More Than We Can See
2 Corinthians 5:7-9, 14-17[1]
Most of us, I think, are
people who process information through what we see. I would say that the advent
of television shifted the test of what we believe from “I heard it” to “I saw
it.” Personally, I don’t remember a time when television was not a daily part
of life in our society. I think that the developments with the internet that
I’ve seen in my lifetime have only made us even more dependent on what we see.
We have access to live video feeds from all over the world, almost as soon as
events are happening. This is a reality that my children have grown up with.
The problem is that you can’t
base your faith in what God is doing in our lives and in our world on what you
can see. Think about it, it really isn’t that hard to believe what we see
through various media—news, internet, or social media. But anyone with
experience in photography can tell you that the lens can dramatically alter how
we understand life. We are actually taking a step of faith to believe that
those media are accurately depicting the events they portray. That’s just as
true for our faith in God as it is for what we choose to believe about our
world. It depends to a great extent on the lens through which we view our
faith. Believe it or not, that can make all the difference in the world in
where we come out with our faith.
I think St. Paul was
continually trying to get the people he was serving to adjust the lens through
which they were viewing their life and their faith. There were all kinds of
competing “visions” of reality in his day, just as there are today. For some,
the notion of a crucified Savior was utter foolishness, if not outright
blasphemy. For others, the idea that a dead man could come back to life was
simply “non-sense.” These weren’t theoretical obstacles; St. Paul had actually
encountered people who raised these and other objections to his gospel.
In the face of the skepticism
and cynicism of his world, Paul continued to declare the good news of the
resurrection of Jesus from death to new life. For him, that becomes the lens
through which to view all aspects of our faith in what God is doing in our
lives, in our world, and ultimately in all creation. If we do not view our
lives through the lens of the resurrection, then as St. Paul says elsewhere,
our faith and even the gospel itself are useless, and “we are of all people
most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:19). But, of course, the Apostle would never
concede that to be the truth. He never stopped insisting that we view what we
can see through the lens of what we cannot see: that Jesus was indeed raised
from the dead on the third day, and is alive and working in each of us to this
very day.
And so it is that St. Paul
insists that “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). One of the most
important aspects of this faith is the conviction that, just as God raised
Jesus from death to new life, so he will raise us to new life as well. In one
respect, this applies to what happens to us after we die. And, unfortunately,
the Bible is perhaps unnervingly silent about just exactly what that looks
like. But here, St. Paul says it in a memorable way: to be “away from the body”
is to be “at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). While he doesn’t describe it in
detail, I think the image of being “at home” is one that can help us to be
“confident” as he was.
But St. Paul goes beyond what
our faith means for the afterlife. He insists that our confidence extends to
this life as well. And he expresses that confidence in this way: “if anyone is
in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see,
everything has become new!” (2 Cor. 5:17). St. Paul reaches back to the prophet
Isaiah for a concept that may be hard for us to grasp: the idea of a new heaven
and a new earth. According to Isaiah, what God is up to is nothing less than
the complete renewal of everything and everyone. And for St. Paul, that
constituted a whole “new creation” that has already begun in our lives here and
now. But here as well, we have to be able to put our trust in more than we can
see!
I think this is difficult for
most of us. We live in a “matter-of-fact” world, where we look for results that
can be measured. “What have you done for me lately” becomes the basis by which
we evaluate the people, ideas, and experiences we encounter in life. But the
problem with this approach is that when all you have to go on is what your eyes
can see, then the story of our lives really is nothing more than you pay your
taxes and then you die! Might makes right, cheaters prosper, and money talks. While
there may be many in our world who embrace that outlook on life, it can only
end in despair, both for this life and for the next.
What St. Paul wanted the
people of his day and ours to understand is that God does not operate within
the limits of what we can see. God demonstrated that conclusively by raising
Jesus from the dead! And that means we are called to put our trust in “more
than what we have yet seen.” At least part of that “something more” is that God
is working in this world to bring about a whole new creation. The first act of
that new creation was raising Jesus from the dead. But God didn’t stop there.
God continues to work in all of our lives and in the whole creation to “make
all things new” (Rev. 21:5). It may seem too good to be true. If so, it means
that we are called to stretch our faith beyond the confines of our doubts to
trust in more than we can see.
[1] ©
2018 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 6/17/2018 at
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
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