Sermon - John 9:1-41

<p>In today’s gospel reading, we are invited into a story, a story that simply did not just take place a long time ago, but a story that is truly our story, here and now.  Because of the nature of this gospel passage, I am going to do something different.  <strong>Before</strong> we hear the reading, I would like to share just a few insights with you. </p> <p>The community to which the Gospel of John is addressed may very well have been expelled from the synagogue for confessing Jesus as Messiah.  They may well have felt isolated and abandoned.  So, as you experience hearing today’s reading about the isolated blind man, ask yourself how this passage might address the isolated and the abandoned, not only within John’s community, but also the isolated and abandoned among us today.  How does this story address us as we face a whole new form of living in isolation?</p> <p>Not only does this reading address the nature of this early Christian community, it also works to undermine a simplistic understanding of sin.  When the disciples voice a common view of the day that disability or hardship is the result of sin, a view some people today even continue to suggest, <strong>Jesus sharply disagrees.</strong>  Also, when the Pharisees assume that knowledge of the law automatically grants righteousness, Jesus counters their thinking by saying that precisely because they <strong>feel so certain</strong> regarding their understanding, because they <strong>deny</strong> their sin and <strong>claim</strong> to “see,” they are in fact sinning because they do <strong>not</strong> recognize and trust God’s very saving presence to them in the person of Jesus. So, are <strong>they</strong> really the blind ones?</p> <p>With these insights in mind, I invite you to listen or follow along and enter into this story. </p> <p><strong>John 9:1-41</strong></p> <p>As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3Jesus answered, “Neither this