Text: John 12

I have heard there is a bumper sticker that says, “Change is good, until it happens.”

Jesus’ disciples were not ready for change any more than we are. Some Greeks—that is, some outsiders, some non-Jews—came and asked Philip if they could see Jesus. Philip did not know what to do, so he went to ask Andrew. Andrew did not know what to do, either. They knew that the Greeks did not want to see Jesus just because he was a local celebrity.

What does it mean “to see”?

Several years ago, I was bothered by a conversation between two characters in a movie in which one of them complained about people whipping out their cameras to take pictures of a special place without really seeing or appreciating the place. The complaint stuck in my mind, probably because I am one of those people with a camera. This fall, however, when I was traveling and taking pictures, I realized that actually the camera helps me to see. It makes me stop and look. It leads me to pay attention, to slow down, to notice God’s creation and human ingenuity.

Some people garden to be reconnected to the Holy and restored in mind and body.

A friend of mine swims regularly and uses each lap to pray for another person.

Painting and photography, for me, are ways of playing, of stretching my imagination, of noticing things I would not otherwise, and reminding me to give thanks.

I have to be reminded to see beyond my usual narrow focus, to be drawn out of my usual preoccupations and expectations.

In November, I heard Rick Ufford-Chase, Moderator of the 216th General Assembly (2004), preach a sermon in which he talked about some of the lessons he has learned working at the border. He talked about the number of good people, managers of factories, who drive from the United States across the border to Nogales, Mexico, and pass by an area of extreme poverty without seeing it. Rick said he understands that, because he went back to the town where he grew up and realized that, as a boy, he went to and from school without seeing those who were his neighbors. He acknowledged how hard it is for any of us to see “the other.”

“We want to see Jesus.”

The Greeks were the “the others,” the outsiders, asking to be included, welcomed, taught, healed, saved. They did not come just to meet Jesus, but to know him and be known by him.

While I think we sometimes long for some Greeks, or anyone else, to show up at our door and ask to worship with us, the request was a challenge for the disciples. The request did not match their vision of the future. It had not occurred to them that their circle might be expanded in that way. They must have wondered what would happen if their community was opened up to all kinds of people? Wouldn’t the others want to do things differently?

Dewitt Jones, a photographer for National Geographic, says we have to continually expand our horizons. He tells the story of taking photographs of a waterfall in Zion National Park. He wasn’t satisfied with his pictures, so he kept trying to get closer to the falls. He found the path surrounded by guardrails, restricting his way, limiting his view, letting him know this is the way it is done around here.

What happens if our vision is too small? Some of you may have read the book or seen the movie, Into Thin Air, about the 1996 team competitions to climb Mt. Everest. Climbing Everest is incredibly difficult, even for the best climbers. The last stage is the hardest because the air is so thin and so cold. People can’t think clearly in that “death zone,” so there are pre-set times for coming back down to rest and then trying again. But in that competition, two leaders were so focused on reaching the summit, they did not pay attention to the storm that was coming in. They pushed onward and did not survive. Myrna Carpenter, co-founder of the Center for Family Process and a student of leadership and vision, suggests that they were over-focused on the summit. The leader of another team, however, visualized his team reaching the top and returning. It was as if he were using a wide-angle lens on a camera. His focus was broader and his team was more conscious of their whole environment. When they saw the storm coming, they delayed heading for the summit and sat out the storm. Later, they made it to the summit and came back down safely. They had a vision for the round-trip, a vision for the whole journey.

Just as the word “seeing” is not only about sight, vision is about more than seeing or perceiving or imagining or even having a sense of direction. Vision is about hope.

One of the climbers of Mount Everest got within about two blocks of the summit when he realized his body could not do it. His lungs couldn’t take it and his core body heat was dropping. His teammates talked to him by phone to encourage him, but they got worried when he did not move for fifteen minutes. When he had not moved for thirty-six minutes, they were afraid he would not make it. They changed strategy—they called his daughters and got them on the phone with him. His daughters reminded him that he had promised not to die on the mountain, that he had promised to come home. He did not speak, but began to move again. In reconnecting him with his family, the team reminded him of his vision and enabled him to fulfill it.

Visions give us the persistence and the hope to continue, even in the most difficult, most troubled, or most fractious times.

The Greeks had a vision of seeing Jesus. They had a vision of following this man who was feeding the poor, healing the sick, freeing the oppressed, and turning the world upside down. But the disciples realized that vision was broader than their own. They were focused on reaching the summit. If the Greeks were to follow their vision, the disciples would have to expand their horizons to have a vision for the whole journey.

Confused and uncertain about what to do, they finally asked their teacher. Jesus told them that with his death a new community would be born, and when he was lifted up, he would draw all peoples to himself.

Jesus expands our horizons. He calls us to be part of that new community, to be his body in the world, to carry out his ministry.

The first disciples wouldn’t recognize the world we live in, but they might recognize our struggle to adapt to new questions and let go of the ways things have always been. Yet, the church’s calling to see and reveal the living Christ remains the same.

“We would see Jesus”—that is our vision and our mission.

Sources:

Myrna Carpenter, “Vision: The Imaginative Edge of Leadership,” a lecture given February 4, 2002, for the Advanced Clergy Clinic in Family Emotional Process at the Lombard-Mennonite Peace Center.

Dewitt Jones, Focus Your Vision, by StarThrower Distributors.