FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT
March 2, 2008

Prayer of the Day:
Bend your ear to our prayers, Lord Christ, and come among 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.

1 Samuel 16:1-13
God Looks into the Heart
1 GOD addressed Samuel: "So, how long are you going to mope over Saul? You know I've rejected him as king over Israel. Fill your flask with anointing oil and get going. I'm sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I've spotted the very king I want among his sons."
2-3 "I can't do that," said Samuel. "Saul will hear about it and kill me."
GOD said, "Take a heifer with you and announce, 'I've come to lead you in worship of GOD, with this heifer as a sacrifice.' Make sure Jesse gets invited. I'll let you know what to do next. I'll point out the one you are to anoint."
4 Samuel did what GOD told him. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the town fathers greeted him, but apprehensively. "Is there something wrong?"
5 "Nothing's wrong. I've come to sacrifice this heifer and lead you in the worship of GOD. Prepare yourselves, be consecrated, and join me in worship." He made sure Jesse and his sons were also consecrated and called to worship.
6 When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, "Here he is! GOD's anointed!"
7 But GOD told Samuel, "Looks aren't everything. Don't be impressed with his looks and stature. I've already eliminated him. GOD judges persons differently than humans do. Men and women look at the face; GOD looks into the heart."
8 Jesse then called up Abinadab and presented him to Samuel. Samuel said, "This man isn't GOD's choice either."
9 Next Jesse presented Shammah. Samuel said, "No, this man isn't either."
10 Jesse presented his seven sons to Samuel. Samuel was blunt with Jesse, "GOD hasn't chosen any of these."
11 Then he asked Jesse, "Is this it? Are there no more sons?"
"Well, yes, there's the runt. But he's out tending the sheep."
Samuel ordered Jesse, "Go get him. We're not moving from this spot until he's here."
12 Jesse sent for him. He was brought in, the very picture of health— bright-eyed, good-looking.
GOD said, "Up on your feet! Anoint him! This is the one."
13 Samuel took his flask of oil and anointed him, with his brothers standing around watching. The Spirit of GOD entered David like a rush of wind, God vitally empowering him for the rest of his life.
Samuel left and went home to Ramah.

Psalm 23
A David Psalm
1-3 GOD, my shepherd! I don't need a thing.
You have bedded me down in lush meadows,
you find me quiet pools to drink from.
True to your word,
you let me catch my breath
and send me in the right direction.
4 Even when the way goes through
Death Valley,
I'm not afraid
when you walk at my side.
Your trusty shepherd's crook
makes me feel secure.
5 You serve me a six-course dinner
right in front of my enemies.
You revive my drooping head;
my cup brims with blessing.
6 Your beauty and love chase after me
every day of my life.
I'm back home in the house of GOD
for the rest of my life.

Ephesians 5:8-14
8-10You groped your way through that murk once, but no longer. You're out in the open now. The bright light of Christ makes your way plain. So no more stumbling around. Get on with it! The good, the right, the true—these are the actions appropriate for daylight hours. Figure out what will please Christ, and then do it.
11-16Don't waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are. It's a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ.
Wake up from your sleep,
Climb out of your coffins;
Christ will show you the light!
So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times!

Gospel Acclamation:
Jesus says, I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will have the light of life.
John 9:1-41
True Blindness
1-2 Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, "Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?" 3-5Jesus said, "You're asking the wrong question. You're looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world's Light."
6-7He said this and then spit in the dust, made a clay paste with the saliva, rubbed the paste on the blind man's eyes, and said, "Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam" (Siloam means "Sent"). The man went and washed—and saw.
8Soon the town was buzzing. His relatives and those who year after year had seen him as a blind man begging were saying, "Why, isn't this the man we knew, who sat here and begged?"
9Others said, "It's him all right!"
But others objected, "It's not the same man at all. It just looks like him."
He said, "It's me, the very one."
10They said, "How did your eyes get opened?"
11"A man named Jesus made a paste and rubbed it on my eyes and told me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' I did what he said. When I washed, I saw."
12"So where is he?"
"I don't know."
13-15They marched the man to the Pharisees. This day when Jesus made the paste and healed his blindness was the Sabbath. The Pharisees grilled him again on how he had come to see. He said, "He put a clay paste on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see."
16Some of the Pharisees said, "Obviously, this man can't be from God. He doesn't keep the Sabbath."
Others countered, "How can a bad man do miraculous, God-revealing things like this?" There was a split in their ranks.
17They came back at the blind man, "You're the expert. He opened your eyes. What do you say about him?"
He said, "He is a prophet."
18-19The Jews didn't believe it, didn't believe the man was blind to begin with. So they called the parents of the man now bright-eyed with sight. They asked them, "Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? So how is it that he now sees?"
20-23His parents said, "We know he is our son, and we know he was born blind. But we don't know how he came to see—haven't a clue about who opened his eyes. Why don't you ask him? He's a grown man and can speak for himself." (His parents were talking like this because they were intimidated by the Jewish leaders, who had already decided that anyone who took a stand that this was the Messiah would be kicked out of the meeting place. That's why his parents said, "Ask him. He's a grown man.")
24They called the man back a second time—the man who had been blind— and told him, "Give credit to God. We know this man is an impostor."
25He replied, "I know nothing about that one way or the other. But I know one thing for sure: I was blind . . . I now see."
26They said, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"
27"I've told you over and over and you haven't listened. Why do you want to hear it again? Are you so eager to become his disciples?"
28-29With that they jumped all over him. "You might be a disciple of that man, but we're disciples of Moses. We know for sure that God spoke to Moses, but we have no idea where this man even comes from."
30-33The man replied, "This is amazing! You claim to know nothing about him, but the fact is, he opened my eyes! It's well known that God isn't at the beck and call of sinners, but listens carefully to anyone who lives in reverence and does his will. That someone opened the eyes of a man born blind has never been heard of—ever. If this man didn't come from God, he wouldn't be able to do anything."
34They said, "You're nothing but dirt! How dare you take that tone with us!" Then they threw him out in the street.
35Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and went and found him. He asked him, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
36The man said, "Point him out to me, sir, so that I can believe in him."
37Jesus said, "You're looking right at him. Don't you recognize my voice?"
38"Master, I believe," the man said, and worshiped him.
39Jesus then said, "I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind."
40Some Pharisees overheard him and said, "Does that mean you're calling us blind?"
41Jesus said, "If you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you're accountable for every fault and failure."

EVANGELISTIC SERMON OUTLINE
DATE WRITTEN FOR: Sunday Morning

Title: What do you see while walking?

Scripture: John 9:1-41

Proposition or Theme Sentence: As Jesus healed the blind man while walking on His journey, I call for us to be as Jesus and do His will while we are walking.

Purpose: The ability to allow the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to see what He calls us to see.

Introduction: Have you ever read or heard Scripture and tell yourself that I know what Jesus is telling to tell us? This familiar passage of Scripture about the blind man being healed by Jesus is just such a passage of Scripture for me. Yes, I have read and heard this passage of Scripture over and over, but now something new is coming at me. Here we have Jesus just walking with His disciples and they come upon a man born blind. The disciples decide to ask Jesus who committed sin this man or his parents, but Jesus responds that neither this man nor his parents sinned for he is blind that the glory of God will be seen. Have you ever walked along a street or maybe even driven along a road and saw a homeless person sitting or walking along the same road? Have you ever said that except by the grace of God there go I? Well, this me this statement of our day is equivalent to the thinking of Jesus day blaming a sin for the misfortune of people. I think that I see Jesus just walking along the road when the blind man is seen and then responds to His disciples that neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this man is blind that God’s glory may be seen. Too often, we do have a tendency to see people who have a disease, disability, poverty, or whatever as consequences of their sins, but what happens if we begin to look at other people as Jesus did this man that God’s glory wants to be seen. Could this be having the compassion of God?
Jesus healed that blind man by taking some dirt and mixing with his spit to make a little mud cake that placing on the blind man’s eyes. This is not where the healing occurred, but Jesus told the man to go wash in the pool called Siloam. The actions of the man were obedience to the word of God. The man went and washed in the pool, and then all of his relatives and friends noticed that he was no longer blind. Everybody asked him how he became able to see, even the religious leaders of the day. The man’s response was that a man named Jesus placed mud on his eyes and told him to go wash in the pool and when he did, he could see. There were some doubters in the audience including the religious leaders who could not believe that Jesus healed people by God’s power and maybe this man was not the man who was born blind. The religious leaders even brought the grown man’s parents and asked them if this man was blind and if he is how he becomes healed. The parents were afraid of the religious leaders throwing them out of the Temple so they stated to the religious leaders that they should ask him because he is an adult now. The religious leaders went back to the man born blind to ask him again. The man knew that he told them that Jesus healed them, but he asked them if they wanted to be Jesus’ disciple as he stated that the only thing he knew was that he was blind and now he sees.
The man was thrown out of the Temple by the religious leaders and went walking where he came upon Jesus again. Jesus walked up to him and asked him if he wanted to see the Messiah. The man said to Jesus that he did and Jesus said to him that He is the One and asked do you not recognize His voice? Remember, this is the first time that the man ever sees Jesus because the last time was only hearing the voice of Jesus. The man immediately believed in Jesus and continued to follow Him. What do you see when you are walking and how do you respond to the people you may see? Are you willing to let God’s glory to be seen in your full obedience to what and who you see in a God’s response to them?

I. Jesus is walking along the road with His disciples.
A. The disciples see the blind man born blind and asked Jesus who sinned.
B. Jesus responds and begins to heal the man born blind with mud mad with His spit and ask the man to go wash in the pool of Siloam.
C. After the man washes in the pool, the man’s friends, relatives, and even the religious leaders begin to ask how he is able to see now and the man told the story of His healing by Jesus.

II. The formerly blind man walks out of the Temple and comes and sees Jesus for the first time.
A. Jesus asks the man if he wanted to see the Messiah and Jesus responds that He is Him.
B. After seeing Jesus and recognizing Jesus’ voice the man believed in who Jesus is.
C. The man began to become Jesus’ follower or disciple from then on.

III. When we hear who Jesus is, the response we give will change the rest of life for good or bad.
A. The seeing of people with the eyes and heart of Jesus to respond as Jesus did.
B. The embracing people in our lives whether relatives, friends, or acquaintances with the love of Jesus.
C. Learning to be able to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our lives to whomever we come in contact with.

Conclusion: How do you see other people who are living with diseases and impairments that make them different than you? We seek God to allow us to become fully obedient to what God calls and asked us to do and be towards all other people.

Invitation: How is God inviting you to review your life as we approach the body and blood of Jesus in the action of the Holy Eucharist? In seeking God we turn in the Sing to the Lord hymn#461 “Open My Eyes, That I May See” and sing with openness to God’s way and will for our lives.

Let us pray:

Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what's best— as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You're in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You're ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes.
In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
AMEN!

Receive God’s Blessing:

GOD bless you and keep you,
GOD smile on you and gift you,
GOD look you full in the face
and make you prosper.

All of our praise rises to the One who is strong enough to make you strong, exactly as preached in Jesus Christ, precisely as revealed in the mystery kept secret for so long but now an open book through the prophetic Scriptures. All the nations of the world can now know the truth and be brought into obedient belief, carrying out the orders of God, who got all this started, down to the very last letter.
All our praise is focused through Jesus on this incomparably wise God! Yes!

Acts 14
1-3 When they got to Iconium they went, as they always did, to the meeting place of the Jews and gave their message. The Message convinced both Jews and non-Jews—and not just a few, either. But the unbelieving Jews worked up a whispering campaign against Paul and Barnabas, sowing mistrust and suspicion in the minds of the people in the street. The two apostles were there a long time, speaking freely, openly, and confidently as they presented the clear evidence of God's gifts, God corroborating their work with miracles and wonders.
4-7But then there was a split in public opinion, some siding with the Jews, some with the apostles. One day, learning that both the Jews and non-Jews had been organized by their leaders to beat them up, they escaped as best they could to the next towns—Lyconia, Lystra, Derbe, and that neighborhood—but then were right back at it again, getting out the Message.
Gods or Men?
8-10There was a man in Lystra who couldn't walk. He sat there, crippled since the day of his birth. He heard Paul talking, and Paul, looking him in the eye, saw that he was ripe for God's work, ready to believe. So he said, loud enough for everyone to hear, "Up on your feet!" The man was up in a flash—jumped up and walked around as if he'd been walking all his life.
11-13When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they went wild, calling out in their Lyconian dialect, "The gods have come down! These men are gods!" They called Barnabas "Zeus" and Paul "Hermes" (since Paul did most of the speaking). The priest of the local Zeus shrine got up a parade—bulls and banners and people lined right up to the gates, ready for the ritual of sacrifice.
14-15When Barnabas and Paul finally realized what was going on, they stopped them. Waving their arms, they interrupted the parade, calling out, "What do you think you're doing! We're not gods! We are men just like you, and we're here to bring you the Message, to persuade you to abandon these silly god-superstitions and embrace God himself, the living God. We don't make God; he makes us, and all of this—sky, earth, sea, and everything in them.
16-18"In the generations before us, God let all the different nations go their own way. But even then he didn't leave them without a clue, for he made a good creation, poured down rain and gave bumper crops. When your bellies were full and your hearts happy, there was evidence of good beyond your doing." Talking fast and hard like this, they prevented them from carrying out the sacrifice that would have honored them as gods—but just barely.
19-20Then some Jews from Antioch and Iconium caught up with them and turned the fickle crowd against them. They beat Paul unconscious, dragged him outside the town and left him for dead. But as the disciples gathered around him, he came to and got up. He went back into town and the next day left with Barnabas for Derbe.
Plenty of Hard Times
21-22After proclaiming the Message in Derbe and establishing a strong core of disciples, they retraced their steps to Lystra, then Iconium, and then Antioch, putting muscle and sinew in the lives of the disciples, urging them to stick with what they had begun to believe and not quit, making it clear to them that it wouldn't be easy: "Anyone signing up for the kingdom of God has to go through plenty of hard times."
23-26Paul and Barnabas handpicked leaders in each church. After praying— their prayers intensified by fasting—they presented these new leaders to the Master to whom they had entrusted their lives. Working their way back through Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia and preached in Perga. Finally, they made it to Attalia and caught a ship back to Antioch, where it had all started—launched by God's grace and now safely home by God's grace. A good piece of work.
27-28On arrival, they got the church together and reported on their trip, telling in detail how God had used them to throw the door of faith wide open so people of all nations could come streaming in. Then they settled down for a long, leisurely visit with the disciples.

EVANGELISTIC SERMON OUTLINE
DATE WRITTEN FOR: Sunday Evening

Title: When God’s Messengers are looked upon as gods

Scripture: Acts 14

Proposition or Theme Sentence: The careful way to keep from making God’s messengers as gods themselves.

Purpose: The awareness that our humanity creates gods of people proclaiming God’s truth.

Introduction: As I read this passage, I think of all the great people of God who have proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the 21st century. The people will never claim anything, but a sinner saved God’s grace even though there are people who make these people bigger than life. They may not mean to make gods of them, but too often people look to them for the answers in life instead of seeking God with their whole hearts and mind. We go back to Paul and Barnabas who are traveling around to shall the good news of the promised Messiah to their countrymen. How do I know this? Each town they went into, they always went to the Jewish gathering place or the synagogue to preach the word of God with their people. There were always people, who accepted the message of Jesus, either Jew or Gentile, but there were people who began to persecute Paul and Barnabas due to their message. In one city, the people accepted the words of God, but they thought Paul and Barnabas were gods and were planning on sacrificing to them for gods coming back to earth. When Paul and Barnabas realized what is happening, they spoke up and stated that they were only human like there are. The message was that Jesus is the Messiah who is God coming in human flesh to redeem all mankind from their sins. They convinced the people and began to return to other cities they visited on the way back to Antioch to give their testimony to God’s movement in the cities they visited and proclaimed the Message of the Gospel of Jesus. How is each of us doing in proclaiming the Message of the Gospel of Jesus to the people who we come into contact with?

I. Paul and Barnabas travel to various cities proclaiming the Message of Jesus beginning in the synagogues of each city.
A. The message is received by most of the people, but a few rejected the message.
B. The people that reject the message begin to cause pain and persecution upon Paul, Barnabas and the rest of the Way.
C. Paul and Barnabas move on to the next city and proclaim the message of Jesus.

II. The people in one particular city begin to think that Paul and Barnabas are gods come down from Heaven.
A. The Message is received by this city, but than Paul and Barnabas understands what is happening to them and convinces the people that they are only human like they are.
B. Paul and Barnabas gather themselves together and begin to the city to see how the new disciples are doing on their way home.
C. When Paul and Barnabas arrive in their home base of Antioch, they share what God is doing to the people who are hearing the Message of Jesus.

III. God is still calling His 21st Century disciples to go into three places of the world.
A. God is calling His disciples to be His missionaries in other parts of the world.
B. God is still calling His disciples to go into the nations they were born into.
C. God is still calling His disciples to go into the communities they are living in or even born into with His message of hope.

Conclusion: We come to this time to seek God to search our hearts and minds to be His witness of His messages to all people that happen to cross our paths. Too often, we fail to be His witnesses to people who are different than us or even are too close to them.

Invitation: God is inviting us to be His witnesses and not to think more highly of ourselves to glorify God and God alone. We come to receive the body and blood of Jesus in the form of the Holy Eucharist as we sing from the Sing to the Lord hymn#701 “God Forth and Tell!”

Let us pray:

Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what's best— as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You're in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You're ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes.
In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
AMEN!

Receive God’s Blessing:

GOD bless you and keep you,
GOD smile on you and gift you,
GOD look you full in the face
and make you prosper.

All of our praise rises to the One who is strong enough to make you strong, exactly as preached in Jesus Christ, precisely as revealed in the mystery kept secret for so long but now an open book through the prophetic Scriptures. All the nations of the world can now know the truth and be brought into obedient belief, carrying out the orders of God, who got all this started, down to the very last letter.
All our praise is focused through Jesus on this incomparably wise God! Yes!