Nancy Ferree-Clark - "Seeing Is Believing" (March 14, 1999)

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Narrator	Our gospel reading for today comes	0:09
	from the first half of John which is often called	0:11
	The Book of Signs.	0:15
	We use that term because this particular portion	0:17
	of John's gospel contains several stories	0:20
	which are miracles in and of themselves,	0:22
	but which also serves as signs pointing	0:25
	beyond themselves to a larger truth.	0:28
	That's one of the functions of a sign after all.	0:31
	Consider the significance of a hand shake,	0:35
	a kiss, a flag, a cross.	0:38
	Each is laden with meaning greater than the gesture	0:42
	or object itself.	0:45
	Our gospel story serves a similar function	0:48
	by weaving together a series of dramatic events.	0:50
	Even though Jesus isn't present for most of these events,	0:53
	the story is in every way about Jesus	0:57
	and his true identity.	1:00
	We encounter him and his disciples in Jerusalem	1:02
	where he has just made a quick exit from the temple	1:05
	after a heated debate there with the religious authorities.	1:09
	They had declared themselves the winner of that debate	1:13
	by picking up stones which they would just have soon	1:15
	have thrown at Jesus as not.	1:18
	Listen carefully now as I read this gospel story.	1:22
	Listen to the major players because there are	1:26
	several of them, and think about where	1:28
	you might have come down in the debate.	1:30
	As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth.	1:37
	His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned?	1:41
	"This man or his parents that he was born blind?"	1:46
	Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned.	1:50
	"He was born blind so that God's	1:54
	"works might be revealed in him."	1:56
	We must work the works of him who sent me	1:59
	while it is day.	2:01
	Night is coming when no one can work.	2:03
	As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.	2:07
	When Jesus had said this, he spat on the ground	2:12
	and made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud	2:15
	on the man's eyes saying to him,	2:18
	"Go, wash in the pull of Siloam, which means sent."	2:20
	Then he went and washed and came back able to see.	2:25
	The neighbors and those who had seen him before	2:30
	as a beggar began to ask, "Is this not the man	2:33
	"who used to sit and beg?"	2:37
	Some were saying it is he.	2:39
	Others were saying no but it is someone like him.	2:42
	He kept saying, "I am the man!"	2:46
	But they kept asking him, "Then how are your eyes opened?"	2:49
	He answered the man called Jesus made mud,	2:54
	spread it on my eyes, and said to me,	2:57
	"Go to Siloam and wash."	2:59
	Then I went and washed and received my sight.	3:01
	They said to him, "Where is he?"	3:05
	He said I do not know.	3:07
	They brought to the Pharisees the man	3:11
	who had formerly been blind.	3:13
	Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud	3:16
	and opened his eyes.	3:18
	Then the Pharisees also began to ask him	3:21
	how he had received his sight.	3:23
	He said to them he put mud on my eyes.	3:26
	Then I washed and now I see.	3:29
	Some of the Pharisees said this man is not from God	3:33
	for he does not observe the Sabbath.	3:36
	But others said how can a man who is a sinner	3:39
	perform such signs.	3:43
	And they were divided.	3:46
	So they again to the blind man,	3:48
	"What do you say about him?	3:50
	"It was your eyes he opened."	3:51
	He said, "He is a prophet."	3:54
	The Jews did not believe that he had been blind	3:57
	and had received his sight until they called	4:01
	the parents of the man who had received his sight	4:03
	and asked them, "Is this your son who	4:06
	"you say was born blind?	4:09
	"How then does he now see?"	4:12
	His parents answered, "We know that this is our son	4:14
	"and that he was born blind, but we do not know	4:19
	"how it is that now he sees, nor do we know	4:22
	"who opened his eyes."	4:25
	Ask him, he is of age.	4:27
	He will speak for himself.	4:29
	His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews.	4:31
	For the Jews had already agreed that anyone	4:34
	who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put	4:37
	out of the synagogue.	4:41
	Therefore his parents said he is of age, ask him.	4:42
