April 3 Sermon -- Lent 4

“Lenten Conversations: About Turning Things Around”   Psalm 23   John 9:1-41

[CLICK HERE to listen to the sermon as delivered.]

Let us pray. God give me clarity of vision, so that I see the way to walk and the word to speak.

There are so many directions this sermon could go! Every which way we turn, there is challenging gospel news, if we would only look, and see!

In 1997, I was a commissioner to the 209TH General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Syracuse. My roommate was Roger Victoria, a minister who was beginning to acknowledge his homosexuality. Although he was doing what the church insisted he must do (practicing “chastity in singleness”) the church refused to see him as a valid minister. Roger wrote, “In many ways the story of the blind man is for me a story that is part and parcel of my opening my eyes to my sexual orientation. That I was in denial about being gay is a fact. That I had a born again experience where I woke up and said, 'I'm gay and God loves me as I am and wants me to be this way.' is also true. That that moment was the defining point of my recovery from clinical depression is also true. I was Christian before and after the experience, but opening my eyes to who I am has deepened and enriched my faith in ways I could not have imagined, while also getting me in more trouble than I ever really wanted."

Roger's coming out to himself was essential to his healing. And as he said, it led him into more trouble than he ever asked for. Also, as he said, the same thing happened to the man who had been born blind and found himself healed by the mud of Jesus' spit and God's ground. Because the healing didn't fit the rules and patterns that the authorities accepted, religious leaders tried everything they could think of to deny the truth. They said he wasn't really blind. They said it was a case of mistaken identity. They attacked the healer. And when nothing else could turn things around, they kicked the healed man out of the community.

(Let me say, I do NOT see this story as an allegory about PCMK.) BUT there are many directions this sermon could go! Every which way we turn, there is challenging gospel news, if we would only look, and see!

The two central tasks of this congregation’s interim journey are

1. Coming to terms with and re-viewing our history.
2. Defining a new identity

In these tasks, there may a certain, if not blindness, possibly presbyopia, that needs to be overcome. In case you don't recognize the diagnosis, one medical website puts it this way: "Presbyopia is a condition in which the lens of the eye loses its ability to focus, making it difficult to see objects up close. Symptoms: Decreased focusing ability for near objects; Eyestrain; Headache."

Do you recognize the symptoms? Can't see the stuff that's right in front of us? Squinting. And headaches. It's those Presbyterian eyes that are the problem. And in this particular healing, Jesus doesn't wait to be asked. He sees the blindness. He applies the mud. And he sends us to the pool where we find our healing complete, and our troubles really beginning.

Siedeh Garrett wrote a song made famous by Michael Jackson,
“I’m starting with the man in the mirror.”
I'm asking him to change his ways,
No message could have been any clearer,
If you want to make the world a better place,
Take a look at yourself
And make that change...."

After the General Assembly, Roger wrote this poem [©Roger Victoria, October 31, 1997]:
Blinded
Blind was I
Eyes did not see
what they saw was in part
now they see more parts
they, I, become whole.

The Rev. Roger Victoria died April 17, 2007.

Can you see differently? Can you see Jesus? Can you see Jesus in every other person? Can you see Jesus in yourself? If we open our eyes, our lives will be turned around, and our world will be changed. Amen.