Have you heard of the optical illusion called Rubin’s vase?  When you first look at it, you might see a black background with a white vase in the center.  Or it may appear to you that the background is white, and two black facial profiles are superimposed on top.  Once you know what to look for, you can easily switch your perception, from the vase to the faces.  But you cannot actually see both the faces and the vase at the same time.

There is a scientific explanation for this, but the long and short of it is, we can only focus on one thing at a time.  We simply cannot hold both images clearly in our mind simultaneously.

According to Wikipedia, the Rubin’s vase optical illusion was developed around 1915, by a Danish psychologist named, you guessed it, Rubin.  But almost 2,000 years earlier, Jesus said illustrated with words what Rubin was able to put into a picture.  We cannot focus on two things at once.  We can serve God.  We can serve money.  But we cannot serve them both equally well simultaneously.  Jesus went on to say, we can have faith and trust God for all that we need.  Or we can worry.  But we cannot do both equally well at the same time.

Working our way through the New Testament, we are now stopped for a bit in the book of Hebrews.  The writer of Hebrews, we do not know who this person was, but the writer of Hebrews took 13 chapters to say what Jesus said in 13 verses:  we can either focus on what we have, or what we don’t have, but we cannot fully focus on both at the same time.

The letter of Hebrews is not easy going.  There are a lot of references to the Old Testament, which we may not be as familiar with.  There are a lot of references to cultural and religious practices which are foreign to us.  A lot happens in almost two thousand years!  But one thing that has not changed since the days of Jesus, and a few decades later, the writing of Hebrews, and that is this:  people worry about what they don’t have.

People worry about what they don’t have.  Especially if they don’t have it but other people do.  Let me give you an example.  All summer long, I did not worry about getting the newest COVID vaccine, because I knew it wasn’t coming out until September.  In mid-September, when I heard the new vaccine had been approved and would be available soon, I started to get excited, but I still  wasn’t worried.  A week or so later, I was able to get an appointment at CVS to get my flu shot and COVID vaccine, and I was amazed at how smoothly everything was going.

But then Phil and I got a text message saying not enough doses of the vaccine had been distributed to the pharmacy, and we would need to reschedule our appointments.  Phil was able to get a new appointment at a different pharmacy that same day.  He’s all set.  But me?  After my first appointment was cancelled, I was okay.  But when I made a second one and that got cancelled, I started to feel the fear that comes from scarcity.  My mind flashed back to the start of the pandemic, when I couldn’t find toilet paper, and I couldn’t find liquid hand soap, and I couldn’t find paper napkins…Remember those days?

Right away I realized, I have to choose.  I can focus on the fact that there was no vaccine dose for me even though other people are getting vaccinated.  OR I can focus on my past experience, which gives me every reason to trust that within a short period of time, one of the many pharmacies in our area with be able to inoculate me, too.  Once I made the decision to have faith, the worry went away.

The writer of Hebrews was addressing a group of people who were faced with a similar choice.  They could either focus on what they did have, or focus on what they didn’t have.  As we read the book of Hebrews, pay attention to how often the author says, “We have…”  We have a great high priest.  We have boldness.  We have better and lasting possessions.  This pastoral letter was aimed at Christians who had lost a lot because of their faith.  If they were of Jewish background, they lost the law as the guiding force in their faith—the law that generations of people had recited, studied, and treasured.  They gave this up to follow a Holy Spirit that couldn’t be seen or codified.  The writer of Hebrews was reminding them that, although they gave up a certain security with the law, they had received freedom through their faith in Christ.

There were other losses, too.  Members of the early church were targets for all kinds of bad stuff:  things like being robbed, thrown in jail on trumped up charges, exploited, and bullied.  It’s hard for us to imagine how much mean treatment some of the early Christians experienced, although of course persecution has not been confined to one particular time period.  Many people even today suffer for their faith.  The author of Hebrews writes a long letter, trying to remind and convince the early Christians that, no matter how much they had lost because of their faith, it paled in comparison to what they had gained.

It was like Rubin’s vase.  Some folks looked at their situation and saw the economic, societal, and personal losses they were enduring because of their faith, and which led to fear and a feeling of scarcity and a worries about whether they had made the right choice in deciding to follow Christ.  The writer of Hebrews wanted them to focus instead on the great joy of knowing God is with us, and the thrill of being used by the Holy Spirit to build a new kingdom based on love and justice, and of course the promise of eternal life.  Whoever he or she was, the writer of the book of Hebrews knew people cannot fully focus on both things at the same time.  Either we focus on what we have lost, and lose heart; or we focus on what we have, and get encouraged and energized.

