I want to see

i October 25, 2015 Mark 10:46-52 I want to see Year B 22nd Sunday after Pentecost If you could ask Jesus for one thing that would make all the difference in your life, what would it be? There are so many different things going on in my life, it would be hard to ask for just one thing. The gospel lesson for today tells the story of just one wish granted. This is the story of Bartimaeus. Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem, this will be the last miracle that he performs along the way. Every one was supposed to make it to Jerusalem for Passover. But in reality not everyone made it. those who could not afford the trip themselves, would line up along the main roads and cheer the pilgrims along the way. So as Jesus passed threw Jericho, the last major city before Jerusalem, there were crowds who has heard of his reputation gathered to cheer him along. In that crowd was a blind begger man, waiting for Jesus. He calls out Lord have mercy on me. Jesus responds what do you want, He says that I want to see. Jesus heals him, and in gratitude he joins with the followers of Jesus and continues the journey to Jerusalem. That is actually my sermon for today – he asks for mercy, Jesus asks what he wants, he gets it and lives a life of gratitude. Now there are actually 3 stories of Jesus healing a blind man in the bible. So I preach about the blind being able to see a lot. If you read the book of Mark – two of those stories happen in Jericho, in chapter 8 of Mark Jesus heals a blind man, and now again in chapter 9. Making the blind to see is a sign of the coming messiah. There are many ways to be blind. But this time I noticed something else about this scripture. Not so much that Jesus healed him. But he knew exactly what to ask for. Son of David, have mercy on me - to ask for mercy is to ask someone to pay your debts –I could use a lot of mercy. When Jesus asks him what that means- he says Jesus I want to see. How many of us are willing to say that we want to see. How many of us are willing to really see the world as it is. I think that we spend most of our lives - not wanting to see. Not wanting to deal with the hurts and pains of life. Painting our own pictures. When we do see the world as it really is, it is an accident. And yet here this man is saying I want to see. John 9 tells of Jesus healing the son of Timaeus of blindness. And the question is asked –who sinned this man or his relatives. In this story- Bar means son of - so Bartimaeus is Timaues’s son. As a blind man, all that he can do is sit on the streets and beg. When he hears that Jesus is coming to town –he knows that he has hit the jackpot. In a lot of ways when we pray – we too are beggers. Asking the master to have mercy on us. As a matter of fact, the church is a community of beggers, when we reach out to others, we are beggers reaching out to other beggers, telling them where to get some bread –Jesus is the bread of life. Jesus gives us life, Jesus gives us salvation. If there was one thing in your life that would make all of the difference in the world – what would it be? Do you have the courage to ask Jesus to see? See life as God sees your life, not as you want it to be? To be healed –to be made whole. Salvation comes from the same root as salve. A solution to make you whole and complete. Text Illustration: Illus.: “When Blind Eyes Were Opened” D.L. Moody, the famed evangelist, told this story at one of his meetings: One evening just before Christmas, a man was walking through the streets of an Eastern city. The store windows were all beautifully decorated, and he observed three little girls intensely interested in one of them. He discovered that the girl in the center was blind, and the others were trying to describe the beautiful things in the window. “Why,” they said, “can’t you see that Teddy bear and that doll? Just look at that pretty pink bow!” But the poor little girl stood with a blank expression on her face and could not appreciate the beautiful things before her. “Now,” said Moody, “this is an illustration of the effort we Christians are making to arouse the unconverted to an interest and delight in spiritual things. The reason we can’t do so is because the sinner is spiritually blind.” Moody had scarcely concluded when a reporter was on the platform asking him where he had heard that story. “Oh,” said Moody, “I read it in one of those daily papers. I have forgotten which one.” Then the reporter said, “I’m the one who wrote the story because I was there and saw the whole thing. I see now that I’m just like that little girl, spiritually blind.” That man was converted then and there. 836 Correct Use Of The Eyes A bishop of the early church, who was a remarkable example of the virtue of contentment, was asked his secret. The venerable old man replied: “It consists in nothing more than making a right use of my eyes. In whatever state I am, I first of all look up to heaven and remember that my principal business here is to get there. Then I look down upon the earth, and call to mind how small a place I shall occupy in it when I die and am buried. I then look around in the world, and observe what multitudes there are who are in many respects more unhappy than myself. Thus I learn where true happiness is placed, where all our cares must end, and what little reason I have to complain.” —Foster There is a significant variant reading of this text in an old Gospel translation called the Sinaitic Syriac. When Jesus asked the man what he wished. Our common version says, “Master, let me receive my sight.” That is the answer we might expect. It would certainly be our answer, for I can imagine that of all the terrible afflictions of humankind, blindness must surely be one of the worst. But the Sinaitic Syriac version has it: “That I might see Thee!” Religiously, that is by far the most significant statement. Either way, recovery of sight for this man was seeing Jesus! An old Black preacher was once asked what he intended to do when he got to heaven. He bowed his head for a moment, then raised his dark face, wrinkled with the years, and replied, “I’m gonna sit down for a thousand years and LOOK AT JESUS!” If there is anything that our troubled old world needs more than this, I do not know what it is. “Lord, that we might