1 Samuel 16:1-13; Psalm 23; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41
Rejoice: to feel joy, to be joyful.
Joy: A feeling of extreme happiness or cheerfulness, especially related to the acquisition or expectation of something good. Happiness because of hope.
Joy in the Bible: a deep-rooted, inspired happiness as a special gift from God, as a faith in God. Joy is an inspired happiness received from faith in God. Joy is faith in God.
This is the fourth Sunday in Lent, rose Sunday, what we call “Laetare” Sunday. We are more than halfway through Lent, and we are to take today to stop fasting and giving up things and finding ways to be more pious. Today we are called to rejoice – to have faith in God – to rejoice in the midst of darkness, to rejoice in the midst of repentance and re-commitment, to rejoice and not to sit in sack cloth and ashes. Just for today, rejoice – have faith in God.
In our reading from the first book of Samuel, Samuel is called on by God to stop grieving for Saul, and to rejoice, to have faith in God, in the anointing of a new king, David. God looks at David and doesn’t see a youngest son who is at the bottom of a family’s power structure. God does not look on David’s outward appearance, God looks at David and sees his heart. We are called on to rejoice in the fact that God does not look at us in the same way that the world looks at us, too. God sees who we are, the depths of our hearts, not who we were born to, or how much money we have, or who our friends are, or the sins we are guilty of. The message to Samuel is clear: Rejoice in what God has done!
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians continues the theme of rejoicing, having faith in God. “Once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light!” “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” The message to the Ephesians is clear: Rejoice – have faith in what God is doing in you!
In our Gospel reading from John today Jesus continues the theme of rejoicing, having faith in what God has done He is asked a thought-provoking question by his disciples. Jesus sees the man blind since birth, and his disciples offer the traditional understanding of someone who is disabled from birth, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
When I usually read these verses I feel a combination of compassion for the blind man and frustration with the disciples. We all know that birth defects don’t happen in children because their parents have sinned. We all know that God doesn’t punish the innocent. I’ve never looked at someone who has suffered some kind of catastrophe and thought, “They must be a big-time sinner!” I’ve never heard a story about someone who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and thought, “What did they do?” I’ve never heard stories about a person whose life has just been a series of bad luck and thought, “What goes around comes around.”
Oh wait… I actually have sometimes thought those negative thoughts, that little voice in my head that preaches judgement and not mercy. I read passages like this and I claim to be immune to this kind of “blaming the innocent” message… but there are times I think just like the disciples in today’s scripture do. “What did they do? They must be a big-time sinner. Well, what goes around comes around.” Do you ever have that little voice catch you off guard? Why do we do that?
Jesus is quick to correct the meaning of the man’s blindness. This translation says, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” This man’s blindness is not punishment for sin, either his or someone else’s. This man’s blindness was not about sin, it was simply about divine providence. That’s a subtle difference but I think it’s important to understand the meaning behind Jesus’ statement.
The man was not born blind because of something he or someone else did or didn’t do; his blindness was not some form of divine punishment, he was born blind because sometimes people are born blind. But God in Jesus Christ raised up the man’s blindness as a teachable moment about how God works in the world. So when this man receives his sight from Jesus he’s not getting back something that he lost, or something that was purposely taken away from him. Since he was born blind, he didn’t recover his sight, he received sight – for the first time. The miracle Jesus performs is not a restoration of something that was lost; receiving sight is a gift of something new that the man previously never had; Jesus has given this man that once was blind something completely new; new sight, new life. How can we not rejoice in the gift that Jesus gives this formerly blind man today? The message to the disciples is clear: Rejoice, have faith in what God has done!
Jesus has freed us from spending our time debating “Who sinned” and offered us the faith and love to reject our judgment of each other and to ask the better question: “How can we help God bring new life and healing to everyone?”
New life. This is the promise of our Christian faith Brothers and Sisters – that we will not simply be healed of something we have suffered, or that we will simply be restored to some previous state of glory. The promise of our Christian faith is that, because of what Jesus did once for us on the cross and especially through his resurrection, we now become something new, something that has not existed before, something that God has ordained, something that God has graciously given to us – resurrection. In death we will not simply be in God’s presence again, as Adam and Eve were in the Garden. In death we will finally be One – we will all be One – One with each other, One with Jesus the Son, One with the Holy Spirit, One with God the Father – we will all be One. We will all become pure love.
In the midst of suffering and chaos and loss and painful change, in the midst of disease and death and destruction, may we find the courage and the faith and the hope to pause on this Laetare Sunday and remember Jesus’ words to us about joy that pervades scripture constantly – “ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice,” (Philippians 4:4). “Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete,“(John 16:24b). “Rejoice, for your names are written in heaven,” (John 10:20). “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete,” (John 15:11).”
So even if it’s just for today – just for this hour – just for this minute – just for this second – Rejoice – have faith in what the Lord has done.
Rejoice in what the Lord is doing every day, and every hour, and every minute, and every second.
Rejoice – have faith in God’s gift of salvation to you.
Rejoice – have faith that you are God’s beloved child.
Rejoice – that in you God has done something new and beautiful and life-giving.
Rejoice – for you are God’s free gift to the world!
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