The NorthWord
NorthWord is a daily Christian podcast from St. John's Fort Smith in collaboration with the Anglican Family. Hosted by Father Aaron from Fort Smith, Northwest Territories.
Here's how it works: Every Sunday we release the full sermon preached that morning. Then Monday through Saturday, you get 3-5 minute daily reflections based on that sermon - one thought you can actually use each day. Every Wednesday we explore the rhythm of Jesus' life and how his followers have lived it out for 2,000 years.
Whether you're Pentecostal, Orthodox, Baptist, Catholic, or just curious about faith - this is for you. Ancient faith. Real life. No fluff.
The Word. The North. Your Week.
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The NorthWord
Blind to Your Blindness | Valley of Fear
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At the end of John 9, Jesus tells the Pharisees their sin remains — because they claim to see. On Sunday we looked at Augustine's reading of this passage. Today we go deeper into the most dangerous blindness of all: the kind that calls itself sight.
Good morning. This is Northworth.
SPEAKER_01I want to pause today and check on the season of the church. And I want to ask the question at the center of Sunday's gospel. What does God actually do when he finds you in the dark? Good morning. This is Northward, the word the North, your week, a daily podcast from St. John's Fort Smith, in collaboration with the Anglican family. I'm your host, Father Aaron. A quick liturgical, so church calendar note, we are on the fourth week of Lent. In the ancient church, the Sunday was called Laitare Sunday. It was the moment of the mid-Lent refreshment. The word Laitare in Latin means rejoice. The church, even in the middle of this penitential journey in this season of penitence, pauses to anticipate the joy ahead. The road is dark, but the dawn is coming. Hold that thought, because it matters for what we are about to look at. In John 9, Jesus doesn't wait for the blind man to find his way to a synagogue. He doesn't post up at the top of a hill and say, Come to me if you're ready. He walks into the street, he finds the man in the dirt, and he does something unusual. He makes mud and puts it on the man's eyes. Why mud? Why not just speak the word? This is Jesus doing what God has always done: working through the material world to accomplish spiritual healing. It's earthy, it's physical, it's intimate, and it echoes the creation story. God forming man from the dust of the ground. Here Jesus is recreating. He is undoing the corruption and restoring the design. That is the rhythm of Jesus' life we are tracing in Lent. He descends, he enters, he meets people where they are, not where they should be. He gets into the valley with them, he sits in the dirt. And the theological word underneath all of this is grace. Grace is not God waiting at a distance for you to clean yourself up. Grace is God already in the valley before you got there. So the midweek practice is sit with this image. Jesus in the dirt, Jesus with you, in your valley, in your fear, in the mess, not demanding explanation, just present and at work. This has been Northword, the Word the North, Your Week, a daily podcast from St. John's Fort Smith in collaboration with the Anglican family. Follow us, share this, and text us via the link in the description. And until tomorrow, God be with you.
SPEAKER_00Amen.