“A Matter of Perspective” – Sermon for Lent 4C

Imagine you are walking down Main St. in Gloucester. You see a young man sitting on a park bench, head drooped.  He looks disheveled.  He’s talking to himself. 

Who do you suppose he is?  Maybe an addict? 

As you continue walking,  you see another young man confidently strutting.  He’s got a sharp hair cut and a fine suit.  He also appears to be talking to himself – but then you notice his ear buds.

Who do you suppose he is? Maybe a successful business person? 

Psychologists estimate that it takes us between less than a second and no more than 7 seconds to size up another person.  Our brains are wired to assess threat and to make judgements based on what we already know. 

It’s quite possible as we notice the first man, that we may decide to cross the street and walk on the other side. It’s also possible that as we encounter the second man we smile and say “hello.”

In an instant, we’ve likely already determined something about who these two people are and how we will relate to them – up close or from a distance.  With very little information, we may have already created narratives that have judged one as “bad” and the other as “good.”

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus encounters a man whom others have likely walked by for years and judged as “bad.”  We are told that even his disciples presume that either this man or his parents have sinned, and ask Jesus about this.  Later, even after this man is healed by Jesus, the Pharisees continue to hold onto their view of him – as someone born in sin. They seem to think they know all they need to know about him. 

The Pharisees are so attached to their beliefs about the man born blind, that they are unable to see what God is doing right before their eyes. They are suffering from a common human predisposition: confirmation bias. 

It is also one of the particular traps of the time we are living in.

Confirmation bias is the tendency for us to seek, interpret, and remember information in a way that confirms our  pre-existing beliefs or values. This bias leads us to focus on evidence that supports our views while dismissing or undervaluing information that contradicts them. As a result, confirmation bias can create a distorted understanding of reality – including other people, reinforcing stereotypes and obfuscating the truth.  

Judaism, Christianity, and Buddhism agree: We do not see God, people, or circumstances as they are, but as we are. 

And in 2026, many of us are feeling overwhelmed and frightened, coloring the lenses through which we see others.   We live in a world with more information than we can possibly process;  and in a country where it appears that our leaders are intentionally “flooding the zone” to advance their agenda. As Americans, we receive news in vastly different information universes and our online algorithms amplify pre-existing view points. And so, in a state of near constant alarm, it is only natural that we look for simple assessments that correspond to what we know, what we believe, and what we think will make us safe.  In such an atmosphere, truth is often a casualty. 

Rather than facts driving beliefs, our beliefs can dictate the facts we choose to accept, which can lead us to uncritically adopt incomplete or false information. As our beliefs are reinforced we become more confident we’re right, and even less likely to listen to any new information. In such an atmosphere, misinformation easily spreads. (Keohane)

Rev. Michael Marsh writes, “We have probably all met someone who is so fanatical in his or her beliefs that he or she cannot see another point of view. He cannot look at any other possibility. She refuses to see other ways but her own. Not only have we met these people; too often we are these people.   We all have certain beliefs to which we cling. They offer the illusion of stability and security. So we no longer live in the real world, God’s world, but a world that we have created in our head.”

Political Scientist Brendan Nyhan discovered that people who feel insecure or threatened are less likely to receive new information than people who feel secure. This is one reason why demagogues benefit from keeping people agitated. The more threatened people feel, the less likely they are to listen to dissenting opinions, and the more easily they are manipulated.

In yesterday’s New York Times, Jamelle Bouie wrote that the President “has filtered out information that might challenge his preconceptions, his assumptions, or even simply his ego… There is no way for a president to prioritize, decide and follow through if he does not have access to the facts and unvarnished intelligence needed to make cleareyed decisions”.

And if you are the most powerful leader in the world and surround yourself with people who are only telling you what you want to hear, the information you are not getting could be the difference between life and death for an untold number of other people. 

Jesus shows us another way.  In him the only bias, the only lens,  is love.  When Jesus encounters the blind man, he sees him with eyes of love. 

And he knows something the Pharisees will never know.  It doesn’t matter if we’re blind or deaf or gay or trans or female or a newly arrived immigrant… none of the identities that society tries to define us by are or we cling to are as important as our primary identity as children of God.  

Jesus recognizes that no matter what label, what  identity someone places on us or we place on ourselves, we are more.  Whatever our background, whatever our limitations or even our sins – no matter what our lives have been about in the past –  we  are seen with loving eyes by God in the present.

Holding the blind man and holding each of us with eyes of love, Jesus not only sees us  as we are – he recognizes that our limitations and even our sins can be used by God to become instruments of grace.   God can take the very conditions of our lives that have brought us pain and use them for the good. 

At Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, a vast rehabilitation center for formerly incarcerated addicts and gang members, this is exactly what Fr. Greg Boyle does. One journalist, wrote, “On a typical day at Homeboy, Fr. Greg sees homie after homie. Listening to them. Hearing their challenges. Asking them about their goals. One time I sat by his desk for a while, and he was writing check after check, helping this person with rent, and another with groceries. Homies melt into a bear hug, their face buried in his shoulder. He puts his hand on another homie’s shoulders, looking at him with a singular focus that makes them feel like they are the most important person in the world.”

Once healed by Jesus, the formerly blind man is no longer limited by an identity others can’t seem to let go of – that he was born blind at birth.  Instead, he is free to choose to live as a beloved child of God.  That is the question for us – can we set aside those identities we inherited or those identities based on our imperfections and faults and live into our identity as a child of God? 

Reflecting on his work, Fr. Greg says, “The problem isn’t that some people are good and some people are bad. The problem is that not everybody can see their own goodness. They don’t know that they’re unshakably good. Knowing that is the consequential discovery.

Getting people to see their own goodness, and to eliminate the obstacles that impede them from seeing it, is the struggle daily at Homeboy. But that is the struggle in our world. People can’t see the truth of who they are. That they’re exactly how God designed them when God made them. The world looks differently when you discover that.”

Back to Main Street… what if I were to tell you that the young man sitting on the bench was someone I’d met at the Grace Center… and when he saw me, he invited me to sit down. Next he kindly asked, “How are you? Can I buy you a cup of coffee?”

And the young man who walked past had not only made his money dishonestly, but was unwilling to contribute when a co-worker organized a fundraiser for a local charity.  

Would you feel the same about them as you did when they were first described? 

Consider this: which of these two does it turn out was acting as a child of God?

The challenge for us is to look at both men, to look at everyone, to look at ourselves, the way Jesus would… not quick to judge, but with eyes of love and compassion, seeing in each person, seeing in ourselves, an unlimited potential to serve the God of love. Amen.

Sources: “How Facts Backfire” by Joe Keohane, The Boston Globe, July 11, 2010.

Image credit: Ann Lukesh