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The Lord said to Samuel, "How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons." Samuel said, "How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me." And the Lord said, "Take a heifer with you, and say, `I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.' Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you." Samuel did what the Lord commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, "Do you come peaceably?" He said, "Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice." And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, "Surely the Lord's anointed is now before the Lord." But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, "Neither has the Lord chosen this one." Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, "Neither has the Lord chosen this one." Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, "The Lord has not chosen any of these." Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your sons here?" And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here." He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The Lord said, "Rise and anoint him; for this is the one." Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah

 

Ephesians 5:8-14

Once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light-- for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,

"Sleeper, awake!
Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you."

Gospel

John 9:1-41

As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man's eyes, saying to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, "Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?" Some were saying, "It is he." Others were saying, "No, but it is someone like him." He kept saying, "I am the man." But they kept asking him, "Then how were your eyes opened?" He answered, "The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, `Go to Siloam and wash.' Then I went and washed and received my sight." They said to him, "Where is he?" He said, "I do not know."

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, "He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see." Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath." But others said, "How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?" And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man, "What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened." He said, "He is a prophet."

The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?" His parents answered, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself." His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."

So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, "Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner." He answered, "I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see." They said to him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?" He answered them, "I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?" Then they reviled him, saying, "You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from." The man answered, "Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. 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." They answered him, "You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?" And they drove him out.

Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" He answered, "And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him." Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he." He said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshiped him. Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind." Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, "Surely we are not blind, are we?" Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, `We see,' your sin remains."

Sermon

Sermon
The Rev. Jack Zamboni

A Sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter 

The first day of the week, two of the disciples were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?" They stood still, looking sad. (Luke 24:13-16

On Easter Day, two disciples are on the road from Jerusalem. They are leaving the city where their hopes have been shattered. Like the women who had gone to the tomb that morning to anoint the body of their dead teacher, like all of Jesus’ followers in the days after Good Friday, they have had their world turned upside down and torn apart. Everything they had staked their lives on had come to nothing. The man they had left their homes, jobs and families for; the prophet they had hoped would redeem Israel had died a painful, humiliating death. His life had ended in complete failure -- and their lives were undone. They can’t even ask what to do with themselves next. Their minds were in chaos, the hearts filled with grief, their lives directionless. All they could do was get out of town and as they walked, to talk of what had happened again and again, to try to make some sense, any sense, of this death that had made their own lives senseless.

And so, when a stranger asks them what they’ve been talking about, all they can do is stop dead in their tracks looking sad, and then express their amazement that this stranger could be so clueless about what had happened; how he could know nothing of how their world had become unglued, of why their lives were lost, empty, bereft of meaning, purpose and direction.

Most of us have been where these two disciples are at sometime in our own lives: when a loved one has died; when a job or home was lost; when a marriage ended; when an unexpected act of violence cut through our lives; when we heard the diagnosis of a terminal illness; when someone we thought trustworthy betrayed us; when we knew that something we desperately wanted simply wasn’t going to happen; or when we’ve faced the truth of our own failures; our betrayal of our better selves and our ideals. At such times, we find our worlds turned upside down & torn apart; we find ourselves in emptiness and chaos, our lives without sense or direction and, maybe, without hope. We’ve been where these two disciples were at the beginning of their seven-mile walk to Emmaus.

And that, stunningly, is good news. Because the story of the rest of their walk in the company of a mysterious stranger is the story of how the Risen Lord came to them – and comes to us – in such places in our lives. The journey to Emmaus tells of Jesus come to re-make lives in the emptiness of chaos; to re-create hope in the midst of nothingness, brokenness and failure; to make meaning out of lives that have become meaningless; to give life where all seemed dead, and hopeless.¹

And this story tells us, too, how this marvelous resurrection gift happened and happens. It lays out a pattern of how Jesus the Risen Lord works to bring new life where there was death; to make sense where in the midst of chaos and emptiness.

First, Jesus shows up. He comes to be with the disciples where they are. He finds them in their emptiness, confusion and chaos – and, unrecognized, but there, he walks with them. This, of course, is what Jesus has always done. That is why he was born Emmanuel, God with us: “to share our human nature, to live and die as one of us” ², to accompany us on all our journeys, and especially those that take us into places of chaos and emptiness where we don’t know where we are going and life no longer makes sense. One of the reasons that Jesus’ own life ended in emptiness, chaos and failure was so that he might know from the inside what that part of human life is like, and so be able to come and find us and be with us when we are in those places ourselves. To re-create our lives, Jesus comes into our places of death- God with us.