The book of Hebrews is difficult to read.  But it has been a treasured text for centuries because we all need to be reminded to focus on what we haven gained by our faith in Christ.  We all need to be encouraged to continue to invest in our faith.  It’s easy to tally up what we’ve lost:  the money we’ve given to the church, the time each week in worship, the hours spent volunteering, the help given to missions.  It’s easy to recall times we felt our prayers went unanswered, or weren’t answered the way we wanted them to be.  We may have even experienced some lost friendships, income opportunities, and comfort because of our faith.  But have we ever added up what we receive?  Have we taken time to focus on what benefits are derived because of our faith? Benefits to us personally, as well as benefits that go out and bless others?

This is especially on my mind today, because I am in the midst of getting ready to go to Rwanda.  By the time this sermon gets “preached”—either online or in person, I will hopefully be back in one piece from an amazing trip with Zoe Empowers to meet the young people our congregation has been supporting.  I will hopefully be back with poignant stories about how our generosity and faithfulness has changed the lives of 95 young people in Rwanda.  And I will hopefully come back filled to overflowing because the young people have poured into us their enthusiasm, faith, resilience, creativity, and joy.  I will be coming back with first-hand testimony that priceless benefits are gained because of our faith in Christ.

But between now and then, I have some worries.  What if our luggage gets lost, or we get lost, or we come upon a situation we don’t know how to handle?  What if we’re disappointed?  What if we get sick?  What if there’s a problem here while I’m gone?  What if????

Our scripture lesson today reminds me that for every “What if?”, there is a “We have.”  Some of these “We haves” are very practical.  For instance, if our luggage gets lost, we each have a carry-on suitcase with a few days’ worth of clothing.  If we get sick, we are each bringing medication and first-aid supplies with us.  If there’s a problem while I’m going, I have lined up two nearby pastors to cover for me.  I remind myself, we’re not going to the moon.  This kind of trip is new to me but has been done by thousands of people for decades.  We have the technology we need to address most of the What if’s.

But even more importantly, we have Jesus, God with us.  We have the Holy Spirit, guiding us and encouraging us. We have the support of our amazing Lima congregation!  We have each other.  We have a calling.  We have the spiritual resources we need to get through any and every circumstance—IF we will choose to remember them.  If we will choose to focus on them.  If we will perceive them.  We cannot hold both our worries and our faith in our minds equally at the same time.  We have to choose which we will focus on.  And Jesus for sure wants us to focus on faith.

When we focus on faith, we find ourselves able to do things we couldn’t do before.  We have talked about some of this in recent weeks. We can forgive people who hurt us.  We can pick up a hammer and build a wall for a Habitat for Humanity house.  We can persevere during difficulty, and experience resilience.  We can learn to love ourselves as well as we love everyone else.  Our lives can be changed because of our faith.

Another thing we become able to do is give generously of our financial resources.  During the month of September, each week in worship we showed a video and explained something about how our church finances work.  Here at Lima, we are embarking on a Three Pockets Of Funding Plan.  The general fund for routine expenses, our endowment fund for capital improvements and missions, and our new Bicentennial Facility Preservation Fund, to help care the best care we can of our physical plant.  This is all in addition to our mission of the month program, which impacts people near and far with resources for a better life.  When you add all of that up, it sounds like the church does indeed ask for an awful lot from its members!  That is a lot of giving.

And at times, I am sure it feels like a burden.  Especially if someone else is getting to buy something new or do something expensive, and we can’t, because we’re choosing to prioritize our church giving over other activities.  When we look around at how others spend their money, we can start to feel scarcity.  We can start to feel anxious.  We can start to worry.

But our scripture lessons today remind us that those thoughts are simply one option.  It’s like choosing whether to focus on the vase in the Rubin’s vase optical illusion, or the faces.  We can choose to focus on what we don’t have, or on our worries, or on our sacrifices.  Or we can choose to focus on the amazing benefits derived from our faithful and generous living:  lives changed in the name of Jesus Christ.  Hope spread.  Help offered.  Justice gained.  Changed lives because the church is at work for good in the world.

Thank you for your faithful giving to the work of the Lord through Lima United Methodist Church.  Thank you for every choice you make that reflects your desire to serve GOD above every other competing ideal.  We cannot serve two masters.  We cannot be both faith-filled and worry-filled at the same time.  We get to choose which picture we will focus on.  We could focus on what we’re giving up, what we don’t have, what we’re afraid we might not ever get.  We know from experience that becomes a spiral of anxious thoughts and choices.

But as we choose to focus on the Savior who is with us, dwelling within us, moment by moment, for all eternity, we find ourselves becoming less anxious, more generous, and more content.  We find ourselves more able to give in response to the needs around us.  We find ourselves enjoying giving.  We find ourselves cheerfully sharing of our resources.  We find ourselves in a spiral of trusting thoughts and choices.

What will you focus on?  Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”  Amen!