Sight

Rev. Charissa Clark Howe

Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

John 9:1–41

Ephesians 5:9–14

0 ratings

· 5 views

Notes

Transcript

Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord

Fourth Sunday of Lent

03/22/2020

Gathering

Prelude: Tom Hill, Music Director

Welcome, Announcements, Joys, and Concerns

We will be meeting online for the foreseeable future. Please keep an eye on the website for updates and information on how to connect. Wherever you are watching this worship service right now, keep an eye out for a tutorial on how to get to all the online stuff during the quarantines. There will be more tutorials to come for how to do other things. We will be sending links to these out as emails too.

Dear ones, you are creative, flexible, wonderful people. I am so proud of you.

Jesus, Remember Me

Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord

Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.

Service of the Lord’s Day

Fourth Sunday of Lent

03/22/2020

Gathering

Prelude

Welcome, Announcements, Joys, and Concerns

Gathering Song ##gtg227 Jesus, Remember Me

Preparing our Hearts

Call to Worship From Psalm 23

Leader: The LORD is my shepherd; I have everything I need. All: God lets me rest in fields of green grass and leads me to quiet pools of fresh water. Leader: God gives me new strength and guides me in the right paths, as promised. All: Even if I go through the deepest darkness, I will not be afraid, LORD, for you are with me. Your shepherd’s rod and staff protect me. Leader: You prepare a banquet for me, where all my enemies can see me; you welcome me as an honored guest and fill my cup to the brim. All: I know that your goodness and love will be with me all my life; and your house will be my home as long as I live.

Prayer of Invocation

*Hymn #gtg663 Awake, My Soul, and with the Sun

Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.

Preparing our Hearts

*Call to Confession

*Corporate Prayer of Confession (Followed by silent prayers of confession)

God of mercy, you sent Jesus Christ to seek and save the lost. We confess that we have strayed from you and turned aside from your way. We are misled by pride, for we see ourselves pure when we are stained, and great when we are small. We have failed in love, neglected justice, and ignored your truth. Have mercy, O God, and forgive our sin. Return us to paths of righteousness through Jesus Christ, our Savior.

*Assurance of Pardon

*Gloria Patri #581

Musical Meditation Emsworth/St. Andrew's Vocal Ensemble: When Jesus Wept

Proclamation

Witnessing God's Work

Prayer for Illumination

Epistle Reading Ephesians 5:8–14 Gospel Reading John 9:1–41

Sermon “Sight”

Response

Preparing our Hearts

*Hymn #GTG802 ph171 The King of Love My Shepherd Is

*Declaration of Faith Apostles' Creed

Prayers of the People and the Lord’s Prayer

PRAYER REQUESTS WE HAVE RECEIVED THIS WEEK:

Sharing of our Tithes and Offerings

*Doxology #606

*Prayer of Thanksgiving

Sending

*Hymn #gtg649 ph280 Amazing Grace

*Charge and Benediction

Sending Song #600 “Amen” (sing three times)

PostludePreparing our Hearts

Call to Worship From

Psalm 23 ESV

A Psalm of David. 1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Prayer of Invocation: Elder John Scanlon

Prayer of Invocation

Awake, My Soul, and with the Sun

Awake, my soul and with the sun your daily stage of duty run; shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise to pay your morning sacrifice.

Lord, I my vows to you renew. Disperse my sins as morning dew; guard my first springs of thought and will, and with yourself my spirit fill.

Direct, control, suggest, this day, all I design or do or say, that all my powers, with all their might, in your sole glory may unite.

Call to Confession

Corporate Prayer of Confession (Followed by silent prayers of confession)

Assurance of Pardon

Gloria Patri

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, it is now and ever shall be: world without end. Amen, amen.

Musical Meditation: When Jesus Wept

Proclamation

Witnessing God's Work: Pastor Rebecca

Prayer for Illumination

Ephesians 5:8–14 ESV

8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Gospel Reading

John 9:1–41 ESV

1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed 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 Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. 8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So 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 So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” 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 how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” 22 (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to 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 said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. 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 And 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, “Why, this is an amazing 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 if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out. 35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.

Gospel Reading

Sermon: “Sight”

There are many troubling questions swirling around right now in the light of this frightening pandemic:

What have we done to deserve this?

Have we gotten too confident in our invincibility as a species?

Are we being punished for being terrible to one another or destroying the earth?

Is God mad at humanity?

It’s not about the blind man’s sins or the sins of his parents. It’s not his fault he’s stuck in the margins. It’s easier to accept someone’s ill fate if they “deserved it” somehow.The old “bad things happen to bad people” business. We love it when the bad guy in a book or movie “gets what was coming to him.”

Often, we assume that if something bad happens, it’s deserved. We did something terrible to earn it.

Sometimes, that can even give us a false bravado.

“I am a good Christian person, so if I have enough faith, I’ll be fine.”

Sermon “Sight”

But the first three confirmed cases of Covd-19 in our county were two parishioners and their pastor - good faithful folks from a church in our Presbytery.

Their faith did not protect them from this disease. They are all recovering from it. But what a hardship for our siblings in faith over in that congregation. What a trying, dark time in the life of a good, faithful community. Their faith did not protect them from the disease.

Things will get worse before they get better. Even when contact restrictions are lifted, we’re going to be facing the impact of people having lost wages during this time, small businesses struggling or closing because of lost business. We’re going to face huge economic consequences.

