Aim for the Invisible

Preached:  July 2, 2000 at St. Mark’s, Citrus Heights, CA

Text: 2 Corinthians 4:13-18

Hymns:  343, 201, 457, 382

Theme:  Aim for the invisible.

1.   Visible things disappoint and frustrate.

2.   The invisible things of God are the only things that matter; they’re the only things that last.

In submarine warfare you have to aim at what you can’t see. In a submarine you’re completely surrounded with metal. You can’t see a thing outside the submarine–at least not with the naked eye. Sailors in a submarine constantly have to rely on radar for every movement they make. Using things like radar they “see” which way they should sail. Using radar they can “see” approaching enemy subs. Using radar they can aim their torpedoes and sink their enemy. 

Today God tells us to aim for the things that we can’t see. If you only focus on the things you can see, life is going to be pretty miserable, God says. But there are some far greater things out there–substantial things–that are worth oh so much more than the things we can see. They are spiritual things, heavenly things. And God has given us a way of seeing them. The type of “radar” that He has given us Christians is faith. Through faith we can see things that the naked eye has no way of seeing–lasting things, things that can keep us going when it seems like we just can’t go on. Our theme for today is “Aim for the Invisible.” 

Paul says, “Therefore we do not lose heart though outwardly we are wasting away.” This entire book of 2 Corinthians is a very frank discussion of the hard life that believers have. In last week’s reading from 2 Corinthians, we heard Paul describe us as “jars of clay,” fragile clay pots that hold the precious treasure of the gospel but that can be broken so easily. In this 2 Corinthians he describes his own hardships as a missionary so vividly. He says that five times he received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times he was beaten with rods. Once he was stoned. Three times he was shipwrecked. Once he spent 24 hours floating around on the open sea. In 2 Corinthians he makes his mysterious comment about his “thorn in the flesh” which he prayed God so fervently to remove, a prayer which God answered with a loving “No.” 

But there’s this tenacious hopefulness in Paul. Last week we heard him say in the paragraph right before this one, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” How can a person keep this kind of positive attitude when we are constantly hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted, rejected? How? By fixing our attention on the invisible things, the spiritual things, the things of God. 

“Outwardly we are wasting away.” I experienced that firsthand on my vacation a week ago. We were in Wisconsin visiting my parents. As many of you know, my father is quite ill, suffering from the long time effects of diabetes. He walks with a walker, but even unsteady with that. Someone has to walk behind him and hang on to a special belt he wears to keep him up when his legs give out from under him. The diabetes has affected many of his organs. He’s had to have many laser surgeries on his eyes. For a while he was without sight completely in one eye. He has had numerous strokes. They have left his mind unclear. He’ll begin a completely logical sentence, and it will end in incoherent syllables. What an example of how outwardly we waste away! Sometimes when I walked behind him helping him in his walker, I would look at him and think to myself, “This is my father?” I remember him in the prime of life. I kept thinking, “How does he keep going?” (He gets very depressed.) I kept thinking, “How does my mother do it?” She still takes care of him at home. She has to keep a constant eye on him. How does she do it? The answer is in our text:  “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” God continues to strengthen them inside through His Word and sacrament. Though they have their weaknesses and moments of despair, they have this sense that God and His Word and the Lord’s Supper are the most important thing. 

If we would look only to the outward, physical, visible things for strength, we would always end up disappointed and frustrated. How quickly we pass the prime of life. It really hits this generation especially hard when those first gray hairs appear. Many panic when they hit that 45/55 age when their reproductive potential begins to decline, when they hit 60 and their physical strength and stamina begins to decline. We’ve got the Olympics coming up again. I always enjoy them, but I always get a little jolt when the commentators mention the age of the athletes and then they say when the prime age is to compete in that particular event, whether its running or gymnastics. For some events it falls in the twenties, for some in the late or middle teens. I always find myself counting back how many years it’s been since I was that age, how many years I’ve been “wasting away” as far as that potential is concerned. 

Because of our faith, those things don’t really bother us believers, “because,” as Paul says, “we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.” God’s going to raise up these fragile, imperfect bodies. He’s going to make them perfect, beyond what they were in the prime of life. And we’re going to see Him, that One who we can’t see now. We’re going to see Him and be with Him. And that’s all that will matter. 

Paul says, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” What a bold thing for Paul to say! Can you imagine saying to a person who has been crippled most of her life or to a person who has been blind all of his life, “Your troubles are light and momentary?” Paul can say that! In comparison to the eternal glory that God is going to share with us in heaven, these seventy or eighty years of hardships are just a blip on the screen. 

Now, even though you can’t see that glory, Paul says, “Fix your eyes on it.” Fix your eyes on that glory, fasten them to it, rivet them to it. “For,” he says, “what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” One of my favorite movies is the old classic, Gone with the Wind. One of the main points that’s made in that movie is expressed by Scarlett O’Hara’s father, Gerald O’Hara. He tells her, long before they lose everything in the Civil War, that land is the most important thing. He says it this way: “Land is the only thing that matters, Katie Scarlett. It’s the only thing that lasts.” Later, when Scarlett despairs because she seems to be losing everything for the second time, her father’s words come back to her: “Land is the only thing that matters. It’s the only thing that lasts.” Unfortunately even land isn’t that reliable. The Bible tells us (in 2 Peter 3) that the earth is going to be destroyed too. The earth doesn’t last. So don’t put your confidence in it. The unseen things of God are the only things that matter. They are the only things that last. 

Have you been disappointed by the things of this world? Sure you have. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here. Those who aren’t here are still looking to be satisfied by the things of the world. That’s why they’re not here. It’s hard to get them to come here. They have to get fed up with the world before they will start looking here, in God’s house. 

One of the games I enjoy playing the most with my son is Battleship. Have you ever played Battleship? You can’t see where your opponent’s ships are positioned. You have to guess by trial and error to find where your opponent’s ships are located. You call out the positions, like A-1 or B-7. When you call out a position, your opponent tells you if you’ve hit or missed. Once you get a hit, you call out all the positions around it till you find out which way the ship is facing. Once you figure out all the ship’s positions, you knock the entire ship out. What makes the game intriguing is that you can’t see what you’re aiming at. It takes a lot of strategy. 

What makes the life of a believer challenging is that you can’t see the most important things in your life. You can’t see the enemy you’re up against. But you also can’t see the most important goal that you’re aiming for. It means you have to have a strategy. You have to have a supernatural way of seeing where you’re going. God has given you that supernatural way of seeing where you’re going. It’s faith–faith in Jesus. Trust what He’s done for you. Just let Him lead you. Don’t question whether it’s the right way or not. Don’t be afraid because of the uncertainty. So often we want to understand things before we’ll trust them. I don’t understand how my car works, and yet it gets me everywhere I want to go. Trust in God and His vehicle of faith. He’ll get you where you’re going.  Amen.

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