March 2, 2008
The Fourth Sunday in Lent
1 Samuel 16:1-13; Psalm 23; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41
Pastor Julie Webb

Pastor David walks up to Pastor Julie as she stands by the baptismal font.

Pastor Julie: W ell, I’m all set. I have ashes, water, and oil. I’m all ready for Lenten worship.

Pastor David: Got a sermon?

Pastor Julie: Nah. I’m taking seriously the LORD’s words to the prophet Samuel: “Fill your horn with oil and set out!” Plus, I thought I’d get you to help with the sermon.

Pastor David: Great. . . . You know, it seems like each time we’ve done this, lately, you’ve gotten to play the insightful character, and I’ve gotten to play the pompous one.

Pastor Julie: Hey, you wrote the scripts!

Pastor David: I know, but I’ve been thinking, and I’m not sure the congregation is picking up on the implied role-switch. Plus, I have 25 years of ordained ministry behind me, now, so . . . could I play Jesus this time?

Pastor Julie: W e’ll see. How well can you spit?

Pastor David: Missing that camel again, are you?

Pastor Julie: Constantly. But this is about that healing story where Jesus makes mud out of spit and dirt, and puts it on the blind guy’s eyes. We’re telling that story on the fourth Sunday in Lent, and it’s a healing service, too. You know how I like to get people’s senses involved in worship: I’m trying to figure out a way to make some mud.

Pastor David: Why do I get the feeling the mud isn’t going to end up on you?

Pastor Julie: Well, if we’re going to be literal about it—and why not?—then the mud’s going to have to go on somebody’s eyelids, or even eyeballs; and it can’t be mine, because of my contact lenses! So . . . I guess I’ll just have to play Jesus, after all.

Pastor David: And I’ll have to get spit and dirt in the eyes.

Pastor Julie:P retty much. --Unless you have a better idea.

Pastor David: How’s that for motivation? Okay . . . did you know that the passage from John’s gospel includes some really strong baptismal imagery?

Pastor Julie: How so? And I’m not about to re-baptize you!

Pastor David: No—I’m Jesus, remember? The bishop even implied as much, last week! At least, he said something about not having Jesus here in the flesh, but having me instead.

Pastor Julie: Yeah, I’ve been meaning to speak with him about that.

Pastor David: Of course. Uh, the baptism stuff—it’s actually kind of heavy-handed. It’s right after that part of the passage where Jesus says, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Next, John says, Jesus spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud on the blind man’s eyes—

Pastor Julie: Yes!!

Pastor David: . . . Saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” –which, John makes a point of telling us, means Sent—just like Jesus is sent from God, and we’re sent out as witnesses to Jesus. ‘Wash in the pool of the Sent One.’ Go get baptized, follower of Jesus! “Then,” John says, the man “went and washed and came back able to see.” Baptismal imagery.

Pastor Julie: Huh. But it’s also a healing story, so John seems to be tying baptism to healing. –And healing to sight. Let’s see (muttering) . . . I could mix a little water from the font into the Ash Wednesday ashes . . . (beginning to do just that, surreptitiously)

Pastor David: What?

Pastor Julie: Oh, nothing. Sight.

Pastor David: Yes, he plays around with the notion of sight, as well. The blind man, the one everyone thought was a sinner, can see; but the Pharisees, the righteous people, can’t even “see” well enough to recognize that this miracle must have come from God. They can’t recognize Jesus as God’s Sent One: so even though they can see, they’re blind. The ones who think they are healthy are actually in need of healing, and the one everyone thinks of as disabled is now a witness to God’s healing power.

Pastor Julie: Paradox. I knew John must be Lutheran!

Pastor David: Right. You know, if the congregation knew what I have to put up with in the office every week, they’d give me more vacation.

Pastor Julie: Or maybe they’d send me out of town more often. Something to think about. Anyway, I’ve been thinking about this passage, and the story about the anointing of David, and The Little Prince.

Pastor David: (Shaking head). . . I rest my case.

Pastor Julie: But don’t start thinking that I’ll be anointing you to a new position of power. I’m talking about the prophet Samuel’s anointing of David, in the Bible.

