In the Zone with Burning Hearts

Moments after President Obama announced that Navy SEALs had killed Osama bin Laden, conspiracy theorists were already questioning whether it was true.  Now a week later, many people have picked up on their mantra: I'll believe it when they release the photograph of his dead body.  This is where my skepticism reveals itself.  A photograph will not satisfy the doubters.  Seeing is not believing. 

We witnessed that only a few weeks ago.  From the point Mr. Obama became a serious candidate for president there have been doubters, now called "birthers," who claim the President was born outside of the United States and therefore ineligible to become president.  When President Obama released a full copy of the original birth certificate they were not satisfied.  Seeing is not believing.  Faith is believing.  I guess birthers put their faith in the fact at fact that the President was born outside of the country. 

Faith should be reserved to matters of the divine.  Christians put their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.  They believe that Christ died for their sins and was raised to eternal life.  They live their lives as a response to this truth they have faith in.  There is no "seeing is believing" proof out there, even though here are many physical signs and the witness of millions that do factor in this process of believing.  Ultimately, however, a Christian lives by faith.  There are moments of "seeing is believing" for those who live by faith, but they are temporary. 

We know that our eyes can be fooled.  It's that way will all the senses.  During the Civil War people standing just a mile's distance from the Battle of Fredericksburg could see the battle raging but only heared silence.  At the same exact time, five miles away, people could hear the battle clearly.  What is going on?  What they witnessed that day was a phenomenon that scientists later would call an acoustic shadow.   Hearing, or not hearing, is NOT always believing.  We know that now. 

It's that way with touch as well.  How many children walking through a neighborhood haunted house in someone's garage have been fooled into believing a bowl of cooked spaghetti was actually... EEK... brains?  I know I was. 

How about taste?  The most popular flavor of jelly bellies is not lemon or grape or cherry, but buttered popcorn.  I know its always been mine.  I still am amazed a jelly bean can taste like popcorn.  A scratch-n-sniff sticker of pizza does that same thing with our sense of smell.  We are fooled into thinking we are smelling a delicious pizza. 

Ultimately everyone one of our senses can be fooled.  Seeing is not believing.  Nor is hearing, tasting, smelling, or touching.  People understand this because our memories banks are filled with experiences of playing the fool.  We've been down this road before.  Not only have we been fooled into believing in something that's not there... we've also been let down by our senses as well.  These are the times we've missed what was right in front of us. 

That's the point of the lesson from Luke 24.  The risen Lord appears to two of his disciples as they are making the long walk home to Emmaus.  Instead of being fooled by their senses to perceive something that isn't there, their senses prevent them from perceiving. 

They see the risen Jesus, but they don't know it is him.  And this isn't because their minds are somewhere else, thinking about baseball or women, they actually are discussing the events of the past few days.  Isn't that amazing?  They are talking about Jesus and yet they cannot understand that he is right there.  They hear Jesus speak to them about himself in the Scriptures, but still they cannot understand. 

Ultimately it is the actions of Jesus at a meal that reveals his presence to them.  Was it the smell of the food and the taste at the tip of their tongues?  Was it because in Jesus' words and motions at the table memories were tiggered of from when Jesus did the same thing at the feeding of 5,000?  Maybe it was a combination of them all.  It could be that having those seeds planted through Jesus' teaching along the long road to Emmaus they were set up to finally perceive it all at that moment.  What ever it was, suddenly they do believe and their hearts burn with truth.  This is a God moment.  This is Holy Spirit.

God will use our senses to reveal many things to us.  You never know when your going to have a God moment of total recall: when suddenly it all comes together.  These are the sudden moments when you instantly understand your place in this world and understand your relationship with God, Christ, and everyone else.  Sports players call it being in the zone.  Maybe for us its being in the spiritual zone.  In the Jesus Zone. 

At that moment it all comes together.  Your whole self will be touched: spiritually and physically, heart and soul.  When we gather for worship we open ourselves up to be moved into that zone by God.  You can see the worship space and symbolism.  You can hear the gospel.  You can smell the flowers and candles.  You can feel the hand of your Christian brothers and sisters in the passing of the peace and you can taste the body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament. 

In worship it comes together.  No single sense becoming more important than the other.  For the disciples in Emmaus the meal was key... It revealed truth to them.  You never know when your heart will suddenly burn with divine truth in faith.  A hymn often triggers it: memories of something long forgotten.  A smell or a touch and open your mind in amazing ways.  It can come from anywhere. 

When it does happen get ready for the amazing.  You won't be able to sit still.  Your heart will burn and you'll get all excited.  Your heart pounds faster.  Tears will roll down your cheek... both of sadness and of joy.  And in the midst of the Spirit you will know what you have always believed: Jesus is Lord and God is good!  You believe.  You have faith.  You will share it.