Sermon-4 Lent-March 30, 2014 O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen. John 9:1-41 9As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? 3 Jesus answered, Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God s works might be revealed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. 6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man s eyes, 7 saying to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. 8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, Is this not the man who used to sit and beg? 9 Some were saying, It is he. Others were saying, No, but it is someone like him. He kept saying, I am the man. 10 But they kept asking him, Then how were your eyes opened? 11 He answered, The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, Go to Siloam and wash. Then I went and washed and received my sight. 12 They said to him, Where is he? He said, I do not know. 13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see. 16 Some of the Pharisees said, This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath. But others said, How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs? And they were divided. 17 So they said again to the blind man, What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened. He said, He is a prophet. 18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see? 20 His parents answered, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself. 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore his parents said, He is of age; ask him. 24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner. 25 He answered, I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see. 26 They said to him, What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? 27 He answered them, I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? 28 Then they reviled him, saying, You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken
to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from. 30 The man answered, Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. 34 They answered him, You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us? And they drove him out. 35 Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man? 36 He answered, And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him. 37 Jesus said to him, You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he. 38 He said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind. 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, Surely we are not blind, are we? 41 Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, We see, your sin remains. First, let s do the important stuff. The history part. Did you know that in the Church of England, the 4 th Sunday of Lent, is the only day in Lent when marriages can be celebrated? Today is the 4 th Sunday of Lent, known in the church as : Laetare Sunday so called from the Introit at Mass, "Laetare Jerusalem" ("O be joyful, Jerusalem"), is a name often used to denote the fourth Sunday of the season of Lent in the Christian liturgical calendar. This Sunday is also known as Mothering Sunday (only in England), Refreshment Sunday, Mid-Lent Sunday and Rose Sunday (because the golden rose sent by the popes to Catholic sovereigns used to be blessed at this time). Some day you will thank me for this. Let me ask you a question, has being a Christian ever cost you anything? Has following Christ, going to church, being a church member, professing Jesus as savior, ever been a problem for you? Pain? Sacrifice? Inconvenience? What has it cost you to follow Christ? Hold on to that one, I ll come back to it. This gospel may be my favorite story in the gospels, the man who was born blind. One reason is because there are so many layers to it, every time you peel back one understanding, there s another one. Jesus is a small part of this very long gospel. He disappears for 27 verses in today s story, the longest Jesus is ever absent from any
part of the gospels. 27 verses. And that s the point. This whole story, I think, is about what happens to us, by us, with us, when Jesus is absent. In the early days of the church, they kept wondering when Jesus was going to come back. But he didn t come back. And they were wondering, what do we do now? How do we act? Who are we without him? And then they would read stories like this one, and it would help them make sense of their lives. What do we do, who will we be, when Jesus is not around. I go to my mother when I am 19 and say mom, I ve joined the Episcopal Church and I want to be a priest,, and she says, what! You can t do that, we re not even religious! You know, when Martin Luther King, Jr. was in college in the early 1950s, he wanted to be a lawyer, but his friends talked him out of it. They told him, go into the ministry, become a preacher like your father, make some money, gain some prestige, then if you still want to throw your life away as a lawyer you ll always have the ministry to fall back on. Did you notice as you listened to today s gospel, that the man born blind, never asks to be healed? He doesn t beg, or plead. He doesn t chase Jesus down the road, or cry out, or even call Jesus Son of God or anything else. Jesus sees him, heals him, and then the man born blind begins a long tortuous journey. First, no one knows who the man born blind is, Is this not the man who used to sit and beg? 9 Some were saying, It is he. Others were saying, No, but it is someone like him. He kept saying, I am the man. This is one of those times in the tv show where the guy says, hey, I m right here in the room with you. The people who know him, his neighbors, don t even recognize him. They certainly don t take any joy in his healing. I m the man, I m the man. He keeps saying, buuuutttttt, they re not so sure. Then the religious leaders step in. Not only do they not recognize the miracle, they want to get somebody. Who did this, they ask, on the Sabbath? The implication is clear, if there was a healing, then it was a sin-who did it??? The man born blind is new
to sight but he certainly understood the tone of the questions-someone was going to have to pay for what happened to him. We were watching the movie The Book Thief the other night and everybody in this German village knew that if a question was asked of villagers about Jews or communists or anyone there could only be one answer-or people disappeared. Finally the man s parents are brought in, the people closest to him, 18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see? 20 His parents answered, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself. Even his parents are afraid to answer. No one takes joy in this story, no one is glad a miracle happened. And so the story ends. His neighbors, his the religious leaders, his parents, no one knows what happened to him-but they all know that it was-a-mistake. So what do you do with a problem? And they drove him out. When the story began the man was blind, and a beggar-but he had friends, neighbors, he had a home with his parents, he was welcomed in the synagogue, and was accepted in his community. Now that he was healed and could see, he was exiled, without a job, a family, a villageall he had left, was his sight-and he had never even asked for it! He had lost everything. Do you get the picture of this man walking out of his town, with nothing? Empty handed, penniless, friendless, an orphan. All because some strange man named Jesus told him to go wash in Siloam. In the early days of the church, Christians hearing this story would have thought this miracle story was being told for them. Many of them lost their families, many were ostracized by their friends, frequently they were kicked out of their communities. They followed Jesus- and they, too, lost everything. And the Jesus that had called them,
didn t seem to be anywhere around as they went through all the trials and challenges of being his followers. They felt alone, abandoned, forsaken by Jesus, and they wondered if it was all worth it. So when they heard this story of the healing of the man who was born blind, they would have nodded and said, yeah, I know how he felt. When I decided to follow Christ it cost me very little. It felt like a lot to me at the time. The friends I had had before didn t find me as much fun anymore. They said, you ve changed, what s wrong with you, why are you so different? My parents wondered where I went wrong-they thought I was mistaken, going down the wrong road-it was just a whim on my part.. I didn t know what to do, where to go, or who I would feel comfortable with, ever again. I changed, and I was scared. I started to wonder if being a Christian was worth it. In the grand scheme of things, it cost me very little. But when I heard this story, I knew how this guy felt. His life had changed, and he couldn t go back to who he was. And this new life certainly wasn t easier. In fact, life was a lot more confusing, a lot more difficult, for me as a Christian, than it ever was before. I was blind, and then I could see, and I couldn t go back. That s why I love this story. I knew what it was to be blind, then I knew what it was to see. Each week in Lent I told you the stories of John pose deepening spiritual and emotional challenges-nicodemus has doubts, the woman at the well has shame, and the man born blind loses everything that gives him comfort, identity, and security in life. What has it cost you to be a Christian? What have you had to give up to follow Christ? The writer Anais Nin once said, We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are. Faith is not the cessation of pain, the end of suffering, the absence of poverty, the end of restless nights and turbulent days. To say I believe means we will step out fiercely into an uncertain world, we will challenge the powers with light, and we will likely lose more battles than we will win. To say, Lord, I believe is a costly thing. But once we see, once we know the truth, once we are claimed what else can we do? For me, being a Christian meant that I had to grow up. I heard the truth, and once I did, I was
compelled to follow. At the time, it seemed to cost me a lot. I often wondered where Jesus was as I stumbled forward in faith. But I knew that once I received my sight, I could never go back to being blind. I like this story, because it felt like it was about me. Amen.