Pentecost 12c Faith, The Eye of the Spirit

[HKHaugan]

Pentecost 12c Faith, the Eye of the Spirit

In 1952 the Mathews Bridge was built connecting a remote small neighborhood called Arlington to downtown Jacksonville. Just before its official opening I drove the first bus across it. The bus belonged to Jacksonville Junior College (now JU). It was more a time issue than anything else because I needed to get the JJC Glee Club to a concert downtown. In those days road constraints were minimal.
Prior to that bridge being built there were only two other bridges, the Old Bridge (Acosta) and the New Bridge (Alsop, Main Street) as they were then called. There were two big shipyards, Gibbs Corp. and Merrill-Stevens, facing each other across the St.John's River just to the east of the New Bridge (Main Street). I worked at Gibbs shipyard on the south side and lived in one of the downtown boarding houses on Market St. The distance between was my daily two mile round trip walk to and from work. Everyday walking over the 'New Bridge' you could see porpoises playing which I assumed were coming in to glean the leavings from some shrimp boats docked next to the tin roofed sheds that lined the north shore of the riverside.

There were only two roads to the beach, the Old Beach Rd. (Atlantic Blvd.) and the New Beach Rd. (Beach Blvd.). Those four, two bridges and two roads, controlled the main ways to move north and south through the county at the time. The population was about 120,000. The city limits sign on the Southside stood at the corner of Hendricks Ave. and the present Emerson St. Today we see an expanded city limits defined by the Duval County borders, two Interstates, four more bridges, a built up waterfront, huge shopping centers, big subdivisions and a beltway around Jacksonville. Oh yes, and a population of over a million with an NFL football team. From a sleepy southern town to a maturing cosmopolitan Florida gateway, Jacksonville is gaining its place in the sun.

In the building of a city, roads and bridges are taken for granted. But the initial effort to build them is a major undertaking. There has to be the first road and the first bridge where there is nothing but water and wilderness. If we can visualize their beginnings someone had to have three things going for them, the reason and plan for them (vision connecting the town's commercial center to outlying communities and beaches, crossing a river), the assurance it can be built (submission to the idea), and the motivating energy (the determination and power) to build them.

What has all this to do with being disciples of Jesus? Everything physical has a spiritual meaning behind it. Look at the physical situation and then probe for the possible spiritual parallels behind it. In the case of roads and bridges you have a beautiful way in. They are belief in the vision: building a bridge, a road to the heart of another. The Father's mind as the spiritual architect and His desire to build a bridge to every heart through His Son, the spiritual contractor. Then you have trust in the idea and plan; trusting Jesus as the contractor evangelist using us to reach the heart of another and faith, the spiritual energy of the Holy Spirit, the spiritual labor force the Lord gives us to carry His plan through to the finish.

Again, three things are spiritually engaged, our mind, our heart and our spirit. Each is a reflection of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit (architect, contractor and labor force). Created in God’s image each of us have all three capacities. In Jesus they come alive. But most especially it takes the eye of faith to put into reality what the mind believes and the heart trusts. When you see Jesus, you see the complete package of the perfect image of God moving in perfect balance. He said that when you see Him you see the Father and His Spirit. What He believed with His mind (His Father's will), what He trusted in His heart (His Father's Word), what He had faith to do (the work of God through the Spirit), He enacted perfectly. Being the exact image of God in mind, heart and Spirit, His presence changed the world. Now His task has become ours. That's His desire and our purpose. He said that as the Father sent Him so He is sending us.

Having the eye of faith completes His call to look forward. Starting with belief His call continues by identify itself to deepen it with trust and then the final thrust into the world. The image of God in us is fulfilled when we step out in faith. From the mind to the heart to the spirit we are made whole. We find our meaning, stability and purpose.

Thus, Jesus carries us upward and forward, rescuing us from being little islands of pride and fear, surviving for no other reason than to live as long as possible. He shows us an eternal bridge can be built between God and persons, and person to person. He moves us out of ourselves to Him and from Him to others. He gives us the vision for a road and bridge to the hearts of others and into eternity. He gives us the idea and plan to believe in, the trust that it can be accomplished and the faith to carry out the vision and its plan.

Each of us is called to build a spiritual road and bridge the way He built one to us by getting to know new people. The road is what we use to gain their attention. We do this through starting a conversation or discovering a need after which we start building a relationship bridge to their heart through committed communication. As we read Scripture the Spirit energizes the relationships we make thus the roads to others and the bridges to their hearts become a reality.

The important thing to recognize is that there is no road or bridge to others unless we step out and build them. In this world there is only a river of aloneness between people until a road and a bridge is built. Of course it is a risk in any kind of wilderness, physical, social or spiritual and the rivers may be deep and the currents swift. But being missionaries is always risky. Our task is not to use already existing roads but to make new ones. This is why we have started with the eye of the mind, Scripture to build belief (2Tim.3:16), the eye of the heart, perception, to build trust (Is.43:19) and now the eye of the spirit, to build faith (Mt.9:29).

Here is one Scripture that covers the three, “And without faith it impossible to please God, because anyone who come to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him (Heb.11:6).” Here the goal---to please God with our action---by action, stepping out in faith wherever we are in the wilderness. That 'stepping out' is based on our mind's belief and our heart's earnest seeking. Here's a fair question, 'What's in our spiritual wallet?'

Dr. David Livingstone, the great 19th Century missionary to Africa, called for more missionaries from England. Many responded with these words, “We will come if you show us where the roads are.” He responded, “If you have men who will only come if they know there is a good road, I don't want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.”

God made a road and a bridge to and for our hearts when there was no road or bridge. He made them through the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus. Jesus' life was the roadway, the Cross was the bridge and the Resurrection was the new land on the other side. Isaiah heard from the Lord, “I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up (Is.49:11).” He got the point when he said to the Lord, “Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a road in the depths of the sea so that the redeemed might cross over (51:10)?”