Not Seeing and Yet Believing

My preaching professor was blind. He was also a pastor. Now he is a bishop in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)—Rev. Dr. Craig Satterlee.

But his path to ordination was filled with people wondering if he was worthy of presiding over communion because he was blind. They quoted scripture.

So naturally, when instructing preaching students or even simply participating in worship, Dr. Satterlee was  sensitive to how blindness was talked about. I hear it now too, to this day, this metaphor: to be sinful is to be blind, to be faithful is to see.

Dr. Satterlee does not like the song, “Amazing Grace” for that reason: “...was blind but now I see.” Metaphors have consequences. What we say matters.

“Who sinned? This man or his parents?” the disciples asked Jesus about a man born blind. “No one sinned,” Jesus said. “He was born blind that God’s works might be revealed in him” (John 9).

After our remarkable young people are confirmed today, we’ll sing: “We have seen the Lord!” I believe it. In them, their faith and growth, their faith statements, we see God.

And many of us yearn to see God in other areas of life. That’s what made one sermon I hear Dr. Satterlee preach so powerful. Dr. Satterlee is legally blind. He walks with a white cane. He wears thick, thick glasses, and if he holds the page right up to them, he can read.

But one day, preaching about the Eyes of Faith, he took off his glasses. He said, “These are eyes of faith—not seeing and yet trusting.” Looking into his unseeing eyes, I received this as very good news.

Jesus said to Thomas, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (John 20).

The faith that Zion’s confirmation students profess today is not sight. God’s ways are hidden, even secret, but real and powerful. Some of us memorized these words of Martin Luther for confirmation:

“I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy and kept me in the true faith, just as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes holy the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one common, true faith. “

I believe that I can’t believe. My eyes cannot prove, but the Holy Spirit can move me. Thanks be to God. 

Pastor Clark Olson-Smith