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It is not often that all three lessons and the Psalm carry the same theme, but in this morning’s readings … in the middle of Lent … we are confronted with blindness and sight, of darkness and light, of seeing with more than just our eyes in a world which, at times, is all too literal.
4 Lent
March 30, 2014
In the name of the God of all Creation,
The God alive in each of us as God was alive in Jesus,
And the power of God known in the Spirit.
Amen.
March 30, 2014
In the name of the God of all Creation,
The God alive in each of us as God was alive in Jesus,
And the power of God known in the Spirit.
Amen.
It is not often that all three lessons and the Psalm carry the same theme, but in this morning’s readings … in the middle of Lent … we are confronted with blindness and sight, of darkness and light, of seeing with more than just our eyes in a world which, at times, is all too literal.
In our lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures in the first book of Samuel we hear the story of Samuel choosing David to be the king to replace Saul … King Saul was later killed in battle. Samuel has been told by God that the next king will be one of the sons of Jesse the Bethlehemite … but which of Jesse’s eight sons?
But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart."
And the theme of seeing … and light and darkness is also found in the 23rd Psalm with its reference to a dark valley. And then in Paul’s Letter to the Christian community in Ephesus:
For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light-- for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.
And then, to make sure we get the point, there is this long story from John’s Gospel about a man who was born blind and who receives his sight. Sight and blindness … light and darkness, seeing with more than just one’s eyes … all in the middle of our season of Lent.
One of the most dangerous spiritual places we can live is in the deluded notion that we are fully-sighted, spiritually-speaking. Conversely, the healthiest place to live is not only to acknowledge our spiritual blindness, but also to recognize that as an acceptable place to live. In acknowledging our blindness, we live in the light … by believing that we see fully and rightly, we stumble in the darkness.
However, acknowledging our spiritual blindness can be embarrassing and threatening. After all, most people want clear and concise answers … they want certainty in their lives. Yet we can see how even the disciples and the Pharisees could be cruel and condescending … derogatory and dismissive … towards the blind. Many people said that the man's blindness was God's punishment … Jesus had to correct them. To admit to one’s own blindness is not easy … it puts us in a place of vulnerability.
On Friday, as I was walking to the church, a resident of the Buckingham Smith Assisted Living facility was riding an adult tricycle down the street. He stopped me and said, “You are a man who knows God … I have a question. Will God forgive me more than once?” He continued, “I’ve done some bad things in my life, and I’ve asked for forgiveness, but then I’ve gone out and done the same thing all over again. I’m afraid that God might just give up on me.” And then he added, “I really don’t think I’m a bad person, I just sometimes do bad things.”
I told him that some people had asked Jesus the same thing … it was actually his disciple, Peter. Peter wanted to know how many time he should forgive someone else who had sinned against him … “seven times?” Jesus said, “Not seven, but seventy-seven times.” And I told him that God could forgive as many times as was necessary … he could always have another “second chance.”
This man, in spite of what others may think of him, is spiritually healthy. He can see his own flaws, and he wants to do something about it. He is curious and open … and his eyes are open. Healthy people befriend their blindness and make their peace with it. Spiritually-sighted people recognize that acknowledging their blindness is an act of liberation not a confession of bondage. The journey toward the light begins when we acknowledge our darkness.
When we open our eyes … when we move from self-imposed blindness to sight and insight … when we move to the fullness of our lives … we have several possibilities for reconciling our past, present, and future: The past is all that has brought us to this place and moment; and the future is what is yet to be. The past is irretrievable … the future is blank. For the mistakes and misdeeds of the past I can only have regrets; for the future I can only experience anxiety of repeating the past.
Yet from Abraham to Moses to Jesus I think God is offering us another way: living in the present … in the here and now. What has been done in the past is beyond mending; what will happen in the future is not worthy of lost sleep, for there is no way to know what will happen next. But in this moment … and only in this moment … we can make faithful choices. This is the moment to decide between light and dark, good and bad, faith and doubt, seeing and self-imposed blindness. This is the moment that everything in the past can be transformed, and everything in the future can be lit with radiance.
