A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent
The Rev. Patricia Gillespie

1 Samuel 16:1-13
Ephesians 5:(1-7)8-14
John 9:1-13(14-27)28-38
Psalm 23

I know someone who was born blind. She lives at my house. She's six years old and she's never seen anything. She can't even tell dark from light

Maybe it's not as bad a problem for her as it would be for me, because she's a raccoon. Raccoons are night time animals, born to live in the dark, and they rely on smelling and hearing and touching as much or more than seeing. Without seeing anything, Tippet the raccoon can find her food and catch the cats and dogs just fine. But it's still true that if she had to live outside instead of at my house, she would have died long ago.

So still, I want to ask the same questions the disciples do in the gospel: "Why?" It doesn't seem fair. Why was Tippet born without any eyes, when all her little raccoon brothers and sisters were born just fine?

About the man born blind the disciples are pretty clear: They are sure that he was born blind because someone sinned. They just want to know if it was the man himself or his parents who sinned.

I'm not sure I like Jesus's response much better than the disciples' question. While it's a bit of a relief to hear that no one's sin made the man blind, to hear that the poor guy was born blind just so that God's works can be revealed in him doesn't seem fair either. I might as well say that Tippet the raccoon was born without eyes just so I could use her in a sermon.

What kind of God makes something bad happen to an innocent person or animal just to teach us something?

It seems more likely that what's going on here is that when something bad happens, God can use even that for something good. Our world is not perfect. It is true that sometimes bad things happen because people made bad choices – we choose to sin. But I think it's also true that sometimes bad things ‘just happen.' Innocent babies are born with big problems. Horrible accidents that are no one's fault seem to just happen.

Yet all of us have known times when some really wonderful and good things followed those ‘bad things.' Whether the bad things just happen or whether they are clearly a result of someone's sin, God somehow turns the bad news into a blessing.

An innocent Jewish rabbi is killed and the world is given hope for new life.

It doesn't mean that God caused the bad stuff in order to bless us. The words in today's gospel are translated: "He was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him" I wonder if the real sense of today's gospel might be more like: "He was born blind AND so God's works might be revealed in him"

And Jesus does use the man's blindness to show something about God. The man who was blind lived in darkness. The Jesus comes along and his eyes are opened to the light.

And here is where the disciples connecting sin and blindness makes sense. Blindness and darkness feel very much like living in a sinful world. In the dark, we stumble around and make mistakes. When we can't see, we get hurt and we hurt others. If we are blind and in the dark (unless maybe we are raccoons) We have trouble finding what we need to live.

Jesus is saying that when he comes into our lives, things change. Like the man who used to be blind, we can see that Jesus is not just a prophet but also the "Light of the World" and the "Son of Man" which means he is the one who will save us. Jesus turns the darkness of our hurts and mistakes into the light, then we can see what we need to live: We need Jesus and recognizing that allows us to "work the works" of God who sent Jesus to us.

In the story of the man born blind something more changes. It is not just that he who was blind now can see. It is that when he sees who Jesus really is, he believes and he worships him.

Not only has he seen the "Light of the World" but he is, in the words of our second reading, able to "live as a child of light." In that Letter to the Ephesians, it doesn't say that ‘you were IN darkness' or ‘you are IN light' but that you ARE either darkness or light.

When we come out of the dark places of our lives and see Jesus and live as children of light, we then become light. "For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light." We are the light of the world.

We, just like that man born blind, were born into a sinful and hurtful world. It is so easy to be distracted in the darkness and to spend our time like the disciples and the pharisees trying to figure out "Who sinned?" and always asking "Why are all these bad things happening?" But in this same world there are children of light. People, like the man born blind, who can open our blind eyes to see God.

Oh, it's not that there are some perfect children of the light, who have absolutely certain faith and every moment worship Jesus, so they can whip off the blindfolds off the rest of us sinners. None of us in this world have perfect vision. None of us live entirely in the light. Yet I'd guess that every one of us here today has, at some time, had a glimpse of that light. We have each, if only briefly, seen something so good, so beautiful so holy, that our lives were changed.

And that makes us the light of the world. We, like the man born blind, can tell others about the light and let that light shine. When you meet someone living in painful darkness or lonely shadows, you have the light that can open their eyes to God's love. And when sometimes you yourself are walking in the valley of the shadow of death, perhaps the person next to you in the pew today will let their light shine for you. We are the light of the world, given to each other to light the journey for each other.

God only knows when someday because of your light someone living in darkness like the Pharisees may have their eyes opened and also become Jesus's disciple.

Now, in the Lord you ARE light. Live as children of light.