Pastor David: The time when he goes out to find King Saul’s replacement, and he interviews all kinds of likely candidates from Jesse’s family?

Pastor Julie: Yes, and one particularly fine-looking son of Jesse passes before him, and Samuel thinks to himself, “This must be the guy!” But the Holy One says to him, “Do not look on his appearance or the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”

Pastor David: And Samuel has to keep looking, until they finally call in the lowly youngest son, the sheep-herder, from the fields. And he’s the one God wants. David. My namesake. . . . That’s another one of the readings for the fourth Sunday in Lent, isn’t it? But if you want to use it, you’re going to have to retell it, because the 9 o’clock folks won’t get to hear that lesson.

Pastor Julie: I’ll take care of it. . . . I’ve been thinking about that phrase, “the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” God’s kind of seeing, you know? God looks on the heart.

Pastor David: Yes, and maybe God looks with the heart, too. God looks upon each of us with love and forgiveness, and promises to do so throughout our lives. Our baptism is sign and seal of that promise, as we say.

Pastor Julie: Which, somehow, leads me to my favorite sentence from The Little Prince, that book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” I’m thinking about heart-eyes.

Pastor David: And wondering if the blind man, in John’s gospel, had them? And if the others who believed in Jesus had heart-eyes?

Pastor Julie: Exactly. It seems to me that there’s something about Jesus, who looks upon our heart with love and compassion, which opens the eyes of our heart—hey, that’s from scripture, isn’t it, or else from part of our liturgy? “Open the eyes of our hearts”--?

Pastor David: “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” It’s Ephesians 1:18-19. And what if having the eyes of our hearts enlightened, by the light of God’s love, is true healing?

Pastor Julie: People wonder, you know, why sometimes physical complaints go away when we ask for healing, and sometimes they don’t. Most of the sick people in Bible stories get physically well, but not all of them do; and even with ones healed by Jesus, we don’t know whether their illness came back after a while, like cancer sometimes does.

Pastor David: But the story from Samuel says that God’s more concerned with the heart than with all the strength and beauty we think is important. And the story from John shows that those who appear to be well, like the Pharisees did, are often the sick ones. What if having the eyes of our hearts enlightened, having an open heart, is really the best way to experience the healing love of God, no matter what else happens to us?

Pastor Julie: What does it mean, d’you think, having an open heart, or having open heart-eyes?

Pastor David: Well, the Ephesians passage mentions a calling, and hope, and knowing that you have a rich inheritance, and knowing “the surpassing greatness of [God’s] power toward us who believe.” In that story from John, the person with the opened eyes is the one who is able to have a genuine encounter with Jesus—to ask him questions, and grow in faith; to acknowledge that Jesus is sent by God; to witness to others about what he has experienced; and, finally, to worship Jesus.

Pastor Julie: I can’t help thinking that having heart-eyes means seeing the world the way God sees it, too—with lots of compassion, and a longing for justice and wholeness. I think it means being open to the needs and concerns of the rest of the world—which is maybe why some people are afraid to see with the eyes of their heart.

Pastor David: I think that any of us can do it only because of the courage and hope God gives us—through the sacraments of Baptism and Communion, and in other ways—and because God saw our hearts first, and loved us, and drew us all together.

Pastor Julie: (Beginning to play with the “mud” again) You know how I like Wendell Berry’s writing?

Pastor David: Yes. You’re going to quote him, aren’t you?

Pastor Julie: Yes. He writes that “Healing is impossible in loneliness; it is the opposite of loneliness.  Conviviality is healing.  To be healed we must come with all the other creatures to the feast of Creation.”

Pastor David: Didn’t I just say that?

Pastor Julie: Sure. So, listen—I have a new idea for the mud mixture. I’ll replace the spittle with baptismal water, add that to some of the ashes left over from Ash Wednesday, and—Presto! a healing mud masque for your eyelids! What do you say? (raising “mud”-covered thumb toward Pastor David’s eye)

Pastor David: I , uh, think I have to go re-schedule my vacation. (Retreats toward office.)