The senior sermon of Randal L. Bruno, LSPS Class of 2008 from the Southwestern Texas Synod, given on October 9, 2007, in Christ Chapel

Matthew 20:29-34

Let us pray: May the words from my mouth and the meditations from each heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and redeemer, Amen.

Sunday a week ago, I experienced what at first seemed an obscure incident. – My wife and I were driving down highway 71 towards La Grange . We have been down this stretch of road fairly often on Sunday mornings. Yet on this particular day there was a thick fog. It blinded us from seeing the landscape. Not that the loss of sight bothered me too much, you could say that my mind was kind of in a fog too.

But we just happen to be going down the highway at the right time. Not because of the fog, or because as we traveled the fog started lifting, but because of what the sun revealed.

As I said, this may seem obscure at first, but as we drove down the road we started seeing spider webs in the grass. – It was not just a few along the road and not even a few hundred; there were literally thousands of them in the grass and in the trees. We were there at just the right time for lifting of the fog and the angle of the sun to make them visible. – If you suffer from arachnophobia this may be a bit disconcerting, but it was actually quite beautiful as the webs sparkled in the sunshine. – A few moments before we had no idea that they were there, then due to the sun they were revealed, and our perspective changed.

Maybe we were finally catching a glimpse of the world from a bug’s point of view. – Although that in itself is no small thing and highly worth mentioning; for seeing things from another’s perspective can lead to a better understanding of God’s vision.

I tell you this story not because it is a nifty opening, but because it holds meaning to where I am in my walk with God, and where perhaps many of us are; and I believe it speaks to things going on in our gospel reading for today too.

Our reading today, for the most part, also seems to be an obscure incident. At first glance, it is a story of a one time healing of two blind people. Many commentary writers found it a bit obscure also, based on the fact that they had little to say about it.

It happens that way at times. A piece of scripture can be like life. – We may not have clear vision of what is really going on, yet often there is more to the story than we perceive at first glance. – Or perhaps due to familiarity we overlook its value and its beauty; as we sometimes do with a place that we have been to so many times before, a story that we have heard frequently told, or a face that we have seen often. – Perhaps with scripture as well as life we assume it does not need more than a cursory look for us to know what it reveals. – Again, to do that with today’s reading would have us see this text as just another one time miracle story of healing – although that in itself is no small thing and highly worth mentioning. – But I would like to try to take you to a different place through this reading, to the place where it took me.

Even though not commented on much, there was a common thought by several of those writers that this text points back to what happened just before it. – I think it points forward too. – Matthew tells us that just before the healing of the two blind men, there was a request made of Jesus that in his kingdom two of the disciples be allowed to hold the positions of sitting at his right and left hand. In their day these were positions of honor. – And we are told that the other disciples were slightly miffed at this request. – All of them it seems had lost sight as to why they were following Jesus in the first place. – Something I fear happens to us from time to time too.

So in Matthew, the healing of the two faithful blind men happens right after the request of the two blind disciples. – Interestingly enough in our text, the crowd also seems to have lost sight of why they were following Jesus. They seem to have forgotten what they learned from his teachings and his actions, or the crowd never truly understood what following meant, because the crowd tries to stifle the cry of help from those most in need. – In other words the crowd seemed very willing to let the blind stay blind, including themselves. But Jesus was not willing – thank God.

I noticed something here. I do not know about you, but I am bothered by the fact that even the trained disciples did not speak up at this point – they apparently allowed themselves to become part of the crowd. – The disciples were in a way in seminary. – Although you could say that theirs was more of an intensive course of study, that their classroom was often outside, and that they only had one professor. Still they had training. And with Jesus heading towards Jerusalem , their graduation time was getting near. – So their silence has me question if they too understood at this point what they had seen, what they had learned, and what it truly meant to follow.

This gospel lesson hit home for me due to another seemingly obscure incident at a church a few months ago. It was there that part of the fog was lifted from my own eyes. – Now being in seminary, as you all know to well, we have each been through a lot of training. – And yet after all of my studies, and all of the time I have spent walking with God, when that need for mercy and grace stood in front of my eyes, I was at first blind to it.

To understand you have to picture a very large old church. – Everyone entered the sanctuary from the back, through two big doors. These doors opened into a room, called the chapel. The chapel was created by sectioning off the back end of the sanctuary with eight sets of glass paneled doors. It was very striking. – Those glass doors were often closed, but never locked. – During a regular Sunday service both rooms were well lit and the doors open, but for the Thursday evening service the sanctuary was dark and the doors were closed. Only the chapel had light.

One Thursday evening, the service was going on as normal. I was presiding that night and had just stood to lead the prayers of intercession, when an unusual, slight, movement in the sanctuary caught my eye. – There lit only by the dim light coming through those French doors stood a lady. Her appearance was very disheveled, and she was holding a suitcase under one arm and two bottles of Pepsi under the other. – And although I believe that some of the others at the service may have seen her, it took a moment before she caught everyone’s attention as she started shouting “How do I get in?”

I am not going to tell you that I am proud of my first thought about how this woman had just interrupted our very important prayers to God. You could read the faces on all of us in the crowd that evening; our looks demanded that she be quiet. It appeared that none of us enjoyed having our time with God being disturbed; especially by this obviously needy person. No one jumped up to help her, or to invite her in. – I looked over to my supervisor and she told me that she would finish the service; I was to go and help this woman.

There was nothing extraordinary about me helping that lady that evening, but there was much in what God revealed to me through her visit. – It made me wonder if I truly understand what following Jesus means. – It made me wonder how many times before I had stifled the voice of the needy, or how many times I shirked my call to help those who simply want to know how to join in the kingdom of God . – And it made me wonder about all the other things to which I have been blind.

Then I came to look at this seemingly obscure story of healing, and I took careful notice of one thing. – Jesus healed the blind. – Not just the two, but I believe many of those who also could not see, the crowd, his own disciples. And then in my faith walk with Christ, I knew that a certain amount of fog had been lifted for me to see better as well.

It is amazing what things we daily miss on our own, but through the grace of God, God’s Son reveals. For through Christ the view that we are given is not just things as they seem, but things as they are – and things how they can be.

The place where this reading took me is that if we follow Jesus, the miracle of this gift of healing the blind was not only for then, but now – and for tomorrow as well. – At least, that is how I see it.

Maybe C.S. Lewis put it best. He said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen. Not because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” – Amen