	So for the second time, they called the man	4:47
	who had been blind, and they said to him,	4:49
	"Give glory to God.	4:51
	"We know that this man is a sinner."	4:52
	He answered, "I do not know whether he is a sinner.	4:54
	"One thing I do know that though I was blind,	4:58
	"now I see."	5:02
	They said to him, "What did he do to you?"	5:04
	How did he open your eyes?	5:07
	He listened.	5:10
	He answered them, "I have told you already	5:11
	"and you would not listen."	5:13
	Why do you want to hear it again?	5:15
	Do you also want to become his disciples?	5:16
	Then they reviled him saying, "You are his disciple,	5:19
	"but we are disciples of Moses."	5:23
	We know that God has spoken to Moses,	5:25
	but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.	5:27
	The man answered, "Here is an astonishing thing.	5:32
	"You do not know where he comes from?"	5:36
	And yet he opened my eyes.	5:38
	We know that God does not listen to sinners,	5:41
	but he does listen to one who worships him	5:44
	and obeys his will.	5:46
	Never since the world began has it been heard	5:47
	that anyone who opened the eyes of a person could be made	5:50
	well after being blind.	5:55
	If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.	5:58
	They answered him, "You were born entirely in sin.	6:02
	"And you are trying to teach us?"	6:06
	And they drove him out.	6:09
	Jesus heard that they had driven him out.	6:12
	And when he found him, he said, "Do you believe	6:14
	"in the son of man?"	6:17
	He answered, "And who is he sir?"	6:20
	Tell me so that I may believe in him.	6:23
	Jesus said to him you have seen him.	6:27
	And the one speaking with you is he.	6:29
	He said, "Lord, I believe."	6:32
	And he worshiped him.	6:36
	Jesus said I came into this world for judgment	6:39
	so that those who do not see may see	6:42
	and those who do see may become blind.	6:45
	Some of the Pharisees near him heard this	6:50
	and said to him surely we are not blind.	6:52
	Are we?	6:56
	Jesus said to them, "If you were blind,	6:58
	"you would not have sin.	7:00
	"But now that you say we see, your sin remains."	7:02
	This is the word of the Lord.	7:08
	Thanks be to God.	7:11
	As we hear the drama of this wonderful story unfold,	7:15
	our hearts go out to the man born blind.	7:18
	First of all because of the trials	7:22
	he must have endured as a handicapped person	7:23
	destined to sit by the road and beg,	7:26
	and then because of the indignities he had to suffer	7:30
	just because Jesus healed him without	7:32
	his even asking for it.	7:35
	With no forewarning, Jesus forms a cake of mud	7:37
	from dirt and his own spittle, and spreads it	7:40
	on the man's eyes.	7:42
	Go and wash in the pool of Siloam, Jesus tells him,	7:45
	which he does.	7:48
	And when he comes back, he can see.	7:49
	It only takes two verses in this long chapter	7:52
	to perform such a miracle as this.	7:55
	While it takes 39 verses to unpack	7:58
	the controversy surrounding it.	8:00
	As one member of my bible study said	8:03
	after reading this lesson on Friday,	8:05
	"Jesus sure liked to stir things up, didn't he?"	8:07
	Whether or not he liked doing it,	8:11
	it often seemed to work out that way.	8:13
	No sooner has Jesus left the scene of the miracle	8:16
	that the man's neighborhood is buzzing.	8:19
	After squabbling over whether this really was the man	8:21
	they were used to seeing begging on the corner,	8:24
	they decided to grill him on the details.	8:28
	How did it happen?	8:30
	Where is the man who did it now?	8:31
	About all the healed man can say is that	8:34
	the man called Jesus did spread mud on his eyes	8:37
	and told him to wash.	8:40
	Beyond that, he is clueless.	8:42
	At least for the moment.	8:44
	Notice the glaring absence of any sense	8:46
	of celebration among his acquaintances.	8:48
	No thanks giving that for the first time	8:51
	in his life he could actually see.	8:53
	No jubilation that he could find another livelihood now	8:56
	besides begging.	8:59
	Instead these neighbors, whom I would not go	9:01
	as far as calling friends, were consumed by the question,	9:04
	"Who is this man called Jesus?"	9:08
	And so aware that laws had been broken,	9:11
	the miracle was performed on the Sabbath after all,	9:14
	these same neighbors take the man to the Pharisees	9:18
