Pages

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Sermon on the Mount 14: Seeing is Believing

Scripture: Matthew 6:22-23

Focus: Healthy eyes

Reflection: The images of the world get into a person through the eye. Two little holes situated in the head of a person. The eyes allow for massive amounts of information to enter into a person for processing. If there is something wrong with the eye, then there is going to be trouble with gathering the information accurately.

If the eye is unhealthy and does not allow for a clear image to pass though, then the images are distorted. The images received will not represent the images observed. How that image gets processed will be based not on what was actually observed, but by the faultiness of the instrument of observation.

An eye may be faulty on its own, by nature. Also, an eye may be faulty by intention. The eye may have a filter placed on it, or even be trained to act as a filter. It may gather information in such a way as to have an auto-interpretation on it. This observation always means that. There is no processing. Because of the filter, the processing has been accomplish prior to the observation. It would be impossible to attach any alternative meaning to an observation when the instrument for gathering information also pre-determines meaning.

There is light in this world. The eye can let it in. However, if the filter of the eye is darkened, nothing will look like light, even light itself.

This scripture is about honesty and the power of interpretation. It is about how people are able to access goodness and how they do or do not, even when the goodness is readily available to them.

Honest eyes do not always bring comfort, but they do see light. There is darkness in the world just as there is light. However, this is not about what exists in the world as much as it is what exists in the heart once the person experiences a piece of the world. Were the whole world light, it would not matter to one whose eyes are dark. Were the whole world dark, it would not matter to the one whose eyes are light. The main point of this scripture may be honesty, but it may be something else. Honesty may be biased.

huh?

Well, if God is good and powerful and loving and also allows for free will and also promises redemption (sooner or later) for all the pain and suffering in the world – and actually has the strength to pull that one off, then honesty does not see good and evil as equals or light and dark as equally distributed. Honesty is not the same as an agnostic, not knowing stance, giving every thing equal weight. If the world is rigged toward God, then honesty would be have to be biased toward God as well. A healthy eye would see light and not darkness.

No comments: