MARK 8:22-25
The other day during my eye exam, my optometrist said “Jeanne, have you ever
thought about getting progressive lenses?
“Do you mean bifocals?” I asked wrinkling my nose.
“Yes,” he said smiling. ”But progressives are different than the bifocals you are
probably thinking of.”
I remember the Sunday mom got her bifocals. She was playing the piano in church.
Throughout the service she kept cocking her head sideways to see the music. She
twisted her head at a particularly strange angle at one point, causing me to burst out
laughing. I also recall that this disruption of the “Lord’s Supper” earned me the rare
gold and copper batwing trifocal “death glare” from my grandma who was sitting at the
end of the pew.
Bifocal, trifocal, progressive…We all have lenses that we see the world through. We Disciples have a lot of lenses that are clear and working for us and some that aren’t. One lens that appears to be causing us trouble is our aversion to (and fear of) Evangelism.
I can hear grandma now. “We are Disciples. We are not ‘bible thumpers.’ Others people can tell I am a Christian. I don’t have to TALK about it”Many of us have done such a fine job of not talking about God’s movement in our lives that it has become a very well kept secret.
Unfortunately it’s also a secret from the communities we are called to serve. Jesus is calling us to something different. He is calling for us to intentionally move into our blind places and seek healing, forgiveness, reconciliation, and wholeness. God wants nothing more than to help us move from darkness and blindness, to fit us with new lenses so we can see “people that look like trees walking” and then to being able to discern clearly- with God-filled compassionate spiritual vision.
When we do that deep sight clearing Jesus led spiritual healing work as Disciples the excitement will be undeniable. You can’t hide the authentic, joyous, movement of the Holy Spirit. It starts pouring out the doors, and out the stained glass windows, and into the community itself. You’ll be able to hear it in our words, see it clearly on our faces- and in our eyes- and in our transformed lives.
One word of warning, though. Vision clearing requires journeying into the darkness- into the scary, joy filled, “Oh No! I am not wearing THOSE lenses!,” head twisting wilderness places. Such radical intentional journeying that fits us with new spiritual lenses will shake us up, shake us down, fill us with laughter, clear our vision, and likely even make us disruptive.
Chances are we might even get Holy Spirit filled and disruptive enough to earn a gold and copper batwing trifocal glare… When that happens we can rest assured we are becoming evangelists.
Prayer: God, help me get some new lenses. And be with me when I get clarity
about the great evangelical task you have in store for me.
Amen.
Jeanne Loveless is an ordained Disciples of Christ minister trained in
intentional interim ministry, living in Oakland