Keep Shining Light into Dark Places: A Sermon for 4A Lent

 I keep promising myself that I am going to sit down and write a blog entry about some of the "things" that have been happening in my world this Lent which has made it a particularly "Lenty" Lent. Obviously, I haven't done it yet. Promises. Promises. 

But as I was reading this sermon aloud to my beloved, I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes as I talked about the blind man given his sight, only to be met with skeptism and told to go away. His rejection feels very real to me.

Perhaps, you, dear reader, might also understand the man's total frustration and hurt.

Too many people out there want to bring light to the darkness...only to have those who are in the dark slam the door in our faces. 

+++

What we just heard was the entirety of Chapter Nine from John’s Gospel.

And… I’m glad we did hear the whole story. Because… just as with the other readings we’ve been listening to from John… this one sticks to the overarching theme:

Moving from darkness to light.

Whether it’s Nicodemus… or the Samaritan Woman at the well… or this blind man: what John wants us to hear… read… mark… learn and inwardly digest… is the idea that if we encounter and consent to enter into a relationship with Jesus…we will be moved from darkness to light.

From ignorance to knowledge.

From self-centeredness to awareness of others.

If there is any one thing to take away from John’s Gospel… besides his advocacy for a high Christological message that Jesus is the Word made flesh and is God incarnate… it’s that Jesus is the light that has come into the world to enlighten and free our hearts and minds to follow God.

And if there is something to be understood from this Gospel text… it’s that there are going to be a lot of people who simply do not or will not accept that reality.

Consider the circumstances of this blind man.

His whole life he has been unable to see.

From the day of his first breath… his world was dark.

Then along comes someone who makes this muddy mixture… rubs it on his eyes… and tells him to go wash them off in this pool of water.

He does as he’s told… and presto… for the first time in this man’s life… he has vision.

He sees the brightness of the sky… the dusty pathways… the people.

How much information for his brain to process!

How wonderful to have been given this opportunity!

How amazing to emerge from this darkness and into the light!

And yet… those who see this formerly blind man… aren’t joining in celebrating this marked change.

Instead… they are disbelieving, demanding and dismissive.

“Wasn’t this that blind beggar dude? Nah….can’t be him!’

“Who did this? Who made you see?” and “How dare he!”

Even his parents get grilled… accused of lying about their adult son’s blindness.

The man tells the same story over and over.

He tells them the truth.

“The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me go to Siloam and wash.”

But no one believed him.

Instead they kicked him out… ostracized him from his community.

All because he had changed… and was now living in the light.

What was it about this man that evoked such a strong… negative response?

I think that’s a question it comes back to the idea of change….and the fear that change generates in us.

This man once-relegated to the streets has changed.

He is no longer dependent on the kindness of strangers. He has disrupted the status quo… introduced a new narrative to his story… a story he can now tell for himself instead of having others speak for him.

His change challenges the system… and that upsets and rattles everyone around him. They don’t know what to do with this.

This is something different… a script which they haven’t rehearsed before… and they don’t know how it ends.

Rather than embrace this new light… everyone is ready to snuff it out.

As we look at what is happening around us today… we can see that same dynamic playing out.

There is such fear…such vehement… even violent… reactions to difference.

I saw a report recently that hate crimes targeting Jews are on the rise in the country. There are the high-profile attacks like the one a few years ago at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh… but there are lesser reported acts of aggression happening daily around the country. Assaults… threats made against synagogues.

One of my favorite TV shows to watch on Sunday nights… “The Equalizer”… had a storyline about anti-Semitism and white supremacist extremists.

When fictional TV shows start incorporating the headlines into their scripts… that’s when we know there’s a real problem out there.

And it’s not just the issue of anti-Semitism.

Entertainment venues are coming under scrutiny because of hosting drag shows… a form of performance art that has been part of western culture for centuries… from Bob Hope and Jack Lemmon to Bugs Bunny cartoons to Monty Python.

State governments are threatening parents of transgender children and denying access to healthcare for those kids.

Just a few days ago… there was a report about a textbook publisher whitewashing the history of the civil rights movement by refusing to mention the racist policies that led to Rosa Parks being ordered to the back of the bus in Alabama.

