Seeing isn't believing; Believing is seeing

From my message on 4/27, from I Peter 1:8-9, John 20:24-29

Seeing isn't believing.  That's what the confirmation class came to when they looked at these scriptures.  I had heard reports about the unreliability of eyewitnesses, so this past week I "googled" it.  When you do this search, this is what you will find:  the Innocence project.  This is a group that works to overturn wrongful convictions.  They discovered that eyewitnesses are frequently inaccurate.  In fact, in over 75% of the cases that they got overturned due to later DNA evidence, the reason for wrongful conviction was the unreliability of eyewitnesses.

There are 2 reasons.  One is the estimator variable.  These are factors like the amount of lighting, the distance involved, the issue of ethnicity, the presence of a weapon, and the degree of stress.  Diane, our youth minister, had as one of her youth ministers growing up, a man who was robbed at gunpoint.  He only could remember that the perpetrator was a male.  He could not describe the height, weight, age, race, hair color, eye color, clothing, or any other feature.  He only focused on the gun which was pointed at him.  That gun he could describe in great detail, but not the robber.

The second reason is the system variable.  These are factors involving the line-up.  The police may subtly or overtly lead the witness to the "right" perpetrator with their instructions, body language, or tone.

Seeing isn't believing.

Let's do a vision test now.  I will show you this picture for 3 seconds.  What did you see?  A man.....did he look like your understanding of Jesus?  Let's take a longer look.  Point out what you see.  The artist has included many scenes from Jesus' life.  There are scenes of angels announcing his birth, a manger scene, shepherd's crook, 2 crosses, a star, an empty tomb, among other things, all represented in Jesus' face.

We look with the eyes of faith.  Believing is seeing.  We see everything through these lens.  The line spoken to Thomas is for us, for all who have lived since the time of the early church.  Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have come to believe.

Believing is seeing.  We look at the world with Christ eyes.  We see Christ everywhere.  We live on this side of the resurrection.  Didn't we celebrate Easter last Sunday?  We believe that he has been raised from the dead and goes before us.

I wanted to translate this understanding to a mission context.  We sent a team of 6 persons to Belize to see if we might be called to do mission work there.  The mission team has been undergoing training to look at the world differently.

We are being called to move from Relief to Restoration.  Relief is appropriate in the immediate aftermath of a horrific event like a tornado, flood, hurricane, earthquake, etc.  Water, food, medical aid, shelter are needed to survive.  But often we get stuck in relief mode.  Restoration realizes that people have many coping skills and would like to participate in their new life.

We want to move from having an Experience to establishing a Relationship.  So many times we have gone on a mission trip to feel good about ourselves.  And it does feel good to help people.  But this new way of seeing things involves more than our feelings.  It is about other people and a relationship.

We want to move from Short Term to Long Term.  We don't want to just parachute in for a few days or a week.  The situation will still be there after we leave.  We need to expand our time horizon to the long term.  Some of our short term answers actually hurt more than they help in the long run.

We want to move from What's Wrong with You to What can I learn from You.  This doesn't work so well when meeting people to say, "What's wrong with you?  How can I fix you?"  This really upsets the power dynamic, putting us instantly in the role of savior and others in the role of helpless victims.  Maybe we need to be students.  We may have need reverse mentoring.  We may learn from those we encounter.

We want to move from Mission To to Mission With.

We want to move from We Are Bringing Jesus to You to Looking for the Jesus Who Is Already There.  Christ is alive and working ahead of us.  We look for the Christ who is already present.

Let's watch this video to see how we might see the resurrected Christ already at work in Belize.  (go to our website YouTube channel to see this, www.westlake-umc.org)

One concrete response you can make to this message today is to visit with Kim Weidmann.  She wants to do a training course for anyone interested in this new way of looking at missions.  You may also be drawn to this specific mission opportunity with our brothers and sisters in Belize.

Another concrete response is to look at people around you differently.  You mentors of the confirmands, you didn't look at these youth at some problem to solve.  You didn't treat them like some short term project just to feel good about yourself.  No, you saw these youth as holy children, created in the image of God, worthy of a relationship.

There may be a family member or a co-worker, you know the one, whom you could see differently.  Not as someone to fix or a problem to solve, but as a holy child of God, deserving of a long term relationship.

Seeing isn't believing .  Believing is seeing.  We see the risen Christ everywhere.  That's the good news I have to share today.