When anxious teenagers finally go to get that sovereign rite of passage into adulthood called the “driver’s license,” they have to pass a tricky written test and a nerve-racking driving test. But there is a third test they must pass as well: A vision test.

It is one of the odder quirks of the DMV (Division of Motor Vehicles) that the eye exam is often given last — suggesting that knowing the rules and operating a vehicle are more important than being sure you can see where you are going!

For most drivers, the eye exam is nothing, takes virtually no time, and hardly registers as a “test.” That is, until you reach a certain age. For older drivers the one exam they cannot study for, the one skill they cannot improve with practice, the one exam over which they have the least control, becomes the biggest obstacle to renewing their license. Degenerating eyesight, either because of cataracts, glaucoma, astigmatisms, or just increasing near- or far-sightedness, ends the driving careers of many older adults.

In driving, there comes a time when experience and insight don’t help. What is required is eyesight.

The problem with the old adage “what you see is what you get” is that vision is surprisingly subjective. Ask any police officer trying to get eyewitness reports at the scene of an accident and they will confirm that ten witnesses will give ten very different versions of the event. They eye might be an amazing piece of biological equipment. The eye might be a remarkable camera. The eye might be a feat of unparalleled divine imagination. But the information behind the images the eye spies is processed by our whole being. Every “picture” our eyes take is colored, clouded, focused, and framed, by a lifetime of experiences and expectations.

As Jesus strolled around the temple during the festival of Dedication, his image was at odds with the picture of a Messiah that the Jewish people had come to expect. The Festival of Dedication commemorated a military-religious triumph. Under the leadership of Judas Maccabee (aka “Judah the Hammer”), the Syrians were sent packing. The so-called “desolating sacrilege” (1 Maccabee 1:59) of a pagan altar constructed within the temple was torn down. A new altar was constructed and sanctified. The Jewish victors celebrated, confident that God’s presence had once again been established and ensconced within the temple.

Jesus did not look like any “Judas the Hammer” or talk like one either. Jesus did not speak of running the Romans out of town on a rail. Jesus talked about being a “Good Shepherd.” Jesus spoke of self-sacrifice. Jesus likened the faithful to “sheep,” not mighty warriors. Jesus offered protection and presence, not triumph and glory.

To “the Jews” who questioned his identity and challenged him to tell them “plainly” if he were the Messiah, Jesus just didn’t look right or sound right. His words and images were not what they expected.

How could suffering bring salvation?

How could weakness bring strength?

How could a shepherd stand up against a soldier?

How could the presence of Almighty God reside in such a humble spirit as this Jesus?

These Jews failed their vision test. They could only focus on the work God had done in Israel’s past. They could not envision the work God was doing now, the new work of God that stood before them. They were on the lookout for pillars of fire and clouds of smoke. They were searching the horizon for a mighty warrior with a heavenly army. Their eyes were peeled for signs of divine power and majesty.

And thus they missed the Messiah who stood in their midst.

The image of the Good Shepherd who strolled along Solomon’s portico on a chilly winter afternoon, promising eternal life to those who heard his voice and followed him . . . that image of the Messiah didn’t fit into their categories. They blinked, and they missed their divine visitation. They blinked, and they missed God’s presence.

None of us have prefect vision—and our iffy eyesight has nothing to do with the shape of our eyeball or of an inability to focus. We suffer from a variety of colorful maladies. Here are a few of them this morning. See if you suffer from any of these. Let’s call them “The Color Wheel of Blindness.” For when you see life through one of these colors, you are unable to see the divine in the mist, in our midst.

1) Pink Eye:

For all of us at some point, as a kid or a parent, an itchy, red, watery eye has lead to the diagnosis of “conjunctivitis,” aka “pink eye.” This inflammation of the tissue surrounding the eyeball can get nasty if left untreated. It is highly contagious. Pink eye periodically sweeps through whole schoolrooms.

Pink eye is a spiritual as well as biological infection that if left untreated makes the whole process of seeing uncomfortable, then miserable, and eventually unbearable.

The “pink eye” that keeps us from seeing God’s presence is nothing less than that infection we all carry within us, systemic sinfulness, and it affects all we see and do. It is a tragic human condition that we are all too often “in the pink.” Our own shortfalls and sins color all our relationships, all our interactions, with a sickly pink haze.

Mired in our own misery we “think pink” about everyone and everything. And we miss the presence of God even when it stares us in the face.

2) Yellow Eye:

When the liver malfunctions a substance known as bilirubin builds up in our body and turns not only our skin but the whites of our eyes a sickly yellow. Our whole body becomes jaundiced.

Yellow eye is also a symptom of a jaundiced soul. A build up of disappointments and failures, a lifetime of collecting too much waste, an attitude of expecting the worst, leads a sickened soul to turn cynical and sarcastic. A yellow eye has no tears for others and leads to calluses on the heart.

