"Faith from a Distance" given 8/7/16

Are you near-sighted or far-sighted?  I know that there are plenty of other visual challenges that you and I might experience, but these two are the most common. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews writes about these two ways of seeing. Of course, the passage is speaking of near and far sightedness in a spiritual sense rather than a physical one.

The technical term for near-sightedness is “Myopia”.  Near-sightedness as you and I usually refer to it means that we can see fairly clearly those things that are near to us.  The down side of course is that we cannot make out things farther away.  Far-sightedness is known as “Hyperopia”. And of course, in that situation, we can discern what is far away more clearly than things that are right under our noses.

Sooner or later, we’ll all become more and more familiar with a particular form of hyperopia. One of the normal consequences of aging is that most of us become more far-sighted.  This age-related far-sightedness is known as “Presbyopia”. That doesn’t mean that Presbyterians get it more than the rest of us-- its a Greek word that literally means “vision of the elders”. 

As our eye muscles age, they lose elasticity-- which is what allows our eyes to tighten up and focus on objects close at hand. As time goes by, the threading of a needle, the reading of a newspaper, or even the Bible gradually become tasks we find ourselves performing at arm’s length, instead of close-up.

Some people don’t find far-sightedness necessarily a bad thing.  Distant road signs begin to come sharply into focus-- as do football and baseball games from the cheap seats. 

Likewise, as we age, we can find ourselves becoming more spiritually far-sighted. Ever wonder why Abraham wasn’t contacted by God until he was over 75 years old? In fact, Moses and several other OT heroes were getting up there by the time they heard God’s call as well.

There are certain stages in our lives when we are more open to self examination and spiritual growth than others—times when something in us—or in our lives in the world, makes us want to stop and look and intentionally listen for God’s call. These are rare moments when we ask ourselves where we’ve been going, where do we want to go, how faithful we have been to the principles or ideals we’ve espoused, what have we accomplished so far, what would we like to accomplish in the rest of our lives?

We all know that adolescence is often such a time. Milestone events in our lives can also be such times---marriage—becoming a parent—changing or losing our employment—retirement—becoming a grandparent—finding ourselves living in an empty nest—becoming “middle-aged crazy”—passing a significant birthday—the death of someone important to us. At such times we can find ourselves feeling the need to look beyond the near-sighted concerns of everyday at the possibilities open to us tomorrow.

Genesis 12 implies that it was just after the death of his father Terah, that Abram heard God’s call, collected his family and flocks and set out for Canaan. God knew that in order for Abraham and Sarah to be willing to leave behind home and hearth--to travel for years in the wilderness and remain faithful to the covenant— they would need more than just the patient wisdom that age and experience brings.  They would have to be spiritually far-sighted.  Abraham and Sarah needed-- and you and I need the ability to live our lives focused on Divine promises—promises quite often seen by us only from a far distance. 

“Trusting..:” as our Reading says, that “the universe was formed at God’s command, so that the visible came forth from the invisible.” And that  “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”  Later, speaking of our ancestors in the faith, “They all died in faith, though the promise had not yet been fulfilled for them-- they only saw it and greeted it from afar.”

Psychologists came out a few years ago with some fascinating research that confirms a pretty frustrating and universal tendency in human interpersonal relationships. Apparently your grandmother and mother weren’t so dense after all. What they told you in High School about “playing hard to get” seems to have been pretty good advice.

Ironically enough, it seems that in order to achieve greatest intimacy with a loved one, we sometimes require a little distance. Absence can indeed, make the heart grow fonder after all.  Maybe that all-too-human trait is what kept the fulfillment of God’s promise just on the edge of vision-- for Abraham and Sarah and Moses and so many others-- and to a certain extent for you and me.

They had neither been born, nor raised in a culture that celebrated nomadic life. So no doubt it must have been a terrific temptation on many occasions for Abraham and Sarah to chuck it all in and stop following this elusive, invisible God.  It must have seemed very appealing --many times to forget about those yet to be born descendants whose number would be as great as the grains of sand in the desert.  How easy to forget about that long awaited covenant, forget about that distant Promised Land, and forget about worshipping Yahweh God.

I saw a cartoon once of two very skinny vultures perched on a branch. One turns to the other and says “To heck with it. Let’s just go kill something.”

