BELIEVING IS SEEING
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? It’s quite a conundrum, is it not? Chickens hatch from eggs, but eggs are laid by chickens, making it difficult to say which originally gave rise to the other. Perhaps the question could even spark a debate between those who advocate evolution and those who advocate creationism, but we don’t want to go there. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
That’s the question that came into my mind as I thought about the passages we read this morning – the passage from Genesis and the passage from Romans. Both passages refer to the faith of Abraham. Yet regarding faith, perhaps there is a conundrum that comes to mind as well. Which of these statements is correct: “Seeing is believing,” or “Believing is seeing?” Which of those statements defines our world view? Which of those statements defines our faith view? Are they the same? Should they be the same?
A therapist by the name of Lynne Forrest believes human nature tends to adhere to the former. “Seeing is believing,” most of us are wont to say. Forrest writes in a recent article, “We, of western culture, have grown up in an absolutist world. We are taught early in life to disregard anything we cannot see or touch. We are literalists, who tend to dismiss the unseen and unexplained.” Ah, seeing is believing, most of us tend to say. Seeing is believing.
With that thought in mind, let me ask you this. How many of you here today believe in unidentified flying objects? Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask for a show of hands. How many of you here today believe in unidentified flying objects?
According to recent polls, almost 50% of Americans surveyed do believe in UFOs. A two-hour primetime special hosted by Peter Jennings back in 2005 explored the UFO phenomenon. Peter Jennings himself said, “As a journalist, I began this project with a healthy dose of skepticism and as open a mind as possible. After almost 150 interviews with scientists, investigators and with many of those who claim to have witnessed unidentified flying objects, there are important questions that have not been completely answered – and a great deal not fully explained.” How’s that for being noncommittal?
The documentary itself explored a number of UFO cases. In October of 1968 at the Air Force base in Minot, North Dakota, sixteen airmen on the ground and the crew of an airborne B-52 witnessed a massive unidentified flying object hovering near the base. In Phoenix, Arizona in March of 1997, hundreds witnessed a huge triangular craft moving slowly over the city. In southwest Illinois, not far from St. Louis, police officers in five adjoining towns independently reported seeing a giant craft with bright lights moving silently across the sky at a very low altitude in January of 2000.
Today, if you report a UFO to the U.S. government, you will be informed that the Air Force conducted a 22-year investigation that ended in 1969 and concluded that UFOs are not a threat to national security and are of no scientific interest. But as one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists says in the program, “You simply cannot dismiss the possibility that some of these UFO sightings are actually sightings of some object created by…a civilization perhaps millions of years ahead of us in technology.”
Are you convinced? Do you believe in UFOs? Science has shown us that the universe
is incredibly vast. It stands to reason that there is intelligent life out there somewhere. As for me, however, I’ll believe it when I see it. I guess my natural world view is this: Seeing is believing.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was an early 19th century philosopher and writer. His philosophy seems to be the opposite of that. He once wrote, “…the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. A whole stream of events issue from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no (one) could have dreamed would have come (their) way.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe seems to be saying that believing is seeing.
Let’s take a look at Abraham in the passage we read from the book of Genesis. When Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord God appeared to him. God made a covenant with Abraham that he would be the father of a multitude. You can’t blame Abraham for doubting God, can you? Abraham was 99 years old! His wife, Sarah, was 90 years old! And now God tells them they’re going to have a baby? All their lives they’d longed for a child and had been summarily denied. And now God tells them at their advanced age that they’re going to have a son!
You know, I’m sneaking up on 50 years of age and my wife will soon be 47. Just the other day I said to her, “I think we should have another baby!” If looks could kill, I’d be a dead man now. My sixteen-year-old daughter thought I was crazy too. She can barely tolerate the younger brother she has, let alone another baby!
God promised Abraham that he and Sarah would soon become parents at the age of 99 and 90. Now perhaps we don’t have to view their ages literally. Maybe they measured years differently back then. After all, Genesis tells us that Adam lived to be 930 and Methuselah lived to be 969. The point is that Abraham and Sarah were past their prime. The biological necessities of childbirth had passed them by, if you know what I mean. The real question was, would Abraham and Sarah take God at his word? Did they truly believe that God could make something out of nothing?
“Believing is seeing,” God seemed to be saying to them. Abraham and Sarah chose to believe what God was telling them. And shortly thereafter, Isaac was born.
