We were lost.  We were really lost, hopelessly lost.  This was a couple of years ago.  We had been driving around in England and Scotland, and had just taken the ferry over to Dublin, Ireland and were looking for our hotel.  The Irish don’t really believe in street signs, we discovered.  So even though we thought we had a map that showed us right where to go, almost as soon as we got off the ferry, we were completely lost.  We were just driving around in circles seemingly in this big city, on these narrow little streets, and of course on the wrong side of the road.  And it’s a strange feeling to have really no idea where you are.  A little panic begins to set in.  It can be paralyzing.  And I am not one of those men who will not ask for directions, I will ask for directions.  But I just felt so lost, I wasn’t sure that anyone would even be able to help us.  It was Brenda who got out and asked a woman for directions, and she told her, “Oh yes, it’s right over here.  You’re one block away.”  Sometimes you feel just so lost, but you’re closer than you think.  So finally we found our way and arrived at our destination.  We’d been lost the whole time until we arrived at our hotel, but the kicker was that as soon as we got out of our car someone came up to me and asked me for directions.  I mean, some days, even around here, I wonder if I shouldn’t have a bumper sticker that says, “Don’t follow me, I’m lost!”

I heard someone say once in a moment of desperation in his life, “I know all the dead end streets.  What I’m looking for is one road that leads somewhere.”  This is what we’re all looking for, isn’t it?  And yet how often do we go down those dead end streets, with no focus, no purpose or direction, no vision. 

There is power in knowing where you’re going.  There is power in vision.  So much of who we are and who we might one day become depends on what we can see, what we have as our vision.  There was a man by the name of Victor Frankl who was a psychiatrist in Vienna who was thrown into a concentration camp by the Nazis during World War II.  He survived, and after the war he wrote and lectured about his experiences.  In his lectures he would often say, “There is only one reason why I am alive today.  What kept me alive was you.”  And he would motion to the audience.  He said, “Others in the concentration camps gave up hope.  But I had a vision that someday I would lecture to people just like you about how I survived the concentration camps.  I’ve never been here before.  I’ve never seen any of you before.  I’ve never given this exact lecture before.  But in my dreams and in my vision I have stood before you and said these words a thousand times.”  What saved him, in other words, what made the difference, was his vision.  The importance of vision.  The power of vision. 

I think too of Helen Keller who, as you know I’m sure, was blind and also deaf.  And someone was trying to show Helen Keller some sympathy, and said, “Oh Helen, could there be anything worse than not being able to see?”  And Helen Keller’s response was, “Oh yes, there is worse, there is much worse than not being able to see.  What is worse is to be able to see, but to have no vision.”  To be able to see, but to have no vision.  As someone has said, “There are times when you see, but then there are times when you see.” 

That’s what this passage in the gospel of John is about – in fact, this is what the whole gospel of John is about -- those who see, and those who see.  The word, to see, is used frequently here; it is used frequently in all of John.  Jesus is constantly trying to get the disciples and others to see things.  Now there are several words in Greek, the language of the New Testament, that mean to see, and they all mean slightly different things.  For example, one word means to look, to see with the naked eye.  But other words for to see mean to perceive, to look deeply, to experience, to know, to really get it and understand.  This is the sense of this word here in this passage.  To see Jesus here means to experience Jesus, to feel his presence, to believe and trust in the one who came to bring us salvation.  Sometimes it is not seeing that is believing, it is believing that is seeing.  It is when we first believe, meaning when we first allow ourselves to experience Jesus and know Jesus and perceive his direction for our lives and have a vision for the destiny, the destination, he has for us, it is only then that we really see Jesus. 

There are times when you see, and then there are times when you see, when you believe, when you perceive, when you have a vision.  It is this deeper way of seeing that really allows you to see.  There are times when we might see poverty and hunger, for example.  With the naked eye we see these things, we get fleeting glimpses of them, if nowhere else, on TV or in the newspaper.  We see poverty and hunger.  But what would happen if we really began to see poverty and hunger, to see that some people just have nothing, to see what it does to people, see how it destroys people, destroys whole neighborhoods and communities?  What if we began to have a vision for what small thing we might do, not to end world poverty and hunger, although if we get started here we might get to that eventually, but to save a hundred people, let’s say, or if that’s too many, to save one family, save one life, save one child. 

We see racism; it’s all over the news.  We see racism.  But what if we really began to see racism, to see what 400 years of slavery and prejudice have done to this country, see what it has done to our souls, both black and white?  What if we, you and I, began to have a vision for how we might, even in some small way make a dent in this evil of racism?  The whole rest of the world might be racist but I will not.  To the extent that I have anything to say about this, and do about this, to the extent that one person can make any kind of difference, this evil thing will end here with me.  I remember this New Yorker cartoon where there must be hundreds, maybe thousands, maybe millions, of people all standing there and they’re all thinking, “What can one person do?” 

We see this church, we see Christ Church, we see this magnificent church, we see all of the wonderful ministries of Christ Church, too many important things for me to enumerate here.  But my question sometimes is: Do we really see Christ Church and what it might yet be?  Are we just sort of satisfied with where we are right now, or do we have a vision for what we might yet be, what God might yet be calling us to be and become?  There are times when you see, and then there are times when you see. 

I understand that when Disney World first opened, Mrs. Walt Disney spoke at the grand opening since Walt had died.  She was introduced by a man who said, “Mrs. Disney, I just wish Walt could have seen this.”  And Mrs. Disney got up and said, “Walt did see this.  That’s why it’s here.”  Because he saw it.  Part of seeing is seeing what the future might be, seeing what you might yet be, seeing what God might yet make of you, seeing what God might yet make of Christ Church, as great as it is, seeing what God might yet make of us here. 

I heard about a young girl who somehow managed to wander away from her parents and get lost.  A police car came by and saw her and picked her up.  They wanted to take her home, but she didn’t know where she lived.  So they drove around, hoping she would recognize her house, but nothing looked familiar to the little girl.  Until finally she saw it, not her house, but her church, she saw the church she and her family went to every Sunday.  And she let out a little whoop of joy, “This is my church!” she said.  “This is my church!  I can find my way home from here!” 

Christ Church is just such a place, where people come to find their way.  May it ever be so, as we listen for God’s voice to speak to us, as we allow God to continue to work in us, as we catch a glimpse of all that God has in store for us, so that for generations to come, people who look at Christ Church, and even think about Christ Church, will say, “This is my church!  This is my church!  I can find my way home from here!”