Lent 4 Yr A
Can you see?

David is anointed

The first King of Israel was chosen from the tribe of Benjamin—Saul, a very promising and impressive young man, who stood head and shoulders above his peers. Though Saul starts out as a very humble man, King Saul would become an unbearable dictator. Eventually, his consuming arrogance and pride would be his undoing and would ultimately result in his being rejected by God as King of his people. So picture in your mind the old prophet Samuel, coming up over one of the hills of Bethlehem, bringing a heifer for a sacrifice and feast to the Lord, sent by the Lord to anoint another king in place of Saul. Whom might he choose? How would he choose?

Introduction

Here we are at mid-Lent. One of my favorite hymns to sing on this 4th Sunday of Lent is "Now quit your care" (see Ear Worms below). This delightful hymn is set to the French tune Quittez, pasteurs, and so should be sung as a carol at Christmas—happy, uplifting—as we have reached the halfway mark. 

Back to our topic today. Are we blind? For the blind man, the entire episode was simple: Jesus put mud on the blind man’s eyes, then told the blind man to go wash the mud off; the blind man now sees. Isn't this another example of simply doing what Jesus tells us.

Those around the blind man could not believe this simplicity. There must have been more to it than that. Perhaps he never really was blind and the parents were fooling everyone all along. Perhaps the “healer” was really a sinner. Perhaps the blind man was ridiculing the Pharisees. Or worse, perhaps the blind man deigned to teach the Pharisees. How consistent is that for today's world? If something good happens to you, how many of your "frenemies" question its goodness and your being deserving? Or that you actually did something?

From this gospel, I hope you “see” that often our faith is simply there in front of us—just have faith, just see. In our lives, what (and who) are the Pharisees who put barriers in our way to see what is before us? During our coronavirus “social distancing”, what has become clearer to us? Can you see? “Our choice, then, as individuals and as Church, is whether we will allow God’s light to change how we see, or whether we will go through the motions and continue to see as the rest of society does, while claiming falsely that we see as God does (John van de Laar)”

Comments welcome.

John 9:1-41

As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. . . .  I am the light of the world.” 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, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” . . .. Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “. . . how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, . . .  Then I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.” They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. . . . 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.” 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. 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.” 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 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered, “. . . He is of age; ask him.” 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.” He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” . . . And they drove him out. Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him. 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.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”

sermons4kids: “One day Jesus was walking with his disciples when they passed by a blind man. When they saw him, the disciples asked Jesus who was to blame for the man’s blindness. Was it because of his sin or was it because of his parent’s sins? Jesus answered them and told them that no one was to blame, he was blind so that God’s works could be shown in him. ”