Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover

Scripture Readings: Is. 3:16-4:1; 1 Corinth. 1:25-30; Matt. 18:10-14
Ընթերցուածքներ` Եսայ. Գ 16-Դ 1; Ա Կորնց. Ա 25-30; Մատ. ԺԸ 10-14

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen!

We’ve all heard the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover!” A clear indication and teaching that while things on the outside may look worn out, boring, unattended, the truth is we don’t know the vast greatness found within. A book that looks mundane may contain great wisdom and teaching; a musical score that is simple may touch the heart of the listener in a powerful way. As Shakespeare and great philosophers of the past of taught “still waters run deep” – The calm waters of a river may have powerful currents’ underneath that push and pull the earth shaping the world. Yet, so many of us are tempted to judge the surface level without looking deeper. We judge not just books but ourselves, those around us and the entire world by “a cover.”

In the Gospel Christ gives us the example of children. Children, whom when we look at, we judge as perhaps incapable, small, uneducated and inexperienced. Yet, God’s love for them is limitless and He tell us to not “despise the little ones” or ignore, reject, turn away because they have value; that as the Shepherd, God seeks out all of His children, His lost sheep. St. Paul goes further to indicate that our standards should be like that of God; our value of good, proper, and worth should be different so much so that the world will call it foolishness. Yet, most of us want to fit into the standards of the world. For which St. Paul says, “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;” God has chosen what the world deems worthless to be an example of what real value is.

Why? Because my dears, we don’t judge a book by its cover, we don’t judge ourselves or one another but what is merely on the surface. Robin Williams beautifully said, “everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.” Who among us has not felt worthless or broken at one time or another? Who among us is not fighting an internal battle, whether it shows scars on the surface or not? In the Wisdom of Sirach found in the Old Testament (11:11-12) we read, “there is a man who works and works and keeps on working but is in much more poverty. There is another who is sluggish and in need of help; and he lacks strength and abounds in poverty, but the eyes of the Lord look upon him for his good and restores his well-being from his humble state.” In other words, we so often give more importance to the external as a determination of value and success. If we work hard enough, if we sacrifice enough, if we pray hard enough, if we come to Church every Sunday, if we do the push pushups or sit-ups, if we get the degrees or go to the best schools, if we have the highest salary, or dress in the best clothes, we think we will be somehow more valuable or successful. We work and work, we gain everything and yet, in the process we remain in poverty, we remain blind to what God has prepared for us. And we absolutely must work hard, be dedicated but our external success is not what determines our true worth. The one who needs help, who struggles, on whom the world wouldn’t even look at twice, on that person God sets His eyes on and sees.

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” God who sees us, in His love for us, provides us not just with things to fill our fortune with but opportunities to evaluate and define ourselves as He does, to give us a future and hope.

My dears, what do we see? The external which the world holds up as valuable, or the greatness, the image and likeness of God – the true potential each one of us has within us to be all that God has created us to be – restored and lifted. Planted and blossoming, rejected and dead according to the world but resurrected and alive through Christ Jesus whom the world likewise rejected because He did not fit the world’s standards. Perhaps we don’t fit the world’s standards either; perhaps just as Christ has the scars of the whips and holes by the nails in his hands, likewise, life has scared us, pierced us and we feel hurt and abandon, we feel unseen. Yet, God sees us – his children and lost sheep.

His love by the power of the Holy Spirit reveals to us, teaches us, that the world is not what gives us value, our scars are not what define us, even if we feel the very sting of death, in Christ we live, by the love of God our Heavenly Father we recognize who we are. A child who seeks a loving parent, an innocent sheep that calls out to the shepherd. And our shepherd, our Lord hears us and sees us; He will come find us, lift us up onto His shoulders and bring us back to Him.

However, we have our role as well. What remains for us my dears, is to call out to our Lord through prayer and repentance. To humble ourselves and say with faith, “your will be done” and to allow God to define us, while at the same time we look at each other with the same compassion and mercy that God looks at us because Christ says to us do not despise or reject these little ones; we are all the little ones of God and just as God sees us, we are called to see and love each other. Pray for one another; lift one another up; don’t judge the book by its cover for you don’t know where that book has been, nor what is contained in its pages – we don’t know what battles others are fighting in their life. Pray for another and our Lord will see and hear and will lift us up to be with Him in this life and the next, with future and hope – for all eternity, Amen!