In All Things, Look for God

            I want to begin today by sharing something you probably don’t already know about me.  Don’t worry – it’s not embarrassing.  I have a prescription for eye-glasses.  And no, I don’t wear contacts either.  So obviously my eyes aren’t that bad.

            But every once and a while you might find me squinting to see something far away.  The medical term used for my eye-sight is called near-sightedness.  I’ve been told that the problem isn’t simply that I can’t see things at a distance well.  Rather, my eyes focus too much on what is right in front of me, and so I have a hard time adjusting to see what is far away.

            In the lessons we have been reading during Lent, Jesus addresses our spiritual near-sightedness.  Jesus reveals we are so focused on what is right in front of us we can’t adjust our eyes to see the bigger picture, we are so focused on temporal matters we can’t adjust to see spiritual matters. 

Nicodemus initially understands “being born again” as somehow coming out of our mother’s womb again.  The Samaritan Woman at the Well initially can’t see how Jesus can give her “living water” when he doesn’t even have a bucket. 

And in today’s lesson, the point of our spiritual near-sightedness is driven home when the man who was born blind at birth is the only one who has eyes to see the Messiah.  The disciples, Pharisees, and even the blind man’s parents are so focused on religious traditions, on things that are most apparent they become blind to the miracle that Jesus sets before them. 

The scripture lesson tells us that this man’s blindness is an opportunity for God to show forth his glory.  Scholars will tell you that we have lost something in today’s translation.  It isn’t so much that God made the man blind so his glory could be revealed.  Rather, because the man is blind God can use him as a vehicle for grace.

But nonetheless, we as human beings have an insatiable desire to know why.  Immediately, the disciples want to know why the man is blind.  They assume, based on their cultural sensibilities, that the man is born blind because his parents sinned.  But as my daughter is reminded every day, there are only so many times we can ask “Why?” before we hear, “because that’s just how it is.”

The simple truth is that we live in a world that is broken by sin and death.  Of course, theologically speaking, we can point to Adam and Eve as the reason why we are broken by sin and death.  But the narrative of scripture and the ministry of Jesus doesn’t so much focus on the question of “Why” as much as the question “What is God doing about the destructive nature of sin and death in us?”

Perhaps the world has always been like this, but I am growing more and more aware of how mean we can be as human beings especially we religious people who use our scriptures to point fingers at others instead of using the scriptures to point to the God of all mercy and truth. 

Ultimately, Jesus is telling his disciples that sharing the good news is not about sorting who is guilty and who is not guilty.  Rather, sharing the good news is about accepting the reality of human sin makes us all guilty so that we can move toward the truth of God’s salvation story revealed in Jesus Christ.

It is worth mentioning again – For God so loved the world that he sent his only Son so that all who believe in him may have eternal life.  God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but so that the world might be saved through him.

I love John’s Gospel because truth statements like John 3:16-17 emerge again and again in the teachings and signs of Jesus.  Another truth statement that emerges again today when Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.”  Remember John 1:5?  “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.”  Jesus is what makes our eyes to see truth in a world that is blind to truth.

Keeping with the metaphor about spiritual near-sightedness, the ministry of Jesus is all about giving us new lenses in which to see the world.  As people who live in Jesus, as people who participate in the Divine Life of God, God is helping us see the world through God’s eyes, God is helping us see the world through a vision of eternity, through a vision of hope – as opposed to death and despair.

Based on the various catastrophes and calamities that we have all faced in our life, it would be easy for any of us to be seized by the narrative of death and despair.  It would be easy for our spiritual near-sightedness to keep us stuck asking the question “Why?”  It would be easy for us to be blind to the truth that God is in the business of making all things new. 

Why did God let cancer take the life of someone so young and so full of promise?  Why won’t God let me get pregnant?  Did I do something wrong?  Why did I not know that my child was depressed?  Maybe I could have prevented the suicide.

These questions are truly paralyzing and odds are we will never find an answer that will satisfy us.  God knows this.  God knows that you struggle to come to grips with those terrible things that have happened in your life.  As I read this week, God will silence all of heaven just to hear your prayer.

God will wait and listen with you for as long as you need.  God will patiently listen to you asking “Why?” again and again.  But God also hopes that you can be still enough and quiet enough to hear God speak to you.  And by the grace of God, you will be amazed by what happens when God gives you eyes to see, you will be opened to a life of mystery that calls you deeper and deeper into the knowledge and love of God. 

