A Second Glance, a Second Chance
Speaker: Rev. Matt Henry
Location: Whitney United Methodist Church
Date: January 18, 2009
How many of you here are familiar with the television show “Antiques Road Show?” Raise your hand if you’re familiar with that show. Okay. Well, if you are familiar with that show you know that the entire show is predicated on this principle, a second glance and a second chance. How often have you seen a segment where some woman brings in some old, charred, beat up, cracked, broken piece of pottery and says, “I found it on the side of the road. I wasn’t sure if it meant anything, or it may have some Native American designs on it,” and you know what happens, right? Because they’re interviewing her, personally, you know that it’s not just some run of the mill piece of junk. No, we always wait with bated breath as the interviewer says, and we put ourselves in her place in that television show, “Well, yes, it is broken and it’s tarnished but it’s a very rare Zuni pot. These were only made in the 1860s for about one year. It’s worth, on the market place probably about $30,000.” And, you know, now we like to see that lady just get floored, don’t we? We like to see those bug eyes and that slack jaw and the “Oh, my God” and…a second glance and a second chance, that’s what that show’s founded on.
Now one of God’s main jobs is actually making people, right? He makes them to replace the ones that die and so there will be enough people to take care of things on Earth. He doesn’t make grownups, just babies….an 8th grader is saying this….I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way he doesn’t have to take up his valuable time teaching them to talk and walk, he can just leave that to mothers and fathers. One of God’s main jobs is making people.
How many of you are familiar with the ancient Greek myth of Pygmalion? Raise your hand if you are familiar with the story of Pygmalion. Okay. All of you actually are familiar with the story of Pygmalion. You probably knew it better as a musical called “My Fair Lady” so this is the story of Pygmalion. Pygmalion, as the Greek legend goes, was a sculptor from Cyprus and he carves a statue of a beautiful woman for the Goddess of Love, Athena. Pygmalion was alone, an old man, and he was lonely and so he carves this statue for Athena and he makes the statue so perfect he falls in love with it. So Athena, looking on, takes pity on Pygmalion and brings his statue to life.
Now there was another sculptor a long time ago, in the middle of the 15th century to be exact, about 1460. His name was Agostino Di Duccio, an Italian, and Duccio had a block of marble quarried out of the most famous marble quarry in the world, it’s in southeastern Italy, it’s called the Carrara quarry, and Carrara marble is known for its pure white beautiful perfect texture and the color of marble, and it’s known all over the world. So Duccio had a block of marble quarried out of the Carrara quarry and to odd specifications. It wasn’t to normal standard specs. Duccio had this block quarried out as a very tall piece of marble and a very narrow piece of marble and a very thin piece of marble. It wasn’t that thin but, so it looks like this kind of very tall bar magnet. And Duccio was the talk of the town because everybody thought…well, what a strange piece of marble. Why would you have a piece of marble that shape? And Duccio didn’t tell anyone.
So he’s got this piece of marble in his studio and he takes his hammer and chisel and he starts whacking out the middle of it, about half way up, on the side. Whack, whack, whack…it’s like a guy with an ax hitting a tree. So he carves out this huge chunk right out the side of the big chunk and then he promptly dies of a heart attack. So his block then sits around outside of his studio for a number of years. It’s about 10 years later another Italian sculptor by the name of Antonio Rossellino decides….I think I’ll try something with Duccio’s block here even though it’s misshapen and odd, so Rossellino picks up his hammer and chisel and he starts whacking at it where Duccio had attacked it and…well, Rossellino ends up making it look far worse. So now what started out as a beautiful piece of marble is ruined and it sits out in Duccio’s studio, outside, for the next 40 years. And what started out as a beautiful piece of pure silky white beautiful perfect marble under the weather of the Italian sun and the rains and the dust and dirt, and over 40 years time the marble takes on a patina of age and wear and it looks horrible.
So now you’ve got this piece of marble that was quarried in an odd shape in the first place, it’s got a huge chunk taken out of the middle, it’s dirty beyond anything, and finally Duccio’s affairs, what’s left of his estate is being liquidated and there’s an auction. There’s a crowd of people bidding on everything and the Duccio block comes up. And the auctioneer’s thinking that whoever takes this block is going to whack it in two, finish what Duccio started and make two smaller pieces that are worth far less than it would have been. A little voice pipes up in the back from a little known sculptor from Florence. He’s really unknown. People know him a little bit but he has no reputation. Everybody looks at him and goes, “What in the world would you want this horrible misshapen dirty old weathered beaten up block of marble for? You’re crazy.” And the sculptor said, “Well, I want it anyway and I’ll bid this much for it.” And so he won it.
So the sculptor took it home to his own studio, which was inside, and this is what this sculptor did. The sculptor spent days looking up at it, meditating on its ugliness, its brokenness, its misshapenness, its malformed ness. And the sculptor walked around and viewed it from every angle very carefully and he spent days with it and then, finally, very carefully the sculptor picked up the chisel and the hammer and started to just gently whack out pieces around other parts of this stone. And what had looked originally like a giant letter “K” with this big cut, cut out of the middle of it. A few months go by and the sculptor is done with Duccio’s block and he invites his close friends and a few art associates over. And everybody is curious. What has he possibly done with this famous malformed misshapen old hunky piece of stone? And he pulls down the cloth and today we have it in the middle of Florence, one of the most beautiful and famous pieces in the world. It is King David with his sling back and one leg stuck out and he’s just about to sling the stone that kills Goliath, with his rippling muscles and that face of determination. The sculptor was Michelangelo, and when asked by the art community how in the world he managed to carve something so powerful and beautiful and majestic out of that horrible broken malshaped piece of stone he merely said, “All I did was, I took away what didn’t belong.”