This is affirmed by the words of Paul in his letter to the Christian community at Ephesus:
For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light-- for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.
Paul tends to be a dualist … the light and the dark are opposites. This is an either/or, right/wrong, good/evil way of looking at things. Sometimes the choices we have to make are very clear … indeed we often know what is obviously right and wrong, good and evil. But sometimes one has to choose the lesser of two evils. Or sometimes the choices are equally good, but with some negative consequences to each. Life is not as simple as either/or, right or wrong, good or evil, light of darkness, blindness or seeing.
For me it is in the process of choosing … of being a choice-maker … that we become fully human. Yes, I want to make the right choice, and, yes, I want it to be good. But it is the struggle to “find out what is pleasing to the Lord” that brings out our fullest humanity. Is this choice for me or for God’s creation? Am I seeing as a “mortal sees” or as God might see? Is this choice, even if wrong, made in the open and not in secret? Am I living in the “light” or hiding in the dark? For even the right choice made in an under-handed way can be wrong.
What God is calling us to is an open life … open to God and open to ourselves. Rather than stuffing the parts of ourselves and our past into the darkness of a closet in our soul, God wants us to bring it to light … to not only confess and receive absolution … but also to accept God’s forgiveness of the past so that we can live in the present. How many times have you come to your confession and found yourself asking for absolution for the same misdeeds … over and over? The fact is that God’s forgiveness is ever-present. God wants us to live into the fullness of the image of God and not to be burdened by the past which is beyond mending. God wants us to live without fear of the future and the anxiety of our future choices.
Do you want to do something about the past for which you regret? Then make a decision now … in the present … that brings that regret into the light of day … at least for you and for God. Do you want to live without fear of the future? Then live as a child of the light.
For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light-- for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.
We are called by God to bring the darkness of our souls to the light and love of God. When we live into the ever-present forgiveness of God we can release the burden of the past and live in the present as a choice maker. We are children of the light, and the fruit of the light is all that is good and right and true.
As we journey through this Lenten season to the new life promised at Easter let us bring light to the darkness in our lives so that we may love God with our whole selves … with all. Let us bring sight … and insight to our blindness. Let us live in the ever-present forgiveness of God so that we may be fully present to this moment … not burdened by the guilt of the past nor fearful of the future.
Amen.
In our lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures in the first book of Samuel we hear the story of Samuel choosing David to be the king to replace Saul … King Saul was later killed in battle. Samuel has been told by God that the next king will be one of the sons of Jesse the Bethlehemite … but which of Jesse’s eight sons?
But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart."
And the theme of seeing … and light and darkness is also found in the 23rd Psalm with its reference to a dark valley. And then in Paul’s Letter to the Christian community in Ephesus:
For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light-- for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.
And then, to make sure we get the point, there is this long story from John’s Gospel about a man who was born blind and who receives his sight. Sight and blindness … light and darkness, seeing with more than just one’s eyes … all in the middle of our season of Lent.
One of the most dangerous spiritual places we can live is in the deluded notion that we are fully-sighted, spiritually-speaking. Conversely, the healthiest place to live is not only to acknowledge our spiritual blindness, but also to recognize that as an acceptable place to live. In acknowledging our blindness, we live in the light … by believing that we see fully and rightly, we stumble in the darkness.
However, acknowledging our spiritual blindness can be embarrassing and threatening. After all, most people want clear and concise answers … they want certainty in their lives. Yet we can see how even the disciples and the Pharisees could be cruel and condescending … derogatory and dismissive … towards the blind. Many people said that the man's blindness was God's punishment … Jesus had to correct them. To admit to one’s own blindness is not easy … it puts us in a place of vulnerability.
