The Rev. Dayle Casey
The Chapel of Our Saviour
Colorado Springs, Colorado
May 14, 2006

5 Easter – B
Acts 8:26-40
1 John 3:14-24
John 14:15-21

Jesus can be so frustrating at times, people sometimes tell me, because he doesn’t tell us exactly what to do in every situation in life. He is good at giving us general principles and at summing everything all up. “Love God with all your heart and soul and strength and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself,” he says when the expert in the law asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. But it would have been a lot more helpful to the expert in the law, some say, if Jesus had been more specific about how the expert in the law should apply that principle to the man left half dead by the side of the road instead of telling his story about the Good Samaritan. And it would be more helpful to us if he had been more specific about how we are to apply it on the streets of Colorado Springs.

It’s an understandable observation, and I’m not sure I have a way of relieving the frustration.

Much of the Bible, of course, the Torah in particular, does give us a lot of rules. Six hundred thirteen of them, to be specific – all the laws about what to do and what not to do. And then there is the host of more particular laws added by the rabbis both before and after Jesus.

But for us New Testament types who believe Jesus himself fulfilled and summed up all the law and the prophets on the Cross, things are different. Jesus said what he said and did what he did, and he didn’t say what he didn’t say. Jesus is who he is. Jesus is who we’ve got to work with, and he seems to have been content to leave us a lot of latitude to decide for ourselves what is essential and what is nonessential to our spiritual life and health.

One searches the words of Jesus in vain for any reference at all to a lot of things we invest a lot of time and energy on. Specifically, I search the words of Jesus and find no reference whatever to a lot of what we do in church. Jesus seems to care not at all, as I read him, about the programs of the Church. He says nothing at all about music, nothing about youth ministry or parish budgets or Sunday School curricula or altar guilds or ECWs. He says little even about how we are to worship God, beyond telling us that those who worship God sincerely do so in spirit and in truth.

But Jesus does have a lot to say about some other things. He has a great deal to say about how we get along with each other, and about how we treat each other and care for each other, about, in a nutshell, how we love each other. Or how we don’t.

Thinking about this, I’ve come up with two suggestions over the years, two rules of thumb suggested by the Bible itself about how to use the general principles the Bible and Jesus give us, and about how to apply them to ourselves.

The first rule of thumb is this: Look very carefully at the world around you. Specifically, be sure to look at yourself, because in trying to apply Jesus’ general principles to your own life, you will find spiritual direction in what you see. As the younger son Paul says in A River Runs Through It, “All there is to thinking is seeing something noticeable which makes you see something you weren’t noticing which makes you see something that isn’t even visible.” And what you see will be determined by where and how you look, and by how perceptively you look. And the first rule of thumb for Jesus is to look first to yourself.

I get this rule of thumb from one of Jesus’ own commandments: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. For with the measure you use will it be measured out to you.”

In fact, this is a place where Jesus gets very specific. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? First, look to yourself. Take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. For how can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into the pit?” (Luke, chapter 6)

Why does Jesus give us this specific commandment? And what does it mean for us specifically? Perhaps a good way to get at it is through John Godfrey Saxe’s 19th-century version of a famous Indian legend, which is well known to everyone who has participated in the catechumenate here:

It was six men of Indostan
to learning much inclined,
who went to see the elephant
(though all of them were blind)
that each by observation
might satisfy his mind.

The first approached the elephant,
and happening to fall
against his broad and sturdy side
at once began to bawl:
"God bless me! But the elephant
is very like a wall!"

The second, feeling of the tusk
cried, "Ho! What have we here,
so very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
this wonder of an elephant
is very like a spear!"

The third approached the animal,
and happening to take
the squirming trunk within his hands
thus boldly up he spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the elephant
is very like a snake."

The fourth reached out an eager hand
and felt about the knee:
"What most this wondrous beast is like
is mighty plain," quoth he.
'Tis clear enough the elephant
is very like a tree!"

The fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
said, "E'en the blindest man
can tell what this resembles most.
Deny the fact who can,
this marvel of an elephant
is very like a fan!"

The sixth no sooner had begun
about the beast to grope
than seizing on the swinging tail
that fell within his scope.
"I see," quoth he, "the elephant
is very like a rope!"

And so these men of Indostan
disputed loud and long,
each in his own opinion,
exceeding stiff and strong,
though each was partly in the right,
and all were in the wrong!

So, oft in theologic wars,
the disputants, I ween,
rail on in utter ignorance
of what each other mean.
And prate about an elephant
not one of them has seen.


We are specifically commanded not to judge or condemn others precisely because of the truth of this Indian legend. The only one who can give an adequate and accurate assessment of an elephant is one who sees the whole elephant. Judging the worth of another person by focusing on the speck in his eye when our own spiritual vision is clouded by the plank in our own eye is like a blind man judging what an elephant is by feeling only the trunk or by hanging on to the elephant’s knee.

As it is in theologic wars, so it is in personal lives. If, when I am in relationship with another person, I judge or condemn that person through spiritual blindness caused by the plank in my own eye, then I can expect that that is how I will be judged by others looking at me through similarly clouded vision. If I could see the whole person as God sees him, then I could judge. But God alone can judge or condemn, precisely because God alone sees the whole person and what it is that makes him as he is.

Therefore, Jesus says – very specifically – we are to forgive as we have been forgiven, by seeing what should be most obvious to us, by looking first at ourselves and our own need for God, for any other way is like a blind man leading a blind man, both of whom will fall into the pit. Or, to paraphrase Paul in A River Runs Through It, all there is to forgiveness is seeing something noticeable in ourselves which makes you see something noticeable which you weren’t noticing which helps you avoid a pit that isn’t even visible.

The second rule of thumb that helps us apply Jesus’ principles to our lives today is this: Apply the first rule very specifically.

Lorraine Hansberry, the author of the play Raisin in the Sun, once said, ”In order to create the universal, you must pay very great attention to the specific.” This applies to understanding the Bible as well. If we want to understand how a general rule for living applies to us, then it’s a matter of seeing something noticeable which makes us see something we weren’t noticing about ourselves, which makes us see something that isn’t even visible.

In other words, if, like the expert in the law in Jesus’ story, we are to understand how we are to “love one another as Jesus has loved us” we need to look for ways that we, specifically, might apply that principle to specific people, in specific situations, and most specifically in the ones right in front of us in Colorado Springs. Failing that, ”to love one another as Jesus has loved us” is merely platitude.

“Just exactly what does Jesus’ commandment mean in my life, here at Our Saviour Parish, in the Year of Our Lord 2006?” we need to ask. Finding an answer is a matter of seeing, and of being very specific. We can love only what we can see. And in order to see, we have got to notice. And in order to notice, we’ve got to look. And in order to look, we’ve got to want to look, not only at our brother or sister in front of us, but also deep into ourselves.

“We love,” St. John says, ”because God first loved us.” How do we know this? We don’t know it because John says it. We know it by experiencing it. We know it by looking in the right place and by seeing something very specific. By seeing a person on a Cross, a person spilling his blood for the sake of the world, for you and me, so that we can see the truth about ourselves and the world, and the truth about God. By seeing a person investing his specific flesh and blood in love for our sake, and for the sake of the world.

“Some might say, ’I love God, but I hate my brother.’ But that’s impossible,” says John. “The person who says that is lying. For how can someone love God whom he has not seen if he does not love his brother or sister who is right in front of him?”

In other words, we can see God only through our brother or sister, and therefore we can love God only by loving our brother or sister. “Anyone who hates his brother,” says John, ”anyone who is indifferent toward his brother’s well-being, might as well kill him. Such a person is a murderer in his heart. And we know that no murderer has eternal life in him. Dear children, let us love not with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth, for if anyone sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?”

So the question is: do we see in our brother and sister someone in need of God’s love by means of us? Love begins in seeing, in seeing the brother or sister in need who may not be noticeable to us, but who we can see if only we will look. And then love continues by our acting for the good of that brother or sister. This is how we love God whom we cannot see – by loving the brother next to us whom we can see in the way that Jesus loved us. We love God by being very specific in our actions, Jesus says: “Do unto your brother what you would want your brother to do unto you.”

In order to apply this general principle, which is really a very specific commandment, in our own lives, we ourselves must pay very great attention to the specific. If we want to see God, we must see our brother and sister. That is, we must really see him, not just with our eyes, but with our hearts, the way God sees him.

First, look at Jesus on the Cross. Pay very great attention to the specific. Check out more than the trunk or the tusk. Check out the whole person who was committed to loving God by loving us. Consider the man who reminds us that the laws and the customs were made for man, not man for the laws and customs. Study the man who, when push came to shove, willingly walked the road to Jerusalem and the path to Calvary for the sake of those he loved. Examine his agony in Gethsemane, and the pain caused by the thorns with which we crowned him. Examine the nails, the blood, and the tears he shed. Pay very great attention to the specific. This can be done by reading the Scriptures.

Then look to yourself. Pay very great attention to the specific. Check for planks.

Then look again at Jesus on the Cross. Pay very great attention to the specific. Check out the whole person who was committed to loving God by loving us. Consider the man who never turned away from his table anyone who was sincerely looking for God. Study the man who, when push came to shove, willingly walked the road to Jerusalem and the path to Calvary for the sake of those he loved. Examine his agony in Gethsemane, the pain caused by the thorns. Examine the nails, the blood, and the tears he shed. Pay very great attention to the specific.

Then look at your brother and sister. And if, with the expert in the law, you want to know, “Well, Jesus, just who is my brother and sister?” just look around you. Look at the person God has given you at the moment. Look at the person you meet on the sidewalk. Look at the person who lives next door, the one you don’t like very much. Look at the person sitting across the aisle or in the pew in front of you. Look at the man or woman God has given you to work with and to worship with. Look to those Jesus himself brings you. And remember that Jesus says, ”Love him. Love her. Love them in the same way I have loved you.” Pay very great attention to the specific. And be sure to look at the whole person.

Then do for your brother or sister – not for God, but for the person in front of you – not what the law requires, but what Jesus’ summary suggests in your specific instance. When we do this, Jesus suggests, we may discover, as he did, that the law was made for the us, not we for the law.

In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.