See as Christ Sees: Cultivating a Life of Attention

The holy Gospel according to Matthew, the 21st chapter.

Glory to you, O Lord. When Jesus entered

the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came

to him as he was teaching and said,

by what authority are you doing these things,

and who gave you this authority? Jesus said

to them, I will also ask you

one question. If you tell me the answer,

then I will also tell you by what authority I do these

things. Did the baptism of John come

from heaven, or was it of human origin?

And they argued with one another, if we say from

heaven, he will say to us, why then did

you not believe him? But if we say human

origin, we are afraid of the crowd, for all regard

John as a prophet. So they answered

Jesus, we do not know. And he

said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority

I am doing these things.

What do you think? A man had 2 sons.

He went to the first and said, Son, go and work in

the vineyard today. He answered,

I will not, but later he changed

his mind and went. The father went to the second

and said the same, and he answered,

I go, sir, but he did not go.

Which of the two did the will of his

Father? They said,

the first. Jesus said to them,

truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes

are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.

For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe

him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed

him. And even after you saw it, you did not change your

minds and believe him.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ. You may be seated.

Let us pray.

God of grace, In the midst of all that fills our

minds and claims our attention,

draw us back to you.

Open our eyes to your presence, open our

hearts to your word, open our

lives to one another. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen. This is

a different Sunday for us.

As I mentioned earlier,

we are here worshiping in the sanctuary. Some of our brothers

and sisters are worshiping at the lake, and then there are those who

are joining us online. And for

a congregation that normally worships online

or on the same campus, Hearing the same sermon being

in several places sometimes feels a

little strange. We are accustomed

to looking around on Sunday morning and seeing familiar faces.

We know who usually sits where.

We notice when someone is missing.

We notice when someone is sitting in a different pew.

We notice when there are guests sitting among us.

But today some of the people we expect to see

aren't here. We will miss them,

but we know they'll be back.

With this thought in our mind, it makes for

an especially good Sunday to hear Paul's words

from Philippians chapter 2 because Paul is writing

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

to a congregation about what it means to

live together as the body of Christ.

He is not talking about being in the same room,

he is talking about a way of being

together even when the circumstances are

different. Listen again to

verse 3,

do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit,

but in humility regard others as

better than yourselves.

Paul then goes on to say something even

more remarkable than that. Let the same

mind of Christ be— let the same mind be

in you that was in Christ Jesus.

Paul is not asking them to pass a theology exam,

he is calling them to a radical new

way of looking at the world,

a new way of seeing.

Sandwiched between those 2 instructions,

Paul says, let each of you look not

to your own interest, but to the interest

of others.

So I began to wonder, what if

having the mind of Christ is in

part about a way of

paying attention? What if

it means learning to see what Jesus sees?

Because before we can engage with

another person, before we can respond

to another person's need,

Before we can love another person as well as we love

ourselves, we have to notice them.

Look, pay attention,

notice. Those words raise

a surprisingly important spiritual question.

What and whom have I trained

myself to notice?

We are surrounded by people every day, but we don't

actually see everyone.

Generally, we notice what demands

our attention. We notice

what interests us.

We notice who irritates

us. We notice what

affects us personally. And enormous

forces are competing for our attention every

day. Our phones want our attention, the news

wants our attention, advertising wants our attention,

Our schedules need our attention,

our worries nag our attention, and sometimes

our own concerns can take up so much of

our attention that we hardly notice the people who

are right in front of us.

Perhaps one of the spiritual practices of the Christian life

is simply this: Learning

to pay attention,

because attention is more important than

we sometimes realize.

To pay attention to another person is one of the simplest ways of

saying, you matter.

Think about what happens when someone really listens

to you. They remember

something helpful you said 6 weeks

ago, or they remember a trip you took and

ask you about it.

They may notice that you are quieter than usual or seem

concerned about something. They notice

when you are not at church. And they

notice when you are.

All those things seem small,

but they are actually acts of love.

One of the loneliest experiences in life is

to feel unnoticed.

No one remembers. No one calls,

no one sees,

no one asks. And when we think

about how other people might feel, this little phrase

from Philippians becomes rather profound: Look

not to your own interest, but to the interest of others.

Paul is not saying do

more things for other people.

He is talking about a way of orienting

our attention, a way of moving through

the world and truly seeing the people

around us as Christ

sees them.

One of the things we discover about Jesus in

the gospel stories is that Jesus was remarkably

good at noticing people.

Think about Zacchaeus.

Everyone else sees a despised

tax collector,

Jesus sees a person.

Jesus notices the woman who reaches out

and touches the fringe of his garment in

the middle of a crowd.

Others see an outcast,

someone considered unclean.

Jesus sees her.

Jesus notices children whom others are trying

to keep away. Jesus sees hungry people,

sick people, grieving people again

and again. Jesus pays attention to

the people at the edges,

people others have already dismissed,

people who don't seem important, people about

whom everyone else has already

made up their minds as to who they

are or what is wrong with them.

