The Mirror (Short Homily)

The Mirror
(Short Homily)

James 1:16-27

What image do we see when we look in the mirror? Who is that person in the reflection? As I thought about this passage I began to realize that all of us look at life in slightly different ways.

We each see ourselves differently because we are seeing a reflection of who we think we are. But where is that reflection coming from? What kind of mirror are we looking into?

Remember the passage in Corinthians "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face (Pause) now I know in part; but then shall I know fully (Pause) just as I also have been fully known."

Some people look at themselves, (Pause) at their image, as though they were looking into a very tiny mirror.

You know the mirror I’m talking about. Every woman seems to have one.

I know my mother would always have one buried somewhere inside her purse. She would hand one of us the mirror and say get that smudge off your face or your hair is all messed up. It’s was so small I could hardly see anything but my own eyeball looking back at me.

Though, I have looked at my own life at times (Pause) through a tiny mirror. You fix a little something here. You cover up a little something there. And if you can’t fix it or cover it up you move the mirror away so you won’t have to look at yourself anymore.

But if were honest that image that we think were covering up or ignoring is seen not only by God but by those around us.
Sometimes we think we are hiding something very well, that others see so very clearly.

It isn’t that we can’t get a bigger mirror. It’s that we have become comfortable with the false image and maybe we have even convinced ourselves that we are fine just the way we are.

There are some things in our lives that we would like to hide. But it is those very things that we are hiding from or refuse to change that in time become sin to us. They will keep us from transforming into the image of Christ. (Pause)

Have you ever been into a house of mirrors at a fair or carnival? I remember running around to every mirror and would make all kinds of different poses and stick my tongue out and watch it get so long that it looked like it touched the floor. Have you been there?

Some of the mirrors make you look like you are much taller than you really are.

Have you every let your image be warped into thinking you are better than someone else. I have. You let yourself become much taller in your own eyes than you really are.

Often we do not even know that we are looking through this mirror. We just ignore certain people around us and we become like the Priest and the Levite in the story of the Good Samaritan.

In our case we might walk by the poor, the sick, the new family that came to church or the homeless.

Paul must have known some people like this in the early church. He said in Romans, "., I say to every man among you, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think"

On the opposite side of that point of view are those who look into a warped mirror and see an image of themselves; that is much shorter than it truly is.

People who use this mirror to see themselves often believe that they can never be special.

Oh sure I have looked through this mirror also. Sometimes we look through this mirror when we are stressed, depressed or wondering why God would ever use a