March 19, 2023
“Who Sinned? When Questions Get in the Way”
Sermon by Rev. Trip Porch
March 19, 20223 Based on John 9:1-41
We just read over 40 verses of scripture.
I feel like I need to apologize to you all on behalf of the Revised Common Lectionary for this.
Especially because the core of our story today, the healing of this person who was born blind takes place in only seven verses.
Jesus and the disciples are walking down the street when they see someone who was born blind, who has never had sight in his life. He makes a mud to put on his eyes and tells him to wash in a particular pond, the man goes and washes and is healed. That’s it. That’s the core action of this chapter.
The rest of the chapter that we read… more than 30 verses, is the ripple effect of this healing story. All of the back and forth discourse caused by Jesus’ short little seven verse healing. The rest of the chapter is spent on all of the questions that surface because of this objectively good thing that happens. Who did this? Jesus? What makes him think he can do God’s work? And on the sabbath no less? How did he do this? How is this possible? And how can someone do God’s work if they break God’s laws? And are we sure this man was born blind in the first place? If he was born blind, then who is at fault for this blindness? Who sinned? Who can we blame?
And it’s not just the disciples who are asking questions. This man’s community is asking questions, the people who’ve known him his whole life. His friends, his family, the faith leaders who have watched him grow, I mean they even call this man’s parents in for questioning… Are you sure this is your son? How do you think this happened?
The debates that surface from this small 7 verse act wind up making people so angry that they bring this man in for inquisition, demand that he describe everything that happened in detail. The man tells him he doesn’t understand either that all he knows is he was blind but now he sees. And then when it still doesn’t make sense to them, when their endless questioning yields no answers, they choose to kick him out. To remove him from the community he’s known his whole life to exile him.
We have been doing this series on questions of faith, and why questions are so essential to developing a deeper faith, to see things more clearly. Questions and critical thought are absolutely essential to faith and belief we should question and doubt and explore as part of our faith, its essential to growth and maturity and I think it truly helps our faith become more meaningful… But sometimes our questions can get in the way. Sometimes our questions add unnecessary complication that keep us from action, that keep us from doing what matters in this world. Sometimes our questions can leave us blind. Totally unable to see the part we all have to play to bring about good in this world.
Now, I’ll admit this is hard territory for me as someone who prides himself on being on being a thinking Christian, as being a person of faith with a critical eye. Faith for us armchair theologians is often a philosophical or intellectual practice. That is our home, our wheelhouse, our safe space. Give me a coffee shop and some theological sparring partners and I am set for life.
But I hear a story like this, and it is almost as if Jesus is calling me out, pointing out how this way of faith has led to my own inactivity. It’s almost as if he’s showing me how faith is not supposed to be something that ends in your head but moves throughout your body and ends by inspiring your actions in this world.
How we are supposed to wonder and explore and question but that faith is supposed to change our behavior and lead to us changing the world. Especially when there is someone in need. We aren’t supposed to think about anything, we are supposed to do as he would do. To be Christ’s hands and feet in this world. It’s like he’s reminding me of the words that were written later in the book of James…
“What good is it if people say they have faith but do nothing to show it? Claiming to have faith can’t save anyone, can it? Imagine a brother or sister who is naked and never has enough food to eat. What if one of you said, “Go in peace sister! Stay warm and be fed”? What good is it if you don’t actually give them what their body needs? In the same way, faith without works… faith without action is dead.” [James 2:17-19]
In all of the questioning and wondering that there is in this story there is only one person who gets it right. Who is able to connect all the dots. There is only one person who sees this man not as some philosophical exercise but as a human with wants and needs. A person who was born with a condition that has separated him from his community and led to his suffering. Jesus is the only person who sees this man and doesn’t ask a single question about him but immediately moves in to help him.
At the end of the story, Jesus hears this community has kicked out this man who used to be blind. And in what seems like full view of the pharisees he declares what this whole story is about: "I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and so that those who have made a great pretense of being able to see will be exposed as blind.”
Its brilliant word play that Jesus uses as a teaching moment… for all the other folks who have missed the point. He is trying to show just how blind they all have been. How they have utterly missed the mark.
How they have missed this person who has always been right in front them all along, this beloved child of God who they have always been blind to… who they have overlooked and seen as other, as incapable, as “less than.” And not only have they not seen him, they have not seen all the ways they could have done something themselves to improve his condition, to make his life better but also their own by welcoming him fully into the life of their community. Jesus calls everyone else blind except the one person they have all called blind his whole life, who for the first time is seeing things clearly.
The last question in our story comes from the pharisees who ask… “Surely we aren’t blind… are we?”
I find myself leaving this story with the same question. And I think that’s Jesus’ goal. He wants us to consider how we have been blind to God’s way in this world. To ask ourselves…“what am I missing? Who is right in front of me that I’m not seeing?
Is there some healing that could happen if only I were able to set aside my questions? What different could be made if I could see as Jesus does, if could act as Jesus does.
This is a story that is designed to get us out of our heads and into relationship with community. To see how we might begin to make a difference. To serve without overthinking it.
Now that Christ’s light has come into this world to illumine all dark places… May we begin to see clearly and may we not stop to think but with his compassionate mercy, and with his justice may we serve.
Amen
WE GATHER IN AWE AND PRAISE
PRELUDE
*INTROIT “Kyrie” Orthodox Traditional
Lord have mercy upon us. WELCOME Rev. Trip Porch
*CALL TO WORSHIP Peter Maurath
One: Scripture is full of questions...
All: “Where are you?”
One: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
All: “Whom shall I send?”
One: “Who do you say that I am?”
All: “Who sinned?”
One: “How many times shall I forgive?”
All: “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
One: Scripture is full of questions, so just like those in our scriptures, may we bring our full curiosity and wonder into this space.
All: Let us ask and seek after our merciful God.
*GATHERING SONG “We Seek You With Our Questions Lord” KINGSFOLD
You seek us with your questions, God,
inviting us to dare
to know you and to love you more,
to grow through act and prayer.
“Who will you trust and follow now?
My truth is all around.”
You seek us with your questions, God,
you seek and we are found.
*PRAYER OF CONFESSION AND WORDS OF FORGIVENESS
One: Who here has sinned?
All: We have sinned. We put our heads in the sand. We ignored people in need.
We make false assumptions and fail to be kind. We are in need of forgiveness.
One: Good news! Our God is a merciful God. God does not punish, hold grudges, or
keep score. When you suffer, God weeps. When you sin, God forgives. When you lose your way, God comes running.
All: Thanks be to God for a love like that. Have you sinned?
One: I have sinned. I put my head in the sand. I ignore people in need. I make false assumptions and fail to be kind. I,
too, am in need of forgiveness.
All: Good news! Our God is a merciful God. God does not punish, hold grudges, or keep score.
When you suffer, God weeps. When you sin, God forgives.
When you lose your way, God comes running.
One: Thanks be to God for a love like that. Amen.
*RESPONSE OF PRAISE #469 “Lord, Listen to Your Children” CHILDREN PRAYING
*PASSING OF THE PEACE
One: The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all,
All: And also with you.
WE LISTEN FOR GOD’S WORD
ANTHEM “How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place” Daniel Kallman
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
SCRIPTURE John 9:1–41 MSG
Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?”
Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light.”
He said this and then spit in the dust, made a clay paste with the saliva, rubbed the paste on the blind man’s eyes, and said, “Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam.” The man went and washed—and saw.
Soon the town was buzzing. His relatives and those who year after year had seen him as a blind man begging were saying, “Why, isn’t this the man we knew, who sat here and begged?”
Others said, “It’s him all right!”
But others objected, “It’s not the same man at all. It just looks like him.”
He said, “It’s me, the very one.”
They said, “How did your eyes get opened?”
“A man named Jesus made a paste and rubbed it on my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’
I did what he said. When I washed, I saw.”
“So where is he?” “I don’t know.”
They marched the man to the Pharisees. This day when Jesus made the paste and healed his blindness was the Sabbath. The Pharisees grilled him again on how he had come to see. He said, “He put a clay paste on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see.”
Some of the Pharisees said, “Obviously, this man Jesus can’t be from God. He doesn’t keep the Sabbath.”
Others countered, “How can a bad man do miraculous, God-revealing things like this?” There was a split in their ranks.
The man replied, “This is amazing! You claim to know nothing about him, but the fact is, he opened my eyes! It’s well known that God isn’t at the beck and call of sinners, but listens carefully to anyone who lives in reverence and does his will. That someone opened the eyes of a man born blind has never been heard of—ever. If this man didn’t come from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
They said, “You’re nothing but dirt! How dare you take that tone with us!”
Then they threw him out in the street.
Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and went and found him. He asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
The man said, “Point him out to me, sir, so that I can believe in him.”
Jesus said, “You’re looking right at him. Don’t you recognize my voice?”
“Master, I believe,” the man said, and worshiped him.
Jesus then said, “I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind.”
Some Pharisees overheard him and said, “Does that mean you’re calling us blind?”
Jesus said, “If you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you’re accountable for every fault and failure.”
One: Holy Wisdom, Holy Word
All: Thanks be to God
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE Mary Rebekah Fortman
SERMON “Who Sinned?” Rev. Trip Porch
*HYMN “A Man Who Could Not See” LEONI
A man who could not see received the gift of sight;
O Lord, you spoke and he believed and saw the light.
His joy was greater still than sight that was restored;
He saw, when you had made him well, that you are Lord.
Some leaders were distressed and said it was a sin,
For it was on the day of rest that you healed him.
They could not see the grace or know how much God cares;
The lack of vision in that place was truly theirs.
O Christ, you are the light to all who follow you;
You give to us the gift of sight — a new world-view.
When culture hems us in with values that destroy,
Lord, help your church to see again your kingdom's joy.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE followed by the alternative Lord’s Prayer from
The New Zealand Book of Prayer | He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa
Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:
The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and for ever.
Amen.
TIME OF OFFERING
*OFFERTORY RESPONSE #698 “Take, O Take Me as I Am” TAKE ME AS I AM
Take, O take me as I am;
summon out what I shall be;
set your seal upon my heart and live in me.
*PRAYER OF DEDICATION
Holy God, Thank you for the myriad gifts you offer to us which reveal your love. Thank you for the ways you encourage us to be creative and generous with the treasures and the time which is ours. Please accept the gifts shared today and help us use them to enact your Good News which is right before this congregation, our community, and your whole creation. AMEN
*HYMN NO.817 “We Walk By Faith” DUNLAP'S CREEK
TIME OF COMMUNITY SHARING
Moment for Mission One Great Hour of Sharing Peter Maurath
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
BENEDICTION RESPONSE “Christ, We Do All Adore Thee” Theodore Dubois
POSTLUDE
Acknowledgments: Unless otherwise indicated, all texts and music are printed and broadcast under OneLicense.net license #A-702452
Liturgy by Rev. Sarah A. Speed | A Sanctified Art LLC | sanctifiedart.org.
PRAYER MINISTRY
For 3/19/2023
Please remember in prayer the following members and friends
Church Family
Arthur Lee
Relatives & Friends
John George- FIL Greg Hitzhusen
Joanie Bradt – niece of Ginger Haack
Family of Sue Hatch who passed away last week
WORSHIP & MUSIC LEADERS
Pastor - Rev. Trip Porch Chancel Choir Liturgist – Peter Maurath Director of Music – Christopher Dent Children’s Message – Mary Rebekah Fortman Assoc. Director of Music – Ariel Alvarado Guest Keyboardist – Emily Foster