Vision check

Luke 9:46-50

          I work in a facility that might seem to thrive on the alphabet soup that appears after a persons name or title. The more letters, the more respect I suppose is due you.  You are judged perhaps more intelligent or have more responsibilities.  I know when I needed major surgery recently, one of the things I looked for was someone who was experienced and well educated. The translation might be this: a person with the most alphabet soup after their name. Still, an equally valuable skill is one who has a good bedside manner, is down to earth and can speak volumes in terms I can understand. 

There was someone I used to know quite well who practiced in the cancer field. She was brilliant at what she did and yet, had asked me at one time what day Thanksgiving was on.  Just to be clear, it was not the date, it was which day of the week it fell on. Brilliant at one thing and clueless on a practical matter that almost everyone else seems to grasp.

            The ways in which we judge each other runs  the gamut from the alphabet soup, the clothing one wears, the schools attended, the cars we drive or perhaps simply who we associate with or the neighborhood we live in or come from. How about what one does for a living or what religion one practices? Or that they don't believe at all.

          I would suggest that whatever we use as a basis for judgement, right or wrongly in your mind, take the absolute least person you could imagine and know that God views them as first. Quite an epiphany , eh?

          What we use as judgements is clearly not what God uses as a judgement.  In no matter what realm of life, Gods' view is not even close to what our view is. 

          The answer is not to convince God to see as we do. I am sure our 'vision' is not even close to the all encompassing and understanding view that God has. Among other things, our job in life is to try and align our vision with that of Gd, not the other way around. No matter how we justify our petty and misguided beliefs, ours is the poorer view.

          I am eagerly yet cautiously optimistic when I see Pope Francis trying to herd his faithful, both elite and 'ordinary' , into what is truly important and what beliefs and systems are essentially sinful. Our vision is not be aligned with a dogma per se or rubrics that are man made. Our vision and our completeness is to be found in trying to emulate the Christ and God, our loving and all embracing creator. 

      

An argument arose among them as to which one of them was the greatest. But Jesus, aware of their inner thoughts, took a little child and put it by his side, and said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me; for the least among all of you is the greatest.’

John answered, ‘Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not follow with us.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Do not stop him; for whoever is not against you is for you.’