Looking Through (Psalm 119:105-112)

Some of you noticed last week that I have a new pair of glasses, and a few of you even made a comment about them.  Well, I have a story about that to tell you.

My previous pair of glasses, I had for eight or maybe ten years.  For several years now I had been saying it was time to get some new glasses, but I kept putting it off.  So when I finally went to get them, it was a big deal.

It helped that I found an online coupon for a small optometry shop in Long Beach that took over a hundred dollars off the price of a pair of glasses.  So after a visit to my optometrist, I grabbed my coupon, headed to the shop and began picking out some frames.

It wasn’t a big shop; the person working there told me it was a “boutique” store.  Whatever; I was getting over a hundred dollars off, so I was determined to find something I liked.

Well, I didn’t.  But there was a pair that Ginger liked; and the store employee agreed that they looked perfect on me.  There really wasn’t anything else in the store I liked, so I said okay, fine.

The employee started punching numbers into the calculator.  After figuring the frames, the lenses, and the various coatings, I learned that my total cost would be $745.  After the discount.

Turns out that the only frames in the store that I liked even a little were also one of the most expensive frames in the store.

By that point, my head was in a haze, and my thinking was kind of fuzzy.  Shopping does that to me.  Even if it’s just for a pair of glasses.  I looked at Ginger; she nodded her head.  I looked at the employee, who was also nodding her head.   And so then I nodded my head.  And then I was told I’d get a call in about a week, when the glasses were ready. 

And I left.

That night, I couldn’t sleep.  I was restless.  My thoughts kept me awake.  $745 for a pair of glasses?  It had been so long since I bought my last pair, I wondered if all glasses were that expensive these days.  Surely not.  And I wasn’t even particularly excited about the frames. 

Yes, they were high-end designer frames, very nicely made, but they weren’t me.  For $745, shouldn’t I at least be really excited by them?  There’s a lot that I could be doing with that $745, a lot that I’d rather be doing with my money than paying for a pair of overpriced glasses.

I think of every dollar I spend as my life energy, since it was my life energy that I exchanged, through my work, in order to receive that dollar.  Did I really want to spend $745 worth of my life energy for something that I wasn’t really all that excited about?  Wouldn’t it be better to spend that kind of money on things that are more in line with the things I value, the things that give meaning to my life, things that will help me live richly toward God.

Hey, it’s a stewardship sermon, you knew I had to go there…

Finally, late that night, after what seemed like hours of keeping both myself and Ginger awake, I was able to go to sleep, but only after I had made the decision to call the shop first thing in the morning and see if I could cancel my order.

Please understand that what I’m saying here applies specifically to me.  You see, it wasn’t worth it to me to pay $745 for a designer pair of glasses.  Maybe for you, it is; we all have our luxuries, our indulgences. 

But for me, I just could not convince myself that any pair of glasses is worth $745.  Surely I could find a pair for half that much, and perhaps even a pair that I liked better. 

After all, the point of glasses, I realized, wasn’t to be looked at; the point of glasses was to be looked through.  All the extra money that those glasses cost did nothing to help the glasses achieve their purpose.  All that extra money did nothing to help improve the way one looks at the world through the lenses.  All they did was change how people look at the glasses themselves. 

But looking at glasses isn’t really the point of glasses.  That’s not their purpose.  Their purpose is to have someone look through them, and see the world.

The glasses I’m wearing today cost less than half – much less than half – of what those other glasses cost.  And guess what?  I can see you all just fine.  And I still have an unused coupon for the “boutique” glasses shop.  It’s good for another month.  Let me know if you’re interested, because I won’t be using it.

Well, all these thoughts about glasses and how they are made to be looked through and not at reminded me of something I read long ago in a book by Justo González titled, Mañana.

Justo González talks about the purpose of scripture.  He wrote that “the purpose of our common study of Scripture is not so much to interpret it as to allow it to interpret us and our situation.  The interpretation of Scripture is important,… but the final purpose of such interpretation is not to understand the Bible better.  It is rather to understand ourselves better in light of the Word of God, and to discover what obedience requires of us.”

Then González makes reference to the portion of Psalm 119 we heard this morning.  “’Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path,’ says the Psalmist.  Travelers who carry a lamp take care that it shines properly and that its lenses are clean; but if in the middle of their trek in the dark they become overly preoccupied with their lamp, looking at it instead of at the path, they will soon lose their way.  The lamp is a means to an end, not an end in itself.  To look at the lamp as if it were the path can only lead to disaster.”

Now I don’t know what it is with kids and flashlights, but if you’ve spent a lot of time counseling kids at camp like I have, you know that kids like to shine their flashlights at night.  Boy, do they like to shine their flashlights!  They like to shine them around.  They like to shine them in your eyes.  But the light is not fulfilling its purpose of helping you see if it’s shined directly in your eyes.  Quite the opposite. 

