Sight Seeing

Paul says in his second letter to the church in Corinth that we walk by faith not by sight.  

Years ago, I preached two sermons in two different churches where I gave credit for this saying to Walter Payton’s wife. She had written a memoir to her late husband, the greatest running back ever!, and used this quote without giving credit to Paul or scripture. So, I lifted the same quote and gave her credit instead of Paul or mentioning that it comes from scripture, more precisely the Christian New Testament. Luckily no one through me out of the church for what was an embarrassing transgression.

The full verse reads: ‘so we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord-for we walk by faith not by sight’.  

Another way of thinking about this may be that while we yearn to know and see God it may feel as if we cannot see or touch God. What if? What if we thought of it another way? What if our faith steps in when it seems we cannot feel, see, touch, experience God? What if our sight, read seeing and touching, is telling us to pay spiritual attention so that we can see the presence of God in all things, even when all things stand in contrast to that knowing?  

My faith, like all faiths, helps me realize that the presence of God is always within. Paul helps us understand this in the later parts of chapter four: we look at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.  

Let us read that passage as understanding instead of or alongside, seeing. We walk by faith not by the fleeting moments of understanding, for understanding is as small as a grain of sand compared to the expanding realm of God.

There are times when we cannot understand God. Often, we cannot begin to see God’s presence, especially during the times of senseless violence, war, hunger, poverty and so on. How can we understand God when God cannot be seen? This is where our faith steps in. This may be where we recite Paul’s short verse; we walk by faith in the eternal presence of God as made known in Christ Jesus, when our sight, or understanding leaves us feeling blind.  

My faith lies in the fact that God is God all the time, especially in those times when I can sense Their Presence least.  

Paul was imploring his followers and the people of the New Way of Jesus to realize their home, their faith home, was found in the God of Jesus. When they could no longer see Jesus, he was encouraging them to have faith in God’s eternal presence, which is ours and their true spiritual home.  

When we feel lost and alone, when we can’t see how God can possibly be present in all the violence, Paul reminds us to have faith that our true home, our true companion is God among us and within us as the eternal Christ incarnated in Jesus, creation, and yes, even you and me.

Maybe seeing the presence of Love in our lives is a way to witness the presence of God.

Maybe we are all sightseeing along this journey of life, continually gazing upon God’s eternal presence. If we can just open the spiritual eye of our faith and realize we don’t move in and out of God, God is in everything. Even our doubt.

Let us all go sightseeing, spiritually gazing upon the God of both this material world along and also of the spiritual realm.

In our seeing

May our soul’s smile.