see Jesus!” The good news of the gospel is that we don’t have to wait until we get to heaven to see Jesus. We can see him right here on earth. When we see those who are less fortunate then ourselves, when we forgive those who have wronged us, when we show love and kindness to all of God’s children - we see Jesus. To gaze upon Jesus is the way to be saved. Life is beautiful when we open our eyes to the sight of Jesus. The Blessings of Sight I read an impressive story about a blind man who lives on the streets of New York City. On a beautiful day in the month of May people were enjoying a spring morning. Their emotions were stirred when they came upon this blind beggar who carried a sign reading: "It is spring and I am blind." The blind man knew there was beauty all around him: spring flowers, blossoming shrubs and trees, newly-sprouted leaves, but he could only imagine how wonderful all that beauty was. It must be vexing to smell spring in the air but not be able to witness it or during this wonderful time of year to hear the rustling of Fall’s leaves but never see their brilliant colors. Do we fully appreciate the blessings of sight which God has given us? Are we moved to express gratitude for so wonderful a physical sense? Do we see the gift so graciously given. Harold H. Lentz, Preaching the Miracles, CSS Publishing. Adapted The miracles of life are all around us. We have to pray for God to expand our sight – to see all that God has in store for us. To see the opportunity in the bad news, to see the joy in the pain, to see the success in the struggle, to see the peace, in the adversity. No matter whether our blindness is physical or spiritual – there is always more for us to see in God’s light. The story of Bartimaues has a lesson for us all. The last sentence of chapter ten sums up all that has gone before. It says, simply, “And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the way.” (10:52) When the shepherds heard the Christmas message, they rose up and went to Bethlehem. When Peter, James, and John heard Jesus’ call at the Sea of Galilee, they left their nets and went off to follow Him. When Bartimaeus heard Jesus’ call, he rose up to to follow Him “on the way.” When we hear Jesus’ call... Amen. Other illustrations……. The Power of Observation Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, told a story on himself. He was waiting for a taxi outside the railway station in Paris. When the taxi pulled up, he put his suitcase in it and then got in the taxi. As he was about to tell the taxi-driver where he wanted to go, the driver asked him: "Where can I take you, Mr. Doyle?" Doyle was astounded. He asked the driver if he knew him by sight. The driver said: "No Sir, I have never seen you before." Doyle was puzzled and asked him how he knew he was Arthur Conan Doyle. The driver replied: "This morning's paper had a story that you were on vacation in Marseilles. This is the taxi-stand where people who return from Marseilles always wait. Your skin color tells me you have been on vacation. The ink-spot on your right index finger suggests to me that you are a writer. Your clothing is very English, and not French. Adding up all those pieces of information, I deduce that you are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle." Doyle exclaimed, "This is truly amazing. You are a real-life counter-part to my fictional creation, Sherlock Holmes." "There is one other thing," the driver said. "What is that?" Doyle asked. "Your name is on the front of your suitcase." It wasn't the powers of deduction. It was the power of observation. That taxi driver's lenses were clean enough to observe what was going on around him. Billy D. Strayhorn, From the Pulpit, CSS Publishing Company, Inc. Let Me See When my wife and I were in Tanzania, we felt like socio-economic minorities for the first time in our lives. At worship, we were the only white faces in a sea of black. In the market, we weren't merely the only Caucasians; we were among the few wearing shoes! Everywhere we went, we were the wealthy, healthy ones. When we were approached by a roving gang of small children rushing toward us in Mlafu, we assumed they would beg for money. My wife clutched her purse, and I felt for my billfold. Here came the poorest of the poor! And when the children finally reached us, do you know what they asked for? They asked, "Will you take my picture? Will you take my picture?" And when we had snapped several photos of these beautiful children, they began to squeal with delight "Now let me see it! Let me see what you see!" Ultimately, that was the request of the blind man that Jesus met on the road outside of Jericho that day. The man simply wanted to see what everyone else saw. But the real miracle that day is that, when the man gained his sight, he chose to follow Jesus. He was not satisfied to merely see the sights, to find familiar faces and places in his hometown. He wanted to see the world from Jesus' point of view ... to see the people and the places and the problems and the possibilities that Jesus saw. Steven Molin, Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost (Last Third):The Final Exam, CSS Publishing Company, Inc. Treat Life as a Miracle Wendell Berry has suggested that "to treat life as less than a miracle is to give up on it." Well, today, eagerly, painfully, obediently, Bartimaeus refuses to give up on the miracle called life, the miracle called faith, the miracle called Jesus. He jumps up and grabs the guts and the grace of the Christian life. And he calls us to do the same. Susan Andrews, How Eager Are You? The year 1983 marked the five-hundredth anniversary of the great reformer, Martin Luther, whose stature increases with time. Found by his deathbed, scrawled in German and Latin, was this declaration: “We are beggars: That is true.” This statement may have inspired D. T. Niles to say, “Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where he can find a piece of bread.” Not a sweet roll and a cup of coffee, but a bite of the staff of life—bread! The church is a fellowship of beggars, receiving and offering love, support, and hope. Committed Christians acknowledge their dependence upon God and their interdependence on one another. They are always in the bread line, if not receiving, then giving.

