The Fourth Sunday of Lent
15 March  A. D. 2026

Year A Readings
1 Samuel 16:1-13, Psalm 23, Ephesians 5:8-14
+ John 9:1-41

Collect
Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Homily
During these times of upheaval in our communities, our country, and our world, I have experienced hope and reassurance through the relationships Jessica and I have with our neighbors. Our neighbors certainly do not agree on everything, but together we’ve decided to live as an alternative to the prevailing mood of antagonism and disquiet. We look out for one another and each other’s children. We play together, work together on projects, and encourage one another with kindness and affirmation. These friendships and the emotional safety which they create buffer us against the storms of war and acrimonious domestic politics. We’re all different, to be sure, but no one acts out or ever becomes violent in their speech or action. It might seem like a small thing, but in reality, it’s a very practical way of responding a world that appears to be falling apart.

We’re all Christians, you see, and the ethos of Jesus’ life and teachings creates a shared set of values that go beyond our politics or which podcasts we listen to. (I like Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History, by the way.) Because of our various unique encounters with Jesus in our lives of faith, we’ve all decided that living together in harmony and mutual support is better than being right about everything.

When I read the news of an antisemitic domestic terrorist driving his car into the Jewish preschool at Temple Israel Synagogue in West Bloomfield Hills, I called my neighbor to talk it through. And when our government refused to admit that bombing an Iranian elementary school, killing over a hundred children, was not collateral damage but a targeting error based on outdated intelligence,  I sought out a neighbor who was willing to listen to my feelings of frustration. Repeatedly, I seek the consolation of these relationships in which the love of Christ actually makes a difference. We want what’s best for one another, and we do what we can together to create a community where people are safe. So often creating that safety feels like protesting against the heartbreak of the world.

That ethos of Jesus’ life, the ethos of trying to make life better for the people around us, is explicit in the Gospel reading today. Jesus performs a simple life-giving miracle: he gives a blind man sight. And this miracle is also a kind of protest. Jesus lives in a world where any good that undermines the government is put down. So, the pharisees do not want to see the simple truth revealed in this action: that Jesus comes from God.

Curiously, even in the absence of Jesus the man refuses to back down. Even when the badger him, ridicule him, and threaten him, he comes right back at the pharisees: “Here is an astonishing thing!” the man exclaims. “You do not know where [Jesus] 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.” The truth is as plain as day; the pharisees refuse to see it and throw the man out of the synagogue.

The pain and heartbreak of our time is also caused by willful ignorance and what Paul describes as “the unfruitful works of darkness.” But everything is coming to light, and it is indeed shameful what has been done in secret by those who have hungered for power and abused their privilege. The Lenten question is: being born from above—like Nicodemus, the Samaritan Woman, and the Blind Man—will we have courage and grow in our willingness to stand boldly in the face of prejudice in order to declare and enact the truth of Jesus? I haven’t known any of you very long, but I think we can.

Like the neighborhood where Jessica and I live with our children, I see the love of Christ alive in our community here. We have many differing points of view within our fellowship. But this is a richness and nothing to be feared. When the world breaks our hearts, let us lean on one another. I see the signs of the New Birth in the care and love which is shared in this place. And now it’s time to go deeper. It’s time to grow spiritually and act ethically. It is time to discard the notion that we’re small and have little to give. It’s time to let go of the idea that our gifts are of no account! For we have seen that Jesus is the Messiah, and we know that the power of his love will turn all the darkness in us and around us to light. Now is the time to hear the preaching of the Apostle Paul: “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead!” Now is the time to seek Christ in all things.

Like the blind man, none of us sought Jesus out in the first instance of our faith. There was only an unrequited longing in our hearts that we could not fulfill and that we did not understand. Then there was that moment when Jesus came to us and made himself known. Neither was our sin the cause of our suffering, nor was our healing earned. No: we were born of the Spirit for the glory of God, that we might become the body of Christ: to stand in the face of a snide, domineering, self-gratifying world and declare the Name of the Savior. Now, as Jesus came first to us, we must seek him through all the corridors of thought, all the musings of the heart, and all the actions of the body. Now is the time has come to act upon what we have perceived. The time has come to walk with Jesus toward the Cross, for he has claimed us as his own, and where the Master is, there his servants will be also. He goes to stand in the face of a cruel, ignorant world. Will you go with him?