Pentecost 12C 2025

THE REV. E. WAYNE ROLLINS

​ It has been said that we see things not as they are, but as we are. That’s often true. Often we look again and see something we did not see before. Artists are good at causing this to happen. If you want a more contemporary cultural example, there are those puzzles that appeared at the end of Mad Magazine. 

I wonder what would happen if we could or even tried to see things, including ourselves, the way God sees them? 

I like to think that I’m getting a “God’s eye view” when flying long distances at a high altitude. I know I’m a bit closer to some birds than some consider God’s location to be. But since I’m unlikely to get frequent flyer miles on the International Space Station, I’ll take what I can get. 

The role of a biblical prophet is to help us see ourselves as God sees us. That can be very different from what we want to see in the mirror. But this is a first step in any form of ministry, whether it be with those gathered around us this day or at any place else we might go. 

It’s a first step because we must see ourselves as God sees us before we are able to see others as God sees them. Our self-serving, perhaps self-inflating images may actually impede ministry, especially to others. If you’ve been involved in any twelve-step program, you’ll recognize that. Step one is admitting our helplessness, while step two is admitting that we need someone, or something, more powerful to lead us—to minister to us--in order to heal, however that occurs. 

One of the first things we learn in Clinical Pastoral Education, or the training of chaplains, is that we need to leave at the threshold those parts of ourselves that get in the way of doing real ministry. To use spiritual terms found in scripture, we must empty ourselves to make room for the Holy Spirit to fill us with God’s redemptive presence. Leave the ego and its assumptions outside. They’ll wait for a more opportune time. 

The words we’ve heard over the past few weeks from Amos, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah, and today, Jeremiah, serve to alert Israel to how God sees them in their current way of life. They refuse, except for perhaps only a few, to see themselves in the same way, and by doing so separate themselves from God, despite warnings and admonitions. God ultimately accepts that separation. At least for a generation or so. 

There may be a time in each of our lives when we’ve found we need to separate ourselves from those who refuse God’s image of themselves and others. I found that reluctance, or the lack of alternatives to be an impediment to healing while doing social work with addicts and victims of abuse. Many entered voluntary or forced treatment, only to be returned to the same relationships where the addiction or abuse flourished because while treatment may have been provided, no work was done with former associates or to provide a different, safer place to begin a new life.

Like I said, the former way was waiting for a more opportune time. If that phrase sounds familiar, read the accounts of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. Then remember who it is doing the waiting.

So let’s ponder in our hearts how God might truly see us, assuming that God hasn’t already decided to look elsewhere for the image God looks for in the presence of the Holy Spirit among us. That is the possibility we must always consider, and not take for granted that attendance and offerings, an occasional good deed, or even receiving the sacraments ensures that image.

One way I’ve found helpful is to ask the question, “Where is God in this?” Whether it’s a planned event or a looming decision, I think it’s important to keep that in mind. That reminds me of a cartoon I once saw on the administrator’s desk in a parish where a friend once worked. The congregation is gathered and the priest presents a proposal with the words, “It has the support of the Vestry, the Bishop, the Standing Committee and we believe it to be God’s will. Any questions?”

I would want to say, “Really?”

Ministry is not our way of repaying God for our salvation. Rather, the evidence of our salvation is our participation in the ministry God gives us to do, which is to proclaim—and be—the presence of the divine in a human form that others not only understand, but find the desire to join.

What does that mean for us? Given recent news we’ve shared with the parish regarding finances, it’s important that we have these discussions. How we do that will be an ongoing process. In the meantime, invite through prayer and reflection (an important word in many ways) the true image of God, and how God views the images we present. Then, pray for the answer to my previous question. Where is God in all this?
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I’m looking forward to hearing your answers.