This past Sunday I spoke on John 9. In this chapter, we read about Jesus healing a man who had been born blind and had to beg for a living. Jesus made some mud by spitting on the ground and stirring it. He then put the mud on the blind man’s eyes and told him to go wash in the Pool of Siloam. The man did and instantly had sight. 

However, the religious leaders didn’t like it and accused Jesus of working on the Sabbath. It wasn’t so much that He put the mud on the blind man’s eyes. Their accusation revolved around Him making mud. I’ve never met a child who was confused between playing in the mud and work. But these pious leaders were just that confused. 

In the chapter, Jesus refers to Himself as the Light of the World and says He came to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.  

Some know they are suffering from spiritual blindness. Others, like those religious leaders of Jesus’ day, believe they have all the answers. Jesus said He came to give spiritual vision to those who know they don’t have all the answers and know they need a Savior. This is similar to what Jesus said in Mark 2:17 “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call NOT those who think they are righteous, but those who KNOW they are sinners.”

The church should be a refuge for the spiritually blind and a hospital for the spiritually sick and dying. The church is for the lonely, the hurting, and the downtrodden. It should be seen as the answer for anyone who will come and will say "I need a Savior". 

Several years ago I had a coyote problem. Coyotes had been decimating my chicken flock.  It had gotten to the point where it was no longer a flock. After all, there was only one rooster left. When you have a flock of chickens for egg production, obviously one rooster isn’t very valuable. However, he was valuable enough for our family to nickname him Super Chicken.  We thought he must have had superpowers in order to have avoided the coyotes when the others were unable.

One afternoon I returned home at about 4:00 P.M. and went into our bedroom to change clothes. Suddenly I heard Super Chicken squawking in desperation. I looked out the window and there he was running from the shed and toward our house with a coyote right on his tail.  

Three of our daughters were home and one of them excitedly asked, “What’s going on?”, as I rushed through the living room and toward the front door with a shotgun. I said, “There’s a coyote chasing Super Chicken and I think they’re going around to the front of the house!” I ran to the door, flung it open, and hurried outside. Neither Super Chicken nor the coyote was out there. Then, our daughter, Kiera, shouted, “Dad they’re at the backdoor!”  

I ran to the backdoor, which has glass panes the length of the door. There was Super Chicken, literally peaking on the glass screaming “Let me in! Let me in! Let me in!” Of course, the rooster wasn’t speaking. But that’s certainly what he was saying by his actions.  

I flung open the back door. I ran out. Super Chicken ran in. Kiera had traded doors with me and now shouted, “Dad! The coyote just ran past the front door and he’s heading down toward the shed!” I ran out further into the backyard and saw the coyote making a beeline across the lower part of our property about 55 yards away.  I shot! The buckshot rolled him, but he got back up, cleared the fence, and disappeared into the neighboring cemetery

I went back into the house and found Super Chicken roosting on our stereo. Although he was shaking with fear and out of breath, he was safe. 

Sometime after the Super Chicken and coyote episode, we had another crazy event. It was about 10:30 P.M. on a Sunday. We were headed for bed. But because our daughter, Meghan, was not home yet we left the back porch light on for her.  

We also have a bedroom door located not far from the backdoor that goes out onto the same porch. Deb and I went to bed and turned off the lights in our bedroom. Then suddenly there was the sound of a crying, terrified female and a frantic knock on our bedroom door.  

For those of you with children, you can imagine how many scary things go through your mind when your daughter is not home yet and suddenly you hear a girl crying and pounding on the door. In the next few seconds of panic, all kinds of horrible things went through my mind.  

Deb quickly jumped out of bed and opened the door, which is closest to her side of the bed. In hindsight, she probably shouldn’t have done that. However, I think the same bad things were probably racing through her mind during those few ticks of the clock. Her first instinct was to save her daughter.

The next thing I hear is Deb saying, “Grab a blanket there’s a naked woman at the door!” I quickly gathered a blanket from our bed and tossed it to Deb. Now we had a weeping, naked, wrapped in a blanket, woman in our bedroom, saying they were going to kill her.  

As Deb calmed her down and I called 911, she further explained that she had gotten into a car with two men. They threw her clothes out of the window, pulled out a pistol, and told her they were taking her to the cemetery (next to our property) to kill her. She saw the light on our back porch and made a run for help. By the time she was in our house, the car was long gone and the deputies found her clothes strewn along the road, as she had reported. The deputies knew her as a local prostitute.   

Regardless of who she was or how she got into the circumstance, I'm very pleased to say Deb comforted her as though she was one of her daughters.  

Super chicken and a naked woman found shelter in our home from the dangers of this world. This is what the church should be….a place of refuge. No matter where someone has been or what has gone wrong in their life, we need to make sure, as the church, they find shelter in the arms of Jesus.  

I wonder how the church is viewed by frightened, hurting, beaten down people? Unfortunately, I think they often see the church as a group of judgmental people who only welcome the perfect ones. As the church, we need to work very, very hard at loving more and judging less.  

I flung the door open and welcomed Super Chicken. Deb flung the door open and welcomed a young woman afraid for her life.  Are we ready to throw the door open for the spiritually blind and the spiritually lost? Or will we only allow those we pre-approve?  

In John 9, the religious leaders shut the door.  They confronted the man healed of blindness and threw him out of the synagogue. In stark contrast, Jesus went looking for him. Let’s be like Jesus.