Seeing as God Sees

March 30, 2014 John 9:1-41 4th Sunday of Lent Seeing as God Sees Humor: It's The Blind Man Mrs. Smith was stark-naked and just about to step into the shower when the doorbell rang. She hollered, "Who is it?" He shouted back, "It's the blind man." She figured it was safe, so she opened the door. He looked at her in shock and asked, "Where do you want me to hang these blinds, lady?" Ann Landers, The Washington Post, October 13, 1998. It is funny, how much we reveal about ourselves when we think that no one is looking. Today we will talk about what it means to be blind and what it means to see. But we won’t be talking about the blinds on the windows, but neither will we talk about the blinds on our eyes, we will talk about the blinds in our mind and more importantly in our soul. The lesson for us to today is to learn to see things as God sees them, and not so much as we see them. Christlike Sight Anybody here have selective hearing or seeing? Sure, we all do. Every second, our brain is bombarded with sensory data from all five senses. You just sat down, but already your brain has probably stopped consciously focusing on the feel of the seat. You're probably not thinking about the temperature of the room, although you probably did at one point this morning. There are all kinds of sounds that you're not focusing on right now - the faint hum of lights, somebody shifting beside you. Our brains would go crazy if they had to process every piece of data that our bodies sensed. We think we're seeing everything, but we're all being selective all the time. Today, you've probably noticed who's not here, who's sitting in a different spot, who's sitting with whom. You may have wondered what it means that so-and-so is sitting with that person. Years ago, before I dated my wife, I brought a date to a function that my wife also attended. She could tell you exactly what my date was wearing. I don't have a clue. I never did, not even that night. It's the same with cars. You get interested in a car, and all of a sudden you notice them everywhere. They were there before, but you never noticed them. The part of the brain that filters all this information is called the Reticular Activating System. It's continually at work, even though we never think about it. Today's story is about your spiritual Reticular Activating System. The goal for all of us, if we're followers of Jesus Christ, is to see the same things that he sees. We want to notice what's important to him. Darryl Dash, Spiritual Eyesight Grandma was blind but could still see My grandmother, my father’s mother was blind the last 7 or years of her life. But you know there is a difference between someone who is blind from birth, and someone who has lived a seeing life and who went blind later. The brain still processes information that it got from the world of sight. When I went to visit my grandmother, I was surprised that there were pictures of me all over her wall. Why would someone we cannot see have pictures on the wall. And she had not physically seen my brother in years, and she could still tell that he was going bald. How was she able to see the things that really mattered to her. She said that Jesus had come to her in a dream and told her that she may be blind, but she could still see. Seeing is not just about our eyes, it is about our minds, and as Jesus is concerned, it is about what we see with our souls. And each of our souls see different things. Humor: Having To Wait Three persons arrived at the Pearly Gates at the same time. St. Peter came but said he had some pressing business and would they please wait? He was gone a long time, but finally he came back and called one of the new arrivals in and asked if she had minded waiting. "No," she said, "I've looked forward to this for so long. I love God and I can't wait to meet Jesus. I don't mind at all." St. Peter then said, "Well, I have one more question. How do you spell 'God'?" She said, "Capital-G-o-d." St. Peter said, "Go right on in." He went outside and met another new arrival, told him to come on inside, and said, "Did you mind waiting?" The man said, "Oh, no. I have been a Christian for fifty years, and I'll spend eternity here. I didn't mind at all." So St. Peter said, "Just one more thing. How do you spell 'God'?" He said, "G-o-d. No, I mean capital-G." St. Peter said that was good and sent him into heaven. St. Peter went back out and invited the third person in and asked her if she had minded waiting. "As a matter of fact, I did," she replied. "I've had to stand in line all my life - at the supermarket, when I went to school, when I registered my children for school, when I went to the movies - everywhere - and I resent having to wait in line for heaven now!" St. Peter said, "Well, that's all right for you to feel that way. It won't be held against you, but there is just one more question. How do you spell 'Czechoslovakia'?" Tie in: The relationship between this joke and the text is the element of irritation that we often feel towards complainers. Those who rarely see the good in circumstances and events. The Pharisees were not able to enjoy the blinds man's new found sight. The church is full of these individuals that we must bare. The lesson there for us is that we need to see God in the midst of all things. I think that pain and suffering is the price we pay for being alive. Being alive means living with original sin and the mighty power of Jesus’ death on the cross. When we understand that, our question will change to, What do we do with our suffering and pain? Our pain and suffering must become meaningful. It must not become pointless and empty suffering? How can we turn all the painful experiences of our lives into personal growth within our selves and within our relationship with God? We may never understand the why or be able to control the forces that cause our suffering. But one thing is for sure. We can have a lot to say about what the suffering does to us. We can determine what sort of people we become because of it. Pain makes some people bitter and envious. It makes others sensitive and compassionate. It is the end result, not the cause, of pain that makes some experiences of pain meaningful and others empty and destructive. It is left up to us and our relationship with our God. (http://www.gurus.com/dougdeb/Courses/bestsellers/Kushner/BTmain.htm Modified by sermon author.) During the season of lent, we have been learning our lessons from the book of John. And each Sunday