A father's teachings are a light.
Psalm 119:99 -- Meditation on God's decrees is better than all teachers.
Matthew 23:16 -- Woe to blind guides.
John 3:2 -- Nicodemus calls Jesus a teacher sent from God.
John 13:13 -- Jesus accepts the definition of himself as teacher and Lord.
James 3:1 -- Teachers are judged with greater strictness than others.
2 Peter 2:1-3 -- A warning against false teachers and prophets.
Following and Discipleship:
Matthew 16:24 -- Disciples must take up their cross and follow Jesus.
John 8:31 -- True disciples continue in Jesus' word.
John 12:22 -- Whoever serves Jesus must follow him as a servant.
1 Peter 2:21 -- Follow in the steps of Jesus as an example.
Content
Precis of the Parable
The pericope begins with the question about blind guides leading the blind. If so, they will all go astray. That leads to the observation that people generally see little problems with others and overlook their own big problems.
The next section of the pericope deals with the good tree that produces good fruit. It proceeds to the application to persons where good people do good works and evil people produce evil.
The final section starts with the failure to move from verbal profession to commitment to Jesus as Lord to actions which support it. It concludes with the contrast between houses built on a firm foundation that withstand stress and those on shifting grounds that collapse when under stress.
Thesis: Disciples are obligated to be true guides and teachers.
Theme: True disciples of Jesus have integrity between profession and actions.
Key Words in the Passage
1. "A Blind Person." (v. 39) Jesus is probably referring to the Pharisees and the scribes but it can refer to those who use their teaching responsibilities falsely. In this case it is a warning to those who would be his disciples.
2. "Disciple." (v. 40) The role of a disciple is to follow one who already knows the way. Jesus becomes the guide who is worthy of followers as disciples.
3. "Speck ... Log." (v. 42) Jesus uses hyperbole, which makes the point by exaggeration. Persons could not fail to notice a log in their eye. Other examples of Jesus' use of hyperbole are found in Matthew 23:24 in the contrast between a gnat and a camel, or in Mark 10:25 and Luke 18:25 in the contrast between a camel and the eye of a needle.
4. "Heart." (v. 45) The heart for the Hebrew people was the seat of the intellect and understanding. It was not the seat of feelings and emotions as is the view more recently.
5. "Lord, Lord." (v. 46) The word in Greek is Kurios, which can be translated as "master." It came to have meaning loaded with implications of deity. To repeat it twice moves to the comparative emphasis.
6. "House on the Ground." (v. 49) This expression, which differs from Matthew, shows Luke's cultural background. He apparently did not know of conditions in Palestine where a house might be built in a dry stream bed during the dry season. It would then collapse under the rush of water during the wet season.
Contemplation
Issues and Insights
1. A Higher Standard. People sometimes question whether we should hold people in leadership to higher standards than other people. It is an awesome responsibility to assume leadership and especially so if it is as a teacher or preacher.
Leaders are expected to direct people to worthwhile goals. They exert a great influence on where people are going. A leader who takes people in the wrong direction can lead to great disaster, not just for the leader but for many others as well.
Many churches are wrecked by leaders who seek personal power and lead people into destructive conflicts. Many people become disillusioned when leaders demonstrate that they do not honor Jesus as Lord in their personal and public life. They have succumbed to other temptations that govern their desires and actions.
Teachers are expected to mold the lives of future generations. If they are false teachers they affect the future beyond their own lives. They extend their influence much further than the limits of themselves. To see former students exceed the accomplishments of the teacher is one of the rich rewards of teaching.
Leadership and teaching have double responsibilities: for themselves and for those whom they influence. They can also have double reward.
2. Confronted with Choice. Jesus clearly delineates a choice for his followers. He spells out the inevitable consequences of differing kinds of conduct. He calls his hearers to choose the opposing types of life by a variety of images.
Many decisions we have to make do not have a great impact on our lives and conduct or that of others. It does not matter too much whether we choose apple or cherry pie when that is the choice. It does not usually matter much whether we choose to wear blue or brown on any given day. Those are not earthshaking decisions. Yet some people probably spend more thought and time on those kinds of decisions day by day than on the life-forming choices that may confront them daily.
Jesus calls his disciples to choose continually to bring their life and conduct into unity if they are to follow him. They also need to make such decisions if they are to be responsible as leaders and teachers.
Point to Ponder
When is it hypocrisy to speak far better than we often do? Someone has suggested that it is not hypocrisy to talk about your highest ideals. In so doing you help to support your efforts to live according to your best intentions.
If you go on record in public as to what you propose to do, that strengthens you in doing it. It is harder for you to live lower than what you want to be since you have stated to others your highest purposes.
Is it perhaps a difference between the demand you place on yourself as opposed to a claim you make as to what you have achieved? To pretend that you have already arrived when you are not truly aspiring to get there is perhaps the crux of hypocrisy.
Homily Hints
1. Good Disciple-Teacher Relations. (v. 40) Jesus says that a disciple is not above the teacher. What should our relationship be to Jesus as aspiring disciples?
A. Knowing the Teacher. The first requirement is that we are intimate enough with Jesus to understand fully who and what he was.
B. Growing Like the Teacher. The second requirement is that we strive to bring our lives in conformity to Christ's teaching and example with the help of the Holy Spirit.
C. Showing the Teacher. The third requirement of discipleship is that we demonstrate to others who the teacher is and point beyond ourselves to Christ.
2. Spiritual Cataracts. (vv. 39-42) Cataracts are a clouding of the lens of the eye so that we do not have clear sight. What is the clouding of our spiritual eyes that keeps us from insight into Christian living?