And what you see will wildly surpass your expectations.  Just imagine what it would be like to be born blind and then suddenly see God’s beautiful creation for the first time!  And so it goes for our life with God – our eyes are opened to see what we could not see with eyes that are otherwise clouded by human sin and death. 

As someone said in Sunday School last week, because of Christ we no longer look at the world with a posture of judgment.  Rather, we see the world through the lens of grace – through a lens that sees how God is making all things new. 

I read a beautiful reflection by a mother who questioned whether or not to take her young children to see Beauty and the Beast.  She encouraged her children to look for God instead of all that is scary or evil. 

Upon reflection, what her kids saw was a life filled with mercy and transformation and grace.  For example, instead of looking at the ugliness of the Beast as reason to cast judgment, the children had compassion for the Beast and his struggle for redemption.

The mother ended the article saying, “I will simply say … when we look for evil, we will find it – every time. It won’t be hard to find and we won’t even have to look too deep…if humans are a part…sin will be present. When we look for God – He can and will be found. Every time. Put that lens of ‘looking for Him’ on – it is amazing what He will allow you to see.”

In the end, God works not by destroying the reality of sin and evil and death because, well, we would be destroyed in the process.  And God loves us too much to destroy us.  Human sin is a constant reality.  But the good news says that God’s mercy and grace is a constant reality and even a reality that outlives human sin and death. 

God works by opening our eyes to see the world through a different lens.  Instead of looking for all that is wrong in the world, God is helping us see how all that is wrong is made right through the unconditional love of Christ in us; God is helping us see how all that is dark and ugly is made bright and beautiful with a love that never ends. 

As the line goes in the new movie Beauty and the Beast, “Love is beauty, love is pure. Love pays no mind to desolation. It flows like a river through the soul. Protects, proceeds, and perseveres and makes us whole.”

          Beloved, may you have the grace to see the world as God sees the world.  May you have the grace to let Jesus point out your near-sightedness and even blindness, so that your eyes may be opened to a world where only the love and compassion of Jesus have the power to save.  Amen

You Are Fully Known, Fully Loved

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I read somewhere that today’s passage contains enough material for a lifetime of preaching.  I bet I could write a 100 sermons on today’s lesson and never scratch the surface of the truth that abounds in this story.  In addition to being the longest conversation that Jesus has with anyone in the gospels, every verse packs a punch.  And to make matters a little more cumbersome, today’s lesson cannot be properly understood without holding it alongside the scripture we read last week – the story of Nicodemus. 

To refresh your memory – Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish establishment, seeks Jesus out in the middle of the night and engages in a conversation.  Like the Samaritan woman who struggles to understand what Jesus means by “living water,” Nicodemus struggles to understand what it means to be born again.  But unlike Nicodemus, Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well happens in broad daylight for all to see. 

Unlike Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman is not given a name.  And unlike Nicodemus, we can assume, based on her marital history, she is not respected in her community.  Even more, this Samaritan woman is representative of a people who have been at odds with the Jewish people for centuries.

            And unlike the story of Nicodemus, it is Jesus who initiates the conversation.  It is Jesus who goes out of his way to encounter the woman at the well.  While Jesus is certainly attentive to religious people like Nicodemus, he is most concerned with those outside the religious community – like this Samaritan woman. 

Jesus is most concerned with those who the religious people have left out of the salvation story.  And as followers of Jesus, we are called to do likewise – to learn that names of those who society has left out of the story. 

Jesus starts the conversation with this woman when he says plainly, “Give me a drink.”  And this is the point when the woman looks up from the well, looks to see if anyone is behind her, points to herself and says, “You talkin’ to me?  Sir, I’m a nobody.  No one wants to talk to me – let alone a Jew who despises me and my people.”  I imagine the woman at the well must have thought Jesus mistook her for some else.

But Jesus assures the woman that he is well aware of who she is.  He tells her that she has been married four times and the man she is with now is not her husband.  At this point the woman is blown away.  But she doesn’t hide like Adam and Eve do when their sin is uncovered.

Rather, she is quite impressed and is drawn into a deeper conversation.  How wonderful?!  Instead of being ashamed of herself when her sins are exposed before God, she is drawn closer to God.  I think this is something we religious people can learn from.  I hope your recitation of the Decalogue during Lent serves to draw you closer to God.  

