Shortly after the Christmas of 2006, Dave and Sharon Stuht descended on St. Albert with their three boys, Shannon, Trace, and Jesse. Dave had been called here by the Holy Spirit to work as outreach coordinator. Dave didn’t have to come. He could have continued working as an x-ray tech in New Ulm, Minnesota, or if my memory is correct, he had an opportunity to serve as chaplain at a Lutheran senior care centre. But Dave accepted the part-time call that was extended to him through our congregation and didn’t even wait until it warmed up before he moved his family north.
Dave, when you accepted the call, I thought to myself, “Wow. This is what it means to live by faith and not by sight.” Sure, you knew your destination, unlike Abraham and Sarah of old, but you didn’t really know what awaited you here. You didn’t know what exactly the ministry work would be like, or how a part-time call would go. You didn’t know what the schools would be like for your boys. You didn’t know if you would be able to replace your good friends. And yet you simply put all those matters in the Lord’s hands and came. You lived by faith, not by sight.
Now, almost nine years later God has seen fit to exercise your faith again. Your call here has come to a rather abrupt end. That would be difficult enough, but the end came just when you had gotten your foot in the door with the RCMP and Sheriff’s division as a volunteer chaplain. We also just finished our building project and are eager to leverage this space to reach the community. I know you were excited for that and were a constant source of encouragement during the building process.
But now you’re headed back to the States. Your house has been sold. The moving company has been booked. Sure, you have family to go back to, but you have no call, no position in another church you’ll be filling. And this time you’re leaving behind a couple of your boys for the time being. Is this move south perhaps harder than the move north?
I hope that the Epistle Lesson appointed for this Sunday will encourage you, and inspire the rest of us. The Apostle Paul urges you to keep living by faith, not by sight. Why? Because what you see with your eyes is temporary and groan-worthy. But what you see by faith is eternal and guaranteed. Listen again to the opening verses of our text. “Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling” (2 Corinthians 5:1, 2).
The “earthly tent” that Paul mentions is our body. Like a tent, our bodies and our lives here are only temporary, and for that matter, groan-worthy. Can you identify with Paul’s body-tent comparison? I can because my tent-camping experience usually goes something like this. No matter where I set up the tent, a rock always digs into my back all night long. The cold air seeps through the tent flaps all night long so that I’m never warm. By morning, condensation has built on the walls of the tent so that a simple touch causes water to plop onto the sleeping bags. Should a storm blow through, the whole tent will shake and shudder as if it’s deciding whether to come crashing down on you or not. Tent-camping is a good idea on paper, but it’s never really comfortable, not like being at home in your warm, cozy bed.
The lives that we have now are like that – they are groan-worthy. Dave and Sharon, I think you especially know what I’m talking about. For the last three months you’ve strained your backs and put undue pressure on your knees as you moved furniture around and started to box up your belongings. Then there was the headache of selling the house and getting a mover arranged. That wouldn’t be so bad if you could be certain of the future – that when you arrived in Colorado there was a nice house and well-paying jobs waiting for you.
If all you could do was live by sight, you should be an emotional wreck right now. So many things are out of your control. And so many things are uncertain. But as Christians, you know and you believe that they are firmly in Jesus’ control. That’s what you have confessed while with us. Now once again God is giving you an obvious opportunity to put that confession into practice, to live by faith, not by sight.
Faith sees God’s promise and rejoices that this life with its aches and pains is only temporary. Colorado will not be your final stop. Your final stop will be in heaven with Jesus. And after Judgment Day you will exchange your body with all its scar tissue from past injuries for a body that is perfect on the outside and on the inside. Not only that, you’ll also be surrounded by others who are perfect in every way. You won’t ever have to feel like you have to prove yourselves to anyone because everyone will love you perfectly and unselfishly with no hidden agenda, even as Jesus loves you right now.