For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are your works, that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret. Intrically woven in the depths of the earth your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them has yet existed. This Psalm is a theological claim to God’s omniscience or all knowing. Omniscience. It actually is a conjunction of two words omni (one) and science. All knowing. One science if you will. And while God’s hemming us in, as this Psalm says, while God’s hemming us in protects us it also keeps us from being able to hide. So, my friends, my question to you this morning is…are you happy God is your fence? Or are you distressed he’s your cage? What about your other significant relationships in your life? Are they fences or are they cages? Do you long to be known by someone? As my wife said last night at dinner when she ordered a piece of salmon that I knew she would. She ordered a piece of teriyaki salmon and I looked at it and I said, “This is comfort food for you.” And she looked at me and she said, “It is so good to be known by someone.” Right? They know just how I feel. Do you long to be known by someone like that or are you anxious about your privacy? I can’t let anyone know how I feel
God you see is our sculptor, right? and God takes this raw material and fashions us into something beautiful, but into what we label deficient, a failure, unattractive, dumb, loser, a big “L” instead of a giant “K”. So our Creator takes mud and makes you and I and we dare to call it anything other than fearfully and wonderfully made? Take a second glance friends. Give yourself a second chance, for God just doesn’t make junk, amen? Or maybe you’re angry with God because of other people or circumstances. It’s okay to be angry with God but it’s not okay to stay angry with God, for even God deserves a second glance and a second chance. Jesus’ dieing is worth that much.
Now, speaking of Jesus and statues (otherwise known as disciples) out of the core twelve, let’s look at this for a second, he picks four who so desperately are important for the job. He chose some, like Peter, who are real dim bulbs. He chose a couple of real self-centered narcissists like the Zebedee boys. He chose some despised losers like Matthew. He chose at least one high strung, with violent tendencies. That’s Simon the zealot. And then of course there’s Judas. This is who Jesus chose as his core twelve and I’ve got to ask. Jesus is a Nazarene up in Galilee and either he knew a lot of people or he knew no one, so why did he choose the twelve he did? Did he give them a second glance and figure he’d just take away what didn’t belong?
And then there’s you and me, and Nathaniel. Good old Nathaniel. Nathaniel is skeptical when it comes to Jesus. “Can anything good come out of Canyon County?” Yet Nathaniel responds to his brother’s, “Come and check it out man. Just come and see.” Nathaniel is willing to give Jesus a second glance and what began as a worthless Nazarene, a Duccio block, ends up as the Son of God, the King of Israel, the new David. Nathaniel gives Jesus a second glance and so Jesus declares him a man with no deceit, and gives him a second chance. When bystanders in 1504 said, “Can anything good come out of that piece of marble?” Michelangelo gave the Duccio block a second glance and a second chance and we have the David because of it. You see, his eyes beheld the unformed substance, being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Whereas others saw wreck and ruin he saw a king waiting to be freed from that which doesn’t belong, amen?
A little boy wanted to meet God. Maybe it was a little girl like Lexi. He know it was a long trip to where God lived so he packed his suitcase with (get this) Twinkies and a six-pack of Root Beer and he started his journey. Now that’s a smart kid. And when he had gone about, oh, three blocks, he met an old man. He was sitting in the park just staring at some pigeons. The boy sat down next to him and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink from his Root Beer when he noticed that the old man looked hungry, so he offered him a Twinkie. The man gratefully accepted it and smiled at him. His smile was so pleasant that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered him a Root Beer. Again, the man smiled on him. The boy was delighted! They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word.
As it grew dark, the boy realized how tired he was and he got up to leave, but before he had gone more than a few steps, he turned around, ran back to the old man, and gave him a hug. He gave him his biggest smile ever. When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face. She asked him, “What did you do today that made you so happy?” He replied, “I had lunch with God.” But before his mother could respond, he added, “You know what? He’s got the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen!”
Meanwhile, the old man, also radiant with joy, returned to his home. His son was stunned by the look of peace on his face and he asked, “Dad, what did you do today that made you so happy?” He replied, “I ate Twinkies in the park with God.” However, before his son responded, he added, “You know, he’s much younger than I expected.”
This is how God sees you. As something you see as withered and cracked and fatigued, and rough around the edges, something raw and brittle, but what God declares beautiful and lovely and worthy. And God calls you to break on out of that shell and to “Follow me.” God has given us, friends, through Jesus a second glance and a second chance. Will you give that back to Jesus? What about those you’re supposed to love and support? Will you give that to them? What about yourself? Will you give it to you? When God has, with all of the above, how can you act any differently? At the end of our lives, as we lay there on our death bed, may we think of Christ and of (as Paul McCartney puts is) “All we’ve had the pleasure to know.” And may our final breath be used to declare, “I come to the end and I am still with you.”
The word of our Lord, Jesus Christ.