Seeing is not believing

Sermon-Year A-4Lent-March 2, 2007
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of that Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."
This is what I call a “buffet” sermon. It’s got a little bit for everyone.
Ok, how many of you wait for the joke every week in the sermon-raise your hands. Two guys, a Chinese guy and a Jewish guy are eating dinner at a restaurant. All of a sudden, out of nowhere the Jewish guy gets up, reaches over and smacks the Chinese guy knocking him across the room. The Chinese guy gets back in the chair and asks, “what was that for?” The Jewish guy answers, “Pearl Harbor!” The Chinese guy says, “that was the Japanese! Not the Chinese!” The Jewish guy says, “Chinese, Japanese, Burmese-they’re all the same to me.”
So they eat for awhile longer until out of nowhere the Chinese guy gets up, reaches over and knocks the Jewish guy knocking him across the room. The Jewish guy gets back in the chair and asks, “what was that for?” The Chinese guy answers, “The Titanic!” The Jewish guy says, “The Titanic! I didn’t have anything to do with the sinking of the titanic!” Whereupon the Chinese guy says, “Goldberg, Friedberg, iceberg-they’re all the same to me.”
Ok, how many come to hear the bizarre and little known church history that I sneak in every week? (raise you hands)
Ok, the 4th Sunday of Lent every year is known as Laetere or Mothering Sunday or Rose Sunday.
Laetare Sunday from the Introit at Mass, "Laetare Jerusalem" ("O be joyful, Jerusalem"), is a name often used to denote the fourth Sunday of the season of Lent in the Christian liturgical calendar. This Sunday is also known as Mothering Sunday (in England) which originated from the practice of visiting ones mother church annually, this meant that most families would be reunited on this day. Young apprentices and young women in servitude were released by their masters that weekend in order to visit their families.. It’s also known as Rose Sunday- Historically, it was the Sunday on which popes blessed ornamental golden roses that were then given to churches, Catholic rulers, and others in recognition of their loyalty to and support of the Church. The fourth Sunday in Lent, when the Pope blesses the “Golden Rose.” He dips it in balsam, sprinkles it with holy water, and incenses it.
The fourth Sunday in Lent, when the Pope blesses the “Golden Rose.” He dips it in balsam, sprinkles it with holy water, and incenses it. Strange as it may seem, Pope Julius II., in 1510, and Leo X. both sent the sacred rose to Henry VIII. In 1856 Isabella II. of Spain received the “Rose;” and both Charlotte, Empress of Mexico, and Eugénie, Empress of France, were honoured by it likewise.
How many of you wait for the theology part of the sermon?
There was a man born blind. That’s how the story begins. They call this story, a 6 act play. It starts with the man born blind. And then goes through several different scenes as the neighbors try to figure out if this is the same man, the parents are asked if this is really their son, and the Pharisees try to explain his affliction away. They can’t. Jesus is not present in most of the story. He heals the man, and then for 30 verses we see the man working through what the healing means. John the gospel writer loves doing this-saying to us-“See, this blind man is you-and you-and you! The man born blind ends the story by confessing Jesus-but losing everything. He loses his family, his town, his livelihood (he was a beggar),even his religion. Now he can see, but he has nothing else. Early Christians would have heard this story and identified with it. It also cost them a lot to follow Jesus. There is a book called, “Revelation” by Peggy Payne. It tells the story of a Presbyterian minister who receives a revelation from God one afternoon while grilling steaks in his back yard. The revelation changes his life-he is never the same afterwards. This is how the book opens. The rest of the book is about how the congregation pays for free psychiatric care for him and a long term administrative leave.
The story begins, There was a man born blind. And with his healing comes a terrible reality-he receives his vision-but loses his life.
I’ll call this last part, because it has been so identified with his campaign, the Obama part of the sermon-the part about hope. How many listen to the sermon for this?
This long story is about who we choose to be. Just like last week. Remember the story about the woman at the well? She was a woman who carried a lot more than the bucket to the well, but she chooses to begin living free from her past. The man who was born blind was healed of his blindness, but then he had to choose what a seeing life would be like- the Rev. Sister Judith Schenck: All of us are born blind in one way or another. Some of us have blindness of body: a crippling disease, cancer, diabetes, or bad bones. Some of us have blindness of heart, and that is a terrible blindness. …What kind of blindness lives inside you……
Theologian Marcus Borg writes: The word “believe” in the original Greek and Latin at it’s root means, “to give one’s heart to”. The heart, therefore, is the deepest center of the self….It is the place of the unwritten law where the Spirit longs to dwell.”
The neighbors could see, but didn’t believe it was the same poor blind beggar. The parents could see, and recognized that it was their son-but were so afraid of losing their life, that they looked the other way. The Pharisees could see, but were so locked in to what they already believed that they chose only to get rid of that they didn’t understand. The man who was born blind, received his sight but he wasn’t really healed until he started to believe. The stories from John in Lent are about making a choice. Like Nicodemus, who comes in confusion to ask who Jesus is, Like the woman at the well who is carrying around her baggage, or the blind man who has to lose everything-we face who we are-the first step towards freedom-and then we’re given a choice. To be a follower, to believe is “to give one’s heart to” this savior. It is a tough decision-a painful choice-because it means turning away from all the blindnesses in our lives. Not just seeing, but believing. In fact, that’s what I was going to title this sermon-seeing is not believing.
There is a difference between seeing and believing. Last week the woman heard who Jesus was , a gift, but deciding who he was –that was a choice. This week the blind man sees who Jesus is, a gift, but believing, giving his heart to him-that was a choice. That’s what we hear all through Lent-all the ways people learn who Jesus is-but that is not believing. Seeing is not believing. That is what we hear today. Giving our hearts to someone-that’s believing. That’s what the good news is all about.


John 9:1-41
9:1 As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth.
9:2 His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
9:3 Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him.
9:4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work.
9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
9:6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man's eyes,
9:7 saying to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see.
9:8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, "Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?"
9:9 Some were saying, "It is he." Others were saying, "No, but it is someone like him." He kept saying, "I am the man."
9:10 But they kept asking him, "Then how were your eyes opened?"
9:11 He answered, "The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' Then I went and washed and received my sight."
9:12 They said to him, "Where is he?" He said, "I do not know."
9:13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind.
9:14 Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.
9:15 Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, "He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see."
9:16 Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath." But others said, "How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?" And they were divided.
9:17 So they said again to the blind man, "What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened." He said, "He is a prophet."
9:18 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
9:19 and asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?"
9:20 His parents answered, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind;
9:21 but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself."
9:22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue.
9:23 Therefore his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."
9:24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, "Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner."
9:25 He answered, "I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see."
9:26 They said to him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"
9:27 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?"
9:28 Then they reviled him, saying, "You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.
9:29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from."
9:30 The man answered, "Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.
9:31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will.
9:32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.
9:33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."
9:34 They answered him, "You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?" And they drove him out.
9:35 Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
9:36 He answered, "And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him."
9:37 Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he."
9:38 He said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshiped him.
9:39 Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind."
9:40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, "Surely we are not blind, are we?"
9:41 Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, 'We see,' your sin remains.