Feedback on John 9 from DPE



To LRG

I like the opening illustration. The seeing and non-seeing approach of this sermon gets to the heart of John's agenda. What does Jesus see? What do we see? How are we blind to God's purposes? The blindness as you describe it is a sign of a spiritual condition. Another angle might be to ask how this miracle helps us see Jesus? I wonder if how we see others is of less importance to John than how we see Jesus. Do we see and believe he is the Christ - the only begotten son.





To RFK

You made a valid point about this text when you said that the story does not need to be preached. In many ways the story is strong enough to stand on it's on. In our congregation our associate pastor did not preach the text. He just read the story in a dramatic fashion. When he told me that he was going to do this I was skeptical. However, it was a very meaningful experience. Being able to draw my own meaning from the text was refreshing and grace-filled. In a sense it seems that actually preaching the text my drain some of the strength of the narrative. On the other hand I love the way that you take it too us and say that we are the blind-ones in the text. It would be easy to point our finger at others than examining ourselves. I wonder how we can do what you suggest in the sermon.





To RLD

I like the way that you are able to integrate the theme of light and darkness in John's gospel in this sermon. I'd never thought to draw a connection between blindness and darkness and so on. An interesting way to go on this sermon might be to consider what the light of Jesus reveals about us. Another question: How do we keep our eyes open to see what God is doing? How do we make the distinction between God's works and the works of darkness?