St. Andrew Presbyterian Church
  • Home
  • New Here?
    • Belonging Here
    • Contact Us
    • Directions
  • Who We Are
    • Stories
    • About Our Ministries
    • Leadership
    • Staff
    • Manantial de Vida Congregation
  • Worship
    • Worship in Absentia
    • Sermons
    • Get Involved >
      • Choirs and Music
      • Social Groups
      • Community Service
      • Missions >
        • NICHE
        • Gulfport Mississippi 2008
        • Honduras 2012
        • Honduras 2015
        • Honduras 2018 >
          • NPH 2018 photos
      • Christian Formation
      • Sustainable Living
      • Youth Group
    • Aftertalk
  • Happenings
    • Calendar
    • Newsletter
    • News >
      • News
  • Give
  • File Cabinet
    • Donations - Electronic
    • Clerks Drawer
    • Elder/Deacon Resources
    • Policies and Procedures
    • Personnel and Budget Drawer
    • Media
    • Members & Metrics
    • Sunday Roles
    • Directory & Deacons' Lists

Sermon - 4th Sunday in Lent

3/30/2014

0 Comments

 

Scott Anderson

Today's Readings:
Ephesians 5:8-14  •  John 9:1-41
 

Do you wonder if this blind man ever found himself wishing he had never been healed? It certainly does seem that his healing created for him a heap of trouble. We might conclude that his healing is not the end, but the beginning of his problems.

Consider the evidence: Up to this point he’s been a part of a community, if an invisible member. People seem to have known him, even though they may not have paid him much attention—certainly not enough to positively ID him. Or did they prefer to feign ignorance? Best case scenario, he was tolerated. He belonged. If not privileged, at least he had a place.

But once he is healed and sees things for what they are, the world seems to turn against him. He faces resistance. He is thrown out of his church. In fact, Biblical scholars are pretty sure the man is a type for the kind of experience of many early Christians who were rejected for their turn toward Jesus. He was like many who, seeing the shortcomings of institutional religion that had lost its way, was punished rather than welcomed as a voice of reform and new life.


You would think it would drive him nuts. You would expect him to fall apart. But the striking thing is that he seems to do just the opposite. Things do get crazy—I mean, nutty. It is a silly story, the way people seem to be losing their heads around him. But in the midst of it all, this one who was sent to the pool called “sent” by the one who was sent by God, is the calm in the eye of a storm.

The Pharisees, on the other hand, are falling apart. We might give them the benefit of the doubt early on in the story. They are divided as they try to parse a contradiction—a healing on the one day that it seems a healing shouldn’t be allowed—the Sabbath. So it can’t be from God because it’s against the rules, but it has to be from God, because it’s a good thing.

So a committee meeting is called, then a consultation, then a task force is formed, and finally a hearing is held. And while the man who was once blind is indicted, it is the judges who are exposed for what they truly are—frauds less concerned with what is true and good than what is personally beneficial. And the storm rages.

And in the middle of it, not one, but two quiet people, meet each other, and the salvation and well-being and hope that God offers in the questions and the search and the humble offering of self to the one who is sent to heal and make whole.

Make no mistake. There is no promise of a painless path for this settled man who now sees, nor for the one who made him see. It leads to a cross. What an ironic thing! The man is made well, and for it, he is rejected. For it, he suffers. And so does the one who makes him and us well.

Did you notice how quickly the questions evolve, how difficult it is to keep track of the real issue? At the beginning blindness was an indication of sin. By the end—and this is surely ironic!—the man’s seeing was presumed to be sin. And yet, in spite of this theater of the absurd, he grows stronger. He, along with his healer, are the only ones who are not losing their heads. If there is a promise in this story, this is surely it. This, John tells us, is the result of an encounter with the dying and rising one. This is what discipleship looks like. This may be what you are searching for here this morning.

The healed one becomes more active and more settled as the story goes on. By reporting what happened, he becomes a teacher to the teachers—and they resent him for it. He becomes a truth teller to the ones who claim to own the truth, and they reject him for it. He becomes a disciple to the one who healed, and they banish him for it. And yet, John seems to be telling us that in the midst of the craziness, he finds his true home. He is not only healed, he is made whole. He finds his way, through his baptism, into a new life in which the truth sets him free, in which the light of the world shepherds him to life.

