Reflection on John 9:1-41

What a week.  What a week! 

As several people have said, “This week has been the longest month ever!” 

As you are all well aware, we have this virus spreading across the world that is acting like the class bully, picking only on the weakest of us.  So, in order to protect the weakest of us (the elderly and the health compromised) we have all decided to rise up together…I mean sit on the couch together…I mean sit on the couch at least 10 feet apart so that the virus cannot spread and hurt those we love. 

But, that is the rub right there, because it is already hurting the ones we love.  We cannot visit grandma in the personal care home, the children cannot go to school and see their friends, parents had to learn how to be teachers in under 24 hours when teachers get at least four years of training, employees have been let go from jobs temporarily, hospitals are fearful of what is to come with dwindling supplies, small business owners have been forced to shut down, money is tight, senior classes do not know if they will get to finish out the year…or have a prom, we are all quarantined to our homes, and on top of it all, we ran out of toilet paper…and bread…and flour…and yeast…and inexplicably I could not find toothpicks.  I mean, how many toothpicks do you need to test bread anyway?  Seriously. 

I would love to tell a joke to make it all a little better for you, but unfortunately, due to the quarantine I will only be telling inside jokes.

I have kept it light because some of this stuff is quite serious in reality.  People have lost loved ones.  A local family lost their home in a fire.  And, someone who is close to our family is fighting for his life in a hospital because a tree hit his head while it was being cut down.  On top of it, his wife cannot go into the room to hold his hand because of the prevalence of COVID-19.  She cannot even stay in the hospital for fear that she will contract the little ball of doom. 

Like I said, “This week has been the longest month ever.”

And, it all makes you wonder, “Why?” 

Why all the struggle? 

Why is this virus spreading? 

Is it punishment from God? 

Did God decide that He was going to knock off Grandpa because of the immorality of people three countries down the road and across the sea? 

Why is this happening?

The disciples ask this very question as they take a stroll down the street with Jesus.  They see a blind man and ask Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” because there must be a reason that the guy is blind.  I mean, it is not like eyes just fail to work on their own.  It is not like reading glasses are common after age 43…wait a second.

But, the questions do not stop there, even after the blind man is healed by Jesus.  People want to know, “How were you healed?” 

“Who healed you?” 

“Where is the guy that healed you?” 

“Where are your parents?” 

“How is it that he sees?” 

“How can a sinner heal someone?” 

And, in all of the questions that start piling up on one another just as a football team piles a huge mound of human flesh on the one who caught the interception, someone is lost in it all. 

The piling on happens today too as people question the integrity of the scientists, and the integrity of political figures, and the integrity of the data, and in all of the questions something gets lost.  Or, more to the point, someone gets lost.

Under the pile of the questions, the blind guy gets lost.  He is looked at and talked about, but he is not ever truly seen or talked to…not in any significant way anyway.  He is the football player at the bottom of the pile.  He is the poor guy on the side of the road.  He is the needle in the haystack that no one ever bothered to find because it is just a needle after-all.

In all of the questions and ponderings, the actual man is lost in the shuffle.  In fact, he is driven out of the city as the people continue to question and conspire, their voices trailing away as the guy leaves civilization.  He is now the quarantined guy.

But, he can see.  At least there is that.  At least one person took note for a brief moment in time, truly saw him, did not ask “Why?” or talk about him, but instead looked him in the eye, took the time to create a healing mud, put it in his eyes, and now he can see.  At least he can see! 

Unfortunately, there is no one around any longer to look at, now that he has been thrown out of town and all.  What is the use of seeing if you are invisible?

But, it is not true.  He is not invisible.  Jesus sees him on the edge of town, alone. 

Jesus approaches slowly and asks, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" 

The man answers, "And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him." 

Jesus looks him in the eye and says to him, "You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he."

The man is not forgotten. 

The man who can now see, is the man who is seen by God.

God sees you too, you know.  I know life has been a lot, but you are not lost among the questions and quarantines.  You are seen.  You are seen by Jesus. 

And, I do not know how exactly Jesus is going to bring healing to all this mess.  I do not know how he is going to bring healing to you.  But, what I do know is that Jesus can take some dirt, make some mud out of it, put it in a blind man’s eyes, and that guy can see.  That guy is healed. 

And, if Jesus can take some plain old dirt and do that, then he probably knows how to heal your situation too.  Because, you are seen.  You are known.  Jesus does not get caught up in the questions and distractions.  He cannot.  You belong to him.

Reflection on John 4:5-42

“The woman left her water jar.” 

Did you notice that?  It seems like such a small detail, but sometimes it is in the small details where we find the greatest significance. 

After her encounter with Jesus, the woman left her water jar.  How could she do that?  How could she forget to take what is probably one of the single most important items in the household?  She forgets to take the water jar that will provide the water for the day at her house.  You don’t just forget that. 

That is like needing to buy a new refrigerator before your food spoils, going up to Lowe’s to buy it, and forgetting to load it in the truck before you head out.  You do not just forget the one thing from the house that will make certain that you live!  But, this woman did. 

“The woman left her water jar.” 

There is something about Jesus that has affected her deeply.

Maybe, it has something to do with the fact that he catches the eye of a woman at the well and engages the woman in conversation.  After-all, everyone knows that a man, plus a woman, plus a well in the ancient world equals romance. 

Think of your old testament stories.  Where do romantic relationships start nearly each and every time?  Where does Jacob’s romance story begin, the man to whom this well belongs?  You got it: a well.  The well is where the women are.  And, if a man strolls up to the well, looks at a woman, and asks for a drink, we can safely say that the man is interested.

The twist in this story is that Jesus is a Jew and he starts this romantic scene by asking a Samaritan woman for a drink.  Jews would never seek the attention of their hated enemies, the Samaritans.  They would never even touch the same drinking ladle.  The Samaritan woman knows it too.  She questions Jesus’ intentions right away.

In the end, Jesus is not seeking romance with the woman, but he is intensely interested in her.  It is almost as if he knows her.  It is almost as if she is one of his own.  It is almost as if he cares.  It is almost as if he has a stream of water that flows down from heaven, seeks the lowest points, finds all of the hidden cracks, and fills them in with heavenly grace.  How could that be?

"If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, "Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." Jesus says.

The woman, still keeping her distance from this man, states the obvious to Jesus, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?  Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?"

Jesus is undeterred by the woman’s attempts to push away.  Jesus understands the need to push away.  Jesus understands the pains of the past.  Jesus understands the times that love has hurt rather than heal.  Jesus understands.  Just because we push away, does not mean we are forgotten. 

Jesus continues to draw ever near saying, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life."

The woman will respond with one more attempt to push away; one more attempt to shield herself; one more attempt to stay hidden in a world that, in the end, does not care anyway.

Throwing a bit of humor Jesus’ way woman quips, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."  You have to realize, getting the water daily was the bane of women’s existence in the ancient world.  It was a task loved as much as doing the laundry is today.

And, it is at the point in the story where the turning point comes.  Right here in the story is where Jesus shows his cards.  Right here is where Jesus takes a step closer to the truth.  Here is where Jesus steps into the woman’s pain. 

Jesus said, "Go, call your husband, and come back."

The woman, startled, answered him, "I have no husband."

Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, "I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!"

Jesus knows her.  He knows all about her.  He knows about the pain of her broken and lost relationships.  Whether she has lost her husbands tragically to death or divisively through divorce we do not know, but Jesus knows.  He knows it all.  He knows how broken she is. 

And, that is precisely what makes the beginning of the story so remarkable. This man, knowing her pain and brokenness, knowing it all, chose to stop and talk to her.  He talked to her, in the intimate setting of a well no doubt!  He intentionally invited himself into her life…her broken, heated, Samaritan woman life. 

Jesus is water.  Jesus is a stream of water that flows to the lowest point, finding you in all your brokenness.  Jesus is living water that surrounds you, wrapping watery arms around, and encasing you in heavenly grace.  He is the water that finds you, no matter how low you go, no matter how deep the cracks, no matter how much you try to hide. 

That is the way of God’s grace.  God’s grace is water that flows down, envelops you, and springs up again in an enormous gush to eternal life.

There is no need to worship on a mountain or in the holy city in order to find God.  If God is water, then God will come down off of the mountain like melting now in the spring, or will run out of the temple, flowing under the cracks of the doors and flowing down the streets to find you.  Grace is an action of God that moves outward without your invitation. 

That is why it is grace.  It comes without any work or invitation on our part.  It is a gift of God that simply shows up at the well and shows interest even in the most uninteresting of people.

Jesus said to the woman, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you."  There it is.  There is the holy “I am.”  It is the name spoken to Moses at the burning bush.  “I am.”  It is the most holy of God’s names.  “I am.”  It is who God is, “I am.”  “I am” he.  God is with her. 

God is with you.

No matter how broken, God is with you. 

No matter how messed up, God is with you. 

No matter how much you try to push away any notion that someone cares, God shows up. 

No matter how much love has ruined you, grace floods your soul and fills you up with springs of living water; water that heals and forgives and gives you life.

Lord, give us this water always!

So, why did the woman leave behind her water jars?  Why did she forget these essential items of daily life?  Maybe it is because she found something of even more worth; Jesus Christ our Lord.

Reflection on John 3:1-17

The beginning of the gospel of John declares, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” 

The light is, indeed, shining in the darkness as the old man, Nicodemus slowly works his way through the darkness to seek out Jesus, the light.  He has questions for Jesus, questions that could only be asked in the dark.  You see, Nicodemus has heard of the amazing signs that Jesus has done.  He knows that God has started something new, and he has questions.  He peers out of the darkness, looking at Jesus for an answer. 

Jesus looks into the shadows and shares the light; he shares the truth with Nicodemus.  Jesus tells him that you cannot see God’s new kingdom…you cannot understand what God is up to…unless you are reborn, or born again, or born from above. 

Still sitting in the shadows, Nicodemus asks, "How can anyone be born after having grown old?”

And, there it is.  There is the heart of his dilemma.  The signs and wonders that Jesus is bringing into the world on behalf of God is something new, something beyond his understanding.  And he, Nicodemus, has grown old. 

How can you start over after having grown old?  How can you scrap what you have come to know after years and start all over again?  Jesus, “how can anyone be born after having grown old?” 

Jesus and Nicodemus banter back and forth lightheartedly about grown men exiting their mother’s wombs, but the real issue has been exposed.  Nicodemus is old.  God is doing something new in Jesus.  Is Nicodemus too old to start all over again?  Maybe, he is too tired.

Nicodemus is not the first person to be urged by the Spirit of God to do something new, not by a long shot.  Abram was the son of a powerful war lord who was wealthy, who controlled a vast amount of land, and who had soldiers under his control.  All of this wealth and power would be Abram’s. 

Yet, the Spirit of God blows like the wind and does what it wants.  The Spirit of God goes where it chooses.  It chose to fall of Abram.  The Spirit of God encouraged him to leave his home and leave his kindred.  Abram was encouraged to leave everything and everyone…to leave the safety of all he had grown to trust…in order to follow a relatively unknown God into unknown regions of the world…unknown to him anyway.  The Spirit of God was encouraging him to do something new. 

Can you imagine the enormity of what God is asking of Abram?  Can you imagine leaving everything you have ever known and striking out on a life that is completely new?  For some inexplicable reason, Abram chooses to try this crazy plan. 

We do not know why Abram does it, but we do know why God does it.  God wants to bless the entire world through Abram and his descendants.  God does it because God desires to bless the world.

That desire should sound awfully familiar.  Jumping back to the story of Jesus and Nicodemus; Jesus speaks into the darkness and there, in the shadows, Nicodemus hears God’s desire.  Jesus declares:

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Why is God encouraging an old man who is stuck in his ways and too old to do anything new to be reborn?  It is for the same reason that Abram was asked to leave all that he knew and trusted.  God desires to bless the world.  God does not desire that the word be condemned, rather God desires that the world might have eternal life.

There is no such thing as too old, or too learned, or too mature, or too set in your ways for God.  The Spirit is like the wind and it will blow new life wherever it chooses.

I think of the Rev. Kay Wold.  She is a fabulous pastor who graduated from seminary the same year that I graduated.  She has a heart filled with mercy and compassion.  She is simply the best. 

She was also retired when she joined us young ones at seminary.  She could have spent her remaining retirement years traveling the world or relaxing next to a pond in a small cabin.  She could have done any of those things, but the Spirit was blowing.  The Spirit saw in her someone through whom the world could be blessed. 

So, the Spirit blew her right up the hill into the seminary in order to study Greek and Hebrew and Theology and Church History and everything else, because age has nothing to do with blessing and has nothing to do with salvation.  Kay was born from above, and so are you.

I think of a little church in Texas who had only14 aged members remaining.  It was time to close the doors.  It was time to retire the faith of that church.  It was time to die. 

But, Jesus is funny about that sort of thing.  Jesus does not like to stay in the grave.  When people write death certificates, Jesus like to blow a strong wind and tear them up.  

Do you know what Jesus led those 14 aged members to realized? 

First, they realized that they loved Jesus. 

Second, they realized that Jesus loved the world. 

Third, they realized that they loved the world, and their church. 

Forth, they realized that they loved their grandchildren. 

Fifth, they realized that there were children in the area who did not have grandparents around. 

Sixth, they realized that they could rebirth their church in such a way that they could be grandparents to those children in the community. 

Seventh?  What did they do on the seventh day?  They did not rest, but they did worship.  They started inviting those children to church and worshiping with those children in ways that spoke to the hearts of those children.  They took them out to ice cream and attended their games.  They allowed the Spirit of God to blow them out of the shadows of their community and into the light of Jesus’ desire that the world might be saved. 

After-all, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  And, God did not send his church into the world in order to live in the shadows.  He sent us into the world that we might be a blessing to the world in Jesus’ name. 

Is that the wind I hear?  Jesus must be up to something new.  Jesus must be breathing new life into these old rafters.  Jesus must love the world.

Reflection on Matthew 4:1-11

I must have preached on the temptations of Jesus close to 16 times.  That is 16 separate, unique sermons.  And, three of those sermons probably resembled something that was kind of good.  But, in all of those sermons, not once did the angels catch my attention.  This time around though, the angels have entirely captured my imagination.

In case you missed it, they show up at the very end of the story, after Jesus has resisted the temptations of the devil.  They come as parents who dote on a sick child, attending to his every need.  They come, caring for him in his weakness.  They are there to help Jesus recover from the attacks of the devil.

Does that really happen?  Does God send the angels to wipe our tears after making the hard choice?  Does God send the angels to heal our wounds after taking the difficult but needed steps?  Is it the angels who Jesus uses to restore us back to new life?  After-all, who is hanging around the tomb after Jesus rises from the dead?  The angels are there of course.

I actually, do not have any answers for any of these questions.  Angelology was never one of my focuses of study in my religious education.  But, it does fire up my imagination. 

Just as the angels sooth Jesus’ hunger ridden body after Jesus successfully pushes away a temptation to turn stones into bread, my imagination ignites and I wonder if the angels are right there in the kitchen of the small apartment as the young, thin, almost sick looking mother slides the plate with the sandwich and delicious looking slices of orange over to her young daughter who happily sings as she takes bites. 

Is the angel right there, hand caressing that mother’s hungry face, preparing to attend to that everyday saint’s needs?

Just as the angels attend to Jesus’ needs after he rebukes the devil for using scripture in a simplistic way (expecting Jesus to test the provision of God by jumping off the temple all because the scriptures say “on their hands they will bear you up”), I wonder if the angel is also there, soothing the heart of the old man who has been abandoned by his children because he cares for sick men with HIV?  The children know their scriptures well and share freely what the scriptures say, but so does the old man who cares for these sick men.  He knows that Jesus healed the sinner and ate with the despised.  He has memorized these stories of compassion. 

I wonder if the angels join him in wrapping arms around the young man who is doubled over in pain.  I wonder if the angel sings a lullaby to the old man as he tries to go to sleep, full of sadness for the loss of his own children who refuse to speak his name?

And, just as the angels care for the exhausted Jesus who refused to worship the devil in order to gain the power to remake the world however he saw fit, I wonder if the angels are there in the rundown trailer of the man who left the six figure Wall Street job and all the sports cars and bling that such a powerful job supplies? 

I wonder if the angels turn the pages of the job listings in the newspaper for him and direct his attention to a good, Godly job, that in no way makes him compromise his values and his compassion for the sake of riches? 

Are the angels there with warm towels and chicken noodle soup when you follow Jesus and refuse the temptations of life’s necessities, simplistic thinking, and power to get your own way rather than the common good?  Do they show up when you are at your lowest for doing the right thing?

It is so easy to think of God in some sort of man in the sky, a distant God who probably does not care about our petty concerns.  But, the God of the scriptures is the one who sends angels to help heal the ones who have been hurt for doing the right thing.  The God of the scriptures is the one who would send his only Son to redeem the sinner who does not deserve such a thing.  The God of the scriptures is the one who would send his Son to be with us.  The God of the scriptures is the one who hears the cries of your heart and sends some angels to heal the wounds that love has left behind. 

Love is not all roses and warm cuddles after-all.  Love is also starving for the sake of a young child.  Love is following the heart of God’s teachings and not just the letter, leading you to care for the sinner even when everyone else refuses.  Love is also refusing the luxurious trappings of life that others embrace, because you refuse to exploit and hurt others for your own gain. 

And, that sort of love draws the attention of those who were created out of pure love.  It draws the attention of the angels, who attend to Jesus and also attend to those Jesus holds close.