20/20 Vision
For a long time I had 20/20 vision but as I grew older, I needed help to see. I have cheaters (reading glasses) in almost every room of my house. I carry them in my purse and have at least two pair here at church. I can’t read without them and if I don’t have them on me, in a pinch, I will use my phone to take a picture of whatever it is that I need to see to enlarge it. I confess, I’ve had a hard time adjusting to the need for help and having to rely on tools. And as I look at those ahead of me on the chronological clock, I will be needing more tools to manage and move through the world.
As a child, it was easy for me to see God and trust Jesus but as I grew older, I stumbled more and more. I became distracted by the events in my own life and my ability to manage and control my environment. I needed more and more help to see. I couldn’t do it on my own. I needed help. The study and familiarity with God’s word helps me to see and recognize God’s activity in my life and in this community. The community of believers helps me see God’s activity in new and surprising ways. And even the tried and true, the repetition and flow of the church year and liturgy and familiar hymns help me to recognize the movement of the Holy Spirit.
Lent is that time when we take a deep dive into God’s plan revealed to us in Jesus and how Jesus makes it possible for us to come into the presence of God through all the brokenness of our humanity and to align ourselves with God’s desires for us and God’s created world. Lent gives us the corrective lenses to see beyond suffering and death to resurrected life.
By the end of the 4th century, for many churches, Lent was the time of preparation for adult baptism. We see again how our lives are intertwined with the baptismal waters to new life with Christ. The Gospel readings for Lent in Cycle A of the lectionary are the traditional texts that catechumenates studied in preparation for baptism. Our daily renewal in baptism gives us eyes to see, like having reading glasses in every room, within easy reach, so too our gospel lessons help us to see.
Immediately after Jesus is baptized, the Spirit drives him into the wilderness, for fasting and testing to see what kind of a Son of God he would be (Matthew 4).
We listen to Jesus in John 3, telling Nicodemus, “Unless you are born of water and the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.” And concludes with the familiar John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son...” We see the proclamation of salvation in Christ, with the sacramental sign of baptism.
Lent 3A, in John 4, Jesus will tell the woman at the well, “The water I give will become a spring welling up to eternal life.” The woman responds, “Sir, give me this water always.”
The following week, Lent 4A, in John 9, Jesus heals a man born blind by telling him to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam. Again we have a baptismal theme. It is in the waters of baptism that we see the world clearly, for Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.”
Finally, on Lent 5A, our Lent texts climax with the raising of Lazarus. The waters of baptism lead us through death and the grave into the resurrection of the dead.
We have a beautiful journey ahead of us as we see again, with 20/20 corrected vision, God’s love poured out in Jesus’ journey to the cross, through the grave to new life and we get to be on this journey.
Believing It Boldly Loving Expansively,
Pastor Connie Spitzack
