Looking Toward Next Sunday

As I prepare to preach on Psalm 23 and John 9:1-41, I'm asking for clarity of vision, so that I see the way to walk and the word to speak. Here are some promptings that have caught my eye...

Why are we blinded to these manifestations of God?
Is it because we are comfortable and secure in our way of life, our certitudes and our feeling of elitism and do not want to change? Are we frightened of anything that might disturb us? The God of Love and the love of God are calling us to go forth on this journey to union with God. That means deepening our interior life - which is our only real security - in order to walk more confidently into the things God may be calling us to.

-Jean Vanier, Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John

 [found in "At the Edge of the Enclosure," a meditative reflection by Suzanne Guthrie
http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/lent4a.html]

I don't know why, but human nature is consumed with building ourselves up and tearing others down.
Part of the reason why Christianity, as Jesus taught it, is so at-odds with the world is that Jesus was all about building the 'other' up, and willing to be torn-down himself.
That's the Way of Christ. It's the Way of the Cross. It's the Way of Lent.

[found at http://www.rmcmorley.com/a-garden-path/2011/03/lent-4a-dirt-n-spit-n-life.html]

Jesus' act in relieving the man's suffering is not the long-awaited denouement of some divine plan, but rather a symbolic instance of its inauguration. Jesus was announcing in word and in deed the beginning of a new creation: "Let there be light."
http://www.seedsofshalom.com/2008/02/mud-of-lamb.html

--Jack Lohr, Interim Pastor