And a lot of people treat scripture the same way.  They shine the scripture right in your eyes, instead of using scripture to help illuminate your path.  Focusing on the scripture itself is like focusing one’s attention on the frames of one’s glasses, rather than using the glasses to help bring the world into focus.

“Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

I don’t know if you are aware of it or not, but a controversy developed last week over an ad by Dr. Pepper.  The ad shows three figures in the evolution of humanity;  the first, an ape-like man, walks along on all fours.  The second, slightly more upright, is shown discovering Dr. Pepper.  The third is a fully upright man walking along, drinking from a can of Dr. Pepper.

Well, some Christian groups have complained and called for a boycott of Dr. Pepper for its pro-evolution, anti-creationism ad.  I don’t know how it is that their faith is threatened by an ad for soda, but in my opinion, they are looking a little too hard at the light, and not focusing on the path.

I don’t think that’s a problem for the Dalai Lama.  He uses Buddhism to help him see the path, to find his way on the journey of life, in the same way that he usually looks at the world through a pair of glasses.  Strangely enough, he’s not wearing his glasses in a photograph that’s been widely shared on the internet, in which he appears next to a quote of his that says:  “If science proves that some belief of Buddhism is wrong, Buddhism will have to change.”

That’s using faith properly.  That’s looking through the glasses, not at them.  That’s using the light to illuminate the path.

A lot of people today get caught up in this same dilemma when it comes to money.  They live for money.  They’re number one goal is to acquire money.  It’s the purpose of their life.  Money is what they live for.

Well, the purpose of life is not money.  Using scripture to shed some light on this, we read in various places that the love of money is the root of evil, that money should never become one’s master, because you can’t serve two masters.

However, that’s not to say that money itself can’t be useful.  Money, in and of itself, is not evil.  An obsession with money, a love of money: that’s what’s bad. 

Money can, in fact, help you achieve your purpose in life.  Money can help you find what is worth living for.  Money is a tool that can be used for a greater purpose.

But if money itself becomes your purpose – then you’ve got it backwards.  Then you’re looking at the frames and not through the lenses.  Then you’re staring into the light, instead of using the light to illuminate your path.

I said a few minutes ago that I think of money as my life energy.  I work for so many hours, exchanging my life energy for money; converting my life energy into money-form, in the same way that water can be converted from a liquid into a solid through freezing.  I work, and my life energy is converted from physical energy and labor into dollars and cents.

For someone who works at $15 an hour, for example, every time they spend $15, they are spending one hour of their life.

So when I spend my money, I’m spending my life.  Every dollar I hand over is my life.

So it’s very important to me that I spend my life on things that are aligned with my values, things that bring meaning and purpose to my life.

And that does not include a pair of overpriced designer frames.  Spending too much of my life on things like that, things that don’t correspond to my values, keeps me awake at night.

That’s the major problem with how we look at economics.  News reports concerning the economy always consider an increase in wealth as if increasing wealth is the goal, the purpose. 

It’s not.  At least, not as far as I’m concerned.  The ultimate goal and purpose is happiness.  It’s a fulfilling life, an enjoyable life, for the greatest number of people.  It’s a life of satisfaction, contentment, peace and security.  Isn’t that what we’re really hoping economic growth will bring us?

The truth is that, despite living in the wealthiest nation in earth’s history, we Americans are not very happy.  The richer we get materially, the less satisfied we are with life.  Studies have shown this.  Which leads one to wonder:  what is the point of economic growth?  What is the point of acquiring wealth?

Those whose focus is on wealth and growth as the ultimate goals in life have it all backward.  They are looking at the frames instead of through the lenses.  They are staring at the light instead of using it to illuminate the path.

The thing to do is to figure out what your life purpose is.  What are you living for?  What do you feel called to live for?  What are your values? 

If you’re going to be giving your life away every time you spend your money, what is it that’s worth your life?

I don’t know about you, but this is why I support the church.  It is a struggle; I’ve had to learn and grow, just like many of you.  At first I tried writing a check to the church once a month, but it just seemed like so much money to me, that it was hard.  So now I write a check every week.

And although my own giving level is far from where I’d like it to be, and far less than what I suspect many of you give, I do what I can to get it to where I’d like to be.  This summer, I increased what I give to the church by ten percent, and when I fill out my pledge card, I intend to include another ten percent increase for 2013. Hopefully I’ll eventually get to where I want to be, spending more of my money on things I value.

Why?  Because I believe in the ministry of this church.  What this congregation does is worth me giving my life to. 

And never, not once, have I lost sleep at night because I gave to the church.