"The Midnight Special" - Sermon for the 4th Sunday in Lent, 3-15-26

Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me (3x)

Let the Midnight Special shine an ever-lovin’ light on me

This blues song from the early twentieth century was covered most famously by Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1969. It is a song about an inmate watching from behind bars, hoping the passing nighttime train – the Midnight Special – will stop for him and spare him from another day of prison’s dark drudgery.  

In the prologue to his gospel, Saint John writes of Jesus that his “life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” Today Jesus makes this claim himself: “I am the light of the world.” Jesus, the Midnight Special, shines a light in the eyes of the man born blind, frees him from the dark drudgery of begging, and converts his heart to belief in the Son of Man. This conversion costs this man his membership in the synagogue and the life he knew living as a beggar. Conversion of life is costly, even when it is light overcoming darkness.   

I read in the newspaper last week of an idea to put large mirrors on satellites orbiting our planet, to direct sunlight to spots on the nighttime side of the globe. This idea is not new, and the technology exists. These reflecting mirrors could help in search and rescue missions, disaster relief, and wide-spread power outages. Of course, they could also be used to aid in surveillance, oppression, and war. Whether orbiting nightlights or artificial intelligence, technology’s employ is only as helpful or as harmful as the people involved wish to make it.

Jesus is True Light and Real Intelligence, so we need not fear him or his message. But, like technology, Jesus’s employ is only as helpful or as harmful as the people involved wish to make it. Maybe you are here today, giving Jesus another chance after someone misused him or his message. If that is so, I applaud your courage, and I am sorry that you were hurt.

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Lent is a season of intentional introspection. The hymnody and liturgies, the prayers and the biblical texts ask much of us. They also ask much for us. They ask the Midnight Special to shine an ever-lovin’ light on us, to illumine the dark, hopeless corners of our consciences and to carry us away from the prison cells of our sins. They ask to position mirrors to reflect the Son’s light onto the nighttime side of our hearts in God’s great, eternal search and rescue mission. Through the ministrations of the Church, Jesus asks us to believe in him and to convert our lives to what is good and right and true, to become and to live as children of light – even when his light makes our eyes squint and water. Conversion of life can be painful. It comes with a cost.

And God does this, all this – the pleasant and the painful – out of love. The Lord does not see as mortals see, God told the priest and prophet Samuel. The Lord looks on the heart. The Lord sees within us, sees us as we truly are, knows us infinitely better than we know ourselves. Jesus knows our failures, our guilt, and our shame; and he desires to heal us. Jesus knows our successes, our hopes, and our potential; and he desires to anoint us. To anoint our hearts with oil to make us his own royalty, and to anoint our eyes with a healing mud-balm to let his light shine not only upon us, but also within us.

Unlike the train in the song that never stopped for the forlorn felon, Jesus – The Midnight Special – will stop for you. All you need do is ask and believe. And there is no simpler prayer than this:

Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me (3x)

Let the Midnight Special shine an ever-lovin’ light on me

Father Daniel S.J. Scheid, SCP

4^th Sunday in Lent A – March 15, 2026

All Saints’ Episcopal Church, San Francisco

“The Midnight Special”