The Sermon Of Seeing
My visit this past Sunday to my church resulted in some loving lessons and some light filled lessons. I often think that the sermon is meant for me and that whatever the subject is speaks to something I needed to hear or need to work on. This time the subject was about God giving vision to the blind and enlighting those who were not blind by pointing out that they do not see. Much like some of us today who can see but don't really look or really truly and authentically see others. Yet there are people who are blind that see better than those of us who can see. For those people who are blind there seems to be a sixth sense that gets developed and it feesl like they see things by feeling them and allowing the energy around them to see things and people in a spiritual way. God acknowleged the blind and broght them sight because he felt they were deserving of such a gift because of their humility is what I think. He spoke to those who could see to enlighten them on about the truth which was that they could see but they were blind.
In our current situation in our world of so many different people we have a large amount that don't see. There are so many things they are missing because although they have sight they are not seeing, really seeing. One of the things that the pastor brought forth was racism and how we ignore it and don't see it. We know it exists but we refuse to see it, we choose not to see it. "We have eyes but we do not see. " We have eyes and we see only what we want to see. There is injustice in the world and we don't see it. There are children who are hungry and we don't see it. There are gay teens in the schools being bullied and we don't see it because we don't want to see it. We pretend to be blind to it and we think if we act as though it is isn't there it will either resolve itself or it will just disappear into the abiss.
As a man of color I have had this experience where I feel like people don't see me. I just had an interveiw with a student doing her doctorate about being a gay teacher and administrator. She brought up a good poiint which was how people will say things like "I don't see color" and then added that this was just a way of ignoring that there are differences and that not seeing color was not seeing who a person is, because there are many people of color in the world. As a man of color I want others to see that about me in a respectful, accepting and loving manner. Unfortunately that has not always been the case. It is the people who say they don't see color that don't see me fully. I am Latino and I am proud of it. I want others to acknowledge it and love that part of me like the rest of the parts of me. People who say they don't see color are not always color blind, they are dismissive of people like me. It is not really a way to respect and honor another person because it is the same as not seeing that a woman is a woman or a gay child is gay. It is like ignoring the obvious and as is commonly said: "ignoring the pink elephant in the room". It is just stupid. It is ignoring the parts of others that mean something like their culture and what they believe in.
So the next time you are looking at others, whether a loved one or a friend or stranger ask yourself if ou are really seeing them. Really looking at who they are in their beautiful completeness. Do you see just what you want to see or who they are deeper inside? Are you missing the parts of them that are meaningful and important about them like the music they dance to or the language they speak? Are you simply washing over the parts of them that you simply don't understand?
I will never forget the people in my life who in ten years of knowing me knew nothing about me and still don't. This is the reason they are no longer in my life. They did not see me and they only saw what they wanted to see. They were limited in their way of using their eyes. They have sight but they don't see. They are like the people God spoke to and pointed out that they did not see even though unlike the blind they had sight. I wish for the world of people to see deeply into the people we meet and the people we claim to love. We only see what we want to see and if what we see is not inside our comfort zone or our intellectual capacity we pretend to be blind. God wants us to see inside the soul of others and to see who they really are, all the parts of them. We have work to do. I have work to do. I start with looking into the eyes of people I speak to like the clerk at the grocery store and the person serving my food in a restaurant. There are so many opportunities to see and I want to invite you to truly use your eyes in collaboration with your heart.
In our current situation in our world of so many different people we have a large amount that don't see. There are so many things they are missing because although they have sight they are not seeing, really seeing. One of the things that the pastor brought forth was racism and how we ignore it and don't see it. We know it exists but we refuse to see it, we choose not to see it. "We have eyes but we do not see. " We have eyes and we see only what we want to see. There is injustice in the world and we don't see it. There are children who are hungry and we don't see it. There are gay teens in the schools being bullied and we don't see it because we don't want to see it. We pretend to be blind to it and we think if we act as though it is isn't there it will either resolve itself or it will just disappear into the abiss.
As a man of color I have had this experience where I feel like people don't see me. I just had an interveiw with a student doing her doctorate about being a gay teacher and administrator. She brought up a good poiint which was how people will say things like "I don't see color" and then added that this was just a way of ignoring that there are differences and that not seeing color was not seeing who a person is, because there are many people of color in the world. As a man of color I want others to see that about me in a respectful, accepting and loving manner. Unfortunately that has not always been the case. It is the people who say they don't see color that don't see me fully. I am Latino and I am proud of it. I want others to acknowledge it and love that part of me like the rest of the parts of me. People who say they don't see color are not always color blind, they are dismissive of people like me. It is not really a way to respect and honor another person because it is the same as not seeing that a woman is a woman or a gay child is gay. It is like ignoring the obvious and as is commonly said: "ignoring the pink elephant in the room". It is just stupid. It is ignoring the parts of others that mean something like their culture and what they believe in.
So the next time you are looking at others, whether a loved one or a friend or stranger ask yourself if ou are really seeing them. Really looking at who they are in their beautiful completeness. Do you see just what you want to see or who they are deeper inside? Are you missing the parts of them that are meaningful and important about them like the music they dance to or the language they speak? Are you simply washing over the parts of them that you simply don't understand?
I will never forget the people in my life who in ten years of knowing me knew nothing about me and still don't. This is the reason they are no longer in my life. They did not see me and they only saw what they wanted to see. They were limited in their way of using their eyes. They have sight but they don't see. They are like the people God spoke to and pointed out that they did not see even though unlike the blind they had sight. I wish for the world of people to see deeply into the people we meet and the people we claim to love. We only see what we want to see and if what we see is not inside our comfort zone or our intellectual capacity we pretend to be blind. God wants us to see inside the soul of others and to see who they really are, all the parts of them. We have work to do. I have work to do. I start with looking into the eyes of people I speak to like the clerk at the grocery store and the person serving my food in a restaurant. There are so many opportunities to see and I want to invite you to truly use your eyes in collaboration with your heart.
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