A jaundiced worldview and worship life misses the miracles that occur everyday.

3) Green Eye:

Medieval maps would stop abruptly at the end of known lands and leave a terrifying blank space identified only as a place where “There Be Monsters.”

One of the worst monsters ever to stalk the world has always been found squarely in our midst — the green-eyed monster of jealousy and envy. The green eye cannot celebrate the successes of others without feeling left out and lousy. The green-eyed monster sees only what others have and never notices the abundant gifts that surround its own life. Bad thoughts and bad prayers begin with these two words: “How come . . . ?”

When green is color of your glare, life is all about “how comes” and not having enough — enough money, enough love, enough glamour, enough power, enough stuff, enough influence. When you’re asking “how come I didn't get the birthday party/office promotion/the kind of husband/wife......[fill in the blank]...... that s/he got?...you can’t see the blue sky for the yellow rain.

When the leaves of the tree go yellow, the tree goes blind.

4) Black Eye:

When someone shows up at work or school with a black eye, the big joke is always “I walked into a door.” Or “I fell and hit the floor.”

No matter how much we may duck and weave and keep on our toes, everyone of us has sported a black eye at some point just from walking into life. Or falling and hitting the floor.

Some of the most permanently damaging black eyes are those we receive from our own community of faith. “Friendly fire” has blackened the vision of many a disciple. “Friendly fire” has left the faithful bleary eyed, wary and weary of heart. When we are pummeled in that place where we are supposed to feel the most secure, the most loved, the damage is the most extensive.

One of the worst things we can do as a follower of Jesus is give another brother or sister a black eye. When we in any way contribute to giving a black eye to any member of the church, we are giving a black eye to the Body of Christ. When the world sees that black eye, it assumes the church is just another brawling, mauling example of “faith in action.” When we blacken the eyes of our own, we blacken the image of Christ we present to the world.

[You can add more colors to the Color Wheel of Blindness here – e.g. rose-tinted, black-and-blue, etc or shorten the chart as you see fit. Paint companies sell more than 2000 colors to choose from when you’re painting your home.

Or: this is one possible place to end your sermon. Or if you have time, develop it further along these lines....]

So how do we actually see the presence of Jesus in our midst? How do we discern the present tense of Jesus in our world?

The world is a burning bush of God’s presence. What blinds us to the glow? How can we nudge each other to see the flames?

Sight is the majestic sense of visual perception that interprets the light. From a few microns to a few light years, our perceptions of life are shaped by sight. When God speaks of the God-self, one of the metaphors is light. Sight is predicated by light. No light, no sight. Divine revelation is seen but still on its way to us, like light from a remote star.

As we journey together in the way of Jesus, the light of Christ provides the stimulus to our faith-trained perception of sight. As we nudge each other closer to the light of Christ, as we nudge each other in recognition of His prompting: How is it that we can develop LENSES that render our perception more like His?

Maybe we can learn some things from professional photographers about how to get a new view of the world as an arena of divine activity.

To change their perspective, their focus, their vision, photographers draw from a palette of different lenses. It is time we stopped seeing life through isolated colors. It is time we started changing the lenses we use to look at others, at the world, at ourselves. It’s time to try different lenses, especially lenses which will refract a full spectrum of colors.

For example, when we need to “act local” we need a zoom lens, an eye that focuses in on the small picture. Zooming God’s presence into a single scene, a solitary existence, can transform the world one person at a time. Visit someone who is “shut in” and bring them back out into the world of human relationships and contacts. Mentor one restless teenager and point them in the direction of faith and community. Sponsor one child, making schooling and health care a reality for them, and you can change the world. The power of one has never been greater, which means the power of the zoom lens is indispensable in our faith.

When we need to “think global,” its time to get out the wide-angle lens. Get a grasp of the big picture. Be amazed at the connectivity that binds together all our communities. Discern the presence of God in the big picture, in different places, in different faces, in different styles, in different times. The way we do ministry here isn’t God’s only way. It is just our way in this place for our day.

When we need a heavenly perspective, maybe we should get out the telescopic lens. The Hubbell telescope has been letting astronomers and physicists explore the most distant corners of our universe. So vast are the heavens that the events we see through our telescopes had to travel so far that we are viewing events that occurred light years ago.

The Hubbell telescope is a powerful symbol of the ultimate lens of a living faith. In the Hubbell telescope we see the past played out now. In the Hubbell telescope we experience the past as our present which informs an understanding of our future.

God’s presence to us today is past, present, and future. Living in God’s presence means we have to be able to see backward and see forward at the same time. Get out your zoom lens, your wide-angle lens. And take a look at these pictures from the Hubbell telescope. The music in the background is by Steve Vai and entitled “For the Love of God.” http://www.youtube.com/user/Here4Disclosure

[There are lots of other options of Hubbell images set to music on YouTube.]