Homily for March 2, 2008 Fourth Sunday of Lent

I want to do a little bit of educational background before talking about this Gospel. The word "sin," when you hear it, what comes to your mind? Bad, evil, missing the mark, doing something against the commandments. Yeah, those are all very good definitions. But in John's Gospel, the word "sin" has a very specific meaning that is different from the other Gospels and from our normal way of thinking.
We think of sin in terms of moral behavior and what we do. John's Gospel thinks of sin in this way: The light came into the darkness, and the darkness tries to overcome the light. And sin is a matter of how you respond to the light. If you accept the light, you have life and are saved. If you do not accept the light, you are in sin.
Or, Jesus, the Word of God from all eternity, came into the world that the love of God might be made visible. If you receive him, you have life. If you reject him, you are in sin.
Or, the works of God are made manifest in Christ. There are signs throughout the Gospel that God is at work in world. If you see those signs, you have life. If you do not see them, you are in sin.
And so, the Pharisees today, they do not see. And this theme, by the way, runs throughout the Gospel: The light came into the world and people rejected it. The life came into the world and people did not believe. And so they were in sin.
By the way, this is really salvation through grace alone, not through anything that you do, but you are saved if you see. And look at the Gospel today as a play. I quote in my letter in the bulletin Wendell Berry and a wonderful essay on the burden of the Gospel.
Wendell Berry says there are Christians who are absolutely certain that they know what God wants. They're absolutely certain that they are doing the works of God. They are absolutely certain that everyone who disagrees with them is hated by God, and they are happy to concur in God's hatred. Know anybody like that? He says, "I am not one of those Christians, and my lack of confidence does not come from a lack of faith, but it comes from taking the burden of the Gospels seriously."
I want to throw out this challenge to you. If you read the Gospel and are not disturbed, you haven't read it. If you read the Gospel and walk away absolutely affirmed in everything that you already think, you haven't read the Gospel. But if you read the Gospel and you are disturbed, and your eyes are opened to things that you haven't seen before, then maybe you are beginning to feel the burden of the Gospel.
Now, in the scene today, you see, the Pharisees are certain. They know that Jesus is not from God. They know that Jesus does not keep the Sabbath. They know that Jesus is a sinner. They know that the man born blind who received his sight was born in sin. And the more they know, the more they end up being judged.
And Jesus says, "There would be no sin in your not seeing, but your sin is that you claim to know, and you really don't know. Your sin is that you claim that what you see is all there is to see, and your blindness remains."
What does the man born blind have to say? He said, "Well, I wouldn't know about that. I know this much: I was blind, and now I see." And you see, his eyes are progressively opened until he sees Jesus as the Son of Man, and he worships him.
From the earliest days of the Church, this Gospel was associated with baptism and with initiation into the church, because that's the journey of faith, isn't it? Those who sat in darkness begin to see. Those who were in darkness come to know Christ, and in that knowing, they have life.
We're going to pray in a minute or two over Allen and Josh, that their journey into the light might be deepened and expanded. But for all of us, I just want to pique your imagination in this way: Observe the story, but let yourself be drawn into it. I believe that God is at work in our world today, that the works of God are there in our world for people to see. Sometimes we see and believe, and sometimes we reject those works. Where is that happening today?
I have my list. I don't really want to share it, though, and the reason is that well, you can, but we are limited in time, and it wouldn't be nice if you talked back and disagreed with me. And I would really want to share my list only in a forum where we could have a real dialogue, and where you could share your list, too, and because I think we all might have a different list. We might not always be on the same page.
But do you know what I mean? Do you have that faith yourself, that God really is still at work in the world? And that God is calling us to see and to believe? And that as we will say in this prayer we will say shortly, God is also calling us to turn from the false values that surround and blind us and to turn toward God's light and to have life? And maybe in the coming week, do some homework and give some thought and write down where you think God might be at work in our world.