Hebrews 11:29-12:2 Luke 12:49-56
In the well-known story by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince falls from his far away planet in the sky down to earth. He wanders the earth in search of meaning, and in his wanderings, he encounters a fox. There’s something charismatic about this fox that draws the prince in. He wants to play with him. But the fox tells the prince to be careful, to not get too close. “I’m not tame,” he says.
We could say the same thing about Jesus in this passage from Luke. Don’t play with him. He’s not tame. He wants to bring a fire to the earth. He will divide households, three against two, and two against three; father against son, and son against father. He speaks with anger and impatience as though he wants to get out of this place and go back to the planet from which he came. This little prince, right now at this moment, is so done with the planet earth and all its inhabitants.
It’s very disturbing for readers. But, in fairness, there has been a lot going on. Go back a couple of chapters and see the increasing intensity, the mounting sense of urgency surrounding Jesus. The Pharisees are ramping up their surveillance, anxiously waiting for him to slip up. The crowds who have been following him are growing in numbers, to the point now where they are trampling one another to get nearer to him. It is all too close, it is all too menacing, and now Jesus speaks with an intensity we haven’t seen before.
There is no longer time for subtlety. And the things he says are puzzling, hurtful to us; hard for us to hear. Dividing households against one another? How could that be true? It isn’t nice.
This is not “nice” Jesus now. And if you asked me why, I could tell you that it’s because he was under so much pressure at the time. And that he otherwise wouldn’t have said such unkind things. And that we should forgive him.
Indeed, we should forgive. But should we dismiss these words because they were said under pressure? because they sound angry?
Sometimes, when the pressure is on, the truth is released.
And sometimes the truth is hard to hear. or see.
So we rest today on the pillar of seeing. Faith sees in a very special way, and it is essential that we learn to see in faith if we are to make any progress on our journey.
Returning to the 11th chapter of Hebrews, we look again at the people of faith, and the actions that made them so memorable. Somehow, each one of them had the vision to move forward toward the “something better” that God had promised; the better country that God had shown them.
How does faith see? Not by ordinary means.
Something we should know about these heroes in the Hebrews roll call of faith is that they were all a little odd. They saw things others didn’t see, heard things others didn’t hear. By the grace of God, they were all open to seeing and hearing and sensing in new and different ways.
The same is true still today. We might think we got it all figured out. But the life of faith still demands that we remain open to seeing and hearing and sensing in new and different ways. In other words, we, too, need to be a little odd.
Don’t be disturbed by this. the oddness. It’s just the willingness to dip a toe in the mystery that is always in this world but we often don’t see. The willingness to engage in the act of wonder a little more often, something we tend to leave behind with childhood. To engage with a passage of scripture, saying, “I wonder…” Like, I wonder why Jesus told the people that he came to bring not peace, but division.
To just wonder. Resist the rush to judgment. Rest in that unknowing.
To wonder about the world and all who live in it. This is important on the journey of faith.
It is what we do with people we love. We wonder about them – their habits, their likes and dislikes, their special gifts and their particular weaknesses. We are always open to learning something new about the people we love. Always – because they are worth it.
Think about the individuals who are closest to you. You get to know them. You see them, warts and all. It’s not always beautiful. But you say, “She may be a weirdo but she’s my weirdo.” We can do that with people we love because we see them with the heart.
With those we love it begins with wonder. And that leads to loving, caring, and learning to see them with the eyes of the heart.
You wonder, you resist judging, you want to know more. and the next thing you know, the one you wondered about has become special to you. all through the eyes of the heart.
That fox, the one who was not tame, said something like this to the Little Prince. “One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.” The prince memorized his words, and carried this bit of wisdom with him. Gradually, he began to notice the truth of it. There are hidden treasures everywhere, seen through the eyes of the heart.
And here is the gift hidden in the fox’s secret: once you have had that special relationship with some person, you have the ability to see every person through those eyes. It is possible to love all of humanity if you have had the gift of loving one particular person. And seeing them as God sees them – seeing with the heart – this is what it is to see in faith.
It takes a little bit of imagination. And love.
In our Presbyterian ordination vows for ministers, elders, and deacons, we are asked to lead the church with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love. Sometimes we behave as though we have only promised to lead with energy, or maybe just energy and intelligence. But there are important things you cannot accomplish just by applying more energy to it, or more intellect to it. Imagination opens our minds to see new and different things. Love is what then lets it in.
And so, let us wonder about this passage from Luke. And these impatient and angry words of Jesus, calling on us to interpret the signs. The signs of the time are all around us, Friends. We see division – not peace; division in our civic life that causes us to blame and fear and even hate other people with an irrational exuberance. We must see this. Jesus will not let us pretend it isn’t there.
How shall we respond to the signs? Through the eyes of the heart. Wondering. Resisting the urge to judge. Sometimes resting in the unknowing. This is how faith sees, and leads us to that better land.
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Photo: Illustration from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
