Lift Up Thine Eyes

Take a good look at the picture below.

Don’t just scan – really look. Notice.



That’s “Lift Up Thine Eyes” by Norman Rockwell, published in 1969. The title is an adapted quote from Psalm 121:1-2 – “I will lift up mine eyes to the hills; from whence shall come my help? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.”

The title also appears on the little church sign at the front of the cathedral. This picture is a great example of the ironic spirit of a lot of Rockwell’s work, but this one is more serious than whimsical, or at least it seems so to me.

What did you notice about the picture? Which way were your eyes drawn? My guess is you first saw that horizontal line of people, then were drawn up into the opening of that great gothic arch, and finally followed that line of birds all the way up to the right corner of the painting. That my friends, is composition at work!

Did you notice the hunched and harried look of the passers-by? The spectacular tail-fin on that car? The apostles gathered in the alcoves?

My favorite thing about this picture is something that I DIDN’T notice till the third or fourth time I looked at it. The passers-by of course are not noticing the beauty around them, but they also are not noticing EACH OTHER. Most of them are looking at the next step they are about to take. The only people in the picture who are looking at each other are the minister and the man on the ladder, and the lady on her way down the steps, who at least has the potential to see the other people around her. We’ll come back to that.

This picture also reminds me of this song.

This was, according to the composer, Walt Disney’s favorite song. And it isn’t about birds. The line right before this song starts is “Some people can’t see past the end of their nose.” And again, not only is there a message about not noticing the beautiful cathedral, but about not noticing the people outside the cathedral, either. And how a very little bit can make a big difference to someone.

Now, a thought exercise. If you were to update Rockwell’s picture to the modern day, what would change? That great tailfin would be gone. The people’s clothes would different – all those great hats would disappear. And, as one of my youth astutely pointed out, there would be cell phones in all their hands and bluetooths in their ears. But would their posture be changed? Have all the technology and doo-dads that fill our lives really helped us notice one another, or are they just more sophisticated ways of NOT noticing what is actually around us?
And what would be unchanged, 40 years later? The face of the cathedral. Built to last, and with an enduring purpose – to remind people to lift up their eyes. Not just to scan, but to SEE, to NOTICE.

Richard Foster, in his classic “Celebration of Discipline,” lists “Study” as a discipline of the Christian life, and defines it like this: “Study is a specific kind of experience in which through careful attention to reality the mind is enabled to move in a certain direction.” He adds, “Remember, the mind will always take on an order conforming to the order upon which it concentrates.”

And this brings us back to the people in the picture, those who are not noticing each other and those who are. If we lift up our eyes and see, look at, and notice the things that endure, that inspire, that remind us of Another, we will then be in a better place to see, notice, and CARE about ONE ANOTHER – the people we don’t see when we are just looking at the next step in front of us.

There’s one more thing I love about this picture. The mighty counter-cultural weapon of the minister and his assistant is a black sign with those little white stick-on letters. In the shadow of a great gothic arch and surrounded by a great crowd of witnesses, they do the best they can with what they’ve got. And that’s ministry.

Beatitude Week - Day 4: The Mourners and the Meek

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

There are two basic categories for “hard teachings of Jesus.” There are the teachings that are hard to understand, and then there are the teachings that are easy to understand and hard to do. The first Beatitude – blessed are the poor in spirit – is one of the latter. Be humble. Got it Jesus – I’ll get right on that. The next two are little harder to make out at first glance.

We are still talking about blessings, right? What could it possibly mean to be blessed by mourning? And meek people are the quiet, shy, types, right? It seems unlikely that loud, powerful types will hand over the earth to them, doesn’t it?

Let’s start with “blessed are those who mourn.” What this does NOT mean is that spiritual people must be depressed and depressing people. The life of Jesus demonstrates this. His detractors accused him of being a drunkard and a glutton. But I think the life of Jesus also demonstrates what this means – to be present in the midst of and to be aware of the suffering around us. Mourning means not pretending that everything is ok when we know it isn’t, and not ignoring the suffering around us just because it doesn’t directly affect us.

