3rd Sunday after Pentecost June
14, 2015
2 Corinthians 5:1-10 Faiths
Blindfold
Dear fellow redeemed,
Youre a confederate soldier during the Civil War and youve been
found guilty of desertion and treason.
Your sentence: death by firing squad
* Youre execution
is moments away and youre blindfolded.
Whats going through your mind?
1 Perhaps youre
ruminating over your crime.
Youre reflecting on what
youve done and youre either feeling remorse or justifying your
action.
2 Or perhaps youre
confessing what you truly believe to be your greatest sins in life.
You plead to your heavenly Father to remember the death of his Son
and receive you into his
Kingdom.
3 Or you may be envisioning the many guns pointed at you,
knowing that in a single instant
your life as you know it
will end.
* So, why the
blindfold? Presumably, this terrifying
event will be soothed a bit if you do not know
the exact second when you will meet your fate.
* You know its
coming. But its preferable that you dont
see it coming!
You just want it to be over with! Whether youre plagued by guilt or youre
dreading the
imminent
gunshots, you want to be at rest!
Well, the apostle, this morning, speaks of something else we may
find horrifying.
* It may seem that
its not death to which weve been sentenced.
Its life, not
behind bars, mind you, but a life with much suffering and groaning.
* All we can do is
long for the day when we may be at rest, when the bandage is removed and
were at peace because of what we see before us.
* We may call it Faiths
Blindfold. For we walk by faith, not by
sight St. Paul declares.
Its whats required of Christians who spend day after day dealing
with the struggles and
hassles brought on by sin.
* Every day we see
the frightening evidence that our world is defective. Its not working right.
People around us get sick.
They hurt each other. They experience death and tragedy.
And we experience it too.
And so that we might not collapse because lifes overwhelming
sorrows and stresses, we require rest.
* What the apostle
teaches us, though, is that the proper rest does not come when we insist on
seeing; when we have to analyze whats wrong in life.
* Rest is possible
when we walk by faith.
We trust because of Christs sacrifice on the cross, that we are
Gods children and someday
well enjoy a much better
existence in heaven.
* Despite the great
grief we see at every turn, were anxious for the day we may finally get some
rest and give up our earthly life for our life in heaven.
* For in this tent (this
body) we groan the apostle declares, longing to put on our heavenly
dwelling . . . so that what is mortal may be swallowed up
by life.
St. Paul, you may remember was a tent maker. It explains the
parallel he saw between this small
dwelling thats portable and our body which we eventually leave
behind.
* In the same way
that a tent has only a temporary use and is quickly taken down as the ropes are
loosened and the stake removed, so is our body a temporary
dwelling. We long for the day when
it will finally be taken down and relieved of all the
ailments and miseries of life.
* We really cant
help it! As we learn more each year
about the effects of our sinful nature, we
cant help wanting to shed this body. We long for the resurrected body well have
in heaven.
* We can hardly wait
for that day when believers will be immortal, forever resting from their
labors in the presence of their God and Savior.
* It simply doesnt
work when you insist on moving forward in life being able to see everything.
Were obligated to live by
faith, not by sight.
* But with Faiths
Blindfold we receive spiritual rest, even now on earth.
But people are not into Faiths Blindfold. Theyre more into walking by sight.
* People know they
need rest from lifes overwhelming burdens, but they prefer to take on life
with their twenty-twenty vision.
* Its our nature to
be an eternal optimist. Surely this day
things will be better and our trials will
be behind us. We
just gotta keep looking at the road before us.
Weve just gotta believe!
Naturally as Christians we know better.
* We walk by faith, not by sight.
True hope in the future comes to those wearing Faiths
Blindfold.
We focus on what Christ
achieved for us by his life and his death: forgiveness and life in heaven.
* But its easier
said than done. In as much as we remain
sinners in this world were inclined to
focus on our many trials brought on by sin.
* But this only
causes us to resent what sin does to our life.
And we end up
questioning what the great advantage is living by faith.
Look at my life! I want to see that perfect life my Lord has
promised – today!
Its a temptation every Christian faces; to begin thinking like
the world.
* Yes. We believe our Lords promises concerning the
resurrection and our heavenly dwelling.
And we trust that we will
one day see that perfect life which our Lord has promised.
* But life makes us
impatient and cynical.
We want to see the better
life in the here and now.
* So we live as
though our present life will soon be that comfortable paradise were longing
for.
Someday our job problems
and our financial issues will be behind us for good.
* Someday our family
will become that perfect household where we dont have to do anymore
confronting or confessing.
Someday our health will be better than it is today.
Just give it a little more
time. Well see it! We just gotta
believe!
* But what if we
dont see it? If our life appears to
improve for a time, generally its short-lived.
And things are right back
where they were. Or theyre a little
worse.
Weve just gotta believe?!
* Such a statement
is not an encouragement to believe. Its
an attempt to redefine faith.
It now includes seeing;
seeing whats right in front of us.
* Im convinced this
is what we often end up doing without even realizing it.
If we cant find
comfort in how the world is functioning, we presume we can find comfort
in
how our faith is functioning.
But in order for faith to perform in this manner, it has to be
something more than mere trust in Christ.
1 So we think of
faith as including our visible acts of obedience. Seeing how useful I am,
being able to serve a
certain way in the church or in my family, I conclude I must have faith!
2 Or we think of
faith as including our ability to comprehend.
We see in that it makes sense to us.
Im awake and understand
pastors message on Sunday morning. Im able to think about whats
happening during the
Sacrament – I get it that this bread and wine are Christs body and blood.
And because Im seeing it I
conclude I must have faith!
3 Or we imagine that
faith includes having a positive outlook on life; seeing how things will work
out. I look forward
to tomorrow and have the right feelings about it; I see how things are
heading in the right direction, and I conclude I must have
faith!
* But then as life
goes, we determine that this beefed up faith is not enough.
1 We get old and
what we see is that we can no longer serve as we once did.
Were not quite
as useful as we once were.
2 Later we can no
longer concentrate on what the pastor is saying during the service.
3 Later yet we can
no longer be positive about tomorrow.
Our body is failing. Were slowing down. Were getting more fragile. Were dying.
It explains why the Corinthian church needed to be reassured.
* The Christians in
Corinth had much in common with the Christians of our day.
They lived in a culture
where people were quite skeptical about the after life.
* There were those
on the one hand who did not believe in the resurrection from the dead. And
there were those on the other hand, who were simply unsure
or had doubts about the last
day.
* They needed to
learn how to walk with Faiths Blindfold.
We walk by faith, not by sight. What does
this mean?
* Walking with Faiths
Blindfold is nothing more nothing less than having trust in our Savior.
Although we cant see where
our life will take us from one day to the next, we believe
with absolute confidence
that well reach our promised destination.
* Jesus has taken
our place both in life and in death.
And we trust both in life
and in death, that our future in heaven is worth dying for.
* We know St. Paul writes, that if the earthly tent, which is our earthly home, is destroyed,
we
have a building from God, eternal in the heavens.
We know the day is coming,
that is to say, when we will be resurrected!
* Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of
things not seen we read in
Hebrews (Hebrews 11:1).
* Faith, that is to
say, deals with the unseen as though it were seen. How?
Faith acknowledges that Gods greatest treasures drawn up for his
children are already in our
possession. Forgiveness, holiness before God, eternal
salvation: by faith we already have it all.
* In other words, we
dont have to redefine to faith. With the faith Gods given us, we receive
everything we need and everything our Lord intends for us
to have, both in this life and the life
to come.
And if this is in fact so, not only is it unnecessary to beef up
our faith; we dont even have to think
about our faith. Theres no
need to try to adjust or remove our blindfold.
* Think back to the
time when your spouse blindfolded you because they wanted to surprise and
delight you with a birthday
gift.
* They tie this
bandage around your eyes, take you by the hand, and start walking you to the
bedroom or garage. Take a right here. Now turn left. Next, carefully take two steps down.
* You werent
thinking about the blindfold. You were
thinking about where you were being taken.
What on earth would I see
when I passed through that final door and the blindfold was removed?
* Thats how it
works with the believer. As we live out our live on earth trusting that Christ
redeemed us with his holy precious blood were forgiven
of our sins and can look forward to
heaven with our Savior were not even cognizant of our
faith, because frankly we dont need to
be.
* Why would we want
to think about our faith, when we can think about our Savior and how hes
guaranteed everlasting life for each and every one of us.
* The only thing
that matters in the end is what belongs to us by faith in our Savior.
For we hold that one is
justified by faith apart from works of the law.
* By faith in
Christ, the righteousness of our Savior is already in our possession, and
therefore
heaven is in our possession.
Why the blindfold?
* For the convicted
killer or soldier it makes sense.
Youd rather not see
whats coming! You just want it to be over with!
* Faiths
Blindfold, however, serves a much different purpose.
You want to see whats
coming; not necessarily today but tomorrow.
Rather than seeing whats
beside you, or above or below you, or whats about to cause you
to trip and fall on your
face, you want to see whats coming in your future life with Christ.
* And if youre
questioning its benefit right now, instead of comparing yourself with the man
on death row, try relating
with the child and his new eye patch.
Hes thinking to himself,
why are you covering my
good eye?! Its the only working eye I have left!
* But in time he
understands. Covering the stronger eye
forces the weaker eye to work harder
so that it becomes sharper
and eventually serves you as it should.
* It explains our
Saviors use for a concealing bandage; why he uses the effects of a faltering
world
to serve us throughout our days on earth.
* When life obscures
the temporary joys of this world, our only choice is that our faith takes over
and becomes sharper in the process.
* It doesnt matter
whats going on in this aging and increasingly fragile life of ours.
Christ will enable us to
focus on our heavenly dwelling and our everlasting life with our Savior.
* You want rest from
the never-ending hassles brought on by lifes sin?
Remember that you get to
walk by faith rather than by sight! Amen.
May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