Because Jesus knows everything about the Samaritan woman, she starts to recognize Jesus as some sort of prophet.  And like one does when they meet a clergy person, she asks a religious question.  She asks, are we supposed to worship on this mountain or in the Temple in Jerusalem?  Again, Jesus moves the conversation in a new direction.

Jesus tells her about a day when all will be able to worship the Father in spirit and truth.  Jesus tells her that true worship isn’t about who has the best religion, true worship isn’t about whose church is in the best location, true worship isn’t about who has the prettiest building.  As former Presiding Bishop, Frank Griswold said, true worship is about “an openness to love at every level of our being.”

And just when Jesus finishes his teaching on true worship, on being open to love at every level, his disciples come back and wonder why Jesus is even talking to someone like that woman.  Meanwhile, as the disciples are steaming over Jesus' apparent lack of concern for social customs and cultural norms, the woman at the well rushes back to the city to tell her friends about Jesus.

She is so excited she forgets her bucket of water; she leaves behind what she thought she needed to live.  The outcast Samaritan woman is doing the work that Jesus called his disciples to do – to drop everything and follow him.  Like the disciples, how easily do we forget that we, too, were once on the outside looking in?  And this woman serves as a powerful reminder of what it was like to discover that nothing – gender, race, sexuality, nationality – can separate us from the love of God.

What happens next is perhaps the biggest challenge for me in today’s lesson.  After the woman at the well invites the people to meet Jesus she says, “He cannot be the Messiah, can he?”  What?  How can you be a messenger of the gospel when you aren’t even sure who Jesus is?

All she knows about Jesus is that he knows everything about her.  But this is enough for her to get excited about telling others about Jesus.  When her friends inquire further, she simply says, “I can’t really put Jesus into words, but I want you to come and see this Jesus.” 

What if evangelism was that easy?  What if evangelism wasn’t about having it all figured out so you can download your program onto someone else?  What if we didn’t make talking about Jesus so complicated?  What if we simply said, “my encounter with Jesus has changed my life, and I want you to experience what I’ve experienced?” 

As we have been studying in Episcopal Church 101, our Anglican witness to the gospel doesn’t require that you have it all figured out before you make a commitment to follow Jesus.  The idea here is that even our best words can never fully capture what we experience when we follow Jesus, our best words fall short of describing the infinite truth found in God. 

But there is good news. Our salvation doesn’t hinge on how well we can articulate our faith in Jesus.  Rather, our salvation begins and ends with the truth Jesus knows us and loves us fully – the good parts, the messy parts, the confused parts, the bad parts, the sad parts, the happy parts.

And the truth of God’s unconditional love in Christ is what gives reason to our faith.  Our commitment to follow Jesus grows out of our knowledge that God loves us right where we are and for who we are.  We are compelled to tell others about Jesus because Jesus knows us and loves us fully for who we are right now. 

Ours is a faith where God restores us not by demanding that we change and be more like Jesus.  Rather, ours is a faith where God changes us by becoming like us – humanity is redeemed through the image of Christ in us.  God restores us by entering into our human experience to show us how humanity was made to love.  As Athanasius said, “God became what we are so that we might become like God.”

A parishioner shared with me a conversation about a friend’s preschool aged daughter who was dealing with the death of her little brother.  The daughter began by saying that she doesn’t miss her little brother because she sees him in her dreams and knows that he is always with her. 

And finally she said this, “I never really knew my little brother, but I know he knows me.”  That’s it!  This simple sentence from a child captures the mystery of our faith.  Our faith is not so much rooted in how well we know Jesus as much it is rooted in how well Jesus knows us.

Beloved, this mystery of our faith is the living water that Jesus is talking about.  Even though we often fail to recognize the source of our life and salvation, we can put our trust in the truth that the source of our life and salvation knows us and loves us more intimately that we can ever know and love ourselves.  This is living water because this is a truth that we mortal beings need to hear again and again in order to live. 

Through Jesus, God reveals to us that we are fully known and fully loved – not for what we have done or for what we have left undone – but for who God made us to be.  Like the Samaritan woman, we can appear before God in broad daily light – not hiding any of our undesirable parts or boasting about our good deeds – and trust that God will love what he sees.

Beloved, when you hear Jesus say to you, “give me a drink,” I hope you hear Jesus saying, “I want you to give your life to me.  I want you to give your life to me so that you are filled with the unchangeable truth that you are fully known and fully loved.”  Amen.