I think this guy expresses well what that would could look like:

The terms of the promise here are important – they will be comforted. The consolation looked for is from God. And I don’t think it is a coincidence that one of the names for the Holy Spirit is “the Comforter.” The Power of God is active in the world to redeem and transform those things that cause us to mourn. Mourning doesn’t mean that we have to bear the burdens of the entire world ourselves. It means that we look to the One who gives true comfort, and work alongside Him, empowered by His Spirit, to do His will.

And what about the meek? This is one of those times that the English language and the Greek don’t match up so well. The meaning of the Greek word translated “meek” means “one who has power under control.” Meek does not mean weak. Meek means discerning the difference between having the ability to do something, and knowing whether it is right or wrong to do it. As Jeff Goldblum says in that great philosophical work of our times, Jurassic Park “You were so worried about whether you could do something that you never stopped to ask whether you should do it.”

So, read it again this way: “Blessed are those with their power under control, for they shall inherit the earth.” The patient, the faithful, the self-controlled, those who consider their actions based on the will of God and on the effect on others – they will inherit the earth. And I think Jesus has in mind here the redeemed earth of God’s new creation. The transformed earth that is - in fact as well as promise – the kingdom of God.

Another way to approach the idea of meekness, and one that has particular application for our society, is to submit ourselves to letting our actions speak for us, and letting God speak on our behalf. Here the power in question is the power of our speech, and that matches up pretty well with the traditional "quiet person" definition of meekness. Just because we can spend all our time justifying ourselves to others doesn't necessarily mean that we should. Who are we trying to impress? Richard Foster says in his great book on spiritual discipline: "We are so accustomed to relying on words to manage and control others. If we are silent, who will take control? God will take control, but we will never let him take control until we trust him."

A.W. Tozer puts it this way: "The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed. Think for yourself whether much of your sorrow has not arisen from someone speaking slightly of you. The heart's fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let the mind have rest. Such a burden as this is not necessary to bear. Jesus calls us to His rest, and meekness is His method. The meek has accepted God's estimate of his own life. In himself nothing, in God everything; that is his motto. As he walks on in meekness he will be happy to let God defend him."

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #22 - "Every careless word" - Matthew 12:36

“I say to you that people will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.” – Matthew 12:36

Well, yikes. This is one of those times that I hope that Jesus is kidding, or exaggerating for emphasis. Every careless word? That could take awhile…

I ran across this verse in of those “coincidental” occurrences that sometimes happen in life. I had been stewing over some words that were spoken to me recently. Have you ever had the experience of doing something you were proud of, and receiving a dozen or so compliments concerning that thing, and one negative or snarky comment? And which one sounds out over and over in your mind? Exactly – the negative one.

But running across this verse also reminded of the times I have said something I wished later that I could take back. And that’s just the careless words that I remember. It disturbs me sometimes to think that my careless words may have haunted people in the way others’ careless words have haunted me – causing doubt, anger, shame, or frustration.

The context in which Jesus speaks these words is also disturbing. He is condemning the Pharisees, those experts in external righteousness. He says two verses earlier, “Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.”

Richard Foster, in his introduction to the classic “Celebration of Discipline,” comments on this verse:

“It is not that we plan to be this way. We have no intention of exploding with anger or parading a sticky arrogance, but when we are with people, what we are comes out. Though we may try with all our might to hide these things, we are betrayed by our eyes, our tongue, our chin, our hands, our whole body language. Willpower has no defense against the careless word, the unguarded moment. The will has the same deficiency as the law – it can only deal with externals. It is incapable of bringing about the necessary transformation of the inner spirit.”

Foster is suggesting that the only way to eliminate the careless word is to make sure that your heart is overflowing with the fruits of the Spirit. And the only way to do that is present ourselves regularly – with discipline – before God and ask that he transform us from the inside out.

In other words, the only way to keep from being haunted by careless words, or haunting others with our words, is to be haunted by the Holy Ghost.