	where they too could begin their investigation.	9:21
	After the man explains all that he knows,	9:24
	some of the Pharisees are indignant.	9:26
	This man speaking of Jesus is not from God.	9:28
	He doesn't even observe the Sabbath.	9:32
	But others see it a little differently	9:35
	and they raise the issue how can a man	9:36
	who is a sinner perform a miracle like this.	9:39
	The Pharisees are divided so they turn again	9:43
	to the man who has been healed.	9:45
	Becoming a little bolder now, he dares to call Jesus	9:47
	a prophet.	9:50
	Still unconvinced that the man had ever been blind,	9:52
	the Pharisees next interrogate the poor parents.	9:56
	They are reluctant to acknowledge anything more	10:00
	than the fact that he was indeed their son	10:02
	who had been born blind.	10:05
	They were afraid, afraid, because the authorities	10:07
	had already announced that anyone confessing Jesus	10:11
	to be the Christ would be cast out of the synagogue.	10:13
	Their response may seem hard hearted to us	10:17
	when they answer, "He is of age, ask him."	10:20
	But doesn't fear often cause us to say things	10:24
	we later wonder why we said it?	10:27
	And so in the next scene, we're back to the healed man	10:30
	and the religious authorities as the pressure builds	10:33
	and the tempers flare.	10:35
	We know anyone who breaks the Sabbath must be a sinner is	10:37
	the Pharisees clear position, which after all was based	10:42
	on centuries of teaching.	10:45
	In contrast, the man offers his testimony,	10:48
	"I do not know whether he is a sinner.	10:50
	"One thing I do know that though I was blind, now I see."	10:53
	You can understand how the authorities are in a real bind.	10:56
	Either they must accept that the man was healed	11:02
	and that the healer is God's agent,	11:04
	or they must hold the line and reject both the healer	11:07
	and the one who was healed.	11:09
	The formerly blind man challenges	11:13
	the Pharisees by insisting that if Jesus were not from God,	11:14
	he could have never performed such a miracle, period.	11:17
	But the Pharisees lash out at him in response,	11:21
	"You were born entirely in sin	11:24
	"and are trying to teach us?"	11:26
	Referring to the assumption in those days	11:29
	that anyone suffering from a physical affliction was	11:31
	a sinner whereas anyone who obeyed the law was not.	11:34
	Finally the Pharisees are pushed beyond their limits	11:39
	and they drive the man out of the synagogue.	11:42
	In the final scene, Jesus hears of the man's plight	11:46
	and seeks him out in order to fully reveal himself to him	11:49
	as Jesus likes to do.	11:53
	Do you believe in the son of man?	11:56
	I can imagine this man turning to Jesus	11:59
	with tears pouring down from his freshly healed eyes,	12:01
	now able to see the world with all its beauty	12:05
	and its turmoil, cut off from Torah,	12:09
	his own family, his own community.	12:12
	He finally affirms, "Lord, I believe."	12:15
	Though his eyes were healed instantaneously,	12:19
	the light of Christ has only gradually dawned upon him.	12:22
	Throughout the course of his harsh interrogations,	12:26
	the man grows more and more courageous in naming Christ,	12:28
	even in front of his opponents.	12:32
	First, as the man called Jesus,	12:34
	then a prophet, then a man of God,	12:37
	and finally Lord whom he falls down and worships.	12:39
	His healing is not an end in itself.	12:43
	Just like a conversion is not an end in itself,	12:47
	but only the beginning of a journey.	12:49
	Before the man can say Lord I believe,	12:53
	he experiences hardship and loss,	12:55
	opposition from people in power,	12:59
	and times of not having all the answers.	13:01
	He struggles but he never denies the reality,	13:04
	the one thing he knows for sure,	13:07
	that Jesus has healed him.	13:09
	And that one thing is enough to introduce him	13:12
	to a whole new world of faith.	13:15
	Now for those of us who are so sure	13:18
	we know what a person has to say and do and look like	13:20
	in order to be saved, this story lends	13:23
	an important perspective.	13:26
	As Jesus said, "I came into the world for judgment	13:28
	"so that those who do not see may see,	13:31
	"and those who do see may become blind."	13:34
	in other words, Jesus has a preference	13:37
	for those who are blind and know it.	13:40
