Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

“Seeing is believing.”

How many times have you heard that phrase since it was originally recorded in this form in 1639? How many times have you said that phrase?

That phrase is often quoted whenever we are confronted with something in life that simply seems too good to be true. “Seeing is believing” is the reason we ask auto mechanics to save the old parts they replace on our cars. “Seeing is believing” is the reason there is what is known as “test drives” in cars. “Seeing is believing” is the reason that all the crazy stuff you see advertised on overnight infomercials offer you a “30-day-money-back-guarantee.”

“Seeing is believing” is a phrase that maybe particularly rests in our minds this morning as we hear today’s Scripture readings.

“Seeing is believing.” In our Second Reading this morning, St. John proclaims, “How great is the love the Father has lavished upon us that we should be called the children of God.” Now how often does that seem not to be the case in our daily lives? How often do we wonder where is the great love of God? How often do we doubt that we indeed are the children of God – and if we are the children of God, why doesn’t our great Father-God do something about the awful events that often go on in the lives of His children?

“Seeing is believing.” As beautiful a song as is today’s Gospel, how easy is it to believe it? How blessed do you usually feel when you mourn, or when you hunger and thirst for righteousness, or when you are persecuted or insulted? How much comfort is there really in looking at these adversities in life and reminding ourselves like a Disney musical where there is always a happy ending to “Rejoice and glad for yours is the Kingdom of God”?

Let’s face it. In most of our lives, seeing is believing. We’d rather have proof than promises. We’d rather have certainty than cute sentences.

St. John must have felt the same way. John had been one of Jesus’ “inner three” – long with Peter and James. Those three had been intimately privy to Jesus at times and places when the other nine disciples were kept at a distance. And even beyond that, John is the disciple often referred to as the “one whom Jesus loved,” as if he may have even been especially close to Jesus. During many times of those three years he spent with Jesus, John had many opportunities where seeing was believing, where following Jesus was relatively easy.

It’s believed that St. John was a relatively young man when Jesus called him to be a disciple – maybe even a teenager. Tradition holds that St. John lived into his 90's, the only disciples to die a natural death. He spent a number of his last years banished to the Island of Patmos, which was a Roman penal colony. During the years following Jesus’ death, Resurrection and ascension and before his own death as the last and oldest of Jesus’ disciples, John would receive notices of one after another of his friends and fellow disciples being killed in gory and gruesome ways – burned at the stake, crucified upside down, skinned alive. There must have come a time when John’s faith wavered, when John must have echoed the words of his cohort Thomas – “unless I see with my own eyes, I will not believe” [John 20:25]. After all, seeing is believing.

And that’s how the Book of Revelation came about [Revelation 1:1]. John tells us that it was a Sunday and he was involved in an act of worship [Revelation 1:10] when he heard a loud voice that sounded like a trumpet, commanding him to write down what he was about to see. And he saw a lot! He saw seals and trumpets and bowls. He saw a woman giving birth and a great dragon. He saw Heaven, describing it with streets of gold and walls of precious jewels. But of everything he saw, I believe the most important thing he saw – and remember, seeing is believing – is what we read in our First Reading today.

John saw a great multitude – so many that he could not count – from every nation, tribe and people group on earth, each one wearing a white robe and waving palm branches. They were all congregated in one place – around a spectacular throne. They were all doing one thing. They were involved in a mighty act of worship and praise. They were all singing one united song: “Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever, Amen!”

Why did John share that scene and why do I believe that is the most important thing he saw during his revelation? Because John knew what doubts creep into the mind. He knew how tough it was to say goodbye to those he loved in life, to stand at their graves and say those words that never make any sense at the time – “Thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” [1 Corinthians 15:57]. He knew how tough it was to tell himself, “I will see that person again and I will see that person again absent of pain and suffering, absent of sickness and disease, absent of discomfort and disharmony.” Seeing is believing and when John saw that great act of worship – with the faces of people he knew and loved he had to write it down so that those of us who followed him – who struggle with our own questions and doubts – would receive the promised blessing – “blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it” [Revelation 1:3].

It was Jesus Himself Who said, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me will live even though he die and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” [John 11:26]. That’s Jesus’ question – not mine. He asked Mary and Martha that question when their brother Lazarus had already been buried four days. St. John was there and heard that question and he probably wrestled with that question while he was on Patmos. And Jesus asks that question to you and to me again this morning: “I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me will live even though he die and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

I, for one, believe it. And I believe it because of what we’re doing again this morning – what we do each and every Sunday morning. When we gather in this place, when we lift our voices in praise and worship, it is not just the 60 or 70 or 80 or 90 of us sitting here. No, when we gather in this place we are included in that vision that St. John saw. Those who used to sit next to us are still here. Those voices that have filled this building since 1937 are still here. They are joined with us in singing “Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever, Amen!” Here we connect with them. Here we connect with that great act of Heavenly worship. Here we gather before the Throne of God and sing about the Lamb Who was slain, the Lamb Whose blood cleanses us from all sin, the Lamb Who clothes us in white robes and wipes away every tear from our eyes, the Lamb Who is the Resurrection and the Life, Who maintains life even after death.

Seeing is believing!

My friends, my prayer for each of us again this morning is that Jesus will open each of our eyes again this morning, as He opened the eyes of St. John, to see again just how blessed we are, to see how great is the love our God has lavished upon us that we are the children of God, and to see those who have gone before us, still around us, still alive, still encouraging us to run the race marked out for us with our eyes fixed on Jesus [Hebrews 12:1-2], the Lamb Who sits on the Throne.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena