Church on Morgan
For an Absence
[MUSIC PLAYING] From Church on Morgan, a United Methodist congregation whose desire is to be a reminder of the beauty of God and each other. This podcast is a collection of Sunday teachings inspired by the revised Common Lectionary and recorded weekly in Raleigh, North Carolina. And now a moment of silence before this episode begins. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Good morning. My name is Tim. And as I always say, when it's my privilege to preach, it's one of my great honors to be here at Church on Morgan in my retirement, retired in 2022 after-- I don't know, 45 years of ministry, I guess. And so trust me, it was time. And it's a joy to be on this staff, a great staff, and it's a joy to be with all of you. I just want to say a word of support for the feast day of St. Francis Pam and I have done the blessing of animals, I think, in every church we've ever served, just about, and some of my sweetest memories. We have two little Yorkie puppies at home. I'm not puppies, they're 13 and 4, but two Yorkie dogs, a senior dog. He and I limp down the stairs together. But so the older one is put the terror in terrier, so he can't come. But maybe we'll bring the youngest one for it to be blessed. But I think one of the sweetest-- so I've blessed lizards and turtles and stuff I never thought I'd bless in my life. But I think one of the sweetest memories at Ritesville Beach was somebody brought a picture of their cat because the cat was too sick to come. And the cat was getting ready to-- goodness sakes, I'm so old, I choked myself up with my own stories. The cat was getting ready to cross over that bridge. And so we just prayed a prayer blessing and prayed that God would be with that kitten and that cat as they made that transition. So it's a sweet, sweet service if you've never been and you've never done. Do have your animals on leashes or in cages, whatever the case may be. We don't want loose animals in the downtown. Raleigh. Well, today's scripture reading is from the Gospel of John, chapter 9. And I'm going to ask you to bear with me because I'm going to do what you never do, which is I'm going to read a whole chapter, 41 verses, because it is such a powerful story in the Gospel of John. And it's hard to choose. It's got a wonderful characters and twists and turns and drama and tension and all of this going on. So it's hard to just pick out a couple of verses and then read that passage. So I also want to say, probably many of you know this, that unfortunately in the long and sometimes checkered history of the church, the Gospel of John particularly has been used for anti-Semitic things. And John does, in this passage, he talks about Jewish authorities because they were. That is correct. The church hadn't started yet. They were in the synagogue. But what he really is talking about is so that we don't help participate in that us versus them. What he really is talking about is religious authority. He's talking about people with religious power, right? Which we still have today in the church, of course. And so when we get to that part, I'm going to self-edit. And I've already asked the Lord to forgive me. And he said he will. And so you do what you do you, as they say. But and I'll just say religious authorities. When what the text actually says, at least in the common English Bible, is Jewish authorities. You see what I'm saying? So OK, so chapter 9, as Jesus walked along, he saw a man who was blind from birth. Jesus' disciples asked Rabbi, who sinned so that he was born blind, this man or his parents? Jesus answered, neither he nor his parents. This happened so that God's mighty works might be displayed in him. While it's daytime, we must do the works of him who sent me, night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world. After he said this, he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva and smeared the mud on the man's eyes. Jesus said to him, go wash in the pool of psilome. This word means sent, so the man went away and washed. When he returned, he could see. This man's neighbor, isn't those who used to see him when he was a beggar, said, isn't this the man who used to sit and beg? Some said it is, another said no, it's someone who looks like him. But the man said, it's me. So they asked him, how are you now able to see? He answered the man they called Jesus, made mud smeared on my eyes and said, go wash in the pool of psilome and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see. They asked, where is this man? He replied, I don't know. Then they led the man who had been born blind to the Pharisees. Now Jesus made the mud and smeared it on the man's eyes on a Sabbath day. So Pharisees also asked him how he was able to see. The man told him he put mud on my eyes. I washed and now I see. Some Pharisees said, this man isn't from God because he breaks the Sabbath law. Others said, how can a sinner do miraculous signs like this? So they were divided. Some of the Pharisees questioned the man who'd been born blind again, what do you have to say about him? Since he healed your eyes, he replied, he's a prophet. The religious leaders didn't believe the man had been blind and received his sight until they