	Even when they are theologically unsophisticated,	13:42
	socially unacceptable, or disrespectful of authority,	13:45
	like the man in the story.	13:49
	His preference is for those over those	13:52
	who are so sure their sight is 20-20 vision	13:53
	that they miss their chance to be healed.	13:56
	In Barbara King Sauver's most recent novel named	14:00
	The Poisonwood Bible, we meet a baptist	14:03
	missionary from Georgia named Nathan Price.	14:05
	Reverend Price has been called with his wife	14:09
	and four daughters to live and preach	14:12
	in the Belgian Congo in 1959.	14:14
	The story is a spell-binding depiction	14:18
	of life in central Africa 40 years ago,	14:20
	with all its beauty, its suffering,	14:23
	and its political turmoil.	14:25
	Reverend Price proves to be the most despicable	14:28
	character in the whole story, I'm sorry to have to say.	14:30
	He's an absolute tyrant toward the villagers	14:34
	of his mission and his family.	14:36
	From the moment he touches ground	14:40
	and is invited to a welcoming meal	14:41
	by the people whom he will be ministering to,	14:43
	he launches into an assault on his host.	14:46
	Starting with a fanatical sermon on nakedness,	14:49
	a fact of reality in that part of the world,	14:51
	he preaches sermon after sermon about the necessity	14:55
	of baptizing all the children in the Congo River,	14:57
	even though in a recent tragedy,	15:00
	a child from the village had been eaten by a crocodile	15:02
	in that same river.	15:06
	They were so terrified of his intentions	15:07
	that people stopped coming to his services	15:09
	and so he resorts to railing of the villagers publicly	15:11
	whenever he gets the chance.	15:15
	And finally performs mass baptisms unannounced	15:17
	on the children of the village	15:20
	in the midst of a long-awaited rainstorm.	15:22
	Reverend Price was convinced that God had called him	15:25
	to save the natives on his own terms,	15:28
	no matter what it took.	15:30
	But by the end, rather than saving anyone,	15:32
	he has destroyed the mission, his family, and himself.	15:35
	Using the bible as his chief weapon.	15:40
	You can imagine where the book gets its title.	15:43
	In the Johannine community for which	15:48
	John's gospel was written, their main source	15:50
	of tension was between Jews who called	15:52
	themselves disciples of Jesus and other Jews	15:54
	who remained disciples of Moses.	15:57
	Professor Richard Litscher of our Divinity School	16:01
	and other scholars say this lesson may reflect	16:03
	the historic parting of the ways	16:06
	between those who remained faithful to the synagogue	16:08
	and those who were cast out for following Jesus.	16:11
	As we apply this lesson to our own context today however,	16:15
	I don't think of Jews disagreeing so much	16:19
	about Jesus as Christians disagreeing about Jesus.	16:21
	We hear almost on a daily basis	16:25
	of grievous differences among Christians	16:28
	that in the worst cases cause violence to erupt among us,	16:31
	and at the very least, threaten the unity	16:35
	of the whole church.	16:37
	With those on each side usually being certain	16:39
	they hold the key to the truth.	16:41
	While King Sauver's Reverend Price may seem to us	16:44
	like something of a caricature,	16:47
	his attitude of we'll do it no way but mine, is more	16:49
	prevalent within the church than we like to think.	16:53
	We all have our biases, our own spiritual blindnesses.	16:55
	And in many cases, we like it that way.	17:00
	Thank you very much.	17:03
	When I first began to talk about going to seminary	17:05
	back in the mid '70s, one of the least	17:08
	enthusiastic people about that decision was my mother.	17:10
	At the time I thought she was being unsupportive,	17:14
	but her position really was that	17:17
	she had lived a lot longer than I had	17:20
	and she knew people were slow to change.	17:23
	She had lived in the rural south	17:26
	during the days of Jim Crow.	17:28
	She had seen how violently people had opposed integration.	17:30
	And she believed women in the pulpit	17:34
	just might face some similar resistance to change.	17:36
	And that wasn't something she wanted	17:40
	her daughter to go out looking for.	17:41
	As it turned out, her instincts were right,	17:44
	but not her conclusions.	17:46
