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Sermon for Sunday, March 2, 2008
Pastor Sara Kay Olson-Smith
Fourth Sunday in Lent
Texts: 1 Samuel 16:1-13; Psalm 23; Ephesians 5: 8-14; John 9:1-41
Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from Christ Jesus who is healing us and all our world.
The blind man had sat on that street corner to decades, largely ignored, begging, until Jesus came to him, declared that his blindness was not anyone’s fault (not even God's). Jesus then spit on the ground, made some mud and told him to wash. Soon the blind man could see. The people had their eyes opened as well. As they began to see him as human for the first time, they too were healed. After all sorts of questions, as people tried to figure out who this Jesus was, as they tried to find a proof and explanation for it all, the man who had been born blind made this simple statement of God’s work in his life, “One thing I know - I once was blind, but now I see.”
She had been through hard times, tragedy after tragedy, with loneliness and heartache that was difficult and shattering. I came to know her years later, and she said, “One thing I know - when I was going through all of that, I was so filled with pain and hurt that I couldn’t eat, or sleep, I couldn’t think or care or love, but somehow I got through it, and somehow, I’ve come to know that it was because of Jesus.”
When I met him, he was a one-armed high school kid who had lost his arm as a result of a car accident. He was a kid who loved to play soccer, but had been through endless surgeries and had many more ahead of him. He said, “I never did get the miraculous healing I once prayed for, but one thing I know - I have a family who loves me and real friends, and I have been given patience and strength and courage that most certainly is not my own, and somehow, I’ve come to know that it’s from Jesus.”
It had been years since she had spoken to her parents. They were long estranged, with no one particularly to blame, everyone saying things out of anger and hurt and pride. And, too, she had made some choices that hurt everyone, especially herself. One afternoon, 10 years since she had last spoken to them, she cautiously walked up the yard to her parents door. Before she could even knock, her parents opened the door and rushed out and enfolded her in hugs and tears. Later she said, “I made some terrible mistakes, but I was given the kind of forgiveness and another chance like you only hear about in stories. One things I know - I once was lost, but now I’m found. And somehow, I’m pretty sure Jesus had something to do with it.”
I met them when I was studying in South Africa. He was a white Afrikaaner, she a black Xhosa woman. His dad was a policeman who was involved in the beating and death of her brother. Now they were working together to fight HIV/AIDS in their community. They told us, “One thing we know - our people once hated one another, and now our children are going to school together. We have told the truth and worked hard at reconciliation. People said it was impossible, but we are convinced that it was possible because of Jesus.”
He had just celebrated his 95th birthday, and now his family surrounded him in what they knew were his last hours, his age finally catching up with him. He looked into the eyes of his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. He said to them, “I’ve had a pretty blessed life. It hasn’t all been easy, but it has been a good life, much of it because of you all. And now as I am about to face the end of this life, I am not sure what will happen on the other side, but one thing I know - I have peace because I know I will dwell in God's house forever, that life will continue for me, and it’s all because of Jesus.”
I sat with my mom as my dad was dying. One of her neighbors had made the outrageous claim that we must have some unconfessed sin that was causing this illness, that if we prayed harder, better, in the right way, that God would heal him. In anger and sadness and profound faith, my mom said, “I’ve come to understand that our God is revealed in the most broken places. Each day, even as your dad dies, I see the healing of God, healing for our family, healing for our congregation, healing for your dad. This one thing I know - God will bring life and healing out of everything, even out of sickness, even out of grief, even out of death. This is most certainly because of Jesus.”
We each have a story to tell, a simple witness of the ways that we have been healed. We can’t really explain it, don’t really know the ways in which it happened, cannot fully make sense of it, but one thing we know is that we have a God who brings life out of death, who brings wholeness from brokenness, who will wipe away tears from our eyes. One thing we know is that God has touched our lives in simple ways, often in ways we cannot even explain. These are the simple stories that keep the faith alive, that change lives, that bring people to God, these are the stories our world is dying to hear.
As we read in our psalm today, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,” a better translation would be to say, not “follow,” but “pursue.” God’s mercy and goodness are pursuing us, chasing us, hunting us with such determination, that even in the midst of the evils that surround us, even when our pain is created by our own actions, even when things don’t make sense, God is doing all God can do to transform, redeem, heal and bring us to life. God is responding, is with us, is saving us, is changing our lives.
There are times, when I am tired and weary, when I feel my heart breaking at the hurt and pain in this world, at the poverty and prejudice in our neighborhood and world, that I am awestruck by the strength and resilience and compassion of God’s people. I come to this table, to this meal of bread and wine, and hear God’s words of healing for us and all the world. “This is my body given for you. This is my blood given for you.”
And then, having tasted and felt in my body the goodness and mercy of God, I think to myself: “God’s goodness is pursuing me, and this congregation, and this neighborhood and this world. Christ has taken all our pain and hurt and sin and brought it to the cross. God will bring us through this death and sin and pain, and bring us to life. One thing I know - Jesus is healing us and all the world. In our sickness and health, in our trust and in our doubt, in our weeping and in our laughing, in our life and in our death, we are God’s and God is, even now, healing us!”
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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