Preacher's Post 6.0

Submitted by Executive Direc... on February 27, 2008 - 12:44am.

The Word: Fourth Sunday in Lent

1 Samuel 16:1-13
Psalm 23
Ephesians 5:8-14
John 9:1-41

Anointing David to be king, a man born blind, the Light of the world

Quotable Words:

“…for we are not only in the dark, but we are also stark blind…” ~ John Calvin

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr

“In a way the blind man "met Jesus for the first time." ~ Marcus Borg

“All human eyes have longing in them.” ~ Ernesto Cardenal

Preached Words:

From a sermon by Sarah Dylan Breuer, a great preacher, at SarahLaughed

“It's sensible enough: start with the idea that God is just, compassionate, and in control. Then take a look around you. There's a lot of suffering there. Think about why people suffer. There's got to be a reason for all that darkness, right?
In Jesus' culture, people thought of light as a STUFF, a substance that radiated out from itself, a kind of fire that, when present in the human body, could flow out of a person's eyes and allow them to see (props to the Social Science Commentary on John for that). Someone who couldn't see just didn't have the stuff in them; their body had darkness in it instead of light. Makes a certain kind of sense.

And how did they get that way? Surely God didn't make them like that. Had to be sin.

What if the person in question was born that way, born full of darkness? What do we do with that? Do we blame the parents? Do we blame the blind person (some people in Jesus' culture, and probably in our own, thought that in some way it was possible for a fetus to sin in the womb)?

Jesus answers that very important question of what we should do when we see human suffering that challenges the conventional ways we talk about God's goodness and the goodness of the world that God made. I think in some ways that Jesus' answer could be summarized as this:

Get back to work..."
(continued at www.Sarahlaughed.net)

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