Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

Either the summer before or sometime in the fall of 6th grade, I got glasses. And while I don’t remember when or where I got them, I remember the ride home with them on. I kept putting them on and taking them off, comparing the world as I knew it before and the world brought into focus. You see, I had never known that you could see individual leaves on a tree, while they were still on the branch. Cartoon trees, with big fluffy green clouds of leaves made perfect sense to me because that’s what trees looked like to me…until I got my glasses.

The lens of faith changes our understanding of the world, of life and of death, in similarly drastic ways as we focus on Christ.

The lens of faith allows us to turn our eyes to Jesus in times of suffering. Franciscan friar, Richard Rohr, says that suffering can either make us bitter and close us down, or it can make us wise and compassionate, and open our hearts. Suffering, he says, “often takes us to the edge of our inner resources where we ‘fall into the hands of the living God’(Hebrews 10:31).” Those of you who have known me a while have heard me say, “We are in God’s hands, and there is no better place to be.” Suffering forces us to relinquish our view that we are in control. In 1918, Helen Howarth Lemmel, published a hymn in the midst of a pandemic, as World War I dragged on and a major earthquake shook California. The refrain says this, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.” That’s what Paul does. Paul doesn’t know what is going to happen to him, but he is at peace because he has turned his eyes to focus on Jesus and the stuff of life on earth has faded into the background. “I eagerly expect and hope that I will have sufficient courage to always exalt Christ,” writes Paul, “whether by life or by death.”

The lens of faith changes our fear of death to rejoicing. Paul is looking through the lens of faith as he writes, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” To me, to live is to be anointed to do God’s work in the world, and to die is nothing to be feared, in fact, it is something to anticipate with hopeful, joyful expectation. To be with God with no sin or pain or mourning or disappointment is gain. There is a story told about the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. He was approached by a millenialist who was shouting hysterically, “The world is coming to an end!” and he responded calmly, “Very well, madam, we’ll get along without it!” Make no mistake, Paul was not hoping to die. He was not hoping to be martyred, but his focus on Christ gave him peace with death.

The lens of faith also changes our despair in the present situation to hope for what God will bring out of it. “I want you to know,” writes Paul, “that what has happened to me has served to advance the gospel.” Paul is reassuring the Philippians. They had to be concerned about him as he suffered in prison. They knew what it was like. The Philippians faced persecution, imprisonment, beatings for their faith. The remarkable thing, Paul writes, is that his imprisonment, rather than hindering his ability to spread the Gospel is giving him opportunities to reach people who otherwise would never have been reached. What Paul never could have imagined is that his writings from prison are now an encouragement and guide for us as we face shelter at home orders and the fear of becoming sick with coronavirus. Whatever happens, God turns it for good.

And whatever happens, we are not alone. Preacher and teacher Rev. Dr. Fred Craddock put the transformation this way, “Only by the Holy Spirit” he said, only the Holy Spirit is capable of this kind of refocusing, “Only by the Holy Spirit can the church experience the miraculous shift of attitude from assuming that wherever the Lord is there is no suffering to believe that wherever there is suffering, there the Lord is.”

I still am amazed when I put my glasses on after I haven’t worn them for a while. I drove to the doctor this week, and I put on my glasses for the first time in a few weeks. The world looks so different, so crisp, with such variation in greens and blues. I forget when I don’t wear them what I am missing. Discipleship. growing in faith, is like that, too. A few weeks ago, I saw a meme that said, “I always said that I would work out if I had time…turns out time wasn’t the issue.” I’ve seen it with cleaning house too. And I’m pretty sure it is true of many of our spiritual lives. I would read the Bible, I would pray, I would give, I would participate in a small group, I would serve, I would worship…if I had time, if I had money, if I didn’t have this commitment or that duty. And yet, here we are. Most of us are not essential workers and find ourselves working from home. Our drive time is eliminated, our social calendar is cleared, we aren’t traveling, and yet, have we, as Paul writes, “fixed our eyes on Jesus?”

I invite you to turn your eyes upon Jesus. To seek the peace that comes with knowing you are not in control, but God is; that there is nothing in life or in death that can separate you from God’s love; that you are in God’s hands and there is no better place to be. And to have the assurance that whatever happens, God will cause good to grow out of it, and God will be with you through it all. Amen.