To heck with it. Why not just give up this nomadic life and settle down at the next water hole-- or even the next city—like Abraham’s nephew Lot for instance? Why keep on, year after year, believing in such distant and remote Divine promises? Why not just go with the crowd and worship the fertility gods of Canaan? 

Do you suppose that if Abraham and Sarah had reached the Promised Land, in say, two or three years that it would have meant as much?  Do you imagine that their clan and descendants would have been able to remain their unique identity, their singular sense of purpose, their stiff-necked faith? 

 And if they had forgotten, how would that faith have come down to us? If you and I saw our every ambition totally realized, our every possible dream granted to us at twenty, what would we have to live for in the next seven or eight decades of our lives?

Are you near sighted or farsighted?  A farsighted vision of life and its dreams and expectations can stretch out before us at any age.  Spiritual Presbyopia will offer to us a future that is full of hope and filled with opportunities.  Indeed if you and I are far-sighted enough, the possibilities before us are virtually limitless. In God, the future—our future—our church’s future--is always open.

It does not matter how mundane we find our close-up reality. Sweeping the floor at McDonalds, staying home with a pre-schooler, caring for an invalid relative, starting a new business, paying last month’s rent with this month’s Social Security check might seem humdrum or even intimidating to us.

But if we have the far-sighted vision of spiritual elders, you and I can believe in possibility, in unexpected opportunity, in the promises of our Maker and find strength to endure and prevail, purpose and meaning, in even the most seemingly tedious and trying of situations.

A few years ago Bette Midler recorded a song,

From a distance we all have enough,

and no one is in need.

There are no guns, no bombs, no diseases,

no hungry mouths to feed.

From a distance we are instruments

marching in a common band;

playing songs of hope

playing songs of peace.

They are the songs of every man.

God is watching us.

God is watching us.

God is watching us.

From a distance.

God invites you and me to look upon life with that same far-sighted, Divine vision.   It is faithfulness to that vision that makes the difference between gazing out on the future with anticipation rather than merely staring at the gloomy present through a pair of cracked rose-colored glasses.

 Faithfulness and hope are the corrective lenses that keep our vision  sharp and crisp.   Faithfulness and hope keep us moving on-- even if like Abraham and Sarah we feel like sojourners and strangers in a strange land.

In 1952, Florence Chadwick, already the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions, set out to swim the twenty-one miles from Catalina Island to the California coast. The water was numbing cold, and the fog was so thick she could hardly see the boats of her own party.  Several times, sharks had to be driven away with rifles.

.           At 15 hours and 55 minutes, numbed with the cold, unable to see anything ahead of her but fog and more fog, she was taken out of the water-- only a half-mile from the California Coast! Later, she was to reflect that she had been licked not by fatigue or even the cold - the fog alone had defeated her because it obscured her goal. It had blinded her reason, her eyes, and her heart.

That was the only time Florence Chadwick ever quit. Two months later, she swam that same channel, and again fog obscured her view, but this time she swam with her faith intact that somewhere behind that fog was land. Not only way she the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel, but she beat the men's record by some two hours!

In order for our lives to have purpose and hope we must have something to hope for, a prize we can achieve, a promise we can believe in. In order for us to become all that our Maker calls us to be-- you and I need dreams tht will challenge us, stretching our ambitions. Our dreams must grow, or change and mature into something new. We need to keep dreaming new dreams. We need to see and think and believe “from a distance” all through our lives!. 

It’s only through faith that you and I can even begin to lift our eyes from everyday muck and mire and look for that speck of possibility and eventual victory gleaming on the far horizon.  It’s only when you and I stop to listen for and respond to God’s call that we are motivated to reach, to dream, to grow, and to strive most deeply in this world.

Its only through acknowledging and believing in our Maker’s sometimes distant, yet-to-be-realized promises in our lives that we are challenged to keep growing, keep hoping, keep dreaming, keep eagerly squinting out into the distance looking-- not only for the next trial or possibility but patiently believing in the promises that our Maker is holding out before us.

Where are we going?  What’s next? What is our dream, our hope, our ambition-- for our church, our families, our personal lives-- in the next six months, six years, sixteen years, sixty years? What does our God have in store for us out there, on the speck of our horizons-- in the distance? Let us keep looking ahead with “elder’s eyes”, keep dreaming, keep believing, keep praying, keep listening for God’s Will. Keep on walking with our God. After all, the future is God’s—and it  is open!