Sunday, March 22, 2020

4^th Sunday in Lent

The Revised Common Lectionary passages for the Lord’s Day are:

First Reading: I Samuel 16:1-13
Psalm 23
Second Reading: Ephesians 5:8-14
Gospel Reading: John 9:1-41

The liturgical color for the day is: Purple

For a large part of the story Jesus is not there.  The man holds to his experience of Jesus throughout the entire chapter.  Jesus being out of sight does not throw him off.  He has more than physical sight—he has true vision.  He has sight and insight too.

This is our story.  We live in a moment when it seems Jesus is out of sight.  We live in what feels more like a blind spot.  And the real question, the hard question, the deep question is: How will we live in the times when we cannot see Jesus?  Or how will we do this when it seems we can’t see Jesus in this—especially when its even increasingly impossible for us to be in the same room with each other.

How will we live in these coronavirus times, whether they be moments, or days, or weeks, or months, or longer?  What will we do?  How will we be?

It was not an option issue.  It was not up for discussion.   If I was eventually going to take that 1975 Impala on the road myself, I would drive as I was taught.  I would not only look in the mirrors, but I would also turn my head and look too because there is a blind spot.

Those two clear instructions stand out now too.  Thanks Mom for those clear instructions—“turn” and “look.”  Turn.  Look.

Yes, turn and look, because even in the blind spot—even in this place and this strange moment turn and look and see the whole story.  See the whole view—and do not miss what is there.

Do not miss it that this is the God who chooses the unexpected and uses the unexpected ones for God’s glory.  We are David in this age—we do not expect to get picked.  God picks us.  God picks us; we are God’s choice over and over again.  Anointed.  Called.  Appointed.  Healed. 

Turn and look and see the story…it is our story that even in this place where Jesus may feel out of sight to us there is the cross.  There is the cross and we are to know what happens there.  Just at the time when it seems all is lost, and death has consumed—just in that very moment God has the final answer, and that answer is always an eternal “Yes” to our existence. 

Turn and look—turn and look and see that in your life, and in my life, and in our life together in all of these blind spots that we have faced, oh, God’s love is seen in all of them as that healing and that anointing which sustains us.

Dr. Rev. Daris Bultena
General Presbyter and Stated Clerk