God's Friday: A Sermon for Good Friday, Year A

I knew it would have to happen some time. I was so committed to preaching on a reading from Hebrews in the Fourth chapter. I had so many good thoughts to share. 

And then I realized as the lector began: I had scheduled us to read "the other Hebrews pericope" from Chapter 10. Fortunataely, I had the excessively long Gospel of John's version of the Passion of the Christ to think through how to make the fix... and if it would be enough. I determined it was.

So just a slight adjustment to one sentence... and I was back on track with this sermon....

Text: (intended) Heb. 4:14-16; 5:7-9

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Some years ago… I was meeting up with a friend for a coffee date.

It was Good Friday, and he was a very lapsed Roman Catholic.

But out of a sense of kindness, he wished me a “Happy Good Friday.”

Then he became self-conscious about his greeting.

“Is it Happy Good Friday… or is this Good Happy Friday?”

We both laughed.

It is hard to imagine what is the appropriate thing to say to someone on this day…on the day we must contend with the reality of the crucifixion.

Is it really a “good” thing?

Is it really a happy occasion to commemorate the day when jealousy, suspicion, greed, pride, anger, fear, resentment, and hatred got the upper hand and resulted in the public execution of God?

Doesn’t really sound all that “good” now, does it?

But actually… yeah… this is a "good" day. I don't know about "happy", but it is good.

Good because this is “God’s Day.”

This is the day when God… in the man Jesus… listened deeply to the call put on him to confront the earthly powers of pride, jealousy, tyranny and bullying…and resisted the temptation to meet their violence with violence.

This is the day… so many centuries ago, God the Son met every single one of those egocentric "sins"... absorbed all of it into his physical being and took those things to be nailed with him on the cross.

It is this Good Friday…when God the Father becomes intimately at one with the grieving and the suffering of the world…knowing the anguish of death… and the tears falling from the cheeks of the grieving and the dispossessed.

It is at this moment that God the Holy Spirit…clings and holds together the God who is in the crucified place…and the God who weeps with the women at the cross…to comfort both in this excruciating moment…fulfilling the promise that God… our Trinitarian God… is never far from us.

For anyone who has ever been the victim of a bully… or been pushed into the margins of society… or felt like an “other” or a “less than” of any kind… this Friday is our day.

On this day… Jesus gives us one more lesson… one more important take away for our lives.

It is OK to cry.

It is perfectly reasonable to scream out to God:

“My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?”

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews says in the 4^th Chapter,

“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death…”

Jesus lifts his voice in prayer because he trusts that even in this bitter moment… at a time when his friends had all run away… God the Father will hear his cry.

That is the level of trust he has in God…knowing that somehow… in whatever way it will happen… God is going to deliver him through this pain.

It’s unfortunate that in these polarized times in which we’re living right now…that the phrase “thoughts and prayers” has been rendered empty by our political leaders who say the words but fail to act on them.

Many of my friends roll their eyes when they hear the phrase “thoughts and prayers.”

But it’s in prayer is that our great high priest Jesus demonstrates an unwavering belief that God would hear him.

And as we know… God did respond in the resurrection.

Prayer works.

It opens us to a dialogue with God and gives God that opportunity to respond as we need… not with lightening bolts… but with a shift… a change in us when the Spirit intercedes to help.

I recently shared with the Inquiry 101 group about a time when I was advocating for the adoption of a broader Human Rights Ordinance at my county commission meeting.

The opponents were hurling all sorts of ugly accusations against people who are LGBTQ.

I had my Book of Common Prayer with me at the meeting. And as people expressed their ugliness… I opened my prayer book… and prayed for deliverance from hardness of heart… from the need to be cruel… show hatred… or exact revenge. I prayed the same for my opponents.

A TV crew wanted to interview me…which I did… reluctantly.

They also interviewed someone from the other side as they should do.

When I saw the story later that night… I was shocked. Not by what either of us said.

It was our demeanors and how we appeared on TV.

Even though I hadn’t wanted to go on camera… (because I really hate TV cameras)… I appeared very calm. I spoke plainly without any bite or sarcasm.

My opponent… on the other hand… was visibly angry and aggressive…almost like a barking dog.

It was striking. 

Prayer shaped and formed my response in a situation where I could have easily dug in my heels and been just as hateful as this other person appeared.

And I felt compassion for them… even though I didn’t agree with them. So much anger was flowing out of them. It was shocking.

Jesus’ final three words in John’s Gospel--"It is finished"--says so much.

Jesus has finished the lesson of how Love refuses to give into fear.

Despite the jeering… the taunts… and the abuse… Jesus fixed his sights on Love.

He prayed to that Love.

And that Love…which at first appears to have lost… has actually won.

It is won when we… who stand before the cross… can see in that instrument of shame the promise of a life that was resurrected.

It is won when we commit to live in Love… turn to prayer to seek the strength and courage that comes from God when we are facing the tyrants and the bullies of our world.

Good Friday… God’s Friday… shows us one more time… that with God…all things are possible.

In the name of God…F/S/HS.

 

Relinquishing Power and Privilege: A Maundy Thursday Sermon Year A

And so begins the Great Three Days... the Triduum... of Holy Week. Amazingly, I was able to get all four sermons done before Holy Saturday. 

What struck me as I wrote this one for Maundy Thursday is the message of Jesus' action of leaving the table to wash feet. With a back drop in America of blatant racism in a state legislature...other than Florida's! Tennessee Republicans expelled two African-American Democratic colleagues because they "broke decorum" on the floor of the House by bringing a bullhorn into the chamber after having protested the lack of gun control in the state. A third Democrat... a white woman... was also chastised by her GOP colleagues for taking part in the demonstration, but she was not expelled. The Republicans say race had nothing to do with their extreme punishment of two young Black legislators.

And if you believe that... I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn!

Text: John 13: 1-17;31b-35

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Prayer: O God, let your Word be spoken and heard, and may our hearts be ever fixed on you. Amen.

           Last night, I was able to gather with my wife and some dear friends for a Seder meal on the first night of Passover.

It is both a meal of remembrance… and reflection… and there is joy… and laughter as multiple families gather at the table. It is meant to be a shared multi-family meal.

And there is ritual.

Lots of ritual.

The youngest child gets called upon during the lead up to dinner to answer four questions.

The first one is “Why is this night different from other nights?”

The answer is to give a part of tracing the history of Israel’s escape from the tyranny of Pharoah and the Egyptians.

All four of the questions are really designed to remember what God did to help Israel escape from their oppressors.

We could ask this same question in our own tradition:

What’s so different about this night?

Why do we gather on a Thursday?

Probably for most of us… not a whole lot is really all that different.

Today might have felt like any other Thursday.

Some of you probably rushed here after getting off work… so the difference is that you’re here and not at home.

For the disciples… at least in John’s Gospel story… this is pretty much… just another day.

It’s a few days before the Passover celebration.

They’re at a private dinner with their teacher and friend, Jesus.

And then he does something unexpected.

With no servants around to wash their feet… Jesus gets up… wraps a towel around his waist and starts to wash their feet.

Odd.

This is their leader… the one on whom they’ve pinned their hopes to take down the Romans once and for all.

He’s already made a joke of the Roman Governor by riding into Jerusalem on a donkey… while on the opposite side of town…Pilate and his Roman army arrived on horses.

And so… what is Jesus doing now washing everyone’s feet?

This isn’t what a leader is supposed to do!

I mean, think about our own political leaders… pick your favorite one… and ask yourself?

Would we not be puzzled if they were to suddenly pick up a towel, grab a pitcher of water and a basin, and wash the feet of a young person crushed with student loan debt?

Or even soak the feet of the average sanitary worker riding around on a dump truck all day?

What if they were to even kneel down and wash our feet?

(It’s too bad that we don’t expect that from our leaders!)

What Jesus is signaling to his disciples then… and now… is that real power… and the mark of a true leader… is not the person who embraces and exploits privilege.

A true leader is ready to relinquish privilege to serve.

For those who hold power… of any kind… that can be so challenging.

Letting go… giving up control and figuratively… taking a knee to wash the feet of those without power… is difficult, especially for the one who has a lot of privileges and power.

We might recall the Gospel story of the rich young man who simply can’t let go of what he has because his possessions, his privilege, his power is how he knows who he is.

Our egos… are so invested in being the privileged… and we don’t want us to give up status.

And when we see someone of status giving up their power to another… it can make us anxious.

I think that’s what’s going on with poor Peter.

Peter is more interested in the Jesus who he thinks is going to stick it to the Roman Empire…not this Jesus who… insists on washing feet.

That’s not the job for a Messiah!

I can almost here Peter saying as he looks around the room…”Isn’t there some other… some foreigner… some eunuch who could be brought in to do this task?”

“No”… says Jesus. “You do not know what I am doing, but later you, Peter, will understand.”

What will Peter understand?

What is that you and I need to understand?

To follow Jesus and live into his teachings… requires us to relinquish our need for privilege and power.

We are to look out for that person or that community that needs to know that they do matter.

On this night… God is giving us another chance… one more shot… to become a people united with Jesus by showing love for one another…and not clinging to our smaller selves that desire power, privilege and prestige.

One way we do this is through the act of foot washing. By being willing to let our feet be washed… and by doing the washing… we are taking a chance at being vulnerable.

In participating in the foot washing, we are engaging our full selves into a ritual that makes this night… this worship service… unlike any other.  

The foot washing prepares us for this great Eucharistic banquet we celebrate tonight. We will share in the body and blood of Christ one more time. But unlike on other occasions… the blessed bread and wine… the symbols of Christ’s body and blood… will go to the chapel at the end of the service. We invite anyone who wishes to go sit before the altar in that tiny room… and keep watch with Christ as he had asked his disciples to do in the Garden of Gethesemane.

And then there is the stripping of the altar… the reminder that we have reached the moment for Christ where he gave up everything… including his body… for the cause of Love.

An act of sacrifice and trust.

We are invited to contemplate that act… and search ourselves as we approach these final hours of Jesus’ earthly ministry… what are we still holding on to?

What are we ready to let go of?

What… if anything… has changed in us as we consider an empty table?

This night is different than other nights.

This is the night we our preconceived ideas of what power and privilege looks like get left behind in a water basin.

This is the night we are invited to be transformed into the loving human beings God so needs us to be.

 

Don't Be Fooled: Rome is the Real "Bad Guy": A Palm Sunday Sermon for Year A

Palm Sunday and Holy Week are difficult times in my interfaith household. My Jewish spouse is always irritated with the abundance of Jesus images that start showing up on TV. And she is particularly angry at the way the Evangelists Matthew and John portray "the Jews" in their telling of the Passion of the Christ. 

I don't blame her. Christians have held these two particular versions near and dear to their hearts for centuries. And the further we have moved away from that 90-110 CE time frame in which these Gospels were originally told and heard... the more twisted the interpretations have become, and to terrible consequences. In the Middle Ages, Jews would go into hiding during Holy Week for fear of the Christians!

Sadly, with the rise of MAGA and DeSantis Republicans in the United States, we have also seen a sharp increase in hate crimes against Jews. Artists such as Kanye West have repeated lies about Jews and ginned up the hatred even more. There have been shootings at synagogues, and Jewish students at the local college campus complain that their fellow students follow them around calling them "Christ killers." 

But "they will know we are Christians by our love," right?! 

Text: Matt 26:14-27:66

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It is one of the most curious… and confounding things… that the church has us start this Sunday with the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and within 20 minutes… we’re already spitting on Jesus and nailing him to a cross. But to the cross we’ve come… using Matthew’s telling of the story… a story he embellishes from Mark’s version of the passion.

And it’s important for us to remember that this is Matthew’s telling of the story.

Each of our evangelists has their own way of recounting the final days of Jesus.

Matthew is writing for a community living 20-25 years after Rome destroyed the Jerusalem Temple… thus crushing many hopes and dreams of the Sadducees…whose whole worldview was entrenched in the worship in the Temple.

Matthew’s community while Jewish.. is largely made up of now of Gentile, non-Jewish converts to follow “the Way” of Jesus.

In other words… Matthew’s passion Gospel is told to a people engaged in what could best be called a bitter family feud that was happening within Judaism at that time so many centuries ago.

Matthew blamed those Jews who didn’t follow “the Way” for the destruction of the Temple.

Sadly, this “blame the Jews for Jesus’ death” rhetoric became a standard in Christian teaching.

Lines such as “his blood be on us and our children” have been used to justify the type of anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust in Germany… and is responsible for the hatred of Jews we are seeing on the rise in our country today.

And I have said this before: Jesus is Jewish. Peter is Jewish. Judas is Jewish. All the characters in this Gospel are Jews…with exception of the soldiers and Pilate.

While Matthew paints a more sympathetic picture of Pilate… historians such as Josephus…have left us the true record of this brutal Roman Governor who was so awful that even the Roman Government finally had to get rid of him.

But Matthew didn’t want to alienate the Gentiles of his group in 90 CE. And he was angry that more Jews had not come to follow “the Way.” So he pushed a narrative that makes the Jewish leaders the really bad guys… while he gave Pilate more of a pass.

But let’s think about this:

Pilate offers to the crowd the opportunity to release one prisoner: Jesus Barabbas…an insurrectionist…or Jesus the Messiah…whose crime was to point the way toward love.

No matter the choice…one of these Jesus’ is going to die… and Pilate knows this.

So does Pilate’s wife… the one who dreams about Jesus. We don’t know what she dreamt. Perhaps she found herself agitated with the knowledge that Jesus is innocent of the false trumped up charges that the fearful have brought against him.

Pilate doesn’t listen to his wife.

He doesn’t stop this ball from rolling.

His question to the crowd makes him complicit in their agitation.

And then he washes his hands.

Interestingly…washing the hands this way was a Jewish custom not a Roman one.

Only Matthew includes that detail.

Pilate’s hand washing as a means of purification from the crime of sending an innocent man to his death is just as much a mockery of Judaism as the Roman soldiers jeering and spitting at Jesus.

Even in Matthew’s attempt to give cover to Pilate’s actions… there is no doubt that the one with the power in this moment is Pilate… the representative of Rome.

He was the one in the position to stop the madness… a madness which had its roots in fear and jealousy.

But Pilate… like so many others in the story… chose death instead of life.

This pattern has been repeated over and over to this day.

When we’re challenged to change… to turn towards the light… and embrace a culture of life… the tendency of so many is to turn away…and retreat into the dark.

When it’s time to take a stand in the face of a powerful opponent… instead of courage…our fears overcome us and become more like Peter and deny, deny, deny…to our regret.

As we move into this week… we’re being called to follow Jesus on a journey where the challenge to create a culture based on life, liberty and love meets the resistance of the status quo of death, division, and fear.

We’re to look at our own lives… our own society… and take it all to the cross with Jesus.

For it is at the cross where God redeems us and restores us.

It is through Jesus that we seek deliverance out of a pattern of death into life.

This is the time for our recommitment and renewal.

And so we pray:

God of steadfast love, light of the blind, and liberator of the oppressed, we see your holy purpose in the tender compassion of Jesus who calls us into new living and friendship with you. May we who take shelter in the shadow of your wings be filled with the grace of his tender caring; may we who stumble in selfish darkness see your glory in the light of his self-giving; we ask this through him whose suffering is victorious, Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

 

These Bones CAN Live: A Sermon for 5A Lent

Well, I'm running way behind the proverbial eight ball in getting my sermons posted! My apologies if you are someone who is visiting this blog and reading the mashed up musings that come from how the Holy Spirit lives, moves, and breathes through the Scriptures and into my brain.

There was so much richness in the Fifth Sunday of Lent lectionary. Ultimately, I found myself drawn to a comparison between Ezekiel's dry bones and the dry bones of Lazarus resurrected in John's Gospel. And I love the text of Psalm 130. 

Texts: Ezekiel 37:1-14; Ps.130; Rom.8:6-11; John 11:1-45

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Another long, complex, detailed lesson from John.

Another opportunity to contemplate the power of change.

And this time it is the ultimate change: moving from death to life.

In the Gospel…the raising of Lazarus serves as a pre-cursor to what we’re approaching… the death and resurrection of Jesus. And our lectionary diviners have made an interesting pairing of this story of Lazarus with the reading about the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel.

Both speak to the presence and power of God as the source of life.

Both show that even in the moments of our greatest despair… God can bring us out of the depths of our darkest places—as our psalmist says—and into a new and changed life.

The dry bones of Ezekiel represent the trauma of Israel. Foreign armies from Assyria and Babylon have swept in at various times…dispersing the people… taking the best minds and the strongest backs to far away lands and leaving behind a broken and despairing few.

They are devastated.

They are depressed.

They feel dead inside.

And so God asks the prophet: Mortal, can these bones live?

Can this people…this down and out…defeated… people… be brought back to life?

What a question!

Imagine standing in a place that is utterly destroyed.

Think of the folks in Rolling Fork, Mississippi.

A tornado has ripped up and trashed everything… from their lumber yard that they depend on…to the Dollar Store.

In this case of Ezekiel…the landscape is littered with bones instead of bricks and wood and broken glass.  

Can these bones live?

Ezekiel sees this sea of death before him…and gives the only answer he knows to give to such a question.

Demurly… he says… “O Lord God, you know.”

Ezekiel knows that if anything is going to revive Israel… bring back those who have been scattered in the diaspora… resurrect the people from their death of community… it’s the power of God.

Likewise… the same thing happens in the Gospel lesson with Lazarus.

Just as in Ezekiel… what stands before Jesus is a tomb… and a people broken by grief at the loss of a brother and a friend.

And in this case…Jesus enters into the grief.

For those who might have grown up in a tradition with sword drills (a term I only learned about a few years ago…good Episcopalian as I am… we don’t demand people know how to quote chapter and verse from the Bible)…the line in this Gospel passage “Jesus began to weep” is famously quoted as “the shortest line of the Bible.”

It’s even shorter in the King James Version when it says, “Jesus wept.”

Jesus joins with the mourners… the Jews who have come to Martha and Mary to sit shiva with them… a Jewish custom at times of mourning where a minyan, meaning ten Jews, sit with those in mourning for a week to be around them for comfort.

The tradition is that if the mourner wants to talk or cry… the minyan is there to bear witness but not to interfere with outpouring of emotion. It is a kind and gentle way of offering support to people in grief.

Sitting shiva is compassionate witness.

Compassion meaning that one enters the suffering of another.

When Jesus sees the emotion of the sisters… when they express their woe that Jesus didn’t arrive sooner…when he considers the loss of his dear friend Lazarus… Jesus begins to cry too.

This is a powerful image of our Lord and Savior.

Even the “Word made flesh” has so deeply entered into the flesh that this Word weeps.

There have been many times when I have counseled people in distress to remember that God really does meet them in their hurt and broken places.

I believe this because “Jesus wept.”

Jesus knows the ache of grief and loss.

 Jesus understands the pain in our hearts… and the trials and tribulations of our lives.

Here…Jesus weeps because this is a time for weeping.

And Jesus points the way to God by praying before everyone…thanking God for having heard his prayer… a prayer expressed by his tears and those of so many others.

And when Lazarus responds to the call of Jesus to “come out”…Jesus has shown the power of God… the same God who connected bone to bone in the valley and laid sinews on those dried bones. 

 In this act…  Jesus has affirmed that God has dominion over both the living and the dead and in this way…“God’s kingdom has no end.” (Nicene Creed).

The Gospel also gives us an equally powerful moment in this scene… and that is Martha’s confession about the identity of Jesus.

This declaration by “Martha”… that she knows that Jesus is the Messiah… the Son of God… is no less important than when Peter makes the same declaration about Jesus.

She expresses belief in Jesus… she hears him say “I am the Resurrection, and I am the Life” and she takes that in.

 This demonstrates her faith in God.

 Even as she is wagging her finger at Jesus for not coming sooner… even as she is wiping the tears from her own eyes…she still believes.

That’s a powerful moment in this story for us.

One can be hurt and angry and in sorrow…rage against the Almighty… and still have faith and belief.

Grief can look like that.

Grief is that peculiar world where we seem to be moving in another world

Time and space is going at a different speed than everyone else.

Death… whether it is the actual physical death of someone we love… or the other deaths we experience in our lives… relationships ending… a job loss… even loss of one of our senses or a body part… drops us into that place of grief.

What this Gospel… and what Ezekiel… demonstrate to us is that God meets us in that strange world…and moves with us through it.

When we’re wailing and wondering “God where are you? What took you so long?’ God is there.

When we’re looking at the broken bits of our lives as we feel ourselves sitting in the valley… God is there to breathe us back to life.

When we weep, when we sigh, and when we come around to finally saying, “Yes, I believe,”…God is ready with resurrection and restoration to life.

With God…these bones can live. Trust and believe.

In the name of God…F/S/HS.

 

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. 

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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.