Sermon Library
“Believing is Seeing - I”
Gregg Anderson
April 03, 2005
Service Theme: Easter II-2005
Source: John 20: 19 - 31
I was quite grateful for many requests of a copy of my Easter message. People mostly wanted a copy of the Letter from God which I adopted from the Internet. Yes, I now have to admit that it was not a direct letter from God to me. I just happened to discover it on the miracle of modern technology - the Internet. When I first read the letter, I liked it because of the theology expressed. I debated reading it at Easter because I am concerned about our over-anthropomorphizing God. At the same time, we human beings have been doing this from the very beginning of known human history up until today when people were speaking for God on behalf of Terry Shiavo.
We Have Never Seen God
We believe in God, but we have never seen God. So we create in our minds what we think God looks like and how God thinks. The author of the first letter of John writes, “No one has ever seen God; [but] if we love one another, God abides in us and God’s love is perfected in us.” He also writes, “Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and the one who loves is born of God and knows God.” This may be one of the better and even practical images of God.
You see, all of us would like to see God or, at least, have evidence of God. Woody Allen said “that he would believe in God, if God would just give him the slightest sign - like a million dollars deposited in his name in a Swiss bank account.” When we do not have direct responses from God, we spend a lifetime imagining God. This is not bad, it is good, but we do need to remember the words of the Apostle Paul, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.”
“Just as I have been fully understood,” is an important part of First Corinthians 13. We always think of it as the love-chapter, but it also expresses a significant reality about our human limitations, our relationship with God along with our human hopes. The Old Testament most often expresses direct revelations of God. The prophets often wrote, “And God said . . . .” The New Testament is not at all as direct. I did not double-check, but I am pretty sure there is no “And God said” in the New Testament. Instead, we have Paul saying that our knowledge [of God] is imperfect and our prophesy is imperfect.” The writer of First John admits that no one has seen God, but if we love one another, God’s love is perfected in us.
Blessed Are Those Who Have Not Seen And Yet Believe
In today’s lectionary text, the Sunday after Easter, Jesus makes a most revealing statement to the doubting Thomas. We all know the story of Thomas. Mary Magdalene told the disciples that she had seen the Lord. Presumably, the disciples believed her, except for Thomas. When they were together in the evening, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.’ The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. But Thomas was not there. When the other disciples told Thomas, “We have seen the Lord,” Thomas did not believe all the other disciples and said, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
Thomas wanted proof. Thomas wanted to know directly. Eight days later, the disciples were again in the house, and (this time) Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands; and put out your hand and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God” Then Jesus said the statement which I wish to emphasize this morning, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
The relatively obvious interpretation of this statement is that Jesus is praising belief over seeing, faith over fact and trust over evidence. At the same time, the story is depicting Jesus yielding to Thomas’ mistrust and need for proof. Jesus seems to make a point to show Thomas directly as Thomas demanded. After Jesus does this, however, Jesus clarifies that belief, faith and trust are most blessed. When Thomas saw Jesus hands and side, he said, “My Lord and my God.” “Seeing is believing” is a natural part of life. But, equal to if not greater is “Believing is seeing.” Faith and fact are equal ingredients of life.
Fact and Faith
I know just as I said that you might be thinking that Gregg has to say that because he is a minister and that’s what ministers are supposed to say. I am trying very hard not to say that just as a minister, but as a person who has tried to comprehend as many realms of meaning and disciplines of knowledge as I can possibly understand. There is not fact without faith and there is no faith without fact. Fact and faith are part of the yin and yang of life.
Speaking of the yin and yang, let me quote Lao Tzu in the Tao Ti Ching. “One may know the world without going out of doors. One may see the Way of Heaven without looking through the windows. The further one goes, the less one knows. Therefore the sage knows without going about, understands without seeing, and accomplishes without action.” I would like to talk more about this truth later, perhaps next week as I am thinking of extending this theme, Believing is Seeing. Hopefully, this would be an appropriate subject for a couple Sundays in Eastertide.
The Title: Believing is Seeing
The title “Believing is Seeing” is one which I thought of on the Sunday after Easter in 1995 when again the lectionary text was the doubting Thomas. In 1995, I was just starting to learn the Internet. Today, exactly ten years later, I don’t think I am capable of preparing a sermon without the internet. So, I googled in my creative title “Believing is Seeing” and clicked Go, thinking that I was not going to come up with much on this twist of the more familiar phrase “Seeing is Believing.” I came up with 1,920,000 entries for “Believing is Seeing.” So much for thinking I was the only one clever enough to turn these words around to make a point. So I punched in the more familiar “Seeing is Believing” and Google came with 1,910,000 entries. Feel free to check this out. I could not make this up, which proves my point that Believing is equally important to Seeing, but slightly more important.
From Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church
One of the entries that intrigued me was from Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City from which I have read and heard many sermons from the current minister, Thomas Tewell. This was from a former minister in 1991 named R. Maurice Boyd who had the nerve to steal my title “Believing is Seeing.” I suppose the fact that I presented mine in 1995 does not give me much credit. Let me read a few points he makes.
“Say, if you wish, that seeing is believing, but if you do you had better make up your mind that you will never be a scientist. Scientists have to be far more creative and imaginative than just the facts. If you believe only what you see, you won’t see very much and you won’t believe very much. Do you know that the protons and electrons - the very stuff of matter, the stuff of which matter is made - have never been seen or touched? We know they exist only because they hold together in a kind of schema which is itself a mental concept. Science isn’t a matter of believing only what you see. Science is a matter of believing and seeing by believing. Einstein said that it all begins with an attitude of wonder which is not far from faith. He said that astronomy began not when somebody looked at a star through a telescope. It began when somebody said, ‘Twinkle, twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are.”
Next, Dr. Boyd says if you only say that seeing is believing, don’t expect to be a creative artist. The creative artist will reply, ‘There isn’t anything to see.’ This morning in the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church I preached a sermon which didn’t exist yesterday. Creativity means bringing into being something that was not there before. It was Robert Frost who loved to say, ‘No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.” Flanner O’Connor, an American novelist says of one of her short stories, “I didn’t know how it was going to come out. I had to discover how it was going to end.” C. Day Lewis, the late poet laureate, says that poetry is not the expression of truth in verse, it is the discovery of truth in verse. You have to believe before you see it all in the end.
Next, Dr. Boyd challenges, if you believe only in seeing then you had better get ready for some very superficial relationships. If you want a relationship which is proven and guaranteed - you will have no relationship. William James said that love only exists when love and trust and openness reveal what suspicion and hostility and cynicism will hide.” In other words, only trust will reveal what a person is. Who knows you best? The people who trust you and whom you trust. Love happens only when there is faith in the future together. One can base it on past experiences, but a commitment of a relationship depends on sheer faith in the future.
Lastly Dr. Boyd says, if you say that seeing is believing, you will never be a leader. There are some whose conception of leadership says to us, “Now you demonstrate to me that that can’t fail and if you do, then I will give you my support.” I want to say to them, “Look, if I could demonstrate that to you, I wouldn’t need your support. By the time I can demonstrate it, by the time I can prove it to you, we are already past it. Leadership comes in and says, “With faith and trust and openness, we can really make this thing work.” St. Augustine put it perfectly. He said, “To have faith is to believe what you can’t see and the reward of faith is to see what you believe.” These are a few excerpts from Dr. Boyd’s sermon entitled “Believing is Seeing” from this famous church in New York. I think we can all concur and come up with many more dimensions of life that require the truth that “Believing is Seeing.”
Let Resurrection Comprehend You
Last Sunday I said, “Stop for a moment trying to figure out whether resurrection happened or not, or to figure out all the theological ramifications of resurrection. I know I have spent a lifetime trying to do this. So I am going to tell myself and the rest of you - just let it be for a moment. Don’t try to comprehend the resurrection, but let the resurrection comprehend you. None of us can completely comprehend God, but we can let God comprehend us and simply feel secure in that truth.” I have been thinking about this statement which came out of my mouth last Sunday to see if it can have any real application. I want to keep exploring what I said in the immediate future. I think it falls under the intention of Believing is Seeing.
I have a lot more material in front of me right now illustrating this theme in different ways. In the not too distant past, I felt obliged to give you all this good stuff, but I believe I have seen the light - that shorter sermons allow people to see and believe better than longer sermons. So, with this belief, I am going to lay aside all that I see in front of me and save some for another time.
Mark Twain
I close with this quote. It is said that Mark Twain’s laughter dried up in his later years; he grew genuinely cynical and bitter, with nothing but satire and invective for any creed. Yet, he said to a few friends in his latter years this revealing statement which epitomizes the statement Believing is Seeing: “I can’t understand it; I’ve successfully exploited every possible argument for an after-life, and in spite of that I, without a doubt, fully expect there to be one!”
Amen.
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson
Aspen Chapel
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