Jesus sees what other people have learned or chosen not

to see. That is part

of what makes Jesus' way of living so different from

ours, and I believe that

it is part of what Paul means when he

tells us to have the same mind that

was in Christ Jesus.

Not only be humble as Christ

was humble, but change

what you look at, change what

you notice,

change how you see, and eventually your

way of being will change.

For when we do this, we will see differently

as Christ sees, we will notice differently,

we will pay attention differently,

because what we repeatedly pay attention

to eventually shapes us.

Think about it. If our attention is

repeatedly focused on what is wrong,

we can become people who see only what is wrong.

If our attention is focused primarily on our

own needs, we can gradually

become less capable seeing the

needs of others. What we

pay attention to not only shapes what we

see but who we become.

But if we deliberately learn to notice people,

especially people we might otherwise overlook,

we begin to develop a the mind of

Christ. And that brings us as

individuals to this congregation.

What does it mean for us as

a congregation to have the mind of Christ?

We, like all churches, ask,

how can we grow? How can we attract

more people, or what programs should we be doing?

Those are all very necessary questions,

but maybe there is another question also

worth asking: What

if we simply became better?

Noticing. Who might we notice? What might

we notice? Where might we notice?

The person who has been coming for weeks but still

does not know anyone's name?

The person who doesn't come anymore because

getting here is has become too difficult.

Maybe we begin to notice the exhausted

caregiver, the grieving spouse,

the person whose life doesn't look much

like ours,

the person who is unable to participate in many

of the church's programs and but

desperately needs the church's presence,

the person who isn't sure whether the church has

anything to say to them.

Do we see them? Do we

really see them?

Who among us could use a word of

encouragement?

Who might be carrying something we know

nothing about?

Who might need to be welcomed?

Who might need someone simply to notice that

they are present.

Learning to pay attention to the world God loves may

be one of the greatest gifts of being a congregation.

We pay attention to one another, we learn people's

names and their stories, we notice when something has

changed, we celebrate with one another, we grieve with one another.

We notice when someone needs a little

extra care.

Sometimes the most meaningful ministry we offer

one another isn't something dramatic

at all. It is simply allowing

our words and our actions to say,

I see you. I remember.

I'm glad you are here.

And maybe sometimes being so bold

to say, how are you really

doing? Those are

small sentences, but we can

offer them with enormous love.

Our Christian calling may sometimes be less complicated than

we make it. We can become people who

are learning to pay true attention to the people

God has placed in our path. We don't always

have to go looking for some great opportunity

to serve God. Sometimes we simply

need to pay attention to the person already

standing in front of us.

The neighbor, the cashier,

the waitress or waiter, the person

sitting alone,

the colleague who seems unusually quiet, the family

member who keeps saying, I'm fine.

The person who is getting on your last

nerve and needs a little patience from

you. The person whose political

opinions, religious beliefs, or life circumstances differ greatly

from your own.

The person or persons we have simply learned

not to see.

This may be especially important for us in this season of

the life of our congregation.

If you have spent much time, spent much of your life

in a church, you know The church will

always be changing.

People come and go, schedules change, ministries change,

the ways folks gather changes.

For us, Sundays we will all

be in the— for some— let me try that again.

For us, some Sundays we will

all be in the same room, or on the same

campus, and sometimes like today we

will be scattered in different places,

but our calling remains the same, to be

people who look beyond ourselves, to be people

who make room for one another,

to be people who notice.

There is a simple practice we can carry with us from Philippians

this week, 3 little invitations.

Look up. Look up from ourselves,

look up from our own concerns, our own schedules, our own frustrations,

our own assumptions. Look around.

Notice the people God has placed in your path,

the people you see every day,

the people you may overlook,

the people who need a little kindness,

the people who may be carrying something

you cannot see, and then Look

again, because sometimes the

person we think we already understand is

the person we haven't seen at all.

When we practice looking up, looking around,

and looking again, something begins to

happen in us. We begin to see differently, we begin to

notice differently, we begin to love differently.

And this is part of what Paul means when he says,

let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.

The mind of Christ is not simply a mind

that knows the right things,

it is a mind that notices, a mind

that sees beyond itself, a mind that makes room for another person,

a mind that pays attention attention to

the people God loves.

And the most hopeful part of it all

is that Paul does not leave us to accomplish

this on our own.

Look at your bulletin at the Philippians passage.

The last scripture, the last sentence of the

scripture, for it is God who

is at work in you,

enabling you both to will and to work

for God's good pleasure.

Our desire to see differently is a gift from God,

even our capacity to notice is something

that God can cultivate in us.

So perhaps the prayer we carry this week is

a simple one.

God, give me the mind of Christ.

Teach me to look up. Teach me to

look around.

Teach me to look again.

Open my eyes to the person I have overlooked. Slow me

down enough to notice.

Give me the courage to see beyond my own interest,

and then God, give me the

grace to Grace to respond with love,

because when we learn to see as Christ sees,

we begin to live as Christ

lives. And perhaps

that is what it means not simply to

believe in Christ, but to have the

mind of Christ within us.

O Lord, may it be so.