Something odd happened at Church today, and to understand it you need a bit of background about the congregation. Our minister (pastor) is part-time. He runs a photography business with his (second) wife — he had a first wife before he became a Christian, and his wife became a Christian about a year later, and he is quite open about the pain that he went through in dealing with his own sexual sin.

But one if his jobs is being the Chaplain to the local Presbyterian Girls’ High School. Which has weekly chapels (on Tuesdays) and the boarders are expected to attend services. They can come to the 0830 service in casual gear, or the 1000 service in uniform. So, as it is most weekends during term, there were about 20-40 teenage girls in the congregation from the boarding house. (There is a boys’ high school as well, but another minister from the team deals with them — I think. My boys don’t go there).

And Barry preached on Ephesians, using the text, and in particular lewd language or as he put it, smutty language. And how we can have three errors: the first is to hide in a holy huddle and not be part of the greater community, the second is to think that we are somehow immune to this and that we will not respond to this language or these thoughts with the emotional reaction and temptation that these thoughts inflame, and the third is that we will damn everyone else and not be loving ourselves.

And he was aiming this directly at the young women. He got detailed: about not watching some TV programmes, about not thinking that one is immune ‘just because’ you have a good family or a saving faith.

He warmed up to this with a children’s talk about Jesus healing the blind man, and how the Pharisees, or Churchians, sat there and damned him for breaking the laws.

And he finished by saying we should trust our communities — that there is some good in them, and to seek that.

Romans 8:11-25

¹¹If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

¹²So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh – ¹³for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. ¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ – if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

¹⁸I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. ¹⁹For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; ²⁰for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²²We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; ²³and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Ephesians 5:8-14

⁸For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light — ⁹for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. ¹⁰Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. ¹¹Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. ¹²For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; ¹³but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, ¹⁴for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,
“Sleeper, awake!
Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

John 9:1-41

¹As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. ²His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” ³Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. ⁴We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. ⁵As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” ⁶When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, ⁷saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. ⁸The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” ⁹Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” ¹⁰But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” ¹¹He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” ¹²They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

¹³They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. ¹⁴Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. ¹⁵Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” ¹⁶Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. ¹⁷So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.”

¹⁸The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight ¹⁹and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” ²⁰His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; ²¹but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” ²²His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. ²³Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

²⁴So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.” ²⁵He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” ²⁶They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” ²⁷He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” ²⁸Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. ²⁹We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” ³⁰The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. ³¹We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. ³²Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. ³³If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” ³⁴They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.

³⁵Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” ³⁶He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” ³⁷Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” ³⁸He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him. ³⁹Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” ⁴⁰Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” ⁴¹Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”

Post church we went for a walk, which is one of our habits. (It’s almost lunchtime, and family trumps blogging). Habits can be good: and one of the things we all need to reform is the habits that damage, that lead us to be indifferent to the needs of those around us, and indifferent to holiness.

We need to take some courage and talk specifically about how to live with situations that are not ideal and how to deal with our weaknesses.

An example. I don’t really care about gambling. I know too much about probability and statistics: it is not an issue for me. But watching Food TV takes me to the refrigerator: it would be better to watch a Crossfit video (that would motivate me to get out and do a workout).

The challenge is that when we do this it seems that we are setting rules and regulations. THat we are again, living legalistically — in Paul’s language ‘according to the flesh’. What we should be doing is training each other in righteousness. We should not be that distracted by the epiphenonema within our culture: what a celebrity promoted, or war to a benefit concert, or what is the moral panic of this moment… most of us sin in the standard way: for most of us the besetting sins are lust and greed and covetousness, and most of us are fallen. There we need to work.

What outrage femen do, or who is the current object of fifteen minutes of hate (or praise), or what cause is being promoted on twitter, or who looks worse than us is immaterial.

We need to stop being indifferent to practical holiness. We need to reform ourselves.