THE CALL TO SHARE CHRIST'S PERPECTIVE

Sermon delivered on Sexagesima Sunday, the 7th February 2010 by Fr Nicholas JG Sykes in the congregation of St. Alban's Church of England, George Town, Cayman Islands in the service of the Holy Eucharist.

Scriptures:            Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-end             Revelation 4                 Luke 8: 22-25

 St.  Luke 8:25: When Jesus had been woken and had calmed the raging storm with a command, He said to His disciples, “Where is your faith?”

 THE OBSERVER’S PERSPECTIVE

One of the most interesting considerations both in works of art and in human relationships is that of perspective.  Graphical perspective may be defined and developed mathematically.  An artist will draw or paint a scene not only considering the subject matter of the scene itself, but also taking into account the position of the observer of the scene.  If he relocates the observer, the whole balance of the painting needs to be altered.  And one of the interesting things about the pastoral ministry too is the perspective of any person making an observation.  One has to take into account what the person has said and what perspective is being applied to the observation.  Where is the person “coming from” (as we say)?  It’s very important because one observer’s perspective is different from another’s.  It may be very different from the perspective of somebody the observer is talking about.  In my pastoral role I cannot afford to adopt unthinkingly anybody else’s perspective.  I have to address at depth the issue of what my own perspective on the matter ought to be, rather than signing on to anyone else's.

 

PERSPECTIVES IN KOINONIA

Human relationships in general are continually being affected by issues of perspective.  Two witnesses to the same scene will interpret it in very different ways.  Secularists and those of a Christian mind can battle out issues like two trains running past one another on different tracks. It is common for husbands and wives to find that issues of perspective cause arguments. So we have to seek to understand not just the truth of some matter objectively, but also to get into the mind and perspective of whoever is observing it, including someone who may adopt an adversarial position toward us.  Indeed it is an important element of the koinonia or communion (or fellowship) of the Church herself that we seek to be made aware of the perspectives of our fellow-communicants, and be helped by them, in our quest for our own grace-filled perspective on any matter.  Active fellowship involves a certain cross-fertilisation of perspectives, for which we should seek neither to conceal our own viewpoint nor to impose it through oppressive domination.

 

THE LORD’S PERSPECTIVE

I consider that a most interesting and instructive study can be made of our Lord’s own perspective as revealed in His words to His relatives and friends.  When Mary and Joseph searched for Him in Jerusalem He asked “How is it that you sought Me?  Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s House, or, about my Father's business?” Jesus often expresses surprise and I think pain that those He loves do not seem to share His perspective.  We should reflect too, that when we speak of Jesus’ perspective or viewpoint, we are not merely thinking of one human viewpoint among many.  Admitting Jesus to be the Son of God, we must come to see His perspective as a guiding perspective that judges and discerns the adequacy of our own.  In the Gospel today we see the Lord having been woken in the storm-tossed boat by His frightened disciples and surprising them by an exercise of authority over the elements.  In His rather pained way He then asked His disciples, “Where is your faith?” We might ask what He would have to be pained about.  Wouldn’t it be the obvious thing to do to wake Him up when the boat was sinking?  I suppose that what pained Jesus was the implication that His presence, even sleeping, did not give them any assurance.  They should have known, and we ought to know too, that in His Presence all will be well and no harm can overcome us.  It was not wrong for them to have woken Him, but for all that their boat seemed to be sinking, they ought not to have been in terror.  Jesus’ perspective I suppose included the insight that His “time had not yet come” for His redemptive dying.  Until then they should know His presence to be a protecting one for them.  With Jesus, it is a matter for our understanding and identifying with His perspective, and not at all a matter for His understanding and identifying with ours.  For in a way that none other can claim, His view-point is the right and true one that judges and saves our own.  When the Lord declines to “understand” us, as we might crave for Him to do, that is for our salvation too.

 

THE LONGER AND GREATER VIEW

Consider, too, that our Lord’s perspective includes, in a manner beyond our own understanding, that of Genesis and Revelation, our other two Biblical Lessons today.  By the agency of the Son of God the world was formed and man was brought into being.  The Lord must understand all things from a longer and superior perspective than ours.  From Genesis, we discern that the only-Begotten Son of God knows our capacity for ordering our human relationships and our relationships with the non-human world, as well as our fallenness from His intentions, and His call to rescue us.  And He who slept in the boat had a transfiguring knowledge too of such things as St. John the Divine spoke about in our second Lesson.  In a way we cannot fathom, His perspective included a knowledge of the Throne set in Heaven, and the One seated there, surrounded by worshipping elders and the four living creatures giving glory and honour and thanks.  Perhaps at the very moment He was being woken by His terror-struck friends, His mind and heart were with the 24 elders casting their crowns before the Throne of God and singing, “Worthy art Thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power; for Thou didst create all things, and by Thy will they existed and were created.” Fear of earthly storm would hardly have been consistent with such a perspective.

 

SHARING HIS PERSPECTIVE

As stones in the Living Temple of Christ, we, then, are called to share Christ’s perspective and renounce the fear that any circumstance of our life can challenge the Lord’s authority and charge, for as long as we place ourselves trustfully in His hands.  What are our most persistent fears?  What is the shape and the character of the storm that could sink our boat?  Is it loneliness, being misunderstood privately or pilloried publicly, the frailties of old age, poverty or sickness or disability?  Is it a fear of mishap on the road or in the air?  What do we find most threatening?  Remember that the Lord does not share our perspective about it.  We are called to share His, who has authority over all things, the Lord of the beginning of all things, and the Lord of the end.

 

BIBLE STUDY QUESTIONS

 

1.                  What do 1 Corinthians 12 and 13 have to teach us about human perspectives and the communion of the Body of Christ?

 

2.                  If Jesus was pained by those He loved not sharing His perspectives, what implication does this have for His people in the Church today?  Cf.  Acts 9:4,5.  Can we identify any hurt due to wrong perspective we have inflicted on Him, and what can we do about it?

 

3.                  How can sharing the Lord’s perspective help us with some persistent fear or difficulty that may be troubling us?  What exercise might we undertake to see progress in this?