EMMANUEL UNITED CHURCH

SCRIPTURE READINGS

April 3, 2011

GOD’S WORD FOR US

THE RESPONSIVE LESSON:  Psalm 23

INTRODUCTION TO THE PSALM:   How can we describe God who is beyond human understanding?  The psalmist uses the metaphor of the shepherd to convey a presence that cares for us and nurtures our lives.

God is my shepherd,

there is nothing I shall lack.

You, God, make me lie down in green pastures,

you lead me beside peaceful waters;

you revive my spirit,

you guide me in right pathways for your name's sake. 

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

                   you are with me,

your rod and your staff are my comfort.

You spread a table for me in the sight of my enemies;

you anoint my head with oil; my cup is overflowing.

Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me

                   all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in God's house my whole life long.

THE NEW TESTAMENT LESSON is John 9:1-11

(from The Message – a contemporary rendering of the bible)

INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND READING:    John tells the story of one who was born blind.  Jesus upsets the rules and the authorities by healing on the Sabbath.

¹Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. ²His disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?”

³Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. ⁴We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. ⁵For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light.”

⁶He said this and then spit in the dust, made a clay paste with the saliva, rubbed the paste on the blind man’s eyes, ⁷and said, “Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “Sent”). The man went and washed—and saw.

⁸Soon the town was buzzing. His relatives and those who year after year had seen him as a blind man begging were saying, “Why, isn’t this the man we knew, who sat here and begged?”

⁹Others said, “It’s him all right!”

But others objected, “It’s not the same man at all. It just looks like him.”

He said, “It’s me, the very one.”

¹⁰They said, “How did your eyes get opened?”

¹¹“A man named Jesus made a paste and rubbed it on my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ I did what he said. When I washed, I saw.”

An Eye-Opening Experience

       A disabled man sits at the side of the road.  It’s hard to pretend he’s not there.  Most people walk by looking the other way.  Some feel guilty and drop a coin but almost everybody hurries on by.

       One man stops, takes dirt into his hands, spits upon it, as  ancient healers did, touches the blind man’s eyes and tells him to wash in a nearby pool.  The spare description hardly does justice to the event, “Then he went and washed and came back able to see.”

       Finally after all these years, his troubles will be over.  Isn’t that why we ask God for help, so that life will be easier?  it doesn’t always turn out that way.  Note this and a scene from Monty Python.     

       In the film, Life of Brian, we have the story of a young Jewish man born at the same time as Jesus.  A misunderstanding causes some to think that this Brian is the messiah.  Some took this movie to be a parody about Christ.  The Python team said that was not at all their intention.  They were trying to poke fun at the very human tendency to want to make God over in our own image.

       In one scene Brian and his mother are being harassed by a group of beggars.

       “Alms for a leper,” they cry, “Alms for a leper.”  One beggar calls out “Alms for an ex-leper.”

“Did you say EX-leper?” asks Brian.

       “That’s right, sir.  16 years behind the bell, and proud of it, sir.”

“Well what happened?” asks Brian.

       “Oh, cured sir, a miracle sir.”

“Well,” Brian asked, “who cured you?”

       “Jesus did, sir.  I was hopping around, minding my own business.  All of a sudden, up he comes, cures me.  One minute I’m a leper with a trade, next minute my livelihood’s gone, not so much as a buy your leave...You’re cured, mate.  Interfering do-gooder.”

“Well,”  says Brian, “why don’t you go and tell him that you want to be a leper again.”

       “Ah, I could do that, sir.  Yeah, yeah.  I could do that I suppose.  What I was thinking was I going to ask him if he could make me a bit lame in one leg during the middle of the week.  Y’now, something beggable, but not leprosy, which is a real pain, to be blunt.”

        For the blind man in our story, his difficulties are only beginning.  His means of survival is gone and at his age, learning a new trade will be tough.  Friends and family desert him.  Local authorities harass and cross-examine him.  They want to know how someone who breaks God’s law by working on the sabbath, how he can be the messiah. 

       The blind man does not want to argue theology.  All he knows is that something wonderful has taken place in his life.  He says,  “I don’t know who this man is.  All I know is that I was blind and now I see.” 

       He is a first hand witness. He’s not an expert in the law or theology.   He is a witness and the church would not be here if it was not for witnesses, those who experience God and then tell their story. When it becomes personal then it is testimony.         

        Lillian Daniel says the psalms are testimony.  They’re not about your or my experience.  “But we are recalling someone’s testimony from the past that so spoke to the ... community’s experience of God that it became codified and ritualized.”

       Take the 23d psalm for example.  This is a personal reflection on one person’s experience of God.  The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.  This shepherd leads me, guides me, makes me lie down.  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadows, you comfort me...

        This is testimony.  It describes poetically how the transcendent mystery of God has touched one person’s life.  And the gospel is similar.

       With the story of the blind man who sees the light, John is giving us an example of how to give your testimony.  You don’t have to be an expert.  But you do need to have the confidence to say your piece even if your family or the authorities lean on you. 

       The first Christians knew how to offer testimony in the face of resistance.  We have these tales of Perpetua and Felicitas and others who refused to abandon their faith even if it meant their lives.

        The very word testimony is based on the Latin word, testis, meaning you offered your words based on your virility, your life.  The Greek word for witness was marturia, meaning you could end up being a martyr.  Testimony is based on a history of passionate truth-telling.

- People listen to testimony much more easily than to someone telling them what they must believe or do.

- Testimony leaves your response up to you.  it doesn’t force you somewhere.

-Testimony  does not have to be logical.  It’s just what you have experienced.

       Everyone has a story of faith, of doubt, of failure, of courage, of grief and new beginnings.  We experience all of this and if we can share where we are along the journey of life and faith, that’s testimony. 

       This month’s Observer includes a message from the United Church's moderator, Mardi Tindal.  Her  message is filled with testimony.  Mardi says, When I visited the Philippines, I saw this, I noticed this, I felt this.. 

       There are facts in her story as well.  Since 2001 the Filipino people have suffered extreme political oppression and human rights violations.  More than 1000 “extrajudicial killings” as well as abductions, disappearances and intimidation. 

       We hear these numbers and our eyes begin to glaze over.  It’s too much to take in so we distance ourselves.  But when someone says this happened to me, it’s another story. 

       Look at our reaction when a young woman in Libya bursts into a room full of reporters and tells how she was assaulted.  We see a cloth thrown over her head.  We see her literally silenced and rushed out of the room.  And suddenly the story becomes personal. 

       Mardi Tindal heard firsthand what was taking place in the Philippines as Christine did during her sabbatical.  The delegation made a case for the release of 43 health workers, arrested a year ago.  These 43 were accused of being communists because they were concerned about the poor.  Mardi saw an armed forces manual that claimed all religious workers were dangerous.  They had been influenced by liberation theology which said all people were equal in God’s eyes.  Mardi and the others met with the secretary of justice, and shared their faith, their testimony.  The next week the President announced they would be set free, including two women wo had given birth in prison.  In a great struggle it was one small, important victory. 

We are relearning this ancient practice of our tradition.  Testimony matters

       Life offers us a series of eye opening experiences and we are invited to share them.  It doesn’t matter if we get emotional or stumble over the words.  What matters is that we encourage one another, that we passionately tell the truth about our lives.  That’s a ministry or a service that we share.  And the message of scripture is this might be scary but be not afraid, God’s Spirit is with you.  Amen.     

with thanks to: 

Lillian Daniel, Anna Carter Florence, Monty Python, Mardi Tindal