Advent Lutheran Church

"Restoring Sight to the Blind (Lent 4 midweek)"

The portion of Jesus’ first sermon that is our focus tonight is “recovery of sight to the blind.”  Obviously this should not be a difficult connection to make to Sunday’s gospel story of the Man Born Blind. 

 

Sometimes, even the preacher is struck by something that the Holy Spirit wants to say, and I have had the following “triple point” in my head since I began my preaching dance with this particular blind man:

          (1)   We, too, have been saved by a Jesus we have never seen,

          (2)   and left to tell our story about that encounter over and over,           

          (3)   until we meet Jesus face to face.

 

But how do we tell that story in a way that people can hear it?  How can we “package” sight for those who won’t admit blindness?  Letting others see Jesus in you…is not so much our problem; we people of Advent are getting better and better at it, taking our ministry in the world more seriously every day -

But is the opposite just as true?  Do we also see Jesus in others?  That is a whole lot harder!  Plus, we probably don’t work to see others as Jesus sees them.  We don’t want to spend that much time and energy, or to see beyond what we have already decided is there.  We don’t want to see what Jesus sees, and so we simply give up and say, “I can’t.”  That reminds me of what my Dad used to say, "'I can't' means 'I don't want to!'"

 

More than anything else, the generations coming up behind us, (those who seem “blind” to religious life in general)

want to make a difference.  They want to be heard, they want their lives to matter.

 

So HOW can we learn to SEE what they need – to LEARN from them about WHAT they are seeking

– and to find ways to connect God’s sight to their eyes? - God’s light to their lives?

 

If we can begin reflecting and praying on that – we can stop asking “who sinned?” and start asking,

“Where is the blindness that God can heal?” and “how can my God-story be part of that recovery?”

 

            It might involve talking, or listening

            It might involve teaching or being taught

            It might involve serving, or being served

            It might involve mud and spit – or ashes and blood…

            Or it might just involve a cross.         

 

 Henri Nouwen’s Prayer for Lent 4 Week:

 

O Lord, this holy season of Lent is passing quickly. I entered into it with fear, but also with great expectations.

I hoped for a great breakthrough, a powerful conversion, a real change of heart;

I wanted Easter to be a day so full of light that not even a trace of darkness would be left in my soul.

But I know that you do not come to your people with thunder and lightning.

Even St. Paul and St. Francis journeyed through much darkness before they could see your light.

Let me be thankful for your gentle way. I know you are at work.  I know you will not leave me alone.

I know you are quickening me for Easter - but in a way fitting to my own history and my own temperament.

Let me die to the desire to choose my own way and select my own desire.  You do not want to make me a hero but a servant who loves you.  Be with me tomorrow and in the days to come, and let me experience your gentle presence. Amen.