in lent the scripture gets longer and longer, until palm Sunday. In each of these stories, John is describing to us who Jesus is. In this story he is called a man, a prophet, and the son of God. This is the only story in the bible, where Jesus has a chance to heal a man blind from birth. In each of John’s lessons, there is pain and suffering that Jesus heals. In each of John’s miracle stories, the illness is an opportunity for jesus to demonstrate the glory of God. In the other gospels, Jesus heals to show his compassion for others. But for John, the miracle points to God. For John it is in our affliction, our sorrow, our pain, our disappointment, our loss where we can either see suffering, or we can see God. Have you ever noticed that whenever something bad happens to us, that the first thing that we ask is why is this happening to us. Why me Lord, what did I do to deserve this? And how does knowing why it happened help us deal with the situation. Why is a useless question But you should also notice in this lesson, that whenever someone asks Jesus why – he never answers. The people ask who sinned? Him or his parents. What difference does it make. 1. Notice first that Jesus does not answer the first question: Why was this man born blind? 2. Notice second that he answers this question: What good can this tragedy produce? What can I do to get better, what can I do to give glory to God? What can I do to move forward from here. What can I do to allow Jesus to heal me and make me whole. Those are all questions that Jesus was willing to deal with. We have to learn to see the situation as God sees the situation. God does not cause bad things to happen to us so that we can see God. But we have to accept that as long as we are on this side of glory, pain and suffering will come, it is a part of life. Beyond Darkness "People are prepared for everything except for the fact that beyond the darkness of their blindness there is a great light. They are prepared to go on breaking their backs plowing the same old field until the cows come home without seeing, until they stub their toes on it, that there is a treasure buried in that field rich enough to buy Texas. They are prepared for a God who strikes hard bargains but not for a God who gives as much for an hour’s work as for a day’s. They are prepared for a mustard-seed kingdom of God no bigger than the eye of a newt but not for the great banyan it becomes with birds in its branches singing Mozart. They are prepared for the potluck supper at First Presbyterian but not for the marriage supper of the Lamb." Fredrick Buechner Jesus came into the world to help us to see with our eyes, our minds, our souls, that God is bigger than our pain and suffering. Jesus came into the world to take us beyond our present situation. Let us glorify God in all that we see! Amen. Children’s Sermon….. General Hospital by King Duncan Passage: John 9:1-12 • Lectionary: Lent 4 Item 1 of 38 | Back to Results Object: A piece of wax, a piece of clay, and a bottle of water. Boys and girls,I have here a piece of wax, a piece of clay, and a bottle of water. Suppose I were to build a fire here in the front of the chancel and were to put the wax on that fire, what would happen to it? That's right. It would melt. Suppose I put this clay on the fire. Do you know what would happen to it? That's right. The clay would harden. Isn't that interesting--one would melt and the other would get harder? Suppose I put this bottle of water in a pot and put it over the fire, what would happen? That's right, it would start to boil and soon it would disappear as steam. Now let's think about that for a moment. Suppose somebody hurts you. How would you react? Some of you might cry. Some of you might get very angry. Some of you would never speak to that person again. Others will have forgotten it within an hour. The same hurt, but like the wax, the clay and the water, we would each react differently. A wise man once said that it is not what happens to us on the outside that matters, but what we have on the inside. That's true. If we have the right stuff on the inside, we will react to life's hurts in the right way. What we want to have on the inside is the Spirit of Jesus--to have him live in our hearts. Then when disappointment comes, or hurt, he can help us react in a way that's best for us and for others. Wax or clay or water can't help how it reacts. But we can help how we react. Jesus can help us react the way we should. I WAS BLIND, BUT NOW I CAN SEE There were two boys who grew up together. They were close friends as children, but as they entered their teen years their paths began to diverge, and they ended up in very different places. Ernie was always in trouble. He began by shoplifting small things from stores and worked his way up to stealing cars. Next it was armed robbery. Finally, on one of his stealing sprees he killed a man. He was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Mike took a different track. He turned away from the rebellious tendencies of his friend and continued through school. He worked his way through college, graduated and became a successful businessman. However, Mike had much difficulty with his physical health. His eyes in particular were weak. As he grew older, his eyesight deteriorated until he was legally blind. One day, Mike heard the news about his old friend Ernie. He felt a terrific sense of compassion and sorrow for what had happened to his childhood friend, and he reached out to him. After writing letters to renew their old relationship, he went to visit Ernie in prison. They had a very touching and emotional reunion there, speaking by phone across the security window at the penitentiary. In spite of years of hard-hearted living, something in Ernie warmed as he talked with the man with whom he had played as a boy so many years before. An idea began to grow in Ernie’s mind, as well. Ernie was about to die; his friend Mike was sightless. Was it possible that Ernie could do something worthwhile in his death? Could he give his eyes so that his old friend could see? It turned out to be medically possible, and that’s exactly what happened. Ernie was executed for his crime, but through surgery his good eyes were used to restore Mike’s vision. God does a similar thing for us. We who were blind have been given God’s eyes so that we can see. We need to be thankful that God has opened our eyes and given us the ability to see. (From a sermon by Derrick Tuper, "The Eyes Have It" 1/26/2009)

On the Road to Glory

Rev. Harriette Cross Englewood United Methodist Church Rust Memorial United Methodist Church October 28, 2012 Job 42:1-6, 10-17 Mark 10:46-52 22nd Sunday After Pentecost Year B On the Road to Glory The questions of life Have you noticed that the older we get in life, the more complex our questions about life become. As we go through our journey of life, we find that life is full of questions. When we were young we used to think that there was not a question that we could ask, that our parents didn’t have an answer for. And when we discovered that our parents didn’t have all of the answers, that is when we started to ask God. Of course God had all of the answers. God’s word, the bible is full of questions about life and answers to our deepest questions. Questions that we all ask, such as where did human beings come from, how did the world begin, what is our purpose in life, how are we supposed to live our lives, what is evil, how to be a righteous person in the midst of evil. We have come a long way in the last 6000 years. We have worked hard to be able to find the answers to our questions. But no matter how far we have come in life. There are certain questions that come up time and time again in our lives. The greatest question that we have is why? Why is this happening to me. Why does bad things happen, even when we strive to be good people. People who are faithful to God. Instead of giving us an straight answer, if you read the bible, God gives the answers we seek in the context of a story. Usually a story about someone’s life. They say that Job may not be the first story in the bible, but that it is the oldest story in the bible. This story was told even before the book of Genesis was written. Job is not a isrealite, Job is a foreigner who came to know God. Job intended to answer our deepest questions Even if Job is not the oldest story – it addresses the oldest question. Why does bad things happen to good people? Today are at the end of the story of Job. The man who started out with everything, who God allowed to devil to take it all away. He and his friends struggle with this. Why is this happening? Why is God standing by and letting this happen to a faithful person. Job asks, but God never gives an answer. It is in this final chapter of the story that Job answers his own question. Chapter 42 is known as the restoration of Job. Everything that he had in the beginning is restored to him. His health, his family, his wealth. But most importantly his faith in God. I want to focus on the first six chapters of chapter 42 – Job says that he repents from his need to question God about his life. He says that I now understand what I did not understand. He says that he repents. He says that he had heard of God but now he sees. He sees the ways of God for himself, and he is ready to go on with his life. I have heard it said that God is a lot like a pastor – you don’t see him all week, and then when you come to church to hear the sermon, you still don’t understand. The ways of God are always going to be a mystery. It is not ours to understand. But if by chance, in the midst of our confusion, in the midst of or questions, in the midst of our darkness, if we can come to the realization that we worship a truly wonderful God – we come to see all that we need to see. If in the midst o my pain, I am able to see the glory of God – I see it all. Helen Keller on being able to see Keller, so brave and inspiring to us in her deafness and blindness, once wrote a magazine article entitled: "Three days to see." In that article she outlined what things she would like to see if she were granted just three days of sight. It was a powerful, thought provoking article. On the first day she said she wanted to see friends. Day two she would spend seeing nature. The third day she would spend in her home city of New York watching the busy city and the workday of the present. She concluded it with these words: "I who am blind can give one hint to those who see: Use your eyes as if tomorrow you were stricken blind.' You see that is just it, most of us, all of us, go through life blind to what is really important. Most of us don’t see God for who he is in our lives. Our eyes work fine, but there is something wrong in our spirit. God is hard at work showing us the beauty of life, and for some reason we just don’t see it. That is probably why one of the signs of the messiah is that the blind will see. The lame will walk, the sick will be healed, the hungry will be fed and the blind will see. If you read the book of Mark you will see that Jesus does all of these things in order to show that he is indeed the messiah – the son of David, the son of God. In Mark 10, Jesus is on a trip to Jerusalem. His final trip to Jerusalem. He has been trying to teach his disciples, but it seems that they have a bad case of spiritual blindness. His disciples are still looking at Jesus through the eyes of the world and not the eyes of the spirit. They ask to sit at his right hand, as he greatest. Jesus has to tell them that greatness is not about honor, it is about serving. As jesus is teaching, a blind man, bartimaeus cries out and asks to be able to see. His request is granted. This is not the first story in Mark about Jesus healing a blind man. After the first healing of the blind, Jesus tells him not to tell anyone. But this story Is not just about healing the blind. The blind are able to see. Not just with their eyes, but with their spirit. Bartemaeus stays around to follow and serve Jesus. By now the secret is out. It is time for everyone to see. Not just the disciples, but everyone. Not just those who have been there all along, but the latecomers, not the insiders, but the outsiders. God’s love is for everyone. God’s glory is available for everyone to see. But sometimes, we are so caught up in our suffering that we just don’t realize it. We are all blind, we all cant see God in our lives. But Jesus says that it is our faith that makes us whole. Can’t see Jesus in the picture Pastor Steven E. Albertin told the following story. He said, in my church secretary's office there hangs a modernistic picture composed of a maze of colors and shapes. I realized these sophisticated, modern, and abstract pictures were supposed to contain some profound artistic or philosophical message, but I never was able to figure it out. It just looked like a jumbled mass of confusion. If there was a message there, I was blind to it. One day while I was standing in the office, waiting for the copier to warm up, one of the congregation's kindergarten-age boys, Adam, stood beside me and said, "Do you see what I see?" "Do you see something in that picture? I sure don't." Adam looked at me with glee in his eye, "Pastor, can't you see him? It's Jesus hanging on the cross." I stared as hard as I could, until my eyes actually hurt from staring. I wanted to believe Adam and that there actually was the image of Jesus hanging on the cross hidden somewhere in that mass of color and shapes, but I couldn't see Jesus anywhere. "Adam, I'm sorry but I must be blind. You will have to help me see." Directing his finger to a mass of color in the center of the picture, Adam said, "There, Pastor. Do you see what I see? There is Jesus, his face, his arms outstretched on the cross." And then, like an epiphany, the image began to appear. Yes, there hidden somehow "behind" the colors and the shapes was the barely visible image of Jesus, hanging with arms outstretched on the cross. "It's amazing, Adam. You have helped one blind pastor to see Jesus. Yes, I