A Human Point of View

Sermon for the 4th Sunday in Lent (RCL Year C), offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Joshua 5:9-12; Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

“We regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.”

My friends, our lessons today point the way to a paradigm of life that is so vastly different from the one in which we live. Changing our paradigms for life is what Lent is all about, and so it seems fitting today for us to reflect together upon the dark realities of hatred, prejudice, and fear and upon the contrasting vision of life that Jesus brings.

It is a sad fact that prejudice is one of the most predictable patterns of any human community, and indeed one of the most common attitudes of the average human being. Our own nation is struggling to find ways to overcome the legacy of 400 years of systematic racial and ethnic discrimination, but it is not unique to this land. In Africa even today, dominant tribes abuse and discriminate against weaker neighboring tribes. In Europe, distrust of foreign workers from Arabic lands and the Middle East is a growing and widespread problem. All of us here have been educated recently on the depth of distrust and resentment between the Sunni and Shiite branches of Islam in the Middle East.

All of this is part of the human point of view to which Paul is referring. This point of view sees difference as threat and the other as a danger.

In his earthly ministry, Jesus was relentless is undermining and subverting this human point of view. This parable of the prodigal son, as it is commonly called, is one example of his intention to teach his listeners a different way of seeing reality.

Only Luke’s gospel records this amazing story which intends to turn the established order of righteousness on its head. The original weight and force of this parable is not found in the actions and attitudes of the prodigal son. It is found in the reactions of the older son and the father.

Just look at the context. The grumbling scribes and Pharisees are the older brother. Jesus has the position of the father, and the tax collectors and sinners are the younger brother. The ones on the inside – the Pharisees, the hard-working brother – can easily point to the many flaws of the outsiders. They are obvious for all to see.

And to be fair and honest, I can relate in some ways to the feeling of the scribes and Pharisees, the attitude of the older brother. It is not easy for me to sympathize with those who are reaping the consequences of poor decisions.

It seems like every winter we hear about groups of mountain climbers who get lost in bad weather and need to be rescued. Last month I heard about a climber who fell into the crater of Mt. St. Helens because he was standing near the lip peering in and the snow gave way under him. I confess that I become incensed when I think about the millions of taxpayer dollars spent on these search-and-rescue operations when anyone with a brain would know not to climb in the mountains in winter! Why should we have to spend our money and to risk more lives in order to save people who are stupid?

But…then I think about the older brother, and about Jesus’ warning to the scribes and Pharisees, and about the dangers of a hardened heart.

It is very easy to focus upon that which divides us from others, to dwell upon the us-versus-them mentality. It is very easy for us humans, isn’t it? It seems almost natural, like second nature to distrust the other, the outsider.

But Jesus teaches us that this path leads to pain and suffering. Listen, please: It is one of God’s goals for your life that you finally reach a point where you see every single woman as your sister, and every single man as your brother. Every single one, without distinction or exception!

Not that it’s so easy to live this way! But this why the Holy Spirit is continuing to train us in this way of life.

In 1979 in Nicaragua, during the Revolution against the brutal military dictatorship of General Somoza, Tomás Borge was one of the revolutionary leaders of the people who was captured by the military and thrown into a dungeon. There he was chained to a wall and tortured. He was forced to watch as the soldiers dragged his wife into the dungeon, violated her physically, and then murdered her. The soldiers later castrated Borge as a way to humiliate him and to break his spirit.

But, thanks be to God, justice prevailed and the people’s revolution succeeded and Borge was finally freed. He was paraded by cheering crowds through the streets of Managua as a true hero of the nation. But as he marched along, Borge saw in the crowd the face of one of his captor’s, one of the men who had killed his wife.

So Borge broke ranks with the parade and ran over to this man. He grabbed his former captor by the shoulders, shook him and yelled, “Do you remember me? Do you remember me?” This man trembled with fear, fearing for his own life now, and he pretended that he had never seen Borge before. But Tomás Borge persisted and said to him, “I will never forget your face! I will never forget it!” And he asked, “Now do you understand what this revolution is all about?”

That very frightened and confused man could only answer weakly, “Yes.Yes”, all the while hoping and praying to avoid the obvious retaliation for what he had done. But Borge responded, “No! You don’t understand what this revolution is all about!” Then Borge embraced the man and shouted out, “I forgive you! I forgive you! That’s what this revolution is all about!”

Not only in Nicaragua, but everywhere, at all times and in all places: that is what the revolution of Jesus Christ is all about! “We regard no one from a human point of view.” Do you realize how revolutionary this statement is? Can you imagine with me for a moment what our world would be like if the human point of view was consistently replaced by God’s point of view? Can you imagine a world where forgiveness of wrongs is the instinctual response of the average human being rather than the desire for revenge?

Recently, a friend told me of his father’s secretary who was cut off while driving by a pick-up truck. In frustration, she made an obscene hand gesture. The driver of the truck saw this, stopped his vehicle, walked over to hers, tapped on her window, and when she rolled it down, he knocked her in the face and broke her nose! Just like that!

Don’t fool yourself, my friends. This is the kind of world we live in. Anger and violence are all around. Forgiveness and reconciliation are in fact a very rare commodity.

But, my friends, the good news is this: God has a plan to change the world!

“If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” In Jesus Christ, we average human beings are immersed into a brand new reality called the kingdom of God. Jesus teaches us how to live a full, joyous and abundant life through the ministry of reconciliation. And the Holy Spirit empowers us to grow in grace and love. This is what it means to become the righteousness of God. One heart, one soul at a time – God is doing away with the human point of view. I pray that you will know what it means to sign up and join in this revolution. Amen.