Second, Jesus interprets the Scriptures. For the disciples on the road, he takes the familiar stories of their Jewish heritage and shows how they make sense of that utterly senseless event that had thrown their lives into chaos – how it was “necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory.” We might think this is a special case of the use of Scripture -- after all, the texts Jesus is interpreting are those about himself! Not so. Jesus uses the words and images of Scripture to make meaning not only of his life, but of the disciples’ lives, too. He helps them know that God has something to say to them about what had happened in those terrible days; that the words of Scripture point them toward what God is making in the midst of the chaos they were experiencing. The Scriptures are a gift God has given to all of us, so that in partnership with God we might use them to make meaning and sense of our lives. That is why we preach sermons on bible texts each Sunday, why we study Scripture, why we mediate on the Bible alone and reflect on it together in groups. We do these things in order to make sense of our lives in the light of God’s Word. Jesus through the Spirit uses the Scriptures to interpret our lives back to us; so that we may discover again God’s power to remake our lives when we are in chaos and emptiness.

Finally, The Risen Jesus makes himself known to the disciples. As he had done so many times before, he sat at table with them; he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. And in that instant, they recognized him. Was it the familiarity of his voice in the prayer of blessing; or some characteristic way of tearing the loaf of bread? We will never know -- and it doesn’t matter.What matters is that suddenly, utterly unexpectedly, they know Jesus there with them alive. The one whom they had been mourning was not dead! The world had changed under their feet once more, and that meant they were thrown into chaos yet again. What sense were they to make of their lives now? Figuring that out would not be any easier than when they’d thought he was gone for good. But there is this crucial difference -- Jesus is alive. Never again will they have to re-make their lives alone. They will create their lives in partnership with the Risen Lord who has power over death; power to make their lives new; power to give direction where all had seemed dead, hopeless and without direction. This, too, is what Jesus always does: beyond expectation, the Risen Lord makes himself known to us. We discover Jesus there, alive -- so that with him as our partner in creating, we can re-make our broken lives.

This is the pattern the Emmaus story reveals of how the Risen Lord re-creates lives in the midst of emptiness and chaos. Jesus comes to be with us on our journey, in our chaos and deadness. Through the Scriptures, he helps us make meaning of what had seemed meaningless; to find sense in what seemed senseless. Finally he makes himself known to us alive, sharing the power of his resurrection to remake our lives in partnership with us.

This, too, is the pattern of the Eucharist we celebrate every Sunday: We come to be with each other and with Jesus. We hear the Scriptures and seek to make sense of our lives in their light.

Finally, we break bread, knowing that there, the Risen Lord will be made known to us. The Church re-presents this pattern to us in our weekly worship to remind us that through this pattern Jesus works in partnership with us to re-make our lives when we find ourselves in places of chaos and disorientation. Every Sunday, we come together with Jesus and each other; we interpret the Scriptures; we break bread. In this pattern, the Risen Lord comes with the power to re-create our lives.

These days, I am acutely aware of my need to live into this pattern as I find myself in chaos and confusion as I prepare to leave Grace-St. Paul’s. When I find myself sad and disoriented, as I do some days, I need to seek Jesus companionship as I walk the road; I need to ask him to open the Scriptures, that together he and I might make meaning of what is going on in my life; And I need to come here for the breaking of the bread: to find here -- though not just here -- that the Lord is risen indeed and is here to share his resurrection power to create with me a new life that I cannot yet see.

I know I am not alone in this need. Some of you in your individual lives are in places of chaos and emptiness; confusion and uncertainty. As a congregation, you are on a transition journey which will certainly have moments of disorientation and chaos along the way. So hold onto this pattern through which the Risen Jesus re-makes lives and give hope. Every Sunday – but not just on Sunday -- Come to be with each other and with Jesus. Hear the Scriptures and seek to make sense of your lives in their light. Finally, break bread, and the Risen Lord will be made known to you, come to share with you the resurrection power that can re-create your lives.

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