can see what you see, Adam." Steven E. Albertin, Against the Grain, CSS Publishing Company, Inc. Some say that the biggest problem in the world is not so much that we live in an evil, fallen world. The biggest problem in the world is the fact that there are so many people in the world who are going through life, and their eyes are not open to see the glory of God in their lives. Everything that happens to us in life is a test. Just as the devil challenged Job’s life, the devil challenges or life. Suffering is our chance to see God in our lives. In the midst of suffering we all have a choice – we can decide to be bitter or we can decide to be better. When Job decided to get better, he started to understand his God. The story of Job shows that God didn’t come to rescue us from the events of life. God didn’t come to answer our questions. If you know the story of Job, you know that Job didn’t get God’s answers, but he did get God’s presence. He realized that God was with him from beginning to end. He also realized that he didn’t need to have the answers, he didn’t need to understand why, all he needed to do was to have faith in a God that loves him. Japanese sword illustration: It is the Japanese who have created the best swords in the world. To create these fine weapons, ancient Japanese sword makers had to create a sword that was hard enough to retain a sharp edge, but at the same time soft enough not to be brittle. Sword makers who made swords by making the steel hard found they could preserve a sharp edge. Such swords, however, were often so brittle that they would often break when they clashed in battle. Soft steel, however, was found to be not as brittle, but would easily dull and be unable to slice through armor. Japanese sword makers, therefore had to forge a sword with steel hard enough to retain a sharp edge, but at the same time pliable enough not to break in battle. What Japanese sword makers learned to do was to create a sword made of hard and soft steel. Multiple sheets of hard and soft steel are heated, folded and pummeled together over and over again. Japanese swords go through a lengthy forging process until they have up to 33,000 paper-thin laminations of hard and soft metal. Each of these layers is one hundred thousandth of an inch thick. This is all done to a very precise recipe of temperature treatment. The end result is a finely crafted weapon with extreme pliability and a blade that will retain a finely honed edge. Just as Japanese sword makers repeatedly hammer together layers of metal to produce a sword that will be strong enough to withstand breaking, so God allows trials to hammer metal into the lives of His children. Just a sword made of hard metal will easily break in battle, so the believer filled with pride will also break in adversity. It is in the forging hand of God that humility and dependence on Him are developed into our lives to create character that will triumph in adversity. The hard steel in our lives is the word of God. The soft steel in our lives is humility and a dependence on God. These are forged together in our lives through fiery trials and prayer to produce vessels that will give Him glory. We need the hard steel confidence of what we believe together with the soft steel of humility. Job’s restoration is our restoration. Job’s faith is our faith. When we decide to turn around, and see God – the lord will bless our days to come, just as much as he had blessed our past. Let us pray…. The rest of these stories are not used… D.L. Moody, the famed evangelist, told this story at one of his meetings: One evening just before Christmas, a man was walking through the streets of an Eastern city. The store windows were all beautifully decorated, and he observed three little girls intensely interested in one of them. He discovered that the girl in the center was blind, and the others were trying to describe the beautiful things in the window. “Why,” they said, “can’t you see that Teddy bear and that doll? Just look at that pretty pink bow!” But the poor little girl stood with a blank expression on her face and could not appreciate the beautiful things before her. “Now,” said Moody, “this is an illustration of the effort we Christians are making to arouse the unconverted to an interest and delight in spiritual things. The reason we can’t do so is because the sinner is spiritually blind.” Moody had scarcely concluded when a reporter was on the platform asking him where he had heard that story. “Oh,” said Moody, “I read it in one of those daily papers. I have forgotten which one.” Then the reporter said, “I’m the one who wrote the story because I was there and saw the whole thing. I see now that I’m just like that little girl, spiritually blind.” That man was converted then and there. Illustration: In fact, most Christians today perceive God like one person noted: God is a lot like our pastor. I don’t see him through the week and I don’t understand him on Sunday. Dear God, Before I finish, I want you to take care of mommy, take care of daddy, take care of my sister and my brother and please, God, take care of yourself, because if you don’t we’ll all sunk. Amen! A. Little Suzie understood a very important lesson about herself....she was totally dependent upon God. as if tomorrow you were stricken blind.' As bad as blindness is in the 21st century, however, it was so much worse in Jesus' day. Today a blind person at least has the hope of living a useful life with proper training. Some of the most skilled and creative people in our society are blind. But in first century Palestine blindness meant that you would be subjected to abject poverty. You would be reduced to begging for a living. You lived at the mercy and the generosity of others. Unless your particular kind of blindness was self-correcting, there was no hope whatsoever for a cure. The skills that were necessary were still centuries beyond the medical knowledge of the day. Little wonder then that one of the signs of the coming of the Messiah was that the blind should receive their sight… The story is told of a Sunday class that had been asked the question, ¡§in your time of discouragement, what is your favorite Scripture.¡¨ A young man said, ¡§the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want Psalm 23:1.¡¨ A middle age woman said, ¡§God is my refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1. Another woman said, ¡§In this world you shall have tribulations, but be of good cheer, I have overcome this world. John 16:33-35. Then old Mr. John who was 80 years old, with head of white hair and dark black skin, stood up and said with as much strength as he could muster, ¡§and it came to pass¡¨ 85 times in the bible. The class started to laugh a little thinking that old Mr. John¡¦s lack of memory was getting the best of him. When the snickering stopped, he said. At 30 I lost my job with six hungry mouths and a wife to feed. I didn¡¦t know how I would make it. At 40 my eldest son was killed overseas in the war. It knocked me down. At 50 my house burned to the ground. Nothing was saved out of the house. At 60 my wife of 40 years got cancer. It slowly ate away at her. We cried together many a night on our knees in prayer. At 65 she died. I still miss her today. The agony I went through in each of these situations was unbelievable. I wondered where was God. But each time I looked in the bible I saw one of those 85 verses that said, ¡§and it came to pass.¡¨ I felt that God was telling me, my pain and my circumstances were also going to pass and that God would get me through it.