No Longer in That Way

Sermon for Proper 6 (RCL - B)
Offered by Nathan Ferrell at Red Bank National Battlefield Park
(HS, Bellmawr & St. Luke’s, Westville Annual Picnic)

Texts: 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13; Psalm 20; 2 Corinthians 5:6-10,14-17; Mark 4:26-34

My friends, today our Lord presents us with a choice to make, a path to choose. There are two options. We can continue in our old, habitual, customary ways of looking at other people. Or we can look at people with the eyes of the Holy Spirit.

Do you remember our reading from the First Book of Samuel? God teaches old Samuel to not look at the outward appearance of a person. The Lord does not see the skin, the hair. The Lord looks at the heart.

And then we are given those beautiful words from St. Paul. “From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view.” The words here literally translate as “to know someone in the flesh”. To know someone kata sarka = by the flesh.
To talk about knowing someone from a human point of view is too vague, I think. A better translation is to say something like, “to view someone on the basis of my personal experiences.” That’s a little cumbersome, but I think it’s better.
J.B. Phillips said it this way: “our knowledge of others can no longer be based on their outward lives.”

Well, what does this mean to regard someone from a human point of view? I want some answers. We’re out here in the park – it’s an informal setting. What do you think this means? Let’s have some ideas, some concrete examples.

OK. So what’s the alternative? To see the heart of the other, to view someone through the eyes of the Spirit, to know the other as a new creation in Christ.

What would it be like if we actually lived this out? If we actually regarded no one anymore from a human point of view, solely on the basis of our past experiences?

Let’s use our sanctified imagination for a moment and just imagine what it would be like to have this kind of worldview. How would your life be different?


God's plan is for us to have the ability, and the desire, to see beyond, to look deeper than the surface level.

For me, I see a connection here with the wearing of my seat belt. Every single time I drive in an automobile, I wear a seat belt. By the grace of God, this is not because of the past. I have never been in an accident where the seat belt has saved me. I wear my seat belt because of the future, because of the possible accident that waits around the bend in the road. I wear it not because of what has been in my past, but because of what could be in my future.

This, I believe, is like the change of perspective that Jesus came to bring to us! By the grace of God, we can look at other people not on the basis of what has been in their past, but on the basis of what they could be in the future. In God’s glorious future, they could be changed into beings of unspeakable glory.

We human beings have a curious habit of judging people solely on the basis of our own personal experiences and of their outward appearances.

In our painting business, we had a customer recently who exemplifies this well. Many of our painters are Turks, for there is a huge community of Turkish painters in the Cinnaminson-Delran-Burlington area. And, as with any other group of people, some of them are really good painters and some aren’t quite so skilled.

Well, on this particular job, I met with the couple after we finished painting their exterior, because they had a punch-list of a few things they wanted us to fix and clean. We met on Saturday afternoon, and we agreed that me and my crew of Turks would be back on Tuesday to finish these items. Well, on Monday, the husband called me and said, “Look, let’s talk man-to-man. I know your guys. I used to live in Delran where they are. They’re sloppy, they angry, they don’t like Americans, they don’t care about anything. And I don’t trust them coming onto my property at all.”

I couldn’t believe that he had the nerve to speak to me in that way. I know my guys, and these two painters are great guys, very respectful. They both have gone through the effort of becoming American citizens. One has a brand new baby. This fellow had no idea what he was talking about. But, do you see how it happened? I do not know any details at all, but obviously he had had some bad experience in his past with Turkish people. And on the basis of this alone, he boldly passed his judgment upon me and my painters, without knowing anything about us at all.

Judging according to the flesh, according to our own limited personal experiences.

The desert fathers spoke much about the dangers of judging others. It is one of the primary ways that we stray from the spiritual way of life. Once a brother came to Abbot Poemen seeking advice and he said: “What ought I to do, Father? I am in great sadness.” The elder said to him: “Never despise anyone, never condemn anyone, never speak evil of anyone, and the Lord will give you peace.”

Do you want to have deep and abiding peace in your life? This is a good place to start. Despise no one, condemn no one, and speak evil of no one, and the Lord will give you peace.

Because do you know what happens? When I begin to think about the evil that someone has done, when I begin to stew about how rotten they are, or when I am quick to pass judgment, then I quickly stop watching myself. I stop paying attention to my own faults. And at the end of the day, what the Lord is trying to teach us is really quite simple and profound, but we stumble over it so often. The teaching is this: we cannot control anyone else. The only one we can control is ourselves. And just to do this is a full-time job! Just to go about the job of reforming ourselves, changing ourselves one step at a time until we bear the likeness of Jesus Christ more and more every day- this takes all of the time that God has given us on this earth.

In Christ, the past is gone. The old has passed away; everything is in the process of becoming new. You and I – we may not look like too much on the outside. Our past may not be full of blazing signs of holiness. But God is doing something in us. God is changing us. God is making us into something beautiful. We are new creations in Christ, and one day we will even look like it!

In the meantime, we can make a choice to deal with others, not as they look today, but as they could be in God’s glorious future. Not only is this the truth about others – that God has the final say about who they are – but it is also a better, richer and fuller way for us to live this life.

Thanks be to God that we are given such clear guidance about how to live together into the fullness of life available in Christ. Amen.