But let me sound a word of caution here. Not everyone will get to enjoy this kind of life. Paul said at the end of our sermon text: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10). Everyone in this room, everyone in the world will one day have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and answer for the things done while in the body. We’ll have to explain to God why we used our voices to belittle instead of to encourage. We’ll have to explain why we balled up our fists in rage instead of using those hands to roll up our sleeves and simply find a solution to the problem we were facing. We’ll have to explain why we used our winning personality and charm to manipulate rather than to serve. Do you look forward to having to explain to God your sins? We’re like someone who was given a million dollars by a friend as an investment. This friend expected us to put that money to work so that it would earn him more money. Instead we took the cash and bought things for ourselves and wasted it on trinkets, forgetting that one day we would have to give an accounting for how we managed our friend’s money.
We have mismanaged this life God has entrusted to us. And we will have to answer for our failings. That thought may terrify, but it doesn’t have to – not when you remember who the judge will be: Jesus. He is not only the judge of the world, he is also the world’s savior. And he’s already paid for all the sins we committed. Students, many of you are sweating your upcoming exams. Wouldn’t it be so much easier if your teachers said that they’ve already taken the exam for you? It’s all done. You just have to show up on exam day and write your name on top of that completed exam to claim those test scores as your own. This is exactly what Jesus has done for each one of us. It’s the reason he came into the world. He took the exam God places before every human being and Jesus aced it. He didn’t make one mistake or miscalculation. And then before he handed the test into his heavenly Father, he wrote your name on top of it with the ink of his blood.
No, we didn’t see Jesus do all this. We didn’t actually watch Jesus die, nor did we see him come back to life. We didn’t actually hear him say from the cross, “It is finished.” But we can believe it because God has given us his Word on those matters. That’s what it means to by faith, not by sight.
Paul also adds this encouraging thought. “Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose [to be with him in heaven] and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Corinthians 5:5). Dave and Sharon, when you find a home in Colorado you like, you may be asked to put a down payment on it while the final inspections happen. That down payment is an expression of your serious commitment to buy that house and to live in it. Well God has given you the Holy Spirit as a down payment to signify his commitment to you that a new body and a new life await you on Judgment Day.
But how do you know you have the Holy Spirit if you can’t see or feel him? You know the answer to this. The Holy Spirit comes to us through God’s Word and the sacraments. You received the Holy Spirit at your baptism. You’re receiving the Holy Spirit now through this sermon. And you’ll receive the Holy Spirit again when you take in Jesus’ body and blood with the bread and wine of Holy Communion.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be challenging days ahead. There no doubt will be, but don’t let the obstacles discourage you. Don’t let Satan use anything to get you to question Jesus’ love for you and his resolve to have you in heaven with him. And don’t let Satan use any success to distract you from what’s really important. Might that especially be a challenge for you Shannon, Trace, and Jesse? God has already given you so much: brains, brawn, good looks, winning personalities, humility. Others have recognized these gifts in you too. Word has it your mother had to Kijiji some of your trophies and medals because you had so many! But none of those awards matter if you let go of the reward of grace Jesus has given to you. You too will want to keep living by faith, and not by sight. Have the faith, for example, to know that a couple hours on a Sunday morning here are more beneficial than a couple hours of sleep. Have the faithful resolve to arrange your work, study, and recreational schedules so that worship and Bible study is a priority, not an afterthought. Such an attitude will not just benefit you, it will also benefit us who will be encouraged by your presence.
Dear Stuht family, we’re going to miss you. But we have this confidence: this separation will only be temporary. For it is God’s will to unite all believers where we’ll never have to say goodbye again. Don’t you long for that day? Don’t you groan for it? Paul did. And through the Holy Spirit he assures us that for the sake of Jesus, that glorious reunion will happen. So keep living by faith and not by sight. Because what you see with your eyes is temporary and groan-worthy. But what you see by faith is eternal and guaranteed. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
Why does Paul compare our earthly lives to tent-camping?
Paul said that we’ll have to answer for all the things we did while in the body. In what way does that truth scare you? In what way does it not have to scare you?
Paul said that we have a new and glorious life waiting for us in heaven and on Judgment Day. List at least three blessings you’re looking forward to experiencing.
Paul said that God has given us the Holy Spirit as a down payment to guarantee a future life of eternal happiness. How do you know whether or not you have the Holy Spirit?
In our service today we’re saying a formal farewell to Dave, Sharon, and Jesse Stuht. Think of some blessings God gave you through them. Thank God for those blessings and include the Stuhts in your prayers this week as they continue to finalize their preparations to move.
