Dirty Window?

Daily Readings: Is. 9:8-19; 2 Corinth. 1:1-11; Mk. 4:35-41
Ընթերցուածքներ` Եսայ. Թ 8-19; Բ Կորնց. Ա 1-11; Մկ. Դ:35-41

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

Every morning, a man sat by his window and watched his neighbor. “This person is so dirty,” he would complain to his wife. “Look how unkept their yard is and look how dirty their laundry is!” Day after day, he criticized the neighbor. One morning, he looked again. “Finally!” he said, “her clothes are clean.” His wife smiled and said, “The clothes haven’t changed. I cleaned our window.” The man looked again and realized the truth. The dirt he had been criticizing was not on his neighbor’s clothes. It was on his own window.

My dear brothers and sister, how true is this of us? We look at another person’s faults, mistakes, and weaknesses and become convinced that the problem is with them. People in the streets, in our own homes, in the pews at Church. We look at society, at political, and community leaders, at our parents, our clergy, we even look at God and say they are wrong, they need to change. We look at Christ in today’s Gospel where the disciples are caught in the midst of a storm and we read that Jesus is asleep. (v. 38) “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” they call out. Yet, Christ responds in v. 40 with a question, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” My dears, faith is not merely a belief or a feeling. Faith is trust; it is recognition and response. It is reflection and transformation. Therefore, when Christ asks the disciples, “how is it that you have no faith” He is ultimately asking, why are you focused on the storm? The transformation of faith is transformation of our focus, to see that though the world may be broken, though there are storms in life, yes, perhaps other are not living faithfully, yet our place is to first trust God. Even in the midst of the brokenness; in the midst of the storm, do we trust God first? Faith is not for us to look and condemn others but to look and reflect on our own lives.

Greg Mathis, a former judge in Michigan once reflected, “I have read the Bible and found many errors, all of which were in me.” When we come to Church, when we read our Holy Scriptures, when we pray and confess our faith in God my dears, are we looking to be transformed? Are we ready to be changed and to grow? Or are we looking out a dirty window, looking with anger in us, preconceived ideas, our own definitions of “right and wrong”, which ultimately not only leave us lost and hurt, but also make us think everyone else is wrong and God doesn’t care. Last week I asked, why do we come to Church? Why do we pray? Why do we believe? My dears, today I ask, how. How do we come? How do look at ourselves and others? How do we pray? How do we believe? How do we look out of our own windows at the world? With pride? With resentment? With anger? With jealousy? With unforgiveness? With hypocrisy? With assumptions? With prejudice? With arrogance? Or do we start each day, each task, each moment with placing our trust in God?

If our trust is in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, then regardless of the storms, the brokenness or “dirt” that exists in the world, our focus will begin from within ourselves. As Shakespeare beautifully summarizes in the play Hamlet (Act I, Scene III): “This above all: to thine own self be true…” Meaning be honest with yourself. Honest that, if we are called to faithfulness, to repentance and transformation, then we must live a life as Christ calls us. Where Christ first we are cleansed, we are sanctified. That the Holy Scriptures are given to us as a mirror to look and reflect on. Reflect not our egos and pride but reflect the light and love of our Lord. Therefore, when we are cleansed, we can clearly reflect the love of God for others to be cleansed by as well “A Christian must always be kind, gracious and wise, in order to conquer evil by good” teaches St. John Kronstadt

And so, my dears let us ask of ourselves, are we here in Church, do we read our Holy Scriptures, do we pray and say we are Christian and through repentance ask God to transform us, guide us and cleanse us? Or do we come looking for faults in others, for “errors and contradictions” in others live or what we think the Bible teaches us? If we are going through storms my dears, if we are lost and confused, if we look out our windows and see how broken the world is, pray. Pray with trust in God who is merciful and loving. Read the Holy Scriptures with prayer and humility, asking not what can I find but God what are you revealing to me? Attend Church with a desire to be emptied of vanity and filled with the light of God. Ask God to help clean the window by which we loot out at the world, and at others. And only by doing so, will we be sanctified, cleansed and renewed. We will be transformed and led through the darkness of sin. We will be a reflection of light for all to see and experience the grace and love of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to whom is due glory forever, Amen.