called for his parents. The religious leaders asked them, is this your son? Are you saying he was born blind? How can he now see? His parents answered, we know he is our son. We know he was born blind, but we don't know how he now sees and we don't know who he healed his eyes. Ask him. He's old enough to speak for himself. His parents said this because they feared the religious authorities. This is because the religious authorities had already decided that whoever confessed Jesus to be the Christ would be expelled from the synagogue. That's why his parents said he's old enough, ask him. Therefore, they called a second time for the man who'd been born blind and said to him, give glory to God, we know this man is a sinner. The man answered, I don't know whether he's a sinner. Here's what I do know. I was blind and now I see. They questioned him, what did he do to you? How did he heal your eyes? He replied, I already told you and you didn't listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too? They insulted him. You are his disciple, but we are Moses' disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses, but we don't know where this man is from. The man answered, this is incredible. You don't know where he's from yet, he healed my eyes. We know that God doesn't listen to sinners. God listens to anyone who's devout and does God's will. No one has ever heard of the healing of the eyes of someone born blind. If this man wasn't from God, he couldn't do this. They responded, you were born completely in sin. How is that you dare to teach us? Then they expelled him. Jesus heard they had expelled the man born blind, finding him. Jesus said, do you believe in the human one? He answered, who is he, sir? I want to believe in him. Jesus said, you have seen him. In fact, he is the one speaking to you. The man said, Lord, I believe, and he worshiped Jesus. Jesus said, I've come into the world to exercise judgment so that those who don't can see and those who see will become blind. Some Pharisees who were with him heard what he said and asked, surely, we aren't blind, are we? Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you wouldn't have any sin. But now that you say we see, your sin remains. This is the word of God given to us the people of God. Thanks be to God. Would you pray with me? "Blesso, Lord, the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts, for you are our strength and our Redeemer." Amen. As I said, this passage that I just read is one of the great stories in the Gospels because it contains so much, so many twists and turns and it contains, it contains some drama and tension. You could look at it almost like a three-act play. As the play opens, as Acts 1 opens and the curtain comes up, we see Jesus in his disciples and they encounter a man-born blind. Now, for some reason, for the Gospel writer, this is an important detail because we never learn the man's name. The man isn't, and that happens frequently in the Gospels, actually, but the man isn't named, but he is called over and over again the man-born blind, meaning he wasn't blind because of a disease from childhood. He wasn't blind because of an accident. He was born blind. And so why is that an important detail? Well, perhaps it's because later, as you'll see, several people, his neighbors, people who'd known him his whole life, the Pharisees, tried to claim, we don't think you're the same person. We don't think you ever were blind, right? And so the Gospel writer says this is a man who was born blind and the disciples asked the question anybody would have asked in the first century, which is, "Jesus, who sinned this man or his parents?" Because the understanding is, was, when you suffered something physically, emotionally, spiritually, when you were going through a difficult time, when you had tragedy happen in your life, you must have done something to earn it. You must have done something for God to do this to you, right? Now, hopefully, we no longer follow that theology. We understand better than that. Life teaches you that life isn't that simple. Pain and heartache and struggle isn't that simple. And yet, we still struggle with it, don't we? I imagine most of us, if we're in a hurry, we're running out to get the car, we see, we get in the driveway and see we have a flat tire. And the first thing we say is, what have I done now? What I do to deserve this? Who did I make mad, right? And we don't mean that literally the way they did in Old Testament times and Jesus times, but still, that carries over into this understanding. I have, as a pastor, had people have terrible tragedies happen in their lives, and they come to me and say, "I know I did something to make God mad." Let's see. That's what the book of Job was written about, you remember. That's why we're told in the prologue to the book of Job. You remember Job who had all these terrible things happen to him. Job was an upright and decent man over and over. We're told that because it was written to combat this terrible theology that says the reason bad things happen is because you've done something. Life just isn't that simple. Pain and heartache and tragedy isn't that simple, is it? And so Jesus says, "Who send this man or his