Do We Know Where to Look?

May 6, 2019

 Scripture

 For we are looking all the time not at the visible things but at the invisible. The visible things are transitory: it is the invisible things that are really permanent.  

(2 Corinthians 4:18 Phillips)

“My Lord and my God! Cried Thomas. “Is it because you have seen me that you believe?” Jesus said to him. “Happy are those who have never seen me and yet have believed!” (John 20:28,29 Phillips)

 Do We Know Where to Look?

 Recently the search for Franklin’s lost ships was on my mind. They were lost nearly 170 years ago, and the many search expeditions used all the modern tools at their disposal in futile efforts to find the “Erebus” and “Terror”.

 Traditional oral histories of the Inuit were offered on occasion but only taken seriously recently. David Woodman, a search leader said, “..without traditional knowledge the search would have been wholly impractical since we wouldn’t know where to look, and we never would have found the ship.”  Modern and ancient worked together with what they each could do best.

 A week after Jesus’ resurrection he made a second appearance to his friends, particularly to Thomas whose doubts often speaks for those of us who sometimes struggle to believe what we can’t see.

 We have centuries of oral history in the stories of our faith that sometimes are discounted to our peril. I take theology and scholarship very seriously, but I need the story telling of the ages as well. Happy are we who can believe in the Jesus we haven’t seen.

 A Prayer

Loving God, it would be a lot simpler if you could just do some sky writing with your signature outlining what is right and true. Thank you that you give us hints of yourself in creation, scripture, the stories of the faith throughout centuries and in the lives of those around us. Let us be freed to see with spiritual eyes the presence of Jesus in the brokenness of our world and serve it..… For Jesus’ sake