So that we May See

April 3, 2011
Fourth Sunday of Lent
Year A
John 9:1-41
In Order that We May See


Introduction – how we treat people with disabilities

Imagine how different your life would be if you were born blind? What in your life would you have never witnessed, how would you talk to people different? Who is it that you would have to depend on to get things done? Who would you have to trust to get you places? How would you be a different person? How would life be different with any disability? In the past years, we as a society are being more intentional about how we integrate people who don’t fit our view of what is normal, but the reality is that we still have a long way to go in how we treat one another, the labels that we put on one another, and how we accept people for who they are, and not for who we expect them to be.

The blind man’s encounter with Jesus

The encounter with Jesus today is the only story in the bible of Jesus dealing with someone who is blind, and Jesus heals not only his blindness, but is able to restore his life – so that he is able to return to life without the stigma of having a disability. Some people are not even sure that this is the same beggar that they knew all of their life. He acted so differently, now that it appears that he had his sight.

John’s Jesus – The Son of God
This whole chapter has many important messages for us. We won’t be able to focus on them all this morning. I just want to bring you a few of them, that I thought were important. When you read the book of John, John has a special message about the nature of Jesus Christ for us. He wants to make it plain that Jesus is not only a special person; he is the son of God. Jesus has all of the attributes of God. He is a healer, a restorer, a guide, a leader, a transformer, a way maker. He is the one who can supply all of our needs. Jesus is the messiah – the fulfillment of the promises of God.

Jesus came so that we might have life and have it abundantly
But the only way to take advantage of the attributes of God is to believe in Jesus and to believe in what Jesus can do. Have you ever noticed that people who don’t believe in Jesus, tend to be people who don’t need Jesus for anything?

The only way to really know Jesus, and to know what Jesus can do for us is to have an encounter with Jesus in some way in our lives. We know who Jesus is, and what Jesus can do, by the story of what Jesus has done for us in our lives. In that encounter, we come to know Jesus, but Jesus also comes to define us.


