Erl Purnell Sermon

aLent 4 ~ March 2, 2008 ~ A sermon preached by The Rev’d Erl G. Purnell at Old St. Andrew’s Church, Bloomfield, CT

1 Samuel 16.1-13; Psalm 23; Ephesians 5.8-14; John 9.1-41

Last Sunday, I went to the 8 o’clock service at Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach. This is one of the wealthiest parishes in the country. Their annual giving goal is $1.8M from 1,431 parishioners. To date, they have one gift of $50,000 and several between $25K and $50K. The physical plant is stunning, a beautiful stone church built in 1889 surrounded by a courtyard and other parish buildings. The Atlantic Ocean is a stone’s throw away, or as the folks from Palm Beach would say, it’s about a five iron shot to the big sand trap.

Believe me, though, that parish is not just about the money. They are extremely generous and outward looking. And, we at OSA are every bit as generous and faithful. It’s all about serving Christ in the world. Both Bethesda-by-the-Sea and OSA do much to live into the Gospel.

So, there I am with my friend Winston McKeller. Everything is familiar with our OSA worship: the opening acclamation, the collect, the Kyrie because it’s Lent, and the lessons. The lessons! Oh-my-gosh. The Gospel seemed like most of the first half of John’s Gospel. I couldn’t believe how long it was. I wish I had brought a sandwich. And today, it seems like we’ve heard the second half of that Gospel. What’s going on?

The answer is that we are now experiencing the Revised Common Lectionary which the Episcopal Church, in its wisdom, began using in Advent. This new lectionary has made some changes to the way we hear the Scriptures and last week and this are excellent examples of a few readings getting longer. That’s not the case universally. In any event, I’m not so sure this new lectionary is a such good idea. Seems like I should limit my sermon to about a minute and a half.

Because we just heard the whole of Chapter 9, there is much on which to chew. Two weeks ago, during our adult education time, I explained that the Gospels were written because individual communities of Jesus followers decided to preserve the several oral traditions which had arisen amidst them. I also said that the strife brought on by the Jewish uprising in 66 CE and the subsequent brutal Roman crack-down threatened the very existence of Judaism as well as its nascent off-shoot, the Christ-ian Jews who believed Jesus to be the long awaited Messiah. In other words, writing the Gospels ensured a continuation of the story that explained who Jesus was and the impact he had on those who experienced him.

In John’s community, probably in or near Ephesus between 100 and 110 CE, the struggle between the faithful synagogue Jews and the up-start Christ-ians was full-blown. The Christ-ians challenged the future of the synagogue and claimed the inheritance of Judaism. The established Jewish synagogue elite, however, would hardly stand for such an uprising.

And so, this pericope is included in the Gospel by way of justifying the actions of John’s people. That is, the community of John sees the light, where as the Pharisees are blind. John has Jesus say toward the end of the Chapter, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” John’s way of cracking the whip.

The Gospels are filled with images that explain who Jesus was to the writers. Those Gospel writers convey story but also connect Jesus to their religious heritage. For example, the line I just quoted about Jesus coming for judgment is an echo of the Book of Daniel. At the time, anybody hearing “I came into this world for judgment…” would immediately understand the prophecy of Daniel and associate Jesus with the coming Messiah dreamed in Daniel, that is, one who will come with judgment.

Clearly there is a question in John’s synagogue about who “sees” the truth of Jesus and who does not. John’s blind man from birth represents all those who have opened their eyes to Jesus. They experience his healing touch in their own lives. So, the once blind man stands in stark contrast to the elders who cannot accept the beggar’s sudden ability to see the light and who keep asking, “Then how were your eyes opened?”

Light and dark are humankind’s most common experiential images. In the darkness, we cannot see what’s right in front of us. Light brings reality into focus and the chance to move about freely in the world. John’s juxtaposition of light and dark—the man in the dark is actually the one who comes to see clearly—underscores the conflict in the synagogue.

Jesus is portrayed by the Pharisees as a sinner because he heals the blind beggar on the Sabbath. If a sinner, Jesus can only be up to no good. The beggar counters, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

So John paints the picture that those who speak the truth—like the blind beggar and the folks who know him—are not “heard” by the Pharisees. Not only are they discredited but the man’s parents are threatened with expulsion from worship if they don’t answer for their son. In other words, the lines are drawn in the community between those who continue to be committed to the synagogue and those speaking out about Jesus, those claiming to see the light of Christ. By extension, John indicts the traditionalists for neither seeing nor hearing Jesus.

The incredulous synagogue Jews refuse to understand what’s happened to the blind man. In terms of the Jesus experience, to know Jesus is to see, to be in the light as opposed to in darkness. For the traditionalists, this is all wrong, a sinful apostasy. John tells his community and posterity that those who see the light of Christ get driven out of the synagogue, portrayed by the newly sighted man who is driven away.

John, then, clinches his argument. Jesus returns to aid the beggar. Jesus asks, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The man answers, “And who is he sir?” Which, to John and his fellow Christ-ians, is the ultimate question. Who is the Son of Man? John pens Jesus’ clever response, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.”

For the community of Christ-ian Jews who have been kicked out of the synagogue (like the blind beggar), there is nothing more reassuring than Jesus telling them HE is the Son of Man, that is, HE is the one who will come with judgment. John ends by skewering the Pharisees with one final stab, saying, it is they who are the sinners for not recognizing the presence of God among them in the form of Jesus. Can’t you just imagine what a food fight in the synagogue this must have been?

Exegesis, like this, that places the Gospels in an historical context so the meaning of the writer can be more fully understood, is challenging. It’s also good for us. To appreciate the brilliance of the gospellers, sometimes we need to dig deep. John’s community were fighting to remain inside the synagogue. They saw themselves as the inheritors of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The theology of Christ, however, was rebuffed and they were expelled. They lost the battle. The blow must have been horrific.

This chapter tells of that epic struggle by placing John’s community’s very real experience in 100 or 110 CE back in the days of Jesus where he could act on their behalf ... through the miracle of giving sight to the blind beggar and by placing the Pharisees, who represent the elite in John’s time, in the dark. In the end, it is those who seemingly do not see, who do see, and those who supposedly see, the traditionalists, who become blind.

Amen.