The Story of a Telescope

By the time the Hubble Space Telescope launched inside the payload bay of the Space Shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990, the telescope had cost around 4.7 billion dollars and had taken over a decade to design and build. It had run nearly seven years past its original launch date and many millions over its original funding of 36 million. After spending so much time and money, it would be a disaster if Hubble was destroyed during the launch . The scientific community breathed a sigh of relief when the telescope was deployed and the astronauts returned safely home.

At that point, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was the largest and most complex telescope that man had ever put into orbit. Above the blurring effects of the atmosphere, the HST promised to open a new window into the universe that could lead to discoveries scientists hadn’t even imagined before. After performing a period of checks, scientists opened the large cover on the front of the telescope and began taking pictures. As the pictures started coming down, astronomers were alarmed. They expected the pictures to be much sharper than those taken by ground-based telescopes, but they weren’t.

Eventually it was determined that Hubble was unable to focus because its mirror was ground to an incorrect shape. The mirror was too flat by only 2,200 nanometers, about 1/40^th the width of a human hair, but that was still enough to make it unable to fulfill its mission.

The Story of a Church

Focus on possessions

The time Anabaptists have spent in America has not been good for us. We fled from persecution in Europe just to fall into a different snare that is even more deceptive. In a land of plenty, it is hard for us to resist the call of earthly riches. And so, over the last several hundred years we have built up houses, barns, businesses, and bank accounts.

We certainly need food, shelter, and jobs to provide for our families, but a focus on earthly wealth will draw us away from a correct focus on the things of Christ. “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Matt 6:24 (NKJV)

Focus on ourselves

Christians are called to be selfless, to put the needs of others before our own, and to defer to others in many areas in life (Rom 12:10, 16). When the members of the Church focus more on what we want than what the Church needs, the Church will wither away like a branch that is cut off from the Vine.

Another way we can wrongly focus on ourselves is to have an inward focus on a small group of local believers. This focus leads us to spend time focusing on an insular maintenance of what we have and often even building walls around the Church instead of an outward focus on reaching out to the lost. We fill our lives with so many family and church events and programs that we leave little or no time to attend to the needs around us.

Jesus warned against only relating to a certain group of people. “Then He also said to him who invited Him, ‘When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.’” (Luke 14:12-14 NKJV).

Focus on the world

There are two ways we can incorrectly focus on the world–we can focus on the things that draw us to the world, or focus on the things that repel us from the world. 1 John 2:15, 16 speaks of the first. “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.”

We might think that focusing on the sin in the world would be helpful, it will make us thankful for the truth and salvation we find in Christ. Ideally this would be the case, but often a continual tsking and shaking of our heads at the sad state of the world causes more harm than good.

Jesus spoke in a parable about an incorrect focus on the sins of others.

Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Luke 18:9-14 (NKJV)

Who do we often resemble? The Pharisee, or the publican? Instead of leading us to a genuine and sacrificial love for our neighbors, an incorrect focus on the deplorable condition of the world will often lead to us puffing out our chests and congratulating ourselves on how much better we are than the society around us.

Fixing the Focus

Around three years after Hubble was placed into its orbit by Discovery, a repair mission launched onboard the shuttle Endeavor. Astronauts completed a series of long and complex spacewalks to install an instrument that acted as a corrective lens for the big telescope. Astronomers were overjoyed when they started seeing the pictures. Hubble could now focus correctly. Several more upgrade and repair missions were completed over the next decade to continue to increase the ability of Hubble. In the three decades it has operated, the Hubble Space Telescope has made untold contributions to our knowledge of the structure and beauty of the universe.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a warning that it doesn’t matter how much money and time we have poured into something, our mission will be greatly hindered or even impossible to achieve if we have an incorrect focus. When Jesus ascended into the heavens, he left the new church with a mission. “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you;’“(Matt 28:18-20 NKJV). If we cannot focus on the right things we will be unable to achieve the mission Christ left for us.

What should we focus on? Christ—it is that simple. He should be the one who we lift up continually before us so we don’t become distracted by our possessions, ourselves, or the world. He teaches us to sacrifice for others, to store up treasures in heaven instead of here on earth. He teaches us to reach out to sinners with the knowledge that we were once sinners in need of salvation. Before Christ left this earth he gave us a mission. Is our incorrect focus on things other than Christ preventing us from completing our mission?