“More Than I Can See” 2012

Psalm 84 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:7

Psalm 84

1How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! 2My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. 3Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. 4Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise. Selah 5Happy are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. 6As they go through the valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.

7They go from strength to strength; the God of gods will be seen in Zion. 8O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah 9Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed. 10For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than live in the tents of wickedness. 11For the Lord God is a sun and shield; he bestows favor and honor. No good thing does the Lord wit\hold from those who walk uprightly. 12 O Lord of hosts, happy is everyone who trusts in you.

2 Corinthians 4:16-5:7

16So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, 18because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. 5For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling— 3if indeed, when we have taken it off we will not be found naked. 4For while we are still in this tent, we groan under our burden, because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord— 7for we walk by faith, not by sight.

I left a little plastic school ruler and a pair of sunglasses

in the back window of a car one time,

where the heat and the sun beat down on them… and…

…they melted and got a bit warped and distorted.

If I tried to trace a straight line with that plastic ruler,

it would come out curved and crooked;

and with the scale on the ruler uneven and deformed

the numbers weren’t reliable or accurate enough

to trust for taking a measurement.

The plastic lenses in my sunglasses had also melted and warped,

so when I tried to look through them,

the world I saw was a little misshapen and distorted…

… and I couldn’t see things as they really are.

Like many who grew up quite poor during the Great Depression,

my father always found it difficult to throw anything away

that might possibly be repaired or used again somehow.

Struggling to get by as a youth left a permanent distortion.

A woman I knew nearly drowned as a small child,

and for the rest of her life, she was afraid of the water,

and couldn’t get in a boat or go in a pool over her head.

The trauma and panic of that experience never went away.

Angry harsh words can melt and crush our sense of confidence,

and cause us to mis-translate, “you made a mistake”,

into the more hateful, “ you are a mistake.”

Insecurity and fear can warp into life-destructive obsession.

The soul-damaging destructiveness of this world’s corruption

can beat, melt, warp and distort us

far from the precious beloved creatures God intends.

None of us gets through his life

without a few wounds, scars, injustices and cruelties …

… which can shape and reshape how we see this world,

how we respond to adversity and tribulation,

how we judge others and difficult situations,

and even how we evaluate right and wrong.

We see, and we judge the world around us

based on the circumstances and experiences of our lives,

which often fail to reflect the grace & joy God intends.

The traumas we endure, our struggles and disappointments,

the mistakes we make, our sins and failures in life,

these too can warp & distort our vision and expectations

much like looking through my old melted sunglasses;

and can throw-off

our ability to judge, evaluate and measure life

much like using my heat-warped plastic ruler.

If the standard

by which we measure and evaluate is unreliable and false,

and if that lens through which we perceive the world

are distorted and warp reality à

à then of course we’ll make short-sighted decisions

that foolishly sacrifice God’s long-term blessings

for passing pleasures and unholy desires that destroy…

… for how can we possibly make wise and faithful choices,

and how can we possibly judge and determine

what really matters from that which truly does not?

That’s the same issue at stake in the Corinthians passage we read…

… for they are looking at things in a distorted way

and missing the point about what really matters most.

The background of these verses is that Paul’s critics assumed

that if God really approved of his teaching and ministry,

then wouldn’t God make it easier and Paul more successful?

Shouldn’t life be easier and better for the true servants of God?

The problem was

that the Corinthians were measuring life with a warped ruler,

and evaluating Paul through a distorted lens …

… focusing on the cover, rather than the contents of the book.

As the Apostle explained, he wasn’t at all discouraged

by the persecution, struggles or the suffering he endured.

In fact, in some ways Paul identified

his suffering and trials with the suffering of Christ,

and considered it a validation of his faith & ministry.

Adversity could not and didn’t distract or disturb Paul

because his focus was on the glory

of God’s coming promises yet ahead. vs. 16-18

So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

The point Paul is making reminds me of my old Boy Scout handbook,

where it teaches that

if you are ever hiking in the wilderness and get lost,

the our natural tendency is to panic

and then wander around in a big circle.

