The Power of Vision

The Power of Vision

The Power of Vision           6th Sunday of Easter           Pastor Pat Mecham

Acts 16: 9-15    May 22, 2022       John 14: 23-29

Isn’t VISION a funny word?  I have an insurance card in my wallet that shows that I have “Vision Insurance.”  In other words, I can get my eyes examined and receive eye care without it costing me a fortune.  We use the word “vision” to talk about seeing physical things with our eyes, then we turn around and say that someone is “a person of vision” or “a real visionary.”  When we do this, we have stepped into another realm, another concept altogether!

Having vision has nothing to do with the gift of sight.  It’s just a term we use because visionaries “see” what the rest of us cannot yet see.  They have the capacity to perceive something that does not yet exist, or to describe possibilities in a way that makes them concrete and believable to the rest of us!

And then there’s the phenomenon of having a vision.  Many years ago, an elderly woman in our Bible Study reported to our group that she had had a most vivid, real-life dream.  She found herself walking through a meadow full of flowers—the kind of flowers that had been the favorite of her mother and sisters (now deceased).  She decided to start gathering these flowers, putting them into three baskets to give to them.  Then Jesus was walking beside her, and said that he would give the flowers to her mother and her sisters, and said that she needed to go back beyond a fence.  She replied, “Thy will be done,” and she went over the fence and woke up in bed.  She told us, “This wasn’t just a dream—it was REAL,” and we concurred that she had been given a vision.  From that day forward, she had no fear of death, and this vision illuminated the remainder of her days!

In our text from the Book of Acts, Paul had a vision from God that was so convincing that his entire entourage changed course and went to an area they had not considered before—an area that was culturally and religiously very different from where their missionary journeys had led them previously.

As a “modern” person, living in a world that does not include “visions” as a normal experience, I am left with some questions.

  • How did Paul have a vision?
  • Why don’t we have visions?
  • And what’s the big deal about going over to Macedonia?
  • Was it really necessary for Paul to have a vision in order to point him in that direction?
  • What does all this have to do with being a Christian in the 21st Century?

Then, in our Gospel text, Jesus paints an image for the Disciples.  He says, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”  This imagery of God “making a home” with those who are obedient, with those who choose to follow the command to love with a Godly love—this, too, is a vision of peace.  Let’s take a look at these passages.

Philippi of Macedonia

One of the things we need to know as we consider our passage from Acts is this: the ancient world was divided between “east” and “west.”  Jerusalem, Judea, Galilee, all the places the Apostles had been taking the faith were in the EAST.  Just imagine a line dividing East from West, a line that ran right down through Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul.  In the West, there was a different way of thinking, a different approach to the realities of life.  The common way to describe Western thinking is to say it was Greek.  (And Rome was very definitely a Greek society.)  Greek culture, Greek philosophy, Greek world-view was alien to the first Christians.  And Macedonia was the eastern-most territory of the West.  When Paul had this vision of a Macedonian begging him to come to the west, he was inviting him into very foreign territory indeed!

The city of Philippi was the eastern outpost of western culture. William Barclay gives us a little background information: “In Philippi, Rome planted little groups of army veterans who had completed their military service.  They wore Roman dress, spoke the Roman language, and used Roman laws no matter where they were.  Nowhere was there greater pride in Roman citizenship than in these outposts of Rome.” 

In Philippi, there was no synagogue.  (And remember—Paul always went first to the synagogue in any town or village in the east.)  So they went to a place of prayer by the river where God-worshipers met.  They sat down with Lydia and the other women, and spoke with them about the gospel.  Lydia (who was a rich businesswoman—something unheard of in the East) responded to the good news.  She and her household were baptized, and she offered them lodging while they stayed in the area, developing a church.

They traveled to other cities in Macedonia, and established churches in them.  Paul later wrote letters to these churches, and we have many of them in our New Testament!  In addition to Philippians, you might recognize Thessalonica and Corinth.  Imagine the great loss to our scriptures if Paul and company had not accepted the challenge of crossing the line from East to West and taking the Good News into Macedonia!  Indeed, they were fulfilling the Great Commission to “go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every nation.”

If You Love Me, You Will Obey My Teaching

When we look at the Gospel reading for today, we understand that Jesus is telling the Disciples a basic truth: If you love me, you will obey my teaching.  The result will be that God will dwell within you.  Obedience is a tricky subject.  We are NOT implying that we should be like well-trained dogs, obedient and compliant.  (Although, there is something to be said for a well-trained dog!)  What Jesus is saying is that obedience to his word is proof of our love.  Remember the story he told about the two sons who were told to go out and work?  The first son said, “No!” but then he went out and worked.  The second son said, “Yes” but did NOT go out and work.  Jesus asks, “Which son did his father’s will? (Which son obeyed?)”  The answer is important to Jesus, because obedience leads to a fuller understanding of God!  Obeying God’s commands gives life.

Think of the commands Jesus has given us:

  • He repeated the traditional “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” and then he reached into Leviticus 19 for “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
  • After washing their feet, he told them, “You also ought to wash one another’s feet.”
  • Shortly after that, he said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

Do you see a common theme developing here?  We are commanded to love: God, others, ourselves.  These commandments are not given in a vacuum, with punishment handed out when we fail to do them.  No.  The simple truth is that, when we love with a Godly love, then we are dwelling with God.  “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” That sounds like living in heaven!

Matthew records Jesus to have said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”  Then he tells the story about two people who tried to build a home.  One built on rock, and it was able to withstand wind and floods.  But another built on sand, and when the wind and floods came, it CRASHED!  “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like the foolish one who built on sand.”

The Gift of God

So, now we have the vision of what life in Christ is meant to be.  The question remains: How do we achieve this vision?  How do we have God’s love flowing through us to a hurting world?

Well, we need the gift of God.  Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing.  It is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”  And the corollary is found in Philippians 2:13, “It is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

That means we can pray for the capacity to will God’s will and to obey it.  And, while we may not have dramatic visions, God will make us PEOPLE OF VISION, empowered to see what God is doing in the world and what our part of the story is.  If you want to be a part of what God is doing in the world, pray with me.

God, we mostly want to just have life be good and safe and predictable and non-threatening.  But that’s not enough life, not enough REAL life.  God, please help us.  Help us to have the will to seek your word and to obey it and be ready to see what you are going to do through us!  In the name of Christ, amen.