Lent 4 2008
1 Samuel 16:1-13
Ephesians 5:8-14
John 9: 1-41 Jesus heals the blind man
As a sign that Jesus is the light of the world, Jesus gave sight to the man born blind. Signs are very important in the Gospel of John just as sacraments are important in our religious practice. Signs and sacraments see something true, transcendent, in the ordinary. Signs and sacraments point beyond the material thing to something greater, more complex, and harder to articulate. Jesus saw what the professionals missed: the man was not born blind because of sin on the part of his parents or himself. He was just born blind. This is the way he is and Jesus meets the man, just as he is.
If we follow Jesus, we too will meet others just where they are, just as they are, without preconditions, without expectations that they conform to “our” (read better) way. How many ways can you think of that illustrate how we might meet others just where and as they are? Let me give you my list. What you wear to church matters less than that you are here. What you do Monday through Saturday matters and how what we do here informs that is important. It matters what we teach and when and to whom. It matters that we offer weekly services that the doors are open and all are welcome here. It matters that some of us can spend time rebuilding homes destroyed by hurricanes. It matters that strangers are welcome to come here for a wedding or a funeral. It matters that our children are allowed to be children, even within the church service. It matters that we tithe our income to service beyond this parish. It matters that we have lights on several nights a week (I wish it was every night) because there is something going on, people are gathering, worshiping, fellowshipping, planning, studying, singing, working. It matters that we are caring for each other, our neighbors far and near, and that we know we are all on a journey to God. It matters that the mission and outreach committee is meeting regularly, planning projects that include our children. It matters that we have enough money to purchase a heifer for a family in the developing world. It matters that we care about poverty, infectious disease, and environmental challenges in our world. It all matters because if we remain blind to these things, we risk missing an interaction that truly changes everything.
The man born blind met Jesus, and like the woman at the well, entered into a discourse with Jesus that held no pretentions, rather, was open, searching, and ultimately satisfying. Like Socrates, Jesus loves a good interlocutor. The man, with no name given by the writer, does not presume to know everything but is open to learning. Being open invites him to experience something new. If the man had accepted his blindness as his due, ignored Jesus, accepted the sin judgment of his religious leaders, he would never have experienced the healing touch of Jesus. We often need to be healed, of our presumptions, assumptions, affluence, and fear. We need to come to Jesus just as we are, open to be touched in new ways, made aware of new possibilities. Jesus as the Son of God was aware of the prohibitions: the right and wrong way to act in accordance with scripture and religious traditions. For example, kneading was one of the 39 tasks forbidden on the Sabbath. That rule did not inhibit Jesus from mixing spit and dirt to heal the man.
Brian Stoffregen suggests that this story of the healing of the blind man is the episode that gave rise to denominationalism. Initially, those who witnessed the miracle of healing were excited, but as they began to talk about what happened differences emerged. For some (Matt 9:29) it was with a touch from Jesus that the blind man was healed. Another proudly boasted that he had enough faith so that Jesus didn’t have to touch him to perform the miracle (Mark 10:52). Another meekly exclaimed that Jesus not only touched him twice but also “spit on his eyes” in order for the man to see clearly. And the timid one didn’t think the spit was enough or the touch, but that Jesus mixed saliva with dirt and put the mud on the eyes and told the man to wash in some pool of water (John 9). Since each Gospel writer thought his healing was normal and better than the others, they divided into those emphasize the touch – encounter with Jesus, those who believe their faith wins some response from God, those who need water to invoke the spirit of God, those who think this earth and the living water become a healing mixture in the incarnational presence of God in time and space. If nothing else the experience of the healing of the man born blind was a new way of seeing God. It was not based on the prior law, the tradition of the church, the scriptures, but on a new work that God was doing in Jesus. Experience led the man to understand that God is greater than our categories, our traditions, customs, systems, and preconceived ideas.
Listen to the man as the Pharisees question him.
Pharisee: Who healed you?
Man; The teacher, Jesus.
Pharisee: What did he do?