parents?" And Jesus said, "Neither." That's not what this is about. But this is an opportunity for God to show his glory. And so Jesus fits in the mud, makes some kind of paste, puts it on his eyes, instructs him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. He does so and he can see. He comes back and he can see. And this is the first twist in the story. He comes back, he is no longer blind. He can see, but Jesus has disappeared. Jesus is nowhere to be found. And so immediately his neighbors begin to question him. And if you listen during the Gospel read, I'm not claiming you didn't, by the way, but if you did, then you heard over and over again. He tells the same story over and over again, right? What happened? Well, Jesus told me. He took mud. But what am I? Told me to go wash in the pool of Siloam. I did and I can see, right? His neighbors said, "I don't think that's the same guy." No, I'm pretty sure it's the same guy. And he said, "No, it's me. I promise it's me." Because already they're trying to gaslight him. Already they're trying to tell him whatever you've experienced, whatever you think you've seen, literally in this case, you're not really seen, right? And so immediately Jesus is, and meanwhile, Jesus is nowhere. He's left this man to deal with it on his own. He heals him and then he just leaves. So the man is like, they say, "What happened? Jesus healed me." And they said, "Well, where's this Jesus?" I don't know. He was here a minute ago. Jesus? Jesus? You can come up anytime now and act one ends and the curtain falls. The curtain opens on act two and the man is now standing before the religious authorities, standing before the Pharisees because this miracle is wonderful. He's no longer going to be a beggar. He was blind from birth and can see and so they're ready to celebrate with him, right? Well, have you ever been around religious authorities? Yeah, that's not really how the story goes. They're not really ready to celebrate, right? They have a lot of questions and so they begin to grill him. How did you receive his sight? He tells the story again over and over. Jesus, mud, went to the pool of Siloam, washed it off, came, I can see. We don't think you really were born blind. Now I promise I was born blind. Nah, we don't think you're the same guy. And so then they debate among themselves as he's standing there. And they say, wait a minute, did he did this on the Sabbath? He did it on the Sabbath. Well, he can't be from God. Well, he couldn't have done it if he isn't from God, right? It has to be a miracle, sinners can't do miracles. And they have this debate while the man is standing there and they're talking about him. Sadly, this reminds me of more than a few conversations in the church. The youth director comes to the board meeting. She is all excited because last night she opened up the church gym to the neighborhood kids and 50 kids came. Usually at youth group they have four or five or 10. 50 kids came. They had a prayer. They played basketball. At the end they had a devotional. They had snacks and she sent them on their way. She gives their report and no sooner has she finished her report than somebody raises a hand and says, did you get trustees permission for that? And somebody else raises a hand and says, I hate to be the person to say this. By the way, if you ever say that, just don't go ahead and say whatever you're going to say. I hate to be the person to say this, but don't we have liability issues? Does our insurance cover that? What if one of them got hurt and all of these questions start? Nobody's even listened to her joy and the wonder of what's happened. The miracle of what's happened. All of these questions start popping up. Hey, shouldn't we walk through the building and be sure none of those kids took any of our stuff? And before you know it, she's in tears. All she want to do is give a report. But sharing God's love with the wider world and the community which had been left behind. And before you know it, she's in tears. She'll learn. We'll teach her. Or drive her out trying. And woman appears before her church board. Now, why are you here tonight? I feel called to pastoral ministry. I feel called to preach. You can't be called to preach. I'm pretty sure I'm called to preach. You can't be called to preach. Why can't it be called to preach? You're a woman. We don't believe in that. Well, here I am. And here you are. This story from 2000 years ago could be told today, couldn't it? You're not blind. Pretty sure I was. What happened? How did he do it on a Sabbath? How, why, where, when, who? For all of you who have ever been in that place in the church. For all of you who have had the pain of being not seen or not heard or told you weren't really listening to God because of your gender, because of your sexuality, because of who you love, because of what you look like, because of the color of your skin, because of the language in your home growing up. I apologize. On behalf of the Church of Jesus Christ, I'm sorry that that has ever happened anywhere, because it should never happen anywhere. We should always be a body. And one of the things we hope we can do here at Church on Morgan is for those of you who have been hurt by the