Now let’s jump ahead to the passage I read from Romans. The Apostle Paul was dealing with the very same story we talked about from Genesis – about Abraham believing the promise of God. Paul’s letter to the Romans is addressing the house churches in Rome. There’s a conflict there. Judaism was well-established in Rome by the time of Paul’s writing. So was Christianity. The problem was this. Wouldn’t the children of Abraham be innately superior to those who were not? In other words, wouldn’t Jewish converts to Christianity be superior to Gentile converts to Christianity from a genetic point of view, not to mention from a moral point of view? Some Christians thought they were better than other Christians, and that’s the issue with which Paul was dealing.
Circumcision was the sign of God’s covenant with humanity. Jews were circumcised, Gentiles were not. Paul points out that the mark of the covenant – the rite of circumcision – came AFTER God made his promise to Abraham. Therefore, it wasn’t rites or obedience to the law that made Abraham precious in God’s sight. It was Abraham’s FAITH that made him special in God’s eyes.
As Paul says in verse 22, “Therefore his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness.” The Greek words for “reckoned to him as righteousness” are, “elogisthay auto ei dikaiosunane.” They mean literally, “charged to his account as justification.” What made Abraham precious in God’s eyes? It was his faith. His trust in God and his hope in God were charged to his account as justification. It wasn’t the fact that Abraham was circumcised or that he obeyed the law to the nth degree. Abraham was justified because of his faith.
Abraham trusted that God could do the impossible. He trusted that God could bless a couple who were well past their prime with a child. Paul goes on to point out that it’s that kind of faith that will grant us eternal life. God sent his Son to die for our transgressions, and raised him from the dead for our justification. In Jesus Christ, God did the impossible. If we but trust in that promise, God will do the impossible for us as well. Jew or Gentile, male or female, black or white, liberal or conservative, there are no distinctions. If we but trust in God, God will raise us from the dead. It seems as though believing…is seeing.
Still, a lot of us are caught up in that old world view that seeing is believing. A lot of us find ourselves in difficult situations and find it hard to trust in God because of what we see going on all around us. It’s hard to distinguish our personal circumstances and plights from our views and notions about God. For example, last week on CNN I saw a particularly disheartening story. A 90-year-old man invested his life savings with a company run by a man named Bernie Madoff. He invested some 700,000 dollars. The money is gone. He’s had to go back to work at a grocery store making 10 dollars an hour. At age 90, he’s had to go back to work in a grocery store. How hard must that be for him? How does one trust in God when one comes face-to-face with such impossible circumstances?
The present economy has affected a lot of people as well. Nonprofit agencies are finding themselves “under water” and can’t use the monies bequeathed to them. How will they get by? Retired people have lost 30 and 40 and 50% of their investments. How will they get by? What happens if they run out of money? I know my parents are worried. As my mother said to me just the other day, “You’re young. You can make it up in time. We can’t.” What do you say to people who’ve worked hard all their lives and saved for their retirements when their investments vanish into thin air? How does one trust in God when one comes face-to-face with such impossible circumstances?
Then, of course, there are always health situations. How difficult it must be to become dependent upon others. How hard it must be when one can no longer get around. How does one deal with a nursing home when one has been independent all of his or her life? How does one trust in God when one comes face-to-face with such impossible circumstances?
Tom Brokaw wrote a book called The Greatest Generation. He begins his book with
these words:
When the United States entered World War II, the government turned to ordinary Americans and asked of them extraordinary service, sacrifice and heroics. Many Americans met those high expectations, and then returned home to lead ordinary lives.
One such person was a woman named Mary Wilson. You would probably never know it by looking at her, but she was a recipient of the Silver Star and bore the nick-name, “The Angel of Anzio.” When the Allies got bogged down in the boot of Italy during World War II, they attempted a daring breakout by launching an amphibious landing on the Anzio beach. Unfortunately, the Allies got pinned down at the landing site and came dangerously close to being driven back into the sea.
Mary Wilson was head of the 51 army nurses who went ashore at Anzio. Things got so bad that bullets zipped through the tent as she assisted in surgery. When the situation continued to deteriorate, arrangements were made to get all of the nurses out. Mary Wilson refused to go. As she related her story many years later, she said, “How could I possibly leave them? I was a part of them.”
I truly believe God says a similar thing about us. “How can I possibly leave them? I am a part of them.” As Abraham discovered, God is at his best when we are at our worst. When issues and circumstances seem most impossible, that’s when God can work most profoundly. So if you’re at the brink of desperation in your life and feel as though God is nowhere to be found, remember this: God is at his best when we are at our worst. That’s when we most need to trust in God, and perhaps that’s also when we’ll discover that – when it comes to matters of faith – believing…is seeing. Amen.
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