	As an example of change in the Protestant church,	17:49
	the incorporation of women into the ordained ministry will	17:52
	stand as one of the landmarks of the 20th century.	17:55
	Yes, there have been proponents and opponents.	17:59
	There have been harsh words and stubborn attitudes	18:02
	along the way.	18:05
	But as a parishioner at my first church said,	18:06
	"Clergy women are going to show the church	18:08
	"that we can change."	18:11
	And with Jesus' help, he was right.	18:13
	As these women walked into situations	18:16
	where at first there were strong objections	18:18
	and then it eventually became strong support,	18:21
	it became clear that the love of Christ	18:23
	when given a chance, can overcome the staunchest opponents.	18:25
	The practice of clergywomen now has become	18:31
	so commonplace that many of you	18:33
	probably don't think twice about it.	18:34
	But it was a different story 20 years ago	18:36
	when women first began streaming out of seminaries,	18:39
	degrees in hand with no place to go.	18:42
	And it was remarkably different story 40 years ago	18:45
	when several of the main line protestant churches	18:48
	first allowed women to seek ordination.	18:50
	I wonder what people will be saying 40 years from now	18:55
	about the church's ability to maneuver our way	18:58
	through other mine fields such as doctrinal disagreements,	19:01
	race relations, homosexuality, abortion,	19:05
	the growing disparity between the haves and the have nots,	19:10
	or any other issue that threatens to divide us	19:14
	right down the middle.	19:16
	Will they look back and say Jesus performed a miracle?	19:18
	Those Christians received a vision.	19:21
	They learned to bear witness with one another	19:23
	rather than against each other.	19:26
	To the life giving character of God's in breaking rein	19:28
	for all the world to see.	19:31
	Or will they shake their heads and say what a waste.	19:34
	Those Christians were too blinded by their own	19:37
	righteousness to do what was right	19:40
	and the world simply passed them by?	19:42
	At the time of baptism, the officiant often places	19:47
	a lighted candle in the hand of the one being baptized	19:51
	or of a parent in the case of infant baptism,	19:55
	and says these words, "Let your light so shine	19:58
	"for all the world to see that you may give glory to God."	20:02
	In our baptism we are initiated into a community	20:07
	that shares in the light of Christ,	20:10
	or as we read in a letter to the Ephesians,	20:12
	"We are light."	20:15
	Even as we confess to our blindness,	20:17
	we receive a new vision and a new life.	20:20
	And together we seek to live as children of light.	20:22
	Knowing that even death on a cross could not extinguish	20:27
	the light of Christ, we have hope that his light	20:30
	shining through all of us will also endure eternally	20:33
	that our lives may be signs of his rein on Earth	20:36
	and that of the Judgment Day, we will have no need to say,	20:40
	"Surely we are not blind, are we?"	20:44
	Open your eyes, cherish your God-given sight,	20:49
	and tell the world the Good News of Jesus Christ,	20:54
	the one who heals us and sets us free.	20:57
	Amen.	21:01

Item Info

Title:

Nancy Ferree-Clark - "Seeing Is Believing" (March 14, 1999)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 0:09. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 21:03.
The preacher reads the controversy and debate among Pharisees as tones that beset the Christian communities today over controverisal issues. Women's ordination is regarded as a landmark of 20th century Christian history and wonders how church will navigate the many issues and debates that it is currently facing. Will it remain biased and closed off by its self-righteousness or continue to bear light and testify to the inbreaking of God's reign? (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r42n50004

Date:

March 14, 1999

Speaker:

Ferree-Clark, Nancy

Liturgical Calendar:

Lent

Biblical Book:

John

Chapter and Verse:

John 9:1-41

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0949
ref10055_1ar
uachapelsermaud
duke:321294
dcrau001593
ark:/87924/r42n50004
2e01e52d-aa4c-47a3-8176-84ee8add48b2

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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