It advises that the best way to avoid making that mistake

is to identify a distant point such as a mountain peak

and stay focused on heading toward that spot.

That’s how Paul urges Christians to live out our mortal lives.

As sinners, we are lost and wandering around in circles,

until we recognize God’s grace in Jesus Christ

and focus on our distant and eternal hope,

God’s steadfast love and promises fulfilled… vs. 17

an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, … a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Now this is important, Paul is not minimizing or denying

that our mortal lives can be difficult and disappointing.

But, we can look beyond our mortal longing and groaning,

by trusting God to fulfill His promised kingdom and glory.

Consider this flow of Paul’s reasoning: vs. 16-17,1 & 7

So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure… For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens… for we walk by faith, not by sight.

But has Paul got it right?

Are these just words, or are they about hope, reliable & true?

Are they a childish and false illusion or placebo of comfort

or can we trust them, even amid disaster and tribulation ?

A few years ago I tested them, and was tested by them,

when I sat with my mother on the painful night of her death.

Sitting by her hospital bed, I wasn’t a pastor anymore,

but was her frightened, wounded and grieving little boy,

desperately reading this passage, hoping for hope;

in that place of testing à

where faith is either real, or else it fails.

In my grief and sadness, in the distress of that long night,

of course I wondered, but are these words really true?

And will I for sure, ever see and know my mother again?

Well, that night was special, in a way I'll always treasure;

a gentle and powerful sense of full assurance and security

swept over me that transformed that hospital room;à

as the presence of the Holy Spirit filled and surrounded me,

and reassured me that everything would be alright ----

that she was going to a better place,

and I could entrust her to Jesus Christ.

And so I can live and cling to that hope,

based upon God's own faithfulness and steadfast mercy.

This is that same promise and hope

in the reality of God’s steadfast love and compassion

that we read about in Psalm 84:1, 3, 5~6

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! … Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, … As they go through the valley of Baca they make it a place of springs … They go from strength to strength.

In Scripture, the sparrow represents the insignificant,

yet loved and precious, provided for by God, as in Mat. 10:29

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.

And the swallow represents the wandering and unsettled,

yet who find a place to nest and rest with the Lord.

In Hebrew, the word, “baca” means despair, weeping and tears,

which by grace God transforms our valleys of Baca

into springs of water flowing in the desert,

- a symbol of life, provision, security and contentment.

The point is,

even the amid our darkest and most difficult seasons of life,

yet God is with us, sustaining and blessing us,

and providing signs of God’s loving hope and grace.

Our dwelling place with God, as described by the psalmist,

does not mean that we escape suffering and disaster;

but is a promise that if we are attentive

then we will surely see signs and evidence

of God's purpose and presence with us all along.

Shortly after Kathy and I got married,

I had to take the youth group to a distant church retreat.

I had to be away all weekend, for the first time since our wedding.

I hated to be away, so I got some colorful stickers

with little hearts that said, "I love you" and "I miss you";

which I put on just about everything in our apartment --

on her toothbrush, inside her shoes, on the mirror,

on the dishes and silverware, pots and pans,

on knobs and switches.

Even today, occasionally she will still find something

with one of those crazy stickers – a sign of my love.

Our dwelling place with God means that even during our worst times

there will be “stickers” proclaiming God's love,

signs of God’s abiding presence and grace with us…

… and if we will let God speak through our cluttered & distracted

then we will surely hear in Jesusà

how incredibly much God truly loves each one of us…

… reminding us that God really has something significant for us,

and wants to do something special & meaningful with our lives.

Our call is not to deny, minimize or ignore

our disappointments, struggles or troubles in life,

but at the same time, that’s not to be our focus in life.

Perhaps the question is,

are we going to complain that there are thorns on the roses,

or be grateful, that God grows roses amid the thorns?

vs. 7, we walk by faith, not by sight

The Christian life is not defined by the problems we face,

but is defined by

God’s promises, gracious love, hope & steadfast mercy.

As we read in Lamentations 3:21-25

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.