Visions
Our OT reading that we heard today was the call of Samuel. While still just a boy Samuel heard God, he didn’t see a vision as such, but he heard a ‘voice’, and it changed his life!
That young man that John wrote about in his poem saw a vision - he saw a cross and he saw ‘Jesus’ – and again, it changed his life!
I’d like us to reflect on visions for a few minutes.
The first thing I want to say is that it is not unusual! It seems to be a regular occurrence for me to have someone describe a vision they’ve experienced.
I imagine your familiar with stories of near death experiences – that is, when someone’s heart stops, perhaps on an operating table, and they have some sort of ‘out of body experience’. Sometimes they seem to be in the room looking down on what is going on. Frequently there is a bright light and warmth. Sometimes a voice.
Recently I was talking with someone who had such an experience and they heard a voice tell them that they were still needed, there was still more for them to do, and they woke up soon afterwards. Someone else told me that they actually didn’t want to come back, it was a beautiful experience they didn’t want to leave, but then it finished.
But of course, visions take many other forms as well.
Some may have seen Andrew Denton on Monday night. Among others he interviewed Lincoln Hall, the mountaineer who got into trouble, I think last year, after reaching the summit of Mt Everest. The Sherpas who were with him thought he was dead, he had no pulse and was not breathing. They were instructed to cover his body with stones and leave him. Fortunately there were no stones available, so they just took his pack and left him.
Back at home his wife had been told he was in trouble and she was obviously worried for him. Show snippet of video. (Stop at 1:27)
Edith Colley has given me permission to tell of her experience. When her father died her mother felt that he came back several times to comfort her. On several occasions she had this certain feeling that he was there, in fact he actually seemed to hold her. Then on one occasion he said to her, “I can’t keep doing this.” And they said good-bye and she didn’t experience it again.
Now when her own husband, Jim, died Edith was looking for that same comfort but it didn’t happen. She felt nothing. She was even sort of angry with God because she missed out. Then two years later, as some of you know, she faced the death of her daughter Yvette. When Yvette died she and two others were in the room, and they all had this overwhelming feeling that Jim was there. It was as though he came back to get his daughter and to comfort his wife through that terrible time.
Edith said it was very real! And she found it wonderfully reassuring - it helped her cope.
Just last week a women told me that when a family member died she saw what looked like a white sheet or shaft of light come down over that person. Almost as though an angel had come to take them.
There is much more to life than meets the eye, I think! For me, much of this is mystery that I don’t understand, and I don’t need to understand. We believe in a God who is both close, intimate, revealed; and yet at the same time is transcendent, mystery, beyond understanding. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Now we see as in a mirror dimly, then we shall see face to face.”
On things like this my mirror is pretty dim – I’ve never experienced any sort of vision like this myself.
Just what did Lincoln’s wife experience? What did Edith experience? What did so many other experience – I don’t know for sure. Can a person’s spirit ‘visit’ a loved one? Maybe! At the Transfiguration Peter saw Abraham and Moses! Maybe it was actually just God comforting them, perhaps reassuring them that the person who had died was ‘OK’, and they interpreted it as actually being that person. I don’t know.
I am not sure haw to explain these experiences. But I am convinced that something happens! It’s not just wishful thinking:
– not for Samuel, he didn’t talk himself into hearing God;
- not for Lincoln Hall’s wife, she didn’t even want that experience because she was scared of what it meant.
I will just make a few points:
FIRSTLY, there are many stories of visions in the Bible! They pretty much fit into 2 groups:
(i) God changes the direction of their life – calling the prophet, or giving a message they have to tell e.g. Samuel, Moses and the burning bush;
(ii) God gives comfort or reassurance that they are heading in the right direction – Jacob’s ladder, the transfiguration, the resurrection stories.
SECONDLY, these experiences, however we interpret them, still reinforce my belief in the resurrection. They don’t prove it – you can’t ‘prove’ there is life after death. These near death experiences are just that – they are ‘near’ death experiences. These people didn’t die and it can be explained away as a psychological phenomenon. But I don’t think so!
I think we are spiritual beings created to communicate with God. And it may be that at those times of our deepest need, when we are at our most vulnerable and our barriers are down, when we are most open, then we experience the sacred. ‘God’s deep Spirit calling to our deep spirit.’
THIRDLY, these ‘visions’ reinforce the Christian conviction that God is in everything working for good. God didn’t heal Yvette, God didn’t stop her from dying, but God was there none-the-less; helping Edith when she needed it most.
LASTLY, we ought not to go looking for these, shall we say exceptional or dramatic signs. Experiencing a vision like this does not make one a better Christian or somehow more ‘holy’ than someone who has not. (I say this of course because I haven’t!!) It is better, I think, to experience God in small ways in our day to day prayers and our everyday lives.
But we do have to keep our inner eyes open for the sacred, we do need to spend time listening for God – I’ve spoken of this a lot lately, because it is important. In fact, it is more than important, it’s vital! It’s essential that we spend time in prayer.
And it’s good to reflect back on your day and ask yourself, where was God in my life today? It probably won’t be in some dramatic vision, but in the little and important things. Ask yourself, what was God doing? What was God wanting me to do?
And then perhaps God won’t have to intervene in your life as he had to in Sean’s. And if you’re listening when God calls you then He won’t have to call three times as he did for Samuel. Be open to God’s voice and you will not be neglected.
Traralgon 5th Aug ’07
1 Sam 3:1-10 ; Matt 19:13-15 |