Story of a teacher giving a student identity

A sixth grade English teacher, really seemed to love her subject and her class. She would have them sit in a circle so that she could see them, and she would teach them her subject in a way that seemed to make sense to them. James seemed to love her class. She had him write a play, and then had his classmates read the lines and perform the play. It was a great feeling for him to see others perform his work. He started to write other plays and other writings. One day after class, she told James that she saw him as a writer, and that she did all that she could to bring that quality out of him. James grew up and became a famous playwright- because a teacher believed in him, and treated him as she saw him. He responded by tailoring his lifestyle after those expectations.
Jesus does the same for us. We give Jesus his identity as the messiah, as our lord and savior. He gives us our identity as the faithful people.

The blind man makes a choice
The gospel lesson for this morning is not a story of a man being blind. It is the story of how Jesus saves him. How that man dealt with the consequences of being saved, how he made a conscious decision to be saved, to be healed. And how he endured when it became evident that was not going to be an easy choice. Being saved, is not just one moment in time in our lives, it is a lifetime of making difficult decisions.
Remember that show extreme makeover, where they would radically change the appearance of people. At the end of the show at the big reveal, problems that people had dealt with all of their life had been taken away. I think one of the reasons that show is not on the air anymore, was because they realized that changing someone’s appearance, was not enough to change their lives. Along with those lifelong problems, were also lifelong habits. If you did not rehabilitate those habits, that person would continue to be miserable.

Blind man chooses life
Being cured of blindness does not mean that you will automatically go on about your life. Someone who was born blind has no idea of how to use their sight. They will still bump into walls, and not be able to pick up things, because they have no idea of depth perception, or what colors are. They are seeing all of these contraptions, a telephone, a radio, a salt shaker. But they have no idea of what these things are, or what they are used for or how to use them. You start to see all of these strange people, who know who you are, but you have no idea of who they are.

The new life can be overwhelming enough to make someone want to go back to being blind. And yet the bible says that this man not only was happy to be able to see, he embraced his sight. He went on with his new life. Because that is what Jesus told him to do.

After the healing, Jesus goes away and is not a part of the story. And even more hardship comes about. People start to talk about him, his family is threatened, he is eventually kicked out of the synagogue. But he holds strong to the new life that Jesus gave him. Making sure that he won’t turn back. He makes a conscious choice that he will be a new man with a new life. Salvation is not a moment in time, it is a lifetime of choosing to follow Jesus.

Story of a driver choosing sin
A man looks back at his life, and recalls that when he learned to drive as a teenager, he felt that it was a waste of time to stop at stop lights. Whenever he would come to a stop light, if there were no cars around, then he would slow down for a moment, and just keep driving. He continued that habit for years. He got to be a pro at looking out for cars and going on. He even go to the point where he did not even slow down, he just checked for cars. Well as you can imagine, one day that habit was challenged. Anyone who drives, knows that there are times when you can check and double check, and there is always this car that appears out of nowhere. The car that appeared out of nowhere for this man just happened to be a police car. He was able to stop on time so that he would not get a ticket. He vowed from that time forward to give up that habit and to intentionally stop at all stop signs. It wasn’t the police car that scared him. It was his own actions. When he go to the stop life, his foot went for the gas pedal. It then went for the brakes. But no sooner had he hit the brake, that out of habit his foot automatically went for the gas pedal. He was so used to running the stoplight, that his body could do it without thinking. He realized that it was time for a change.
That is what a life of sin does to our bodies, our minds and our spirits. It takes over our lives. It takes less effort for us to do the wrong thing, that it is for us to stop and to think and do the right thing. The path of least resistance is the path of sin. The decision to stop, think and to endure is salvation. What is the path that Jesus leads us on. Jesus says I am the light of the world. To embrace the light is to choose to be a child of God. But most of the world still prefers to live in darkness. They don’t want to see, the want to remain blind.

Jesus is the light of the world
Jesus says I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind. Those who see may become blind, what does that mean. There are many in the world who want to keep things the way they are, who can’t accept the change of salvation. Because to be saved, means that they would have to change their habits, their beliefs, their lives. If Jesus was to truly come into their lives, it would take too much effort on their part to maintain their salvation. After all, the Pharisee considered themselves pretty faithful people. They too made a choice. But the choice wasn’t to follow Jesus. Are you calling us blind? Jesus comes back by saying if you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty of your sin. But since you say you can really see, then your sin remains. There are a lot of people who claim to live in the light, but still embrace the darkness. But what about you? Have you had an encounter with Jesus? Are you willing to accept that things will never be the same? Do you really want to see, or is it easier to stay blind?
We need Jesus in order to see
If you want to see the stars you use a telescope, of you want to see the small things of life you use a microscope, of you need to see your insides you uses a x ray machine, but if you want to see your sin and the way to salvation – you need Jesus in your life.

Who is Jesus for you? Let us pray….