Pastor’s Thoughts April 8, “I may not see any more eclipses” A transforming response to April 8 totality by Dr. Jim Denison When an event won’t happen again where I live until 2317, of course I’m writing on it today. Total solar eclipses occur every eighteen months, but at any given location, it can be centuries between appearances. A 105-year-old man who has witnessed twelve solar eclipses is ready to watch his thirteenth today. He is aware that this might be his last: “They don’t come but one or two, every couple of years. . . . I may not see any more eclipses.” The same is true for you and me. “God is the most ancient of things” Today’s eclipse reminds us of both our Maker’s omnipotence and our finitude. He created the sun and the moon (Psalm 148:3, 5); we did not. He rules the universe (Isaiah 40:22); we do not. From the earthquake that rattled New York City last week, to the nor’easter that cut off power to hundreds of thousands, to the critical fire threat in the Central US, to the avalanche that killed three people in Switzerland and the falling tree that took the life of a woman in a storm, we are reminded daily of human frailty. We can’t even look at today’s eclipse without the right protection for our eyes.
However, one of the hallmarks of our fallenness is our steadfast attempt to deny our fallenness. When the philosopher Thales predicted a solar eclipse using empirical rather than religious reasoning six centuries before Christ, he became known to history as the “first scientist.” While Thales also called the universe “the work of God” and claimed that “God is the most ancient of things, for he had no birth,” many who followed in his scientific footsteps have sided with the French mathematician Laplace who is reputed to have said of God, “I have no need of that hypothesis.” Let us not fall victim to the same self-reliant temptation. When humans die, they obviously cannot produce life beyond the grave for themselves. Death is the final, irrefutable proof of the fact that we can do nothing in our own capacity to survive death. The psalmist asked the question facing us all: “What man can live and never see death? Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol?” (Psalm 89:48). There is only one Answer to his question.
“They heard him and saw the signs that he did”
Here’s the problem: The same temptation to self-reliance that keeps secularists from depending on God can keep Christians from depending on his Spirit. When we fall to this satanic deception (Genesis 3:5), our fallen culture pays the price.
Why is Christianity declining in popularity and influence in the West at the same time it is growing dramatically in the Muslim world, Iran, Cuba, the underground church in China, and other places where it is persecuted so fiercely? Self-dependence amid prosperity robs us of the Spirit’s power, and without his power, we cannot convict a single sinner of a single sin or save a single soul. However, Spirit-dependence amid opposition empowers Christians to be used in transformative ways to change hearts and win multitudes to Jesus.
We read in Acts 8 that “the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did” (v. 6). It was not just his words but his Spirit-empowered deeds that persuaded them. The great need of our day is for more Philips. For this reason, let us note today:Self-reliance is spiritual and cultural suicide. In response, let us use today’s solar eclipse as an invitation to worship the One who made the sun and the moon and measures the universe with the palm of his hand (Isaiah 40:12). And let us begin today and every day by asking his Spirit to empower and use us to advance his kingdom through our influence (Ephesians 5:18).When we do, the Son of God will eclipse the Moon of our fallenness and bring us from the shadow of sin into the sunlight of grace. “It made me feel the majesty of the universe” Leticia Ferrer has been chasing solar eclipses around the world for several decades. She’s seen twenty in total and every one since 1998. But she’ll never forget her first one in 1991: “It made me feel the majesty of the universe,” she said. Her experiences have shown her the immensity of the universe but also her personal finitude. She says of her eclipse viewing: “I’m the most blessed person in the world, but yet I’m a minuscule little ant.” When we understand the latter, we can embrace the former, to the glory of God.
Welcome to “Word from The Center” MONDAY, a devotional word from the Center of our faith, Jesus Christ, with reflections on His Word. I’m Gregory Seltz. Today’s reading is from John 20:28-29, where the Bible reports this interaction between the risen Lord Jesus and his disciple Thomas: Thomas said to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” BELIEVING IS TRULY SEEING! Is seeing believing? Or are there things that are very real, even very true, that we cannot see with our eyes? Our garage doors open by unseen forces at the touch of a button. We put our food and drinks into little rectangular devices and hit the button believing that, absent a heating element or a flame of any sort, microwaves will make our food or beverages piping hot. Even the most empirical of scientists has things which he/she believes long before they are tested or visible to human eyes. One could make the case that observable science, the very scientific method we cherish today, was based on a belief that God had created and ordered the world in such a way that it could be tested, and its laws could be counted on. You might say that even the empirical scientist has to believe in certain things before he/she could really see them.
Faith in God is a bit like that. It’s not that faith in God is totally absent of data or information, for the very words of God, the gifts of Baptism and the Lord Supper engender and strengthen faith. But there are aspects to faith that are beyond our control. We are the creature; He is the Creator. He is the Redeemer; we are the redeemed. Yet faith in the God of the Bible is not merely an academic exercise. Faith in the person and work of Jesus begins to help us see the big picture of our lives here, and our lives eternally. In a paper delivered at the Oxford Socratic Club, C.S. Lewis remarked: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”1 The Founding Fathers of America believed in liberty because they believed that God had created humanity for such a life. With that faith, they began to structure a government that would honor such freedom. In many of the fundamental questions of life, “Believing is seeing!”
The tension between “seeing is believing” and “believing is seeing” permeates our lesson for today. The text is about “Doubting Thomas” finally seeing Jesus as his living Savior. But it took the word of the risen Jesus presenting the very wounds of His crucifixion in order to engender such faith. But who was this Thomas character? What was he really like? Was he the skeptic that many claim him to be? Was he the pessimist? The doubter? Well, if he was, he was also tough, tenacious, and no wilting violet. When Jesus was going to journey into dangerous territory, Thomas didn’t shrink back. Instead, he declared, “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (John 11:16). But it’s also true that he was confused and distraught over Jesus’ crucifixion. If someone tried to console him by claiming that Jesus didn’t really die, he wasn’t going to have any of that. He had heard about it from reliable witnesses, he felt it, He was overwhelmed by it, and no amount of wishful thinking would change that.
What he forgot was that the “believing is seeing” attitude of the believer doesn’t work because of our inherent power or our wishful thinking. It works because God’s gifts of Word and Sacraments deliver what they say. God’s promises are always true. God’s promises always come to fruition. YES, in His time and in His way, but they always come true because He is trustworthy and true.
Maybe Thomas did you and me a favor. He wasn’t going to let wishful thinking be the foundation of faith. He wanted the fulfilled promises of Christ to be evident for all to see (e.g., John 10:17-18), even if he had to look a bit foolish for that to happen. In this Easter season, take a step back from the cultural craziness of our world, the rat race of your job, and your desires to make life what you wish it to be. Then try to see the big picture of your life with God in Christ. Because He has risen, your life is redeemed; it is eternal and it also has purpose now. If your life doesn’t look like that at the moment, why not take Christ’s word for it first and foremost? Begin to live in that resurrection reality with its eternal blessings right here and now. Then put the power of “seeing is believing” to work by reading and trusting in Jesus’s words. He is the resurrected one who did all of this for people like Doubting Thomas, and for people like you and me. PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, teach us to see the depth of Your mercy for us, so that we might live faithful lives of grace and mercy for others. AMEN