The American church has been allowed, by the stability of our country, to be pretty ho hum about things for a while. But the rug just got pulled out from under us.

Our faith has to have some role other than protecting us from the disease and injustice and hardship in the world. Because if the role of faith is to protect us from those things, it’s worthless. It’s not doing its job.

The first thing asked of Jesus about the blind man in our passage from John today is “What did his parents do wrong?” There is an assumption that his parents had sinned and that is why they had a blind son.

But Jesus tells them that it’s not their lack of faith that blinded their son. Sometimes, people are just born blind. It’s not about the blind man’s sins or the sins of his parents.

- Everyone is focused on how he went blind- but the man and Jesus are focused on how he got better. Also- the healing came about in an unexpected way spit in the eyes on the Sabbath - what unexpected healings might be unfolding around us? What opportunities?

This poor man was pushed to the edges of society because of his disability. People with disabilities are still today pushed to the margins in a multitude of ways and it was way worse even in Jesus’ day. It’s not the blind man’s fault he’s stuck in the margins. He and his parents did nothing “wrong” to make him blind and marginalized.

It’s easier to accept someone’s ill fate if they “deserved it” somehow. It’s harder to wrestle with when they just got the short end of the stick by no fault of their own.

We love it when the bad guy in a book or movie “gets what was coming to him.” What we don’t like is when the good, kind, or innocent character suffers.

My aunt and I found a website recently. www.doesthedogdie.com. You can go there before watching a movie to avoid movies with a dog’s death in them. The worst thing I can think of in a movie is when the dog dies. Because the dog NEVER deserves it.

Jesus always approaches the situation differently than anyone else around him. In today’s passage, everyone is focused on how the man went blind- but the man and Jesus are focused on how he got better.

Jesus is asking us to stop trying to see God in the bad thing. Look for God in the healing.

And this particular healing is quite unexpected for a couple reasons. First is that Jesus is healing on the Sabbath. This is a day of no work, but here is Jesus “working”.

On top of that, the way he heals this man is he spits to make mud and smears it on the man’s face. What a weird way to heal someone. It has no precedent or research or plan. He just lived in the moment and healed a guy in a very weird way on the day he was supposed to be sitting and meditating on God’s word.

And I think we need to try that too.

Not spitting and slapping mud on people.

Where are we gaining sight right now?

I’m going to tell you absolutely never do that. That’s one of the few times I’m going to tell you to NOT do what Jesus would do.

No, we need to try moving forward toward healing in unexpected ways.

Nadia Botz-Weber posted a video the other day that brought me to tears. I’ll post a link to it today. She talked about the BIblical image of God as a mother hen sheltering her chicks. Hens protect their chicks, but a hen can’t fight off a fox or a raccoon. “So maybe it’s not safety that keeps us from being unafraid, maybe what keeps us from being afraid is love.” It’s about knowing where we belong and who we are and where to find comfort. Faith doesn't bring us safety. The fox is still real. “Maybe the opposite of fear isn’t bravery, maybe the opposite of fear is love.”

In other words, we’re not going to help anyone heal and move forward from all of this by being afraid. But we’re also not going to help by blaming people and/or hiding behind faith as a sort of spiritual face mask.

I’m going to get a t-shirt that says something like, “Prayer doesn’t excuse you from washing your hands.”

I have a feeling that when this is all said and done, church is going to look different than it did before. And that’s a good thing. We have a chance to be a community of love in the face of fear in all sorts of new and different ways.

We, as faith communities, get to spit in the mud. Again - not literally. Please not literally.

We’re learning all sorts of new things - gaining new sight. Ya’ll, we had well over 200 people “in” worship last Sunday. That’s like 5 times the number we have any given week in both services combined. There is something really sweet and important about using technology to our advantage right now.

We’re testing out new ways of keep in touch. Someone mentioned to me the other day, she’s hearing from people she used to babysit and she thought had forgotten about her.

Keep looking for the new sight, friends. Look for unexpected healing and connection. This is a terrifying and exciting time to be church. And I’m so honored to be in it with you all.

Response

The King of Love My Shepherd Is

The King of love my shepherd is, whose goodness faileth never; I nothing lack if I am his and he is mine forever.

Where streams of living water flow my ransomed soul he leadeth, and where the verdant pastures grow, with food celestial feedeth.

Perverse and foolish oft I strayed, but yet in love he sought me, and on his shoulder gently laid, and home, rejoicing, brought me.

In death’s dark vale I fear no ill with thee, dear Lord beside me; thy rod and staff my comfort still, thy cross before to guide me.

Thou spread’st a table in my sight; thy unction grace bestoweth; and O what transport of delight from thy pure chalice floweth!

And so through all the length of days thy goodness faileth never; Good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise within thy house forever.

Declaration of Faith : Apostles' Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Prayers of the People

After each petition, the leader will say, “Lord, in your mercy” and the people shall respond, “Hear our prayer.”

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us. Lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

Sharing of our Tithes and Offerings

Offertory

Doxology

Praise God, from whom all blessing flow! Praise God, all creatures here below! Praise God above, ye heavenly host! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Amen!

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Sending

Amazing Grace

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch; like me! I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed!

Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come. ‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.

The Lord hath promised good to me, his word my hope secures; He will my shield and portion be as long as life endures.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we first begun.

Blessing

Sending Song #600 “Amen” (sing three times)

Amen

Postlude

Ephesians 5:9–14 ESV

(for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

John 9:1–41 ESV

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So 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. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” 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, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 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?” And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.