On Friday, as I was walking to the church, a resident of the Buckingham Smith Assisted Living facility was riding an adult tricycle down the street. He stopped me and said, “You are a man who knows God … I have a question. Will God forgive me more than once?” He continued, “I’ve done some bad things in my life, and I’ve asked for forgiveness, but then I’ve gone out and done the same thing all over again. I’m afraid that God might just give up on me.” And then he added, “I really don’t think I’m a bad person, I just sometimes do bad things.”
I told him that some people had asked Jesus the same thing … it was actually his disciple, Peter. Peter wanted to know how many time he should forgive someone else who had sinned against him … “seven times?” Jesus said, “Not seven, but seventy-seven times.” And I told him that God could forgive as many times as was necessary … he could always have another “second chance.”
This man, in spite of what others may think of him, is spiritually healthy. He can see his own flaws, and he wants to do something about it. He is curious and open … and his eyes are open. Healthy people befriend their blindness and make their peace with it. Spiritually-sighted people recognize that acknowledging their blindness is an act of liberation not a confession of bondage. The journey toward the light begins when we acknowledge our darkness.
When we open our eyes … when we move from self-imposed blindness to sight and insight … when we move to the fullness of our lives … we have several possibilities for reconciling our past, present, and future: The past is all that has brought us to this place and moment; and the future is what is yet to be. The past is irretrievable … the future is blank. For the mistakes and misdeeds of the past I can only have regrets; for the future I can only experience anxiety of repeating the past.
Yet from Abraham to Moses to Jesus I think God is offering us another way: living in the present … in the here and now. What has been done in the past is beyond mending; what will happen in the future is not worthy of lost sleep, for there is no way to know what will happen next. But in this moment … and only in this moment … we can make faithful choices. This is the moment to decide between light and dark, good and bad, faith and doubt, seeing and self-imposed blindness. This is the moment that everything in the past can be transformed, and everything in the future can be lit with radiance.
This is affirmed by the words of Paul in his letter to the Christian community at Ephesus:
For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light-- for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.
Paul tends to be a dualist … the light and the dark are opposites. This is an either/or, right/wrong, good/evil way of looking at things. Sometimes the choices we have to make are very clear … indeed we often know what is obviously right and wrong, good and evil. But sometimes one has to choose the lesser of two evils. Or sometimes the choices are equally good, but with some negative consequences to each. Life is not as simple as either/or, right or wrong, good or evil, light of darkness, blindness or seeing.
For me it is in the process of choosing … of being a choice-maker … that we become fully human. Yes, I want to make the right choice, and, yes, I want it to be good. But it is the struggle to “find out what is pleasing to the Lord” that brings out our fullest humanity. Is this choice for me or for God’s creation? Am I seeing as a “mortal sees” or as God might see? Is this choice, even if wrong, made in the open and not in secret? Am I living in the “light” or hiding in the dark? For even the right choice made in an under-handed way can be wrong.
What God is calling us to is an open life … open to God and open to ourselves. Rather than stuffing the parts of ourselves and our past into the darkness of a closet in our soul, God wants us to bring it to light … to not only confess and receive absolution … but also to accept God’s forgiveness of the past so that we can live in the present. How many times have you come to your confession and found yourself asking for absolution for the same misdeeds … over and over? The fact is that God’s forgiveness is ever-present. God wants us to live into the fullness of the image of God and not to be burdened by the past which is beyond mending. God wants us to live without fear of the future and the anxiety of our future choices.
Do you want to do something about the past for which you regret? Then make a decision now … in the present … that brings that regret into the light of day … at least for you and for God. Do you want to live without fear of the future? Then live as a child of the light.
For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light-- for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.
We are called by God to bring the darkness of our souls to the light and love of God. When we live into the ever-present forgiveness of God we can release the burden of the past and live in the present as a choice maker. We are children of the light, and the fruit of the light is all that is good and right and true.
As we journey through this Lenten season to the new life promised at Easter let us bring light to the darkness in our lives so that we may love God with our whole selves … with all. Let us bring sight … and insight to our blindness. Let us live in the ever-present forgiveness of God so that we may be fully present to this moment … not burdened by the guilt of the past nor fearful of the future.
Amen.