Man: He made clay and put it on my eyes, told me to wash in the pool and I could see. Pharisee: We know that this man is a sinner because he breaks God’s laws.
Man: whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know. One thing I know. I was blind, and now I see.
Jesus challenged the status quo. Jesus challenged the teaching of church leaders regarding sin. They said that the man or someone in the family sinned – that was why things weren’t the way they were supposed to be. How often we have heard that said: x happened because God is angry about y. The DVD, “The Bible Tells me so” is not easy to watch and it is not rated for children, but perhaps a few adults would like to see this documentary about how the “bible preachers construct why bad things happen and who is to blame in our time.” It captures the very heart of the text today. John is teaching us in this story that sin is real and it is not just about obedience to a set of rules, nor is it being extra “good”. I like the old saying: “stop acting so good and start being Christian.” Sin is separation from God and all of us are sinners. None of us are pure or totally righteous. The Pharisees thought that if we stayed within the law, obeyed the rules we would avoid all the bad stuff. That is just not true, according to Jesus. Bad stuff happens in this life. Children are born with birth defects, we lose our hearing and vision as we age, none of us have perfect genetic scores, and all of us experience pain of one kind or another sometime in our lives. We bury our family members. We suffer grief. We are disappointed in our inability to do what we ought to do and ashamed of many things we have done. We confess and we experience forgiveness and restoration. We come to the Lord’s table and are fed. We enter into fellowship with each other, not because we are pure, but become we need companions on this road of faith. The good news is that God is with us in all conditions of our lives. We don’t have to be perfect to experience the grace of God. Like the blind man, Jesus meets us just like we are, just where we are, and offers us acceptance, abundant love, forgiveness and new life.
For those who are thirsty and hungry, cold and alone, in this world, one thing matters: that they get water, food, shelter, and companionship. For those who are sick and isolated, one thing matters that they receive compassionate companionship. For those who come here in search of something that can fill the void in their heart, it matters that we greet them as fellow travelers. For us, who appreciate the beauty of signs, symbols, liturgy, hymnody, we ought to share our experience of the holy with others. We should remain open to seeing and hearing new truths about God, the world and ourselves as well as new possibilities associated with the coming of the Kingdom of God in our midst.
If we cling to the traditions, everything the way we like it, we will risk not seeing God do something new in our community. The purpose of the Church is to work for reconciliation with God, for all of us, everywhere, all the time. We need to tell our faith experience. We need to share what God is doing in us and through us. We need to remember that we do not know everything, that we too are sinners, and recipients of grace. It is the saving act of God that gives us eternal life. We appropriate the free gift, born of love, to liberate us from fear, from restraint so that we can live and move in Christ.
Take note that the blind man did not take offense at the questions of the Pharisees but answered their questions with seeming innocence. He then extended an invitation: “do you want to become his disciples?” I can only imagine the response of the Pharisees. Perhaps you have experienced it too when you invited some family member or neighbor or work acquaintance to come worship with you. It puts us in a vulnerable position to ask another person to be with us in a place that is so sacred and special to us. I invited some friends to my home church one time and the whole service, I was listening, watching every move, scrutinizing every word from the pastor, every nuance in the music, every distraction from the children or the chatter among friends. I was second-guessing them and us. If I felt comfortable there, having strangers with me exposed all those “assumptions of comfort” and made me painfully aware that for them, our beautiful wonderful liturgy can be very formal and often confusing.
I wonder if we have misunderstood evangelism. Maybe it is not so much going out and bringing in the “sinners” and getting them “converted” as it is about letting our faith grow enough that we can share what we have experienced, even when we feel vulnerable, the experience is great enough to tell. Then if our neighbor comes with us to church, we can relax and just be with them in the presence of God. Isn’t that our purpose anyway?
Our encounter with the living God is not unique to us. It is an experience that can be shared and duplicated many times. Letting Jesus touch us, nudge us out of our comfort zones, direct us to break a few traditions for the sake of meeting a person in need, will witness an experience of liberating love. Let the love of God fill you today to overflowing. It may overflow in ways you never could have predicted or expected and affect someone else, for the glory of God.