Church, we hope we can, we can be a place where you can be healed. We hope we can be a place that doesn't, that doesn't talk like that. That offers you healing and love and grace and assurance and comfort and forgiveness and the opportunities to start again. I am deeply appreciative and I deeply admire all of you who have been hurt and burned by the Church and you haven't given up. And you may say to me, you've never been hurt by the Church. I mean, look at me. Well, you don't do that, but you know, I'm a white, straight male. Yeah, times, I have at times, but not so much that I wanted to give up and go away. I was hurt by the Church when I was just coming into ministry. Pam and I were, we met at seminary and wake for us. And I finished a year ahead of her before her and we got married. And I knew that, I knew that if we started our ministry, then she would never finish her degree because that was obviously way before online and all that. And so I just knew if we started moving around Eastern North Carolina, she'd probably never finish. And so I thought, well, that's not fair. So I worked in the bookstore for a year so she could finish her degree. And as she finished her degree, that my last year of seminary, I did a field education experience at Wilson Temple United Methodist Church right down the road in historic Oberlin, one of our historic African American congregations. In fact, the pastor there at the time who has since outraced us to the father's house, the pastor there at the time officiated our wedding and the youth group all came. And we have dear friends there to this day. And it's one of those places to this day when I walk in that sanctuary, it feels like being at home again. But we were another denomination. So I got time to put my resume in and put the word out that I was interested in pastoring. And I did that and I went to see the denominational official and he said, "Well, I read your resume good." And he said, "It looks good." He said, " Except there are a couple of things." I thought, "Oh, no, didn't my past catch up with me?" But no, it wasn't that, it wasn't that. He said, "Yeah, he said, "I see you did a field education experience and it wasn't, it was at a Methodist church." See, that's true, that's true. Well, some of our churches are going to have a problem with that. He said, "And also, it was a black church." Now, some of our churches are going to have a problem with that. I said, "Well, I mean, technically it's red brick." Now, see, I thought that was clever, you did too. The denominational officials don't think comments like that are clever. So, he didn't really laugh the way you did. But I came home that day and said to Pam, "I think we're going to be United Methodist." And that's how the journey started. So, at this point, the man's back to our story, the man's parents are called before them, because they don't believe he's the man born from it. So, they say, "Is this your son? This is our son. How was he? We don't know how he was healed. All we know is that he was blind when he was born and he's our son." But he's of age, you go ahead and ask him, because the gospel writer says they were scared of being thrown out. They were scared of being expelled, right? So, the man is called back before them again. And the Pharisees say, "What happened? He recounts it once again, as you heard in the scripture. I was blind and now I see, I was lost and now I'm found. Jesus put mud in my eyes, went washed off, came back, I can see." And they say, "At this point, it's apparent the man has had enough, as they say." And so, he says, "I don't know why you keep asking me these questions. You won't listen. You keep asking me these questions. Do you want to be his disciples?" Now, that was going a little too far. And so, you can believe the crowd gasped at that point. They're like, "He did not just say that to the Pharisees." No, I'm pretty sure he just said that to the Pharisees. They said, "But while he had the floor, somebody said, can I get a witness?" And he said, "Oh, I got a witness." And he said, "Isn't this funny? You're confused." He said, "But I was blind and now I see. I was lost and now I'm found." You keep asking me the same questions. We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, and yet this man healed my sight. If this man weren't from God, he couldn't have done that. And at this point, they do get mad, and the gospel writer says they expelled him from the synagogue. Sadly, I've heard that too. "Young woman, who do you think you are telling us how to do our jobs?" It's okay for you to hang out with youth all the time, but we're the trustees of the church. We're in control and with the property this church is our responsibility. Who do you think you are? Young woman, who do you think you are telling us you're called to preach when we're telling you you're not? "Act 2 ends." Act 3 opens, the curtain comes up, and lo and behold, Jesus is back. All of a sudden, Jesus appears. He sees the man who was blind from birth. He says, "So how's it going?" Guys like, "No, not so good." You don't really want to know. Not so good. He's like, "Well, do you believe in what we call the Son of Man in the Common English Bible? It says, "Do you believe in the human one? Do you believe in the human one? I would if I'd see him." He said, "Well, you're not only seeing him, you're talking to him." He's like, "Lord, I believe." You see, that's the essence of belief, isn't it? His story is our story. Jesus appears in our lives and it's difficult to describe. It's hard to tell somebody else about a spiritual experience, isn't it? Because it isn't necessarily logical. It isn't necessarily quantifiable. That's why it's faith. Faith can't necessarily be explained like a science book. Faith is faith. And so Jesus appears in our lives and all of a sudden if you're not careful, sometimes our lives are more complicated after he appears than before he appears. You wouldn't blame the blind man if at some point in all of this drama, he thought to himself, "I was better off blind. I was better off when I was begging by the side of the road. People weren't hassling me at least." Right? Sometimes Jesus appears in our lives and he changes our lives and suddenly we can't be quiet about injustice and we have to speak up about racism and we have to be concerned about the hungry and the unhoused and all of the people out there we need to care about because Jesus has touched our lives and we share the love of God with the world around us. Is that easy to explain? It isn't easy to explain. And so one of the things I say to people all the time is I have never fallen into the trap of trying to defend the faith. God doesn't need me to defend him. The truth is if you read the Gospels, Jesus never does. He's like, "Here it is. I don't want it. That's your call. I'm going on to the next person to see if they want it." Right? We don't need to get pulled into that trap of trying to defend the faith. That isn't our responsibility because the truth is faith isn't defendable. It's like it's the same thing. It's like human love. If you said to me, "Prove you love, Pam." No, I can't do that. We've been married 40 years next June 15th, 40 years. I can tell you this. I can tell you that between services, I spent the whole time watching that window to see when that little five-foot-tall person would be walking by and I could see her again. I can tell you that. I can tell you that to this day when I see her, we can be gone from each other for five minutes. We can be gone for each other for five days when I see her. My heart skips a beat and I'm reminded of the words of the poet. Who said, "But one man loved your pilgrim soul and loved the sorrows of your changing face." Isn't that a great line and loved the sorrows of your changing face? So that's not quantifiable. That's faith and that's how faith is. Jesus, when he was here on earth, God incarnate, Jesus then was crucified, resurrected, and ascended to heaven and he left. This story is really the story of the church. Jesus is with us for a little while. He ascends to heaven and leaves and then there's this period of absence. And we're in that period of absence because we're between the first coming and the second coming. We affirm the second coming every time we gather. We affirm in our creeds. We're going to affirm it in a minute in the great Thanksgiving. Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again. But we're in this moment now of his absence. And so in his absence, what Jesus said to his disciples is, "I'm not going to leave you alone. I'm leaving the Holy Spirit with you so that when I can't be with you, I'll still be with you. So that when I can't go be with you physically, I'll still be with you spiritually so that you'll never be alone." And so that's our promise. Our promise is in these days of absence, in these days when we're missing God or missing Jesus and it's hard to, we hold on to the power of the Holy Spirit who's with us no matter what. Wendell Berry is one of my favorite poets, that great Kentucky poet and farmer. writes a lot about the nature and he writes this poem for his wife. He wrote this poem for his wife. It's titled "For an Absence" and Berry writes, "When I cannot be with you, I will send my love. So much is allowed to human lovers, to watch over you in the dark, a winged small presence who never sleeps however long the night. Perhaps it cannot protect or help. I do not know, but it watches always. And so you will sleep within my love, within the room, within the dark. And when restless you wake and see the room pale lit by that watching, you will think it is only dawn and go quiet to sleep again." In the absence of Christ, he leaves for us the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is with us all of the time and days of joy and and days of sorrow and days when everything is going right and in days when the world is on our shoulders. So that even in the darkest of our nights, the light of the Holy Spirit is there. And we will roll over and see that light and think to ourselves, it is only the dawn and go quiet to sleep once again. In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you for joining today. If this episode has been meaningful to you, would you take a moment to share it with a friend? To support this ministry or learn more about our community, visit us at churchonmorgan.org. [Music] (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]