Hi it's good to