A rather unbelievable turn of events… especially with so many still alive who know the real story.

I thought about these news reports… and events… as I sat with my Bible opened to the 9^th chapter of John.

That’s when I turned back to the conversation with Nicodemus… the Pharisee who approaches Jesus at night… to engage with Jesus and try to get an understanding about this itinerant rabbi.

And that’s where I read again:

“…the light has come into the world and the people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19).

People loved darkness rather than light.

People preferred to be left in the dark.

People don’t want to have the light because then they might become enlightened.

And that brings us back to the blind man in this Gospel story… and what he symbolizes in the unveiling… and uncovering… of who Jesus is.

Unlike in other healing stories from the Gospels… and similar to the Samaritan Woman at the well… this blind man isn’t seeking Jesus. He doesn’t even know who he is.

And as Jesus tells his disciples… he’s not blind because of any sin he or his parents have committed.

But his circumstances… living on the streets and begging for food… is the sin of the society that has relegated him to being a beggar… and counted him worthless…on account of his disability.

Even the disciples at first don’t understand this because they’re products of that same society.

But Jesus knows that with some enlightenment… not only will it change this blind man and his circumstances and his outlook… it will highlight the need for a society to look at him in a different way.

Certainly… the societal forces from his family… to his synagogue… to the neighbors… would have to now see for themselves this change and rejoice?

And when it doesn’t happen… when this man with light in his eyes gets rejected… who comes to meet him but Jesus.

Jesus comes along side our formerly blind man in his place of hurt and rejection…

Jesus invites him into relationship by asking if he believes in the Son of Man… believes that there is one who brought him from his darkness into light.

And his answer is a “Yes!”

He’s become enlightened…thanks be to God… and stands as a symbol of what happens when the light enters the world.

He represents a beacon to us to show that when we dare to change… when we attempt to move and shift a narrative… challenge a long-standing status quo system of “this is the way things have always been,” we will not see instant success.

But we must believe.

We must trust.

Because the God of our biblical ancestors… the God who desires us to write a script of inclusion… is still participating in our lives.

We’re being called to play our part… to not be afraid of the light… and to continuously let our light shine no matter what.

Don’t be afraid of the light.

And don’t let the darkness of others dim the radiance that is within you.

In the name of God… F/S/HS.

 

We Live in a Thirsty World: A Sermon for the Third Sunday of Lent

 

I was away last week to do some of my continuing education hours as a massage therapist. And it was a fantastic experience to be back on the campus in Gainesville, Florida, and enjoying bodywork... both giving and receiving. It was also fortutious as it gave me a lot to think about for this Sunday as we encountered a lectionary chock full of water in the lessons! 

Here we go!

Texts: Exodus 17:1-7; Ps. 95; Romans 5:1-11; John 4:5-42

 +++

I never appreciated the importance of water until I moved to Florida.

And I moved to Florida in late August 1990…so I picked a fine time to drive into the Sunshine State and unload and haul boxes and furniture up to a second-floor apartment.

Whenever people come to visit from another part of the country… I am always conscious to remind them to drink plenty of water.

It’s really the only way to survive down here.

If we didn’t have clean potable water to drink… I think we’d all pass out and die… and melt into a puddle of proteins under the hot sun.

Water is an essential element for human life.

Our bodies are about 60-percent water.

The water in our bodies helps to build tissue…form saliva… lubricate our joints… and protect vital organs like our heart and our brain.

When we find ourselves feeling sluggish and low-energy… it’s probably because we haven’t taken in enough water into our bodies.

And if we’re thirsty… that’s a sign that we’re severely dehydrated.

Water… and the need to take in water…plays a dominant theme in our lessons this morning.

From the Israelites grumbling in the wilderness… screaming at Moses to “Give us water to drink” to the Jewish Jesus asking a woman… a Samaritan woman… to “give me a drink” from Jacob’s well…we hear there’s a thirst for water.

This thirst is not just about satisfying a physical thirst of the body…but a thirst in the soul.

The Israelites…wandering around in the wilderness of Sin… are turning on Moses.

This is one of the many times in the Scriptures we hear them quarreling with Moses.

Why did you bring us out here?

Why isn’t there water to drink?

We should’ve just stayed in Egypt…because at least there was water!

