Sermon

St. Philip's Episcopal Church, Durham, NC

March 3, 2008 - Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year A)

The Rev. M. Jonah Kendall

John 9:1-13, 28-38

This past Tuesday, a professor from the School of Religion at UNC planned to give a presentation at the Regulator Book Shop.  Professor Bart Ehrman was born an Episcopalian.  Later he became a fundamentalist.  Now he claims that he is an agnostic.  The reason that he can no longer proclaim a belief in the existence of God is because of suffering.  He cannot see how there could be an all-powerful, all-loving God with all the pain, suffering, loss and death in the world.

Many of us here today have wrestled with this at one point or another.  Maybe it’s an issue that is with us all the time.  How can God allow this?  Why do we suffer?  Is there a purpose?  Whatever the answers, God gives us only as much as we can handle.  It’s our cross to bear.  God is testing us.  Suffering is redemptive.  Suffering builds character.  One thing is clear: Suffering is not something we enjoy, or like very much about our humanity.  I mean sometimes it’s a really hard thing to be a human being.  In this way suffering is often seen as an obstacle to faith.

I remember my theology professor in seminary once saying that if we could re-create the world we would do it in a way that corrected all of God’s errors.  We would live to a ripe old age.  We would never have to feel loss or pain.  And we would always have a degree of certainty about who we are, what we are to say, and what we are called to do.  The problem with this, however, he went on to say, was that if we did this we would ultimately re-create ourselves out of existence.  For although we do not like suffering, pain and loss, we – each of us – have been shaped by these things.

I, Jonah, am who I am because of things I have experienced — the joy, the success, as well as the pain and failure.  I don’t necessarily like this, but it’s true.  And it’s true for all of us.  A world without suffering is a world without us in it.  But this isn’t really any comfort to someone in pain and it certainly doesn’t negate the obstacle to faith our suffering poses.

In the Gospel today, the disciples see a blind beggar on the side of the road.  Clearly, this is a guy they pray never to be themselves.  Afflicted, poor and dejected; he represents everything foreign to the goodness and blessing of God.  Therefore, they ask Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  To the disciples, suffering to them is a real obstacle to God, because it is through suffering that God punishes the sinful.  With this, they not only demonstrate their belief that suffering is an obstacle to life with God, but also to others.  Suffering, as punishment is God’s business and therefore has nothing to do with them.  They can simply pass him by and thank God that they are not in his shoes.  Of course, all this does is further the blind man’s forsakenness.

Jesus responds to this question, “Who sinned?” by saying, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”  With this, Jesus calls his followers to consider two things.  First, Jesus wants to teach his disciples that suffering is not a punishment.  That God knows it can be difficult thing to be human, to suffer and experience death.  And so, in Christ, God enters into our suffering so as to show us that God is still very much with us.  God is at work even in blindness and poverty.

The second thing Jesus opens up for his disciples – and this is what I really want to focus on – is that suffering is not an obstacle, but an opportunity.  The blind man presents Jesus, presents his disciples, and presents us with an opportunity to discover the fact that even though humanity can be a painful enterprise, there is a blessing in these frail and precarious lives of ours.

And that is, although we are not as perfect as God, we are still endowed with a tremendous gift and an incredible power – the gift of love and the power of grace.  You see although there is suffering in the world, God has not given us up to suffering, but placed us in one another’s loving hands.  And in that, hope is born, peace is found, and grace is shared.

We see this in Jesus’ actions.  He acknowledges the man as the human being he is, reaches out and touches him, loves him, restores his dignity and so heals him.  Now, we may not be able to literally restore someone’s sight, but I do believe we can be incredible agents of comfort, love, and healing.  For although we are not God, in our love we have a bit of God within us.

There was another presentation here in Durham last Tuesday.  It was just a couple of doors down from us at First Presbyterian.  It was given by Sister Helen Prejean.  She is a nun from Louisiana who wrote the book Dead Man Walking.  You may have read it, or seen the Oscar award-winning movie staring Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon.  Dead Man Walking is the story of an experience she had serving as the chaplain of a man condemned to death.

She said that one day she wrote a letter to a man on death row because she figured that this was the kind of thing a nun should do.  This led to a letter from the inmate.  Not knowing where this was going, or what to do, even what to say, she found herself writing again.  Next there was a visit and a conversation.  Then another visit and another until a relationship was born.  It was a difficult and exhausting relationship because he could not admit guilt and she had endure the criticisms of those who couldn’t believe she would offer help to a man convicted of murdering two teenagers.

Yet, as the relationship grew, she said love was born.  And this love, the first love this man said he had ever truly felt led to a sense of peace within him that enabled him to confess his crime and ask for forgiveness.

As he was being brought out for execution he turned to Sister Helen and asked her not to follow.  He was afraid that his death would scar her forever and he didn’t want that for her.  She said she had to be there and that she wanted him to look into her eyes as they strapped him down and took his life.  For in those eyes he would see and know the presence of God’s love, peace, grace, and forgiveness.

That’s something …

Now you may be thinking, “yeah, but she’s a nun.”  But, really she’s just a woman from Louisiana.  My friends, it can be a hard thing to be a human sometimes.  The suffering and the pain can be overwhelming.  And if you find yourself there now, take heart, for God is with you.  And for those of us who are doing well, then give thanks to God.  But I ask you to consider where an opportunity might be awaiting you.  Where is there a place in your life, whether at home, or at work, here at St. Philip’s, wherever, where you might just need to walk into suffering for sake of another?  For in God we can, and do, heal, love, and save.

In Christ’s name, Amen.

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