“You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!” Paying attention, diligence, concentration, adherence, steadfastness, detail. That’ll do it. How well we follow the law is important. We can train ourselves to be more observant. So that I’m not using examples without copyright permission, I have included a link in the descriptions to a quick video of an example of concentration and our ability to keep up with what’s going on in front of us despite things seeming to be confusing. Give following the ball a whirl and come back and rejoin me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo&ab_channel=DanielSimons
So, how did that go? Were you surprised? Were you able to count the number of times the ball was passed, or should I say, did you see the gorilla? No sweat, it’s not an indictment on our character or abilities if we missed it. It has to do with selective attention. The sad truth.is, as humans, we are not the awesome multitasking monsters we thought we were. I went down this path because of the verse in the second lesson comparing those whose actions do not line up with their faith. Actually it seems many of today’s lessons follow this motif. It seems we can become fixated or focused on the wrong things and completely miss others. Here are a few more examples of how selective attention works. We watched a no-stakes video of girls playing with a basketball. What about something that matters? Trafton Drew, Melissa L. H. Vo and Jeremy M. Wolfe had 24 radiologists look at CT scans of lungs, scanning them for lung nodules, which could be cancerous. Each CT scan had an average of 10 nodules and the radiologists were asked to click on them. The last of the five CT scans had something unexpected turn up on the lung: A gorilla. Which proves a very important point, psychologists are fixated on gorillas. Or maybe it’s something else. I looked at the scan with my very limited knowledge of radiography or imaging or nodules. I was looking for something, anything. Scanned every inch and did not see it. Once I found out about the hidden, or actually, not so hidden gorilla, I thought, you have to be kidding me. So I looked again at the scan and there it was,plain as day. So the pros who do this for a living, who go over images with a fine tooth comb surely caught it. Most radiologists, though, didn’t. When asked “Did you see a gorilla on the final trial?” 20 of the 24 radiologists tested said they did not. It wasn’t for lack of looking. The researchers wrote, “eye-tracking revealed that, of the 20 radiologists who did not report the gorilla, 12 looked directly at the gorilla’s location when it was visible.” Experiments have also been done with seasoned pilots in jet simulators where large objects were sitting on the runway. The results were kind of scary. What about our interactions with one another? A man stops a professorial looking gentleman and his colleague on the corner of a university campus and asks for directions to the gym. While pointing and giving directions, two people carrying a door walk between the asker and the man. The asker seamlessly exchanges carrying the door with one of the men, leaving a new guy behind that is dressed differently and everything. The gentleman and colleague don’t bat an eye and he continues to give directions, oblivious to the fact that this is a different person. It’s becoming pretty obvious why magic shows work. One final experiment sounds pretty Biblical, a lot like the Parable of the Samaritan, but caused by selective attention. The last example answered a serious question that lay at the heart of a courtroom debate. A group was asked to jog a course through a campus following a leader. They were asked to count the times the leader touched his head during the run. They ran about half a mile and were asked if they saw anything unusual on the run. 40 percent missed (these were actors) two men beating up another man. This was during daylight, and the percentage went way up at night. As it turns out, our brains are not video or audio recorders, we are not always on alert and we are not the multitasking monsters we think we are. It is very common to misremember things or take on the memories of others like it happened to us, or not notice something that we think should be really obvious. It seemed kind of odd when I first read it, but I think it’s a great analogy or simile that James uses. It is like a person that looks at themselves in a mirror and walks away and forgets what was there. I think we believe or have high confidence or that if it is important enough, or if we are trained observers, that we would always notice abnormalities or danger. The problem is that we have expectations about what should be there or what is normal or comfortable to us. I think it’s sort of habitual. We focus and are on alert for certain things, and our personal radar in our brains just fails to detect the unexpected. We truly get absorbed in our tasks or interests or beliefs or tradition. Kind of makes you think about the things we do or try to do while driving. No one expects a child to be sitting on a street or many other possible hazards or obstacles. The leaders in the Gospel for today were focused heavily on their traditions and Jesus is pointing out the gorilla in the picture, and so is James. Jesus wants our focus to be on people and a broad spectrum of them. Do we truly look at and honor our brothers and sisters in Christ with our full attention? In our interactions, do we stop to recognize peoples’ individuality and their uniqueness as God’s children? How often do we afford others only selective attention and zone others out? So we are not recorders and it is evidently pretty easy to miss important things if our focus is on the wrong things. Sometimes, I think our confidence is a problem as it is easy to lapse over from confidence to arrogance. Our decisions, orders or directions we are given, traditions, expectations and the like can blind us to the reality of the needs around us and to the mission to which Jesus untrusted us. Let us pray for and embrace the humility to realize all the things we can miss and come to look and re-look for the unexpected. Let’s look into the mirror and see the reflection of God’s grace. We see our baptismal reflection where, while we were still sinful, Jesus died for us. We hear that, at least on a Sunday to Sunday basis. The challenge is to have the humility to see that same reflection in others by not forgetting what was first done for us and who we are. We have to be careful counting the sins, faults or transgressions of others or even ourselves and keenly focus on the reflection of God’s love and grace. When we realize that we are not perfect and how likely it is for us to overlook or misstep or miss the gorilla we can become more and more aware of the needs around us. The good news is that we are forgiven our shortcomings. As they are pointed out though we are called to correct course, modify our actions, observation and attention. Luther did not abandon the law. He pointed to the fact that there are three uses for the law. Luther said that the law should be used as a curb, a mirror and a guide. I would say a curb, a guide and a mirror. A curb to keep us from sinning, a guide to show us how to live in grace, and a mirror, let’s give it a cool name, as an oculus of truth. The mirror lets us know if we are truly reflecting the first two or if we have forgotten what we first received, so that we can honor God with both our lips and hearts, our words and our deeds. Most likely there is always an overlooked gorilla in the picture of life, we must pray for the vision, the hearts and the wisdom to see it. Let’s go forward seeing ourselves as we are, sinful and imperfect, but loved, forgiven and cherished so that others too, may see the truth about themselves, for it is the Truth that sets us free.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo&ab_channel=DanielSimons
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