How quickly they’ve forgotten how hard and unforgiving their lives were in Egypt.

Sure… they had water.

But at what cost to their humanity?

As much as they might be physically thirsty…there is a river of feelings running underneath their complaining.

They’re scared.

The fact that they could imagine their lives of doing hard and punishing labor as a more preferable existence is a sign that they’ve internalized their oppression.

Now… in that wilderness… they thirst…not just for water… but for assurance that they will be OK.

It’s a soul thirst.

They’re asking, “Is the Lord among us or not?
If we think about it, we’re not that far removed from our complaining biblical ancestors.

It’s at the times when we feel ourselves in the wilderness… when we’re living in our own personal hell… that we start wondering if God is anywhere to be found.

Like the Israelites… our thirst is not just for water to renourish our tired bodies. We thirst for that blessed assurance of God’s loving kindness as we feel the world around us collapsing.

One of the commentaries I was looking at brought up Mother Teresa and her times of feeling as though she was in some dark moment of the soul.

The much-heralded tiny nun lived and served among the poorest of the poor in Calcutta.

It was hard for her to face what seemed like a hopeless ministry day in and day out.

Even Teresa wondered at times, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Thinking about that… and then turning to John’s Gospel story… we can hear and see a some more of that soul thirst.

This is an ironic situation.

Jesus asks the unnamed Samaritan woman for a drink.

Jesus is thirsty under the noon day sun. And when he asks for a drink… the woman assumes he’s talking about drinking water from the well.

I mean, he’s a guy sitting there at the well with no bucket asking for a drink.

Any reasonable person would assume that he wants a cup of water.

But this seemingly simple request takes us on a journey deep into the soul of both the Samaritan woman and the Jewish Jesus who asks for water.

So deep… that this is the longest conversation that our Evangelists recorded Jesus having with any one person.

Because behind this conversation…one that Jesus starts with the woman… is a need to dip deep into this well of living water.

The hurt and brokenness… the misogyny of societal norms… and ancient riffs must be addressed.

The connective tissue of humanity needs living water to heal.

The Samaritan Jews and the Jews of the Temple in Jerusalem… which is Jesus tribe… hated each other.

In the dominant culture… the gender norms wouldn’t have allowed for this sort of intimate exchange between a man and a woman who were strangers.

So there is already some radical things occurring right off the bat.

And as the conversation moves on… Jesus’ words go deeper and deeper into the depths of who this woman is… everything she has been or ever done… or believed.

Now… she could have thrown her bucket down and run away.

I mean, there is a certain creep factor in having a stranger and one who isn’t one of “her people” talking to her in this way.

But remember that Jesus is “the light that has come into the world.”

Rather than panic and running… this woman enters more deeply into the conversation as her dark night of the soul begins to experience what it is to have the light shine in.

Her prejudice… her fear… her mistrust… is met with love and mercy.

Perhaps… for the first time in her life… she is being seen… in all her messiness and imperfection… and Jesus is still saying, “You are loved by a God who doesn’t care about mountain tops or temples. This God wants to dwell in your temple… your body… and continuously give you the water to sustain your living cells.”

This is the deepest… most life-giving drink of water…this woman has ever had.

Having her parched soul quenched with these living waters… she can’t contain herself. She has to share it with the other Samaritans.

I wish we knew her name because I bet she told her people one heck of a story… and became as much as an evangelist as Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.

This water… this living water she received through an encounter with Jesus… is still flowing… through our prayers… through our sacraments… in that baptismal font… today.

This same water is there for us… in our tempest-tossed lives… in our quarrelsome moments… and also in our times of seeking the quiet confidence to get out of bed and face the world each day.

There isn’t a person in this room who hasn’t had found themselves thirsty… not just for a nice cold drink on a hot summer day in South Georgia… but in that deeper soul thirst for that reassurance that God hasn’t forgotten us in our times where we’re in our wilderness.

The offer is there for us to drink from this well… and let it go deep into our bodies… and then share it with those around us.

We live in a thirsty world.

And there are people still asking if the Lord is among us or not.

May our presence and our cups be filled up so that we can share with others that yes, indeed, God is with us now and always.

In the name of God… F/S/HS.