4th Sunday of Lent
John 9: 1-41
Eph 5: 8-14
March 29, 1981
MHC
Once again I was with Boy Scouts this weekend--this time my own Troop 40 of Mt. Vernon--and preached from notes. Here's a really old homily on today's gospel and epistle.
“Once
you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of
light” (Eph 5:8).
Do
you remember how you used to be afraid of the dark when you were a child?
What
were you afraid of?
Darkness
is probably a universal symbol of coldness, fear, evil, death, chaos. We think of specific and tangible examples
like the Dark Ages, the Black Death, the Black Hole of Calcutta, and Darth
Vader.
What
a powerful symbol, then, is Jesus when he proclaims, “I am the light of the
world” (John 9:5). He gives us a parable
in action by opening the darkened eyes of a blind man, by letting in the
sunshine of this world—and of the next, for the man then can see that Jesus is the Son of Man (9:37-38).
Christ Healing the Blind Man, by El Greco |
The
gospel, and the epistle, too, are about choices as well as about light. Light already implies the alternative of
darkness, and that, of course, is the choice: “Once you were darkness, but now you are light
in the Lord” (Eph 5:8). We have chosen
the light of the world over against the darkness of lewd conduct, lust, silly
or suggestive talk—these vices are the darkness to which Paul is referring (cf.
5:3-5).
Even
the poor blind man, still blinking his eyes in the light, had to choose. “You are his disciple, but we are disciples
of Moses” (John (9:28). Our choices
affect others, inevitably, just as the blind man’s choices affected the
Pharisees and his parents. The Pharisees
and his parents prefer darkness, tho they may claim to be in the light. Few have the courage to walk with Christ in
the light.
Yes,
seeing can be frightening; the darkness can also be comforting. How a baby howls when it must emerge into the
light of the world from the darkness of the womb! And don’t our eyes resist the light when we
come out of a movie theater? We can
indeed resist the change that light demands of us. We can resist the demands that Christ our
Light makes of us!
Our
guilt and our sin can be more comfortable than belonging fully to Christ, no
matter how deadly or sterile our darkness.
There is real evil in the world and in ourselves. It needs to be confronted, like evil of the
political and economic animals to who prey on society’s weakest members, like
the evil of our little jealousies, favoritisms, sharp words, inconsiderations,
all more or less deliberately chosen because to change requires effort.
Let
us bring our blindness to Christ and confess that he is our healer and our
savior! Let us renew our baptismal
commitment, as the gospel suggests with its references to anointing and to
washing (9:6-7). The OT reading
apparently was also chosen for its foreshadowing of Christian initiation and
the reception of the gift of the Spirit.
The epistle concludes with what is apparently part of a primitive
baptismal hymn: “Awake, O sleeper, and
arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light” (Eph 5:14). We beg him for the courage to turn from our
sin and to “walk as children of the light” (5:8).
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