March 15, 2026
Fourth Sunday in Lent
John 9:1-41 | "The Signs" 

Call to Worship
Leader 1:	Some days, it’s hard to recognize the signs,
		when what we have come to know and rely on is ablaze
and everything looks like ashes. 
Leader 2:	Do you not know what the Holy One can do with ashes?*
Assembly:	Then the Earth-maker knelt down and formed humanity 
from the dust of the ground, 
and breath breathed new life.  (Genesis 2:7)
Leader 1:	Some days, it’s difficult to believe the signs, 
		when truths are erased and buried
		and there is nothing left to witness but the bare dirt.
Leader 2:	Do you not know what the Holy One can do with dirt? 
Assembly:	Then the Pain-bearer spat in the dirt and made mud
		spreading it on the man’s eyes 
and visions appeared of a new day rising. (Mark 9:6-7)
Leader 1:	Some days, it feels impossible to embrace the signs, 
		so we come together to pay attention, and seek, and be changed
Leader 2:	finding our grounding in the ashes that were once stars
		in the dirt that holds galaxies
		in the mud that birthed our bones and breath. 
Assembly:	Then the Life-giver who made safe ground in the middle of the sea said: 
		See, I am doing a new thing. Do you not perceive it? 
		and a way was made out of no way toward hope. (Isaiah 43:16-19)

Invocation (drawn from Open Unto Me, a prayer by Howard Thurman)
Open unto us, hope for our despair.
Open unto us, dreams for our dread.
Open unto us, courage for our fear. 
Open unto us, vision for our skepticism.  
Open unto us, wisdom for our confusion. 
Open unto us, love for our hates. 
Open unto us, Your heart for our hearts.  
O God, our God, open unto us.  Amen. 
 
[For a visual liturgy of Howard Thurman’s prayer, check out the film at Work of the People.]

Seeking Transformation and New Life
∙	Call to Transformation
Leader: 
In our gospel reading for today, when Jesus and the disciples encounter a man who was blind, the disciples ask Jesus, “who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” And Jesus replied, this is not a story about sin.  

Our Christian tradition, our churches, and our world are rife with stories where difference is mistaken for deficiency, inferiority, even sin, with dire consequences.  These stories and histories of ableism, of racism, and so many other isms are testing us, challenging us to open toward new understanding and acknowledge with vulnerability where we have caused hurt and harm. So in this moment, let us open our hearts, minds and spirits to this call to turn around.   
 
∙	Time of silent reflection
○	[If you wanted to foster deeper engagement, instead of silent reflection, you could invite folks to turn to their neighbor and share briefly about a time when they mistook difference for deficiency or when their difference was treated as inferiority.]

∙	Prayer for New Life
Leader:	For the ways we have been shaped by a culture
		that wants to place blame and find fault 
		when we encounter differing abilities and embodiments,
		as if they mean wrongness or offense
Assembly:	God, have mercy. 
Leader:	For the times when we have used language
		that draws a line between disability and sin, 
		using blind or deaf or lame
as if they mean ignorant, doubting, unfaithful
Assembly:	Christ, have mercy. 
Leader:	For the moments we have disbelieved and disregarded
		the needs, stories, and experiences 
		of those who are disabled
		as if access was a problem, a burden and we know better
Assembly:	God, have mercy. 
Leader:	Open us to new stories of disability from those who know them best. 
Assembly:	Turn us around, Holy One.  Amen. 
∙	Words of Grace
Leader:	Let your soul receive this rest**: 
		There is no story we can’t unlearn, 
and no way of loving we can’t learn anew.  
	Assembly:	Praise God, who forgives us and frees us
			always inviting us to change and become a new creation
			from the ground up.  

Spit and Dirt: A Ritual of Healing
Materials needed: bowls with fairly wet mud in them (you could also use an unscented mud mask if you’re squeamish about actual mud ☺ ), tables with dirt and water on them, towels and/or wet wipes

Introduction
There’s a lot we don’t know about the full story of today’s gospel reading.  We don’t know much about the context of the person who was blind.  We don’t know if that person wanted to no longer be blind.  We don’t know if he was suffering or struggling in his blindness, though his neighbors noted he sat and begged, which was as hard a life then as it is now. 

What we do know is that when Jesus walked by him, he was moved to help, whether that was because of the disciples’ misrecognition of the man’s sin or because of the man’s circumstance.  We don’t know.  But Jesus made mud and put it on his eyes and after he washed, he was able to see. 

Maybe this gospel story is encouraging us to ask ourselves, what in us is yearning for restoration?  Where do we need new visions? How are we longing for healing? Where could we use God’s loving and restoring touch? 

In a moment, you will be invited to come to one of the stations for a healing blessing.  A person will be there to offer you a prayer and, if you want, to mark a part of your body with mud as a healing gesture.  Or, if you prefer, you can anoint yourself with mud and offer prayers for restoration, new visions, or healing. If you’d rather have someone come to you where you are seated, simply indicate so to one of the ushers and someone will come to you.  

What in you is yearning for restoration?
Where do you need new visions?
How are you longing for healing?
Where could you use God’s loving and restoring touch?

Let us receive God’s loving restoration.

Time for Reflection and Anointing
Prayer
May what has been lost find restoration. 
May what has been broken find repair.
May what has been hurt find healing. 
May what has been closed off find openings. 
May what has been unimaginable be envisioned.
May whatever has been, become a sign of God’s love. Amen. 

Invitation to Generosity
Leader: 	Maybe today, you’re spent. 
Maybe it feels like you have nothing else to give. 
Maybe you are emptied out, bent over, barely making it.  
Maybe you feel like dirt, dust, ashes.
Beloved, do you not know what the Holy can do with dust? 
Even from spit and mud, God creates a new dreams and new visions. 
So let us discover what abundance emerges 
when whatever we have finds its way into the hands of grace. 

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Dedication
Leader:	Into a world desperate for signs of hope, 
Assembly:	let these gifts arrive as beacons. 
Leader:	Into communities working for signs of freedom, 
Assembly:	let these gifts unlock shackles. 
Leader:	Into hearts searching for signs of compassion, 
Assembly:	let these gifts offer tenderness. 
Leader:	Into each breath yearning for signs of new life, 
Assembly:	let these gifts come as possibility.  Amen. 

Benediction
The disciples asked, whose fault is it?
This is not a story about sin, Jesus replies.
It is a story about what is being revealed.
Let this revelation be our blessing.  

The neighbors asked if it’s really him, if it’s really possible? 
This is not a story about blindness, the healed one replies.
It is a story about signs and dreams and what the light shines through. 
Let these signs be our blessing. 

The leaders asked, he can’t be the one, can he? 
This is not a story about the one we’ve been waiting for, the healed one replies. 
It is a story about how all of us are part of the new day rising. 
Let all of us be our blessing.  

The teacher asked, do you believe? 
This is not a story about creeds, the healed one replies. 
It is a story about testifying to the love you witness. 
Let this testimony to love be our blessing
And we be the witnesses, to the ends of the earth.  Amen. 

 *Credit to Jan Richardson for this evocative line from her “Blessing the Dust: For Ash Wednesday.” 
**I am grateful to Cole Arthur Riley for teaching me this phrasing for expressions of forgiveness which she uses often in her book, Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems and Meditations for Staying Human. 

The Signs: Service Prayers for Lent 4A was written by Dr. Sharon R. Fennema who serves as a free-range facilitator, ritualist, activist, teacher, and writer whose work lives at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and embodied spiritual practices. She is a founding member of the Liberating Lineages Collective.