{"id":1323,"date":"2014-03-30T13:35:26","date_gmt":"2014-03-30T17:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1323"},"modified":"2014-03-30T13:35:26","modified_gmt":"2014-03-30T17:35:26","slug":"homily-4th-sunday-in-lent-year-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/homily-4th-sunday-in-lent-year-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Homily – 4th Sunday in Lent, Year A"},"content":{"rendered":"

4th<\/sup> Sunday in Lent, Year A<\/a>
\n1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a
\nEphesians 5:8-14
\nJohn 9:1-41
\nMarch 30, 2014<\/p>\n

Jesus encounters a man born <\/i>blind.\u00a0 The fact that he was born this way is important.\u00a0 If he had become blind, maybe there was an illness that went away on its own.\u00a0 The fact he was born this way makes it clear the healing is a miracle.<\/p>\n

The fact that Jesus restores the man\u2019s physical sight is no small thing but the fact that the passage begins with Jesus\u2019 disciples asking why the man was born blind should alert us to the fact that the passage is not simply about physical sight.<\/p>\n

The disciples would see his blindness as evidence that either he or his parents had sinned but Jesus says that is not how God sees it.<\/p>\n

This is not the first lesson that the Bible offers on \u201cseeing as God sees.\u201d\u00a0 Our passage about Samuel and the anointing of David makes that clear.<\/p>\n

Samuel is sent by God to anoint a new king to succeed Saul.\u00a0 As Jesse brings his sons to Samuel, Samuel is sure that Eliab must be the one based on his physical appearance.\u00a0 God immediately says no, he is not the one.\u00a0 God tells Samuel not to just based on appearance or stature for \u201cnot as man sees does God see\u2026but the Lord looks into the heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is David that God has chosen to succeed Saul.\u00a0 David is a \u201cyouth handsome\u201d with a \u201csplendid appearance\u201d but God chooses him for what is in his heart.<\/p>\n

Turning back to the man born blind, early in the passage his physical sight is restored but as the story continues he comes to see who Jesus really is.\u00a0 At the end it is the Pharisees who are blind.<\/p>\n

The man accepts the healing of his physical sight without question.\u00a0 He knows he can see.\u00a0 Everyone else begins to question it.\u00a0 Is he really the man born blind?\u00a0 How was this done?\u00a0 Who did it?<\/p>\n

So the people take him to the Pharisees.\u00a0 When they hear that the man has been healed, their first reaction is to claim that Jesus cannot be from God because he does this on the Sabbath.\u00a0 They are blind to the fact that Jesus\u2019 healing proves he is from God because they are spiritually blind.<\/p>\n

When they question the man about who Jesus is, he responds \u201cHe is a prophet.\u201d\u00a0 Clearly, he is coming <\/i>(but not there yet) to faith to know who Jesus is.<\/p>\n

Next, the Jews try to dispute that the miracle happened, claiming this isn\u2019t really the man born blind.\u00a0 His identity and blindness is confirmed by his parents.<\/p>\n

They continue to question the man, identifying Jesus as a sinner, but it is the man who says to them, how can Jesus be a sinner because God is obviously working miracles through him and God doesn\u2019t listen to sinners.<\/p>\n

At the end, Jesus finds the man born blind and the man comes to see that Jesus is the Son of Man.\u00a0 He sees Jesus as God sees Jesus.<\/p>\n

How well do you see?\u00a0 I don\u2019t ask this about your physical eyesight.\u00a0 I can tell that some of you need glasses.\u00a0 I know some of you are wearing contacts.\u00a0 But physical eyesight is not what is most important.<\/p>\n

How is your spiritual eyesight?<\/p>\n

Do you judge based on outward appearance or do you look into the heart?<\/p>\n

How do you look at suffering and illness? \u00a0Do you see only the physical illness or do you see God\u2019s presence in the midst of the suffering?<\/p>\n

Think about what this week will bring for you?\u00a0 Does this bring to mind tasks <\/i>that you must get done this week or do you think about what you might use what you will do this week to make the world a better place, making God\u2019s kingdom known?<\/p>\n

When you look at the person standing on the corner with a sign asking for help, do you see a \u201cbum\u201d or do you see a \u201cchild of God?\u201d<\/p>\n

When you see a crying child do you see a disobedient and disrespectful child or do see the love of God in the child\u2019s heart?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4th Sunday in Lent, Year A 1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a Ephesians 5:8-14 John 9:1-41 March 30, 2014 Jesus encounters a man born blind.\u00a0 The fact that he was born this way is important.\u00a0 If he had become blind, maybe there was an illness that went away on its own.\u00a0 The fact he was born …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Homily – 4th Sunday in Lent, Year A’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-ll","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1324,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323\/revisions\/1324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}