"She spent her whole life looking out the window." This sentence could be construed as a story in itself, undeserving of further clarification. This person would not be someone worth knowing. She has nothing to offer, no beauty or charm with which she can barter for others' time. This exact sentiment is put rather poetically to music in the Beatle's song "Eleanor Rigby". "Look at all the lonely people", one of which is apparently the woman for whom the song is named. "She lives in a dream. Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door. Who is it for?" This profoundly sad senario, where a woman who waits so patiently for connection with her fellow human beings and dies with no one to even attend her funeral, seems to be a social and political condemnation of the relevance and effectiveness of the church in our culture. If you don't want to have a futile and pointless life and then die alone, search for meaning outside the context of a message that has no personal application. Humanity has moved on. Christianity has been left behind. Stop holding on to it's teachings and look to us instead. Such are the values and prejudices of a christless world, alienated by an insulating miasma of pride and contempt for perceived weaknesses in others. They cannot see past what seems so obvious to them. It is a superficial understanding, offering only psuedosympathy to those who don't support their self aggrandizing agenda. Could it be possible, that a teaching so generally despised as weak, could have an astronomical value unappreciated by those who refuse to see it? Could their own fear of rejection be what is driving their dismissal of those who represent the gospel?
Humanity has a poor record indeed of correctly perceiving and assessing value. The embodiment of worth, Himself, "had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrow and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hid their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed Him not." (Isa 53:2&3) As our example, He came to wake us to the meanings hidden in plain sight, to the structure of purpose underlying the physical world. He provided us with some clarity of perspective on what is of eternal significance.
"God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wisdom of the wise." (1 Cor 1:27) The 'wise' philosophers of this world are the ones who truly have the futile existence, and follow a 'dead end' path. They aren't clued into what is really going on around them. Eternity is too large for their minds to grasp. Theirs is a colorless, one dimensional world.
This natural 'wisdom' has a value system diametrically opposed to Christ's. He, as the creator of the universe, sees more clearly and with total knowledge and understanding. Listen to what Christ values. He approves of the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those merciful, and those who are peacemakers. (Matt 5-10) Not exactly a list of the powerful and influential, is it? Yet these are the very ones who 'add flavor' by being "the salt of the earth" and 'color' by being "the light of the world". (Matt 5:13&14)
Which is to be preferred? The superficial or the profound? Can an illusion of self determination give satisfaction? Or is it better to open eyes to treasures of wisdom and understanding beyond price? It is an indictment of our spiritual blindness when we cannot see the shining jewel which is the person standing next to us. It is a trajedy of epic proportions when we do not feel the weight of honor bestowed upon us in any service we can perform for this earthly representative of our humble king.
1 comment:
It is a sad thing that this world tends to value people based on what they look like. And while the United States was founded on Christian principles, the things that we've most often valued (money, power, competitiveness, and beauty) are opposite of the teachings of Christ.
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