A. Hypocritical Attitudes. An unwillingness to recognize our own guilt and faults so we can improve.
B. Egocentric Problems. We are centered on our own interests. Christ has not become master of our motives.
C. Unresolved Problems. Areas of our lives where we keep hidden sins. We nurture false desires that are not dealt with honestly.
3. Eye (I) Surgery. (v. 42) More critical of others than we are of self.
A. Recognize the Source of Our Infection
B. Casting Out Old Habits. True repentance for our failures. Seeking to replace old patterns with new and better ones.
C. Clear Vision of Christ. Letting the Holy Spirit show us more fully the light of Christ in our lives.
4. The Fruitful Tree. (v. 44)
A. Removing the Bugs and Diseases
B. Producing Fruits of the Spirit
C. Showing Works of Righteousness and Justice
5. Saying Lord, Lord. (v. 46)
A. Public Profession of Faith. Making a public commitment reinforces intentions.
B. Translating Words into Actions. To put into practice our public profession demands deliberate resolve to bring integrity between words and deeds.
C. Reformation Forever. We never fully arrive at the perfection of Christ. To seek to be Christlike is a lifetime effort that calls for constant self-examination and openness to new insights and change.
Contact
Points of Contact
1. The Speck and the Log. We generally are more harsh in our criticism of others than we are of ourselves. We tend to think our intentions are pure while we ascribe bad motives to others in their actions.
Two approaches may help us to work at the problem. The first is to see other persons as Jesus would see them. He generally saw people as they could become rather than as they were. He saw people as in need of forgiveness, help, and healing. He did not begin with condemnation and punishments. He invited people to a better life rather than rejecting them.
The second is to hold ourselves against the pattern of Jesus' life. We must jump outside our figurative skins and see ourselves from his point of view. In so doing we can see ourselves as others see us.
2. Blind Spots. All people are formed in part by the family and society in which they have grown to adulthood. The culture influences our customs, habits, and values. It is difficult to change the assumptions and values we have because "things have always been done that way."
One of the values of a cross-cultural experience is that we are forced to experience other ways of doing things and to see other value options. That tends to throw light on our blind spots. We have new ways to look at our ways of doing things. We then have a basis for making choices.
An area where people frequently have blind spots is in economics. We tend to put our property and material welfare ahead of the welfare of other people. We tend to think we deserve the wealth and benefits other people do not have. They are lazy, shiftless, have poor working habits, and in other respects do not deserve to have better conditions.
Another area of blind spots arises from racial and ethnic stereotypes. It is hard to overcome prejudices against people based on superficial appearances, such as color, hairstyles, size, language, and similar characteristics. Again, these prejudices are often inherited uncritically from our culture or our particular in-group.
3. Spiritual Pride. Two kinds of persons are particularly susceptible to the kind of spiritual pride that leads them to feel superior to ordinary mortals. The first are those who have had the grace to grow up in a family and a church with a long and strong historical tradition. They come into the church with no great spiritual struggle. Having been nurtured in a supportive family and church, entry into the congregation has approached being automatic.
The particular temptation of persons with such a background is to feel superior religiously to others who have not shared this benefit. They can readily identify cultural forms and practices as being a part of being Christian. If someone else does not adopt these traditions, they can be looked upon as not fully Christian. It is the peculiar sin of the Pharisees.
The second type is those who have had a severe struggle to overcome major sin in their life to become Christian. Their sense of liberation and joy gives them an exuberance that others may not share because becoming Christian would not have been such a contrast for them. As it is sometimes expressed, they never knew a time when they were really not Christian. The peculiar temptation of those who have had a radical conversion experience is to assume that anyone who has not gone through a similar experience does not really know what it means to be Christian. They may also be tempted to believe that it was their personal effort that gave them victory and that they are therefore superior religiously to those who have never had to make such effort.
Illustrative Materials
1. Falling into a Ditch. I believe it was George Washington Carver who early made the discovery of the trap found in getting even with other persons. He found that if he fought with a bully and put him down in a ditch, he had to go there with him to do it.
2. Antidote to Intellectualism. A common observation is that the truly educated person is the one who knows how little she really knows. We may adapt that to say that the mature Christian is the one who knows how far she has yet to go to reach full perfection in Christ.
3. The Christian Teacher. The true Christian teacher is not one who says, "Do as I say" or "Do as I do." The Christian teacher says, "Do as Jesus said and did." This looks beyond self to Christ as the model for instruction in what it means to be a disciple.
4. The Influential Teacher. Two kinds of teachers have the most impact on their students. The first does so because students are so impressed by the teacher that they wish to emulate the teacher. The other so alienates the students because of disagreement that the student works doubly hard to demonstrate that the teacher is wrong! A professor I had admitted that he went to a seminary where he disagreed sharply with most of the Bible and theology faculty. He particularly disagreed with an Old Testament professor. He mastered the material with which he disagreed since he needed to pass the courses. He also went beyond so that he could defend his reasons for disagreeing. He felt he came out stronger than if he had gone to a seminary where he agreed with most teachings.
5. Advice to Leaders. The saying is that you better know where you are going for you might get there. Even worse, you may lead others there as well!
6. Building on the Rock. The Kauffmann family had a series of department stores in southwestern Pennsylvania. They wanted to build a summer home near Ohiopyle. They engaged Frank Lloyd Wright to design a house that would look over a stream. He helped them build a house that was anchored in a rock and cantilevered over the stream so that it seemed that they were hanging over the water. The house stands firmly and has become a tourist attraction since the family died. It is known as Falling Water.
