4 Lent a March 30, 2014
1 Sam. 16:1-13 Ps. 23
Eph. 5:1-14 John 9:1-38
Parker: In the Name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Please do not be seated. I want
us to be completely current in our church practices.
Kalum: How are you going to do that?
Parker: I want all of the
congregation to move to the center aisle and I am going to take a selfie of us.
James: I guess if the
president can do it; and Ellen can do it at the Oscar and his Holiness, Pope
Francis can do it, surely we can be St. Relevant’s Episcopal Church and do our
own selfie.
Parker: Okay everyone get ready for the selfie. Good I’m glad that we did this.
Kalum: Why are you glad?
Parker: Well, for one I have infallible photographic proof that I was
in church during Lent.
James: Are you saying that you need all of the proof that you can
get?
Parker: Well, maybe but it will
be proof for others too.
Kalum: So what else do you suggest that we do to be
relevant today?
James: I’ve got an idea. We
are at the height of March Madness. The
National championship will be decided a week from tomorrow. Today the Final Four will be decided.
Kalum: Well, I think that Parker
has been reading his holy bracket more than the Bible during last few weeks.
Parker: Well, bracketology is an official subject for school now, isn’t
it? How’s your bracket going James? I hope you didn’t bet the family farm on your
predictions.
James: My brackets are going fine but I’m also involved in Madness,
it’s called Lent Madness. They have their
own bracketology where the saints are pitted against each other and at the end
of Lent, one of the saints will win the Golden Halo award.
Kalum: Wow James, I didn’t
know that you were so “spiritual.”
James: It does not hurt to have “spiritual” on one’s resume. But seriously how’s your bracket going?
Kalum: Okay, but I had
Duke going further than they did. They
ran into a “giant killer” when they played Mercer. It was quite an upset.
Parker: It is kind of like the
biggest upset in the history of warfare.
James: What was that?
Parker: The most famous giant
killer and the most famous upset in history is the story of David and
Goliath. David was a scrawny, tough
little shepherd boy who fought with wolves and lions to protect his sheep. He went up against the great Philistine giant
Goliath and he won by using his sling shot to hit him with a stone right on his
forehead. Size isn’t everything; wit and
wisdom also counts for something.
David’s father Jesse had many sons who were older than David but David
ended up being chosen as the King of Israel.
Kalum: The famous Judge Samuel thought that all of
David’s brothers would be suitable to be anointed as King of Israel and David
was not the obvious choice but Samuel came to know that God sees differently than
humans see. God taught Samuel to see
David as the person to anoint as King, because David had something that others
could not see.
James: The Gospel story today
is all about seeing too. The religious
leaders were supposed to be people who could see the obvious. And the blind man was the one who didn’t see.
Parker: The Gospel presents this
irony of seeing and not seeing.
James: The disciples of Jesus were blind about cause and effects.
Kalum: What do you mean?
James: They asked Jesus if
the man was blind because of his sins or his parents’ sins.
Parker: How could anyone presume
to know such cause and effects?
Kalum: Well, I know why Duke lost to Mercer in the
NCAA tournament?
James: Why?
Kalum: I read that some loyal Duke fan had a lucky
unwashed Duke T-shirt that he wore and when he wore it to the games, Duke
always won. His mother inadvertently
washed the T-shirt and this Duke fan swears it caused his Duke team to be
upset.
Parker: Why are people so superstitious about cause and effect?
James: It probably gives
people a sense of power of being in control by presuming to know things which
really can’t be known.
Kalum: Some times
religious people believe that natural disasters are connected with the people
whom they think are sinful.
Parker: Such thinking can be
very prejudicial; it can make people into victims and religious people often do
play the blame game.
James: I think Jesus came to
show people how to see things differently.
He was not interested in presuming to know the reason why the man was
blind; he just wanted the blind man to know that God’s help was with him.
Kalum: In the Gospel of John the writer is trying to
get us to see things differently. The
writer wants us to see from the heart.
The Gospel of John shows us that presence of Christ is with us in all
situations even the trivial situations.
Parker: What do you mean?
Kalum: Jesus was present to help solve the wine
shortage problem at a wedding; that’s pretty trivial in the big scheme of
things.
James: But Christ was present
when the multitude needed food to eat; he was present with his disciples when
there was a storm on the sea. He was
present with a parent who had a sick child. He was present when a man was
unable to walk. He was present to the
blind man and his family. He was present
with the family of Lazarus after he died.
Parker: So the Gospel of John is
about the presence of Christ being with us in all of the times of our lives.
Kalum: And the faith and the new birth that is
promised by Jesus mean that we have the ability to see the presence of Christ
in the small events, the big events and the events of sadness and loss.
James: So in the story about the healing of the blind the man, the
blind man who was made to see is really all Disciples of Christ who are
learning to see the wonderful presence of Christ in all of the events of life
.
Parker: So, today we need to
learn not to think that we know the cause of why lots of bad things happen to
people. Because we may be wrongly
blaming people who are already hurting.
Kalum: And we need to know that our life of faith is
about learning how to see better; to see from the heart.
James: And we need to learn how to see the presence of Christ in all
of the events of our life.
Parker: Does that mean if I win
the bracketology contest for March Madness that I am a genius.
Kalum: No, it just means you’re lucky.
James: Sometimes it’s better
to be lucky than good.
Kalum: With God, it is
better to know God’s grace even as we are always trying to be as good as we can
and to see things as God’s Spirit teaches us to see things.
Parker: I see.
James: I see, too.
Kalum: Can everyone say:
God, open our eyes so that we can see!
Everyone: God, open our eyes so that we can see.
Kalum: Amen.
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