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Morning Worship - 11/8/09 - The Plain-Truth about Those Hiding in Plain-Sight
Mark 12:38-44
I'm struck by what Jesus notices.
Picture with me, for a moment, a beautiful trail around a small lake. It’s a trail you love to walk early in the morning.
One morning, you’re walking around the lake and you notice a soft drink can. It looked out of place, a piece of trash in such a glorious place. You were troubled that it was there. It made you stop. You stooped down and picked it up. You carried it with you for the rest of your walk.
Next morning, on your walk, you did not see any more soft drink cans, thrown so thoughtlessly on the trail. But you did, for the first, time notice other, smaller bits of trash like gum wrappers and candy bar wrappers. You picked these up. You were amazed at how much litter had been thrown along the way, marring the beauty of the tail along the lake.
The next morning you came better prepared for your task. You now had a small bag with you. You picked up the litter. Even though you had carefully looked yesterday, there was a surprising amount of trash today. You put it in the bag. You even found a newly thrown soft drink can, and you think, “The nerve of people!”
Thus began your morning practice of discovery and removal of the litter. Doing this every day, you are able to notice and to retrieve even the smallest bits of litter. Yet as you did so, you had disgust for those who were such slobs.
You began thinking about broadening the range of your work. You had cleaned up the trail along the lake. Perhaps you should go along the road leading to the lake. The opportunities to clean up the trash there were even better than along the lake.
Then one day, as you walked along the trail, with bag in hand, rather disappointed that you had made it all the way around the lake without finding even one piece of litter, a person passed you and said, "Have you ever seen such a sunrise as this morning?"
You had not noticed that there was a sunrise. You don't see a sunrise when you are looking down at your feet, searching for trash, rather than beholding a sunrise.
"And look at these roses!" said the person.
You had just worked the rose bushes. It's hard to see trash when it is thrown under a rose bush.
You learned this: It's easier to spot trash when you are looking for it. If you look for it, you'll find it. And it's difficult to see beauty when you are looking for trash.
I'm sure you know this is a parable and I'm sure that you get the point: Jesus was forever noticing people whom we overlook. The plain-truth is we overlook people in plain-sight who need the presence of Jesus. We don’t see them so we think they’re hiding when the real difficulty is we don’t see too good.
It’s been said that a Christian is a person who talks like Jesus talks, who does what Jesus does, and thinks like Jesus thinks. Now I'll add another characteristic: A Christian is someone who looks at people like Jesus looks at people. Jesus sees beauty, not trash.
I'm thinking of that widow who appears in this morning's Gospel. Jesus was forever noticing people whom we overlook but are hidden in plain-sight because we’re looking at or for something else. What we saw was all the affluent, prominent people and their large gifts that were being dropped in the offering plate. Ever notice news stories about buildings named for the folks who make a one-time gift of a half a million dollars? A half million dollars, though a lot of money, is just a tiny portion of their wealth. But we never name anything for a woman who, every week, gave ten percent of her entire income.
It’s like the time Jesus noticed the widow and said that her gift was more interesting and significant than the much larger gifts of the big givers at the temple that day. Jesus notices those kind of people.
It’s like the time in a big crowd of admirers, Jesus noticed the one afflicted woman who quietly touched the hem of his garment. His power went out to her.
It’s like the time Jesus began his ministry by recruiting people to be his disciples, to work with him, to do the same things that he was doing in the world. And whom did he call? He saw some people fishing. And he not only noticed them but also called them.
Jesus was at table one night, a guest of a Pharisee, a good Bible-believing, scripture-following believer. During the course of the meal, a "woman of the city" enters, a notorious "sinner." She throws herself at Jesus' feet, makes a scene as she pours sweet-smelling perfume all over his feet. This is too much for the Pharisee.
"If this man were a real prophet (that is, someone who can see real sin for what it is) he would have seen what sort of woman this is and would have responded to her accordingly," complained the Pharisee.
Jesus responded, "Do you see this woman? You showed me no such gratitude, but her sins, which are many, have been forgiven. So her gratitude, is great."
Like I said: I'm struck by what Jesus notices.
Maybe that's a gracious gift that Jesus gives us: The ability to see people whom we would not have seen without him.
Do you see the people Jesus sees? The people like little kids without warm coats playing in the yard. The people like the home-bound. The people like the husband and wife no one says ‘hi’ to in the grocery store. The people like those who gather for a Sunday Night meal at The Center of Hope. The people in our town who have a reputation of being talked about for all the wrong reasons but none of them criminal. The people who live with chronic, debilitating depression. The people whose marriage is aching. The list goes on and on.
Do you see the people Jesus sees? Please pray this prayer with me. It’s from the Upper Room book ‘Yours Are the Hands of Christ’:
Lord Jesus, I give you my eyes to see as you do. I give you my hands to do your work. I give you my feet to go your way. I give you my tongue to speak your words. I give you my mind that you may think in me. I give you my spirit that you may pray in me. Above all, I give you my heart that you may love in me . . . I give you my whole self that you may grow in me, so that it is you, Lord Jesus, who live and work and pray in me.
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