There is a promise to this story that is important for all to hear today who seek faith, knowledge, and reassurance—whether you are new, or whether you’ve been along this road for some time now. Give yourself to it, body and soul, and you will have trouble. You will encounter resistance. You will see people losing their heads all about you. But there is more.

Give yourself to it, body and soul, and you will encounter the calm in the midst of the storm. You will find the one who is searching for you. You will find a way that leads to life.
This is where the healing God, who restores the soul of lost sheep dwells. This is where your cup can overflow, even in the presence of your enemies. It is precisely in this search, and the craziness of it all, and the well-intentioned resistance, and the misunderstanding and anxiety, that God’s Spirit quietly comes to you. To you!—and says do you believe in the Son of Man? Do you believe?

Do you give yourself to it? Give your life away. Give yourself to him, and be well. Give yourself to it, and find your true home.

Amen.


0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.


    St. Andrew Sermons

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Advent
    Advocacy
    Allegory
    All Saints
    Annie Dillard
    Anti Racism
    Anti-Racism
    Ash Wednesday
    Auden
    Authority
    Baptism
    Beatitudes
    #BlackLivesMatter
    Bones
    Catechumenate
    Center Of Hope
    Christian Formation
    Christian Hope
    Christmas
    Clarity
    Climate Change
    Communion
    Compassion
    Confession
    Courage
    Creation Care
    Creative Process
    CS Lewis
    Dance
    Deacons
    Dealing With Death
    Desmond Tutu
    Despair
    Discernment
    Easter
    Economics
    Fairy Tales
    Faith
    Faithfulness
    Fecundity
    Footwashing
    Forgiveness
    Frederich Buechner
    Fred Rogers
    Generosity
    Godspell
    Good Friday
    Grace
    Gratitude
    Greatness
    Guns
    Hans Rosling
    Home
    Honduras
    Hope
    Housing
    Hulie Wigmen
    Incarnation
    Jan Dittmar
    Jimmy Nelson
    Judgment
    Julie Kae Sigars
    Justice
    Leadership
    Leigh Weber
    Lent
    Life In Christ
    Linda Ferguson
    Living In The Light
    Longing
    Love
    Maggie Breen
    Maundy Thursday
    Memory
    #MeToo
    Miracles
    Moral Injury
    Neighborliness
    New Life
    Newness Of Life
    Nicodemus
    NPH
    Palm Sunday
    Parables
    Peacemaking
    Pentecost
    People's Campaign
    Photography
    Poetry
    Pope Francis
    PTSD
    Rainer Maria Rilke
    REACH
    Reformation (New)
    Reign Of Christ
    Resilience
    Richard Powers
    Righteousness
    Robin Wall Kimmerer
    Role Of The Church
    Scott Anderson
    Security
    Sermon On The Mount
    Sermon On The Plain
    Sin
    Singing
    Social Media
    Solidarity
    Spiritual Formation
    Steadfast Love
    Temptation
    The Church
    Timothy Egan
    Transfiguration
    Trinity
    Tse-whit-zen
    Wendell Berry
    White Supremacy
    Wonder



​WORSHIP

Sunday 10am

PHONE:
425-272-5836


​OFFICE HOURS
Wednesday and Thursday
10AM-12PM 
                                        

  • Home
  • New Here?
    • Belonging Here
    • Contact Us
    • Directions
  • Who We Are
    • Stories
    • About Our Ministries
    • Leadership
    • Staff
    • Manantial de Vida Congregation
  • Worship
    • Worship in Absentia
    • Sermons
    • Get Involved >
      • Choirs and Music
      • Social Groups
      • Community Service
      • Missions >
        • NICHE
        • Gulfport Mississippi 2008
        • Honduras 2012
        • Honduras 2015
        • Honduras 2018 >
          • NPH 2018 photos
      • Christian Formation
      • Sustainable Living
      • Youth Group
    • Aftertalk
  • Happenings
    • Calendar
    • Newsletter
    • News >
      • News
  • Give
  • File Cabinet
    • Donations - Electronic
    • Clerks Drawer
    • Elder/Deacon Resources
    • Policies and Procedures
    • Personnel and Budget Drawer
    • Media
    • Members & Metrics
    • Sunday Roles
    • Directory & Deacons' Lists