The Wide-Angle Lens

What do we pay attention to in our lives? Does that really matter? Oh, my, yes! Just as what we focus on affects a photo, what we pay attention to affects our attitudes! Isaiah told us that nearly 2,500 years ago. Are we listening to his wisdom?

I grew up with cameras. My father was a professional photographer; and so, while my childhood friends were talking about bicycles and roller skates, my own vocabulary included “film speed,” “f-stop,” and “darkroom.” I knew how develop photographs while I was still in grade school, and I could use an industrial photographic drier long before I could drive a car. Photography has changed a lot, though, since my dad was in business. These days, cameras are digital, photos are stored on a computer, and negatives don’t even exist. In fact, the kind of film that I used to use isn’t even made any more! But some things haven’t changed at all. Taking a good photograph still involves more than standing in front of a tourist attraction and holding up a selfie stick! In fact, some of the best photographs aren’t of ourselves at all, but of the world around us. And although capturing images of what’s around us no longer means holding up a light meter and fiddling with camera settings, it still involves some choices.

One choice that we still have to make is what to use as the focus of the photo. Are we going to focus on something very small, something very large, or something in between? Usually our photos are those in-between shots – a photo of the gathered family in front of the Christmas tree, for example. From time to time, we decide to take a picture of something very small. Some years ago, I took a photo of a tiny grasshopper who had settled on the windshield of my car. It was a very lucky shot; you can see the ridges on the hind legs of the little guy! But every now and then, we want to capture a whole vista. Those are the photos that have the potential to take our breath away! Who doesn’t stand in awe of a picture of the moon rising over the ocean; or of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains? It’s tough to get that kind of photograph with a pocket-sized digital camera or a cell phone. To really capture the vastness of a landscape, you still need a camera that has a wide-angle lens. That kind of lens captures a wide field of view, the kind of view that we don’t often stop and enjoy. Oh, when we’re on vacation in the Great Smoky Mountains, we might park the car at a pull-off spot and look around in awe. But every day? No, we don’t look through a wide-angle lens every day. But maybe we should, especially on the days when everything seems to be going wrong. On those days, we tend to bury our noses in our problems and ignore what’s all around us. Now, there’s a good reason for that. We concentrate on what’s bothering us because we want to figure out a way to get rid of it! If you’re walking with a blister on your heel, you’re not very likely to be thinking about the beauty of the scenery along the way! But even – maybe especially – in the middle of difficulties, we should be looking through that wide-angle lens every single day!

Looking through a wide-angle lens is, in fact, vital to our spiritual health. Let’s get in a time machine and visit ancient Babylon in the year 586 BCE. The Babylonians have conquered the nation of Israel, burned the city of Jerusalem, carried off everything that was in the Temple, and dragged the people off into exile. The kingdom of King David and King Solomon that has lasted over 400 years suddenly is now no more. The Israelites are desolate! Their nation is gone. Their holy city, Jerusalem, is gone. The temple that had stood in Jerusalem is gone. They are afraid that God is gone, too. And now, they have to endure the sarcasm of the Babylonians who are reminding them over and over that their gods are stronger than the God of Israel! If you want to see what despair looks like, just take a look at Psalm 137.

By the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.

There on the poplar trees we hung our harps.

There our captors asked us for songs; our tormentors demanded songs of joy.

They said, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’

How can we sing the songs of the Lord while we are in a foreign land?

Right in the middle of that terrible experience in Babylon, though, an amazing thing happened. One day, somebody lifted his eyes out of the dust and looked through a wide-angle lens. That person started saying things like, “God is still here! God’s temple in Jerusalem may be gone, but God is still here! The heavens are still here. The earth is still here. God will get us out of this mess, even though I don’t know how that will happen!” The text that I read just a few minutes ago come from that time (Isaiah 40:21-31). “Look through your wide-angle lens!” Isaiah is saying. “Stop focusing on your problems and look around! God has everything under control even if we can’t see it.” Isaiah even compares human beings to that little grasshopper who took a rest on my lawn chair. People are tiny things compared to the God who spoke creation into existence. Even the greatest nations in the world like a piece of dry leaf that the wind whisks away. “Why are we so worried?” Isaiah asks. “God is bigger than any problem that we have! Just look through your wide-angle lens if you need a reminder!”

That isn’t a bad thing for us to remember today, either, as we are sometimes overwhelmed by problems: medical care, climate change, and the upcoming presidential election. Even the church has its problems! We are split into hundreds of denominations, most of whom don’t even talk to one another, let alone work together. We don’t agree on how to understand the Bible, and because of that, we don’t agree on what to do about social problems that cry out for our attention. In some places, Christians are even persecuted for their faith. You can’t even carry a Bible in North Korea! Our local churches have their share of problems, too. You know some of the ones that we face here at Nashville! Our income hasn’t been enough to cover our expenses for… oh, a couple of years, now. Our congregation is getting older and less able to participate in church and mission activities. Worship attendance isn’t what it once was. The pews that were once crammed with worshipers on Sunday morning are now not crammed any more.

Now, I don’t have a solution to any of these problems, and I don’t know anyone who does. But I do have a suggestion. Why don’t we take a look though a wide-angle lens? While we can’t ignore what’s wrong, we can’t forget that many things are right! I invite you to focus on the fact that God is way bigger than we are, and that God has promised to remain faithful to us. God has given this congregation many strengths, the kinds of strengths that allow us to run and not to grow weary. We all have gifts, talents, and resources to do the ministry to which God is calling us. If we lift our eyes out of the dust, we might even see opportunities that God has put right in front of our noses so that God can guide us into the future! Yes, we need to look through that wide-angle lens every now and then, especially when we start saying “Woe is me!” It’s always a good thing to remember what Isaiah said so long ago: “Why do you think that God doesn’t care about us anymore? Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard? God is everlasting. God never gets tired. God understands everything! God gives us strength even when we don’t think we can go on another step. In fact, God gives us so much strength that one day we will fly like eagles” as God’s Spirit carries us aloft and bears us along on the wind!