Zion Lutheran Church
March 22, 2020
WELCOME to our new reality! Devotional Home Worship for March 22, 2020.
4TH SUNDAY IN LENT
THE PRAYER OF THE DAY: Bend your ear to our prayers, Lord Christ, and come to us. By your gracious life and death for us, bring light into the darkness of our hearts, and anoint us with your Spirit, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen!
BIBLE READINGS: (Old Testament) 1ST SAMUEL 16:1-13 PSALM 23
(New Testament) EPHESIANS 5:8-14 JOHN 9:1-41
PASTOR’S MESSAGE: Grace and Peace from our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen!
In the 5TH verse of the John text Jesus said, “As long as I AM in the world, I AM the light of the world.” In the land of Midian, a very long time before the birth of Jesus, Moses was contacted by God through a bush that burned but was not consumed. Moses was to help lead God’s people out of Egypt. In the conversation that is recorded in the 3RD chapter of Exodus, God reveals his name as I AM. How do we understand what Jesus is saying? Does he mean that as long as God is in the world, God is the light of the world? Does he mean that as long as Jesus is in the world, Jesus is the light of the world?
As this event of a healing of a man born blind plays out, we hear a voicing that only God could do such a thing, “Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” (John 9:32-33) In fact the healed man openly acknowledges this by saying, “He is a Prophet.” (John 9:17) So it seems that God has brought light and new life into this man who was born blind.
Why this extraordinary event? Did a man get lucky to have a trick work? Did God bring light on the human condition of sin and the possibility of new life in the gift of divine salvation? I think it is the later of the two. The Pharisees give it away in John 9:40 when they say, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” Too often we are plunged into darkness in our sinful stubborn blindness to the truth. No doubt God is at work in bringing light into darkness and new life into humankind.
Notice also the work of the man born blind who become healed. He is a full partner with God. His receiving of the muddy Word of God, his washing to allow the light of the Holy Spirit to replace his darkness, and his openness to enter the pool of Siloam and be sent as an Ambassador of Christ Jesus as Prophetic light to the world. Answering the call was not easy, in fact it was downright demanding. But in belief with the light of God’s Holy Spirit the man born blind who is healed pushes forward even against the threat of being driven out of his part of the world.
In the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5:14 Jesus says, “You are the light of the world.” I think it is God’s plan to fully involve us in spreading the light that will reveal the Grace of God in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That you and I as the Church, the body of Christ, are given God’s Word, plunged in baptism into the fullness of God’s Spirit, and sent into the darkness to shine forth the light of Christ Jesus to reveal the gift of divine salvation in the crucified and risen One.
The Apostle in Ephesians 5:8-9 directs us, “Live as children of the light, for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.” In the darkness of our current situation of COVID-19 you and I have a responsibility. Be truthful in acknowledging our serious reality without participating in rumors. Be in the right of obeying the wise directives of God’s wisdom to move humanity into responses that are for the good of providing necessities for life and for the safety of all people. And finally, in the kindness of Jesus, let us all look out for our neighbor to genuinely care in a generosity of patience with each other, a generosity of talents and gifts we can extend to each other, and a generosity of bringing a Word of God to dispel the grief some are experiencing in our changed reality. In other words, “Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:19)
Notice that Jesus empowered the man born blind and that he did not abandon him in a world of darkness. I AM has also empowered each of us to shine the light and I AM will not abandon us. In faith gather the household each Sunday to read the Bible, to share concerns and joys of the week, and to pray for each other, first responders, the medical community, our government, and our neighbors, especially those infected with COVID-19. In the Holy Spirit we are joined together in this kind of worship until the darkness is dispelled and the light and new life of I AM’s salvation once again gathers us into our dedicated brick and mortar places of worship. Remember, you are the light of the world. And trust Jesus’ Word, “As long as I AM in the world, I AM the light of the world.” Amen!
THE LORD’S PRAYER: Our Father, who are in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen!