Lenses

Estimated reading time: 6 minute(s)

All of life is interpreted through lenses… and we are not all wearing the same ones.

You may have noticed that in the recent presidential election campaigns? 🙂

FALLUJAH, IRAQ – Three soldiers were killed today in Fallujah when their vehicle was attacked by Iraqi insurgents. That marks the 10th death this week, and overall over 1000 soldiers have been killed in Iraq.

The continued killings and the unceasing violence in the region lead some to believe that President Bush has gotten America into an un-winable situation. It is even being called a quagmire, with a not-so-subtle reference to the much maligned war in Vietnam.

Opinions remain widely varied. One camp views this as a necessary cost of freedom for the Iraqi people. Others see the daily loss of American life as evidence that this war was poorly executed, and poorly planned, and perhaps even wrong in the first place.

But, as for this report…

We Report, You Decide.

🙂

===============

OK, that was a fictitious news report, so here are two fictitious responses to that same report.

===============

“There was another death in Iraq today”

“Uh huh”

“I can’t understand how this President can sleep at night, reading these reports? I mean, he’s gotta be seeing this? Maybe he doesn’t. Maybe he’s too stupid to read the newspaper! Ha!”

“Uh huh…”

“But really, I mean… all these kids being killed… and for what??! Just for oil??? There were no WMDs, there was no connection to 9-11… I mean, doesn’t he watch CNN???? Every dummy can see that this is the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time!”

==============

Just down the road…

==============

“Hon, did you see this?”

“What’s that?”

“There was another attack on our troops in Fallujah today.”

“Oh, yeah… that’s so sad…”

“I know. Can you imagine if that was our son?”

“That is too difficult to imagine.”

“Yeah. But ya know, the parents of these kids have to be SO proud of them. I know they hurt so much, but these kids just have it right. They are willing to give up all that they could do in school, or pursuing a career… just to serve their country, to serve their fellow Americans… and to serve the people in Iraq. They are not thinking about themselves, only about the other people in their unit, and about the people of Iraq – protecting and freeing them.”

“It’s so different from the other folks their age!”

“Yeah! But, so right! I am so proud of our guys for leading the world by example… being willing to give up even THEIR LIFE for the freedom and hope of other people. Just amazing.”

“Amazing.”

==================

OK, now… did they read the same story?!?!? I mean, really?!?!? Weren’t those two completely different interpretations of a situation????

Yes. They were.

Because, we see through lenses. We have a preconceived idea of how things are, and we interpret what we read through that.

The soldiers who died may have all had different lenses as well.

There’s nothing wrong with that, but that does make truth harder to discern.

Tonight we were having a discussion about the Church with some friends of ours, and I kept coming back to, we interpret Scripture through our various lenses. I was reading Acts 2 and seeing Christians meeting together in homes and sharing all of life together. My Bible College sees a road map for what we should do during our 1-hour religious service in our church building.

Like this:

Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Bible College:

“Here we see a model of what we should do every time we meet together (on Sundays). The Apostle’s Teaching is, of course, the Preaching of The Word. The gem of our worship service. Fellowship comes from the word “Koinonia” which means a partnership… so of course, this is the offering part of their service. Breaking of Bread is another term for the Lord’s Supper, so this is why we observe that each Sunday we are together. Just as the first church did. And then, prayer of course was a big part of their lives, and so it was something they did everytime they met together to worship. On Sundays.”

My current view:

“This whole section is about the people whose lives were changed by the man Jesus. The apostles told the stories that they witnessed first-hand over the previous years and the new believers shared the joy of living life with their Creator and Savior. Life in the Holy Spirit created unity like we can only imagine! It changed their lives. They devoted themselves to learning, to sharing life together – their resources, meals, and just hanging out – and to a life of conversation with their Father.”

All of life is interpreted through lenses.

So, what do we do with that? Doesn’t that create division?

YES. It does. Just look at the presidential race. Just look at the 1001 denominations that exist today.

But Jesus tried to strip down the lenses. To give us one simple lense to look through. He said we needed to be like a little child. Simple. Trusting.

In our story from Iraq, the truth, without lenses: 3 soldiers – men, sons, fathers, husbands – died. They were murdered. By people who don’t like them, or at least what they stand for. Public opinion is split.

That’s it. Simple, stripped-down, truth. That’s what we need to see when we try to read Scripture. Simple, stripped-down truth. Sometimes we need to understand culture, context, meaning of words, etc… but really, we just need to take off our lenses, our prejudices, our pre-conceived ideas, and see what is really there.

Does Acts 2 REALLY give us a structure for what we should do together (during our hour together in the theater) as a church, or, does it show us that those Christians did LIFE together, not just an hour or two a week? Does it mandate the things that must be present in a religious ceremony for it to be called “church” or is it a list of things that revealed who the Church belonged to?

Lenses can be quite influential in our perception of reality. Currently, my lenses are showing me that we all have lenses. I don’t really have any answers on who the church is, or what we should do (though I think that’s a loaded question, as we are the church regardless of what we DO…)

Just thought it was an interesting night of seeing through lenses.