CHANGE THE WORLD BY CHANGING ME

Sunday January 28, 2001

Luke 5:33-38

Post Graduate Center for Mental Health

Isa Brandon, my Advisor

Mike, I think you’re confused about some things

I think it would really help you if you considered therapy.

My reaction – very very negative

Looking back now, I think that probably what she was saying was simply this…Mike I think you need to take a hard look at yourself, to consider some changes about the way you see things and do things.

Of course, at that time I knew better.

Self awareness and personal change have never been easy things for me. As often as not in my life, it has taken big set backs, disappointments or real losses for me to take an honest look at myself and for me to grow and change.

Oh, I’ve always had a gift at knowing what needs to change around me, whether it be the church or the institution I’m working in or especially the people around me.

I’ve always had just about 20/20 vision about other groups and other people but about myself, probably about 400/400.

And I think this is the way it is with many of us .

So many of us spend so much of our time thinking about how everything around us needs to change, and we don’t realize that where change is most needed is within ourselves.

We want our partners to change or our spouses.

We want our children or other love ones to change. Oh, if only they would just do this or that.

We want the people at work to change…God they are messed up there!

We want our government, or insurance companies, or especially doctors and lawyers to change.

We want our church to change, and we think there are those in the church who just don’t measure up. (and we know another person or two who feel just like we do).

But it is my very firm feeling that more often than not when we’re clear about how flawed someone else is, we’re at least as flawed as they are and probably more so.

And it is also my very firm feeling that as often as not, when we are clear about how messed up our work place is or this group or that group is, or how messed up the church is, we’re at least as flawed or messed up and probably more so. We’re probably more a part of the problem than the solution.

I remember seeing a Pogo cartoon years ago. For those of you who don’t remember, Pogo was a strange looking little possum in a  cartoon strip for years and maybe he/she still is. Well, one day Pogo said this…I have discovered the enemy, and it is I.”

So, what am I saying this morning?

Am I saying that we should never be critical of the institutions and work for their change? No.

Am I saying that we should never be critical of other individuals? No. Although I would add that the cardinal question we should ask ourselves if we are critical of others is this…Have I been honest with the person about whom I am so critical?

Am I saying that we should never be critical of our church or work for her constructive change? Of course not.

What I’m saying is that it’s relatively easy for us to look around us and see the changes that are needed in institutions and other people and the church, but it is so much more difficult for us to see our own flaws and foibles, and if we do see them, it’s even more difficult for us to do anything about them.

The greatest need for reform and change today as always, gets down to something very close and personal. It gets down to “I.”

When our Lord was here he gave his time and energy to a lot of things didn’t he?

There are accounts of him healing people throughout the gospels. He put great time and energy into this.

He spent a lot of time in the synagogue and he began this as a boy. He taught there and debated. And increasingly, he challenged organized religion and those who led it.

But is there anything he spent more time with than trying to get that small band of people around him to be self aware and to be honest with themselves.

Time and time again as Jesus disciples talked to him about this or that or this person or that person, didn’t Jesus in essence grab them by their shoulders and  say to them…Yes, but what about You?

Closing…quote Change the World by Changing Me from Song of the Bird, p 153.

AMEN