Biblical texts used:
Colossians 3:1-11
Luke 12:13-21
I have an iPhone!
This little device I keep in my pocket has everything on it, my calendar, my notes, the news. I even access the Book of Common Prayer and the Bible on this little thing. This is how I keep in touch with friends and relatives, through texting and phone calls, but mostly through Facebook.
I spend much of my time looking down at the tiny screen just so I can feel connected to the rest of the world. I use this little device to listen to music and watch clips that make me smile (who can pass up a laughing baby or a cat video). I also read comments and news stories, and watch reports that make me fume with frustration and weep with grief when I see the painful stones we throw at each other.
The language is appalling that someone can throw at a stranger because they are made uncomfortable by what they see or hear or read or simply because they disagree. Because of this little thing I hold in my hand we engage without consequence. We engage without engaging. We think we are looking at others when in reality we are focused on the reflection of ourselves. We find ways to escape into our own worlds, sit back in our own comfort and ignore what is out there.
I have heard it said recently that "the world is just getting worse and worse." I don't know if I can fully accept that statement. As a student of history and a student of scripture I can find evidence of mankind's capability to do horrible things to one another since the time of Cain and Abel. Not much has changed in content, only the mechanisms we use to carry it out. The difference lies in our constant connection to up-to-date information, which we always keep in front of our eyes. The veil of ignorance is slowly being removed and we are coming face to face with the ugliness that has always been behind the screen.
When everything becomes overwhelming, and painful, and scary, we can very easily find ourselves sucked into the madness. When we gaze on earthly things, with earthly eyes, we can only see in an earthly way. When we keep our gaze downward, we put on blinders and make ourselves oblivious to what is right with us the whole time.
My grandmother is a fountain of wisdom that I continually return to for refreshment and replenishment. When I was in college and would get overwhelmed with life, I would call her in the middle of the night and ask her to pray for me over the phone. One night she offered me some free advice that I will never forget. One simple little phrase that has stuck with me since that day, and has seen me through mountains of pain and distraction. It wasn't until this weekend that I realized she was telling me the same thing Paul is telling the Colossians and the same thing Jesus is telling the two brothers in the gospel. That simple little phrase was this:
Always Look Up!
At first I didn't fully understand. I though I was meant to hold my head high and pretend like nothing was wrong. All that did was bring the focus back on me because it caused me to hide the truth deep inside. It also doesn't me standing in the singing stand and smiling like nothing is wrong simply because you are gazing on heaven above.
If there is anything that we have learned from Jesus, it is that the realm of man and the realm of God have become one in him. Jesus suffered the same pains and tragedies that we face. He suffered as we suffer, event o go so far as to suffer death on a cross. He was tempted as we are tempted, and buried his face in his hands in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane as he prayed the cup of responsibility to be taken from him. But Jesus knew to always look up.
Paul was beaten nearly to death, cursed, burned, poisoned, and shipwrecked, and stoned. He could have hung his head and cursed God and cursed the world, be he knew to always look up.
You see, when I keep this in mind I am forced to lift my gaze, to raise my eyes. In the process of lifting my eyes from my news feed or my despair, and moving them toward my Father in Heaven, something always causes me to take pause in the middle. It is you. In that space between heaven and earth I gaze into the faces of Brothers and Sisters.
As Jesus raised his gaze toward heaven, he was looking on those he loved. Looking into the eyes of his children he was given the strength to keep his gaze forward, so to lead him to the cross and to give up his life for his friends.
As Paul lifted his eyes he was drawn to the death of Christ on the cross. In that death he died to himself and was able to see the world from the vantage of Christ, to see the world with the love of Christ.
When you take the position to always look up, God will affect your vision. This is one of those great paradoxical positions. We must look up and think on heavenly things, in order to look down and out and see what is truly important. We will then see what troubles and moves the heart of God, and allow our hearts to also be troubled and moved by those same things.
In the parable in today's Gospel, Jesus gives us a picture of one whose gaze is down and whose thoughts are on himself. The "rich fool" is focused on what he has. If he had an iPhone, it would probably have bank statements and rolling grain totals. After the harvest, the rich man realizes he has had a bumper crop. There is so much produced that he doesn't have room to store what he has taken in, but he is still looking at earthly things with earthly eyes and seeing in an earthly way. So he decides to tear down his old barns and build newer, bigger ones, still keeping all the product for his own wealth and being contented to sit back in the comfort of his own bounty. That night he dies and does not get to enjoy anything he has attained or accumulated.
If he would have taken a moment to lift his yes, to look to heaven for a change of vision, his gaze would also have paused on the way. He would have seen his neighbors, his brothers and sisters. He would have seen the peasants gleaning his field for whatever measly scrap might be left. He would have seen the opportunity to gather together with his neighbors in need and share in love. The kind of love God shares with all of us.
In the 1940's, 50's and 60's, there was a Baptist theologian named Clarence Jordan. After seeing the plight of the poor in Louisville, Kentucky during seminary, and being moved by the radical community life of the first followers of The Way in the book of Acts, Jordan moved to Americus, Georgia. There, he and his wife and a few friends established Koinonia Farm. The farm was a space free of racial and economic divide, and presented a social experiment where all the residents would live in true apostolic community, owning nothing as individuals, and always working for each other in the love of God. The fame and infamy of the farm grew attracting the welcomed attention of Martin Luther King Jr. and Dorothy Day, as well as the unwelcome reactions of the KKK.
One day in 1965, Jordan had some visitors. A very wealthy businessman and his wife drove all the way from Birmingham, Alabama to spend a few hours with Mr. Jordan and talk about the work he was doing in Americus. When the man approached Jordan, he was told that he was too busy to talk at the moment, but he was more than welcome to stay for dinner and accompany him to the barns. Dinner came and went and they still had not broached the topics the gentleman wished to discuss, so Jordan convinced him and his wife to stay the night and join them for worship the next day.
After the twenty-four hour trip, the man had learned to look up. In doing so he had to take pause as he looked upon the real kingdom of God all around him and he witnessed the love of God in action on a small farm in south Georgia. The man returned to Alabama and liquidated most of his wealth. He then started a foundation based on the ideas he learned from Clarence Jordan and moved his family to Americus. That man was Millard Fuller, and the foundation is known today as Habitat for Humanity.
Where the things of this world, greed, hatred, idolatry, covetousness, anger, only serve to tear us apart and we end up losing all we think we have gained, the love and charity of God brings us together. When we look at each other through the eyes of God and gather together, God stands in the midst of us and shows us how just how to reveal His Kingdom on earth. All we have to do is take the initiative and practice that simple phrase: Always Look Up!
