Believing is Seeing

Biblical Text: John 9:1-41

The Gospel of John is the upside down one. Water becomes wine. Good things do come from Nazareth. Messiahs are enthroned on crossed. And believing is seeing. The Gospel lesson text is often just called the man born blind. In my reading it is John’s living commentary on the Synoptics’ Parables of the Kingdom (Sower, Wheat and Weeds). What it leaves no doubt about is that God is at work in this world. He is at work constantly through his word both his direct proclamation and then through our witness. But hearts have two reactions: Belief and confirmed unbelief. And unlike the folk wisdom, what you believe effects what you see. If you want to see the work of God you have to believe his word.

This sermon contemplates that reality through two larger movements. The first being the Sovereignty of God behind Jesus’ answer “neither sinned, but the man was born blind that the works of God might be displayed in him.” The second movement being the crisscrossing directions of the lives of the man born blind and the pharisees who insist they see. Through both of those movements it is presented to us to believe, that we might see both God’s proper work and his alien work in our midst.

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You are His Treasured Possession

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Biblical Text: Matthew 13: 44-52

This is the close of the parable sermon. And I’ve got a little bone to pick with how these are typically preached. They are typically preached as law. Now the law is good. Seeing Christ as the treasure encourages a fine piety, and piety is a good thing. But it is also something that ultimately fails. No, the person doing the action in the parables is almost always Jesus. Who is the treasure? Who is the pearl of great price? It is you. Christ sold everything he had to redeem you. The rest of the sermon teases out some of the implication.

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The Kingdom: As It Is Now

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Biblical Text: Matthew 13: 24-43

Oops, I had some problems uploading this and I never came back to finish it after I solved them.

This is the middle sermon of three on Jesus’ parable discourse. It cover mainly the Wheat and the Weeds, although I think the mustard seed and the leaven are important for rounding out the understanding. If the Sower addresses why the Kingdom seems to be failing, or at least encountering heavy opposition, then these address how we are to respond to it. And at this point there are two audiences: a) the disciples and b) the crowds who are on the fence.

Both audiences are encouraged to patience. Don’t take rash action. But each a different type of patience. The disciples to not become “zealots” reaching for a sword. The crowds to watch the leaven/mustard work/grow.

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