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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The Alien Work

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Biblical Text: Luke 12:49-56

The Gospel lesson for the day often gets put in the “hard saying of Jesus”, but Jesus doesn’t think it belongs there. At least if I’m reading it correctly, he is amazed that we can read the times. And what are those times? They are times of division. The Word of God is proclaimed. That Word does not return empty. It accomplishes what it goes out for. But that purpose ends up being a division. The intention or desire of the Word is the proper work of God. God wishes to “help, save, comfort and defend” his people. But God has not created robots. We have the agency to reject the word. In which care that Word accomplishes the alien work of God. That alien work is the work of the outer darkness.

It is that division of the ages that is taking place today in this world. Christ did not come to bring peace to this world, but division. Because his proper work saves us from the devil’s kingdom. But many will reject that work and demand the alien work be applied to them. The peace comes when the work is completed. It’s a passage for us to understand this existence. To not give up hope. As long as there is breath the Word might accomplish its proper work. But we should not lose heart seeing division. The division is in fact proof of the power of that Word.

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A Prophetic Turn

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Biblical Text: Jonah 3:1-10, really all of Jonah

The Jonah story is so much more than just a fish tale. It is a tale of repentance. It is a tale of what moves God. It is a tale of prophets going the wrong way while everyone around them goes the right way. It is a tale about learning to desire grace. It is a tale of seeing the signs and applying them to ourselves. It is about walking in joy even if the way is strange and hard. In short it is a tale of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. This sermon attempts to bring that stuff into the foreground, and put the whale in background.

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The Proper Work of Mercy

Biblical Text: Matthew 18:21-35
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The word cloud are completely random outside of reflecting the usage in the sermon, but I like the one above for two reasons. I went with the black and white because that is how Jesus present having mercy. It is a black and white issue. Not being merciful to your fellow christian is the same thing as cutting yourself off from Christ. The second reason is the order the big words got spit out in. The Mercy flows down from the Lord God to fellows slaves. Fellow slaves become the conduits, the extra nos or outside of us paths of the mercy of God. It is through our fellow Christians that we hear the good news and the absolution of Christ. This sermon reflect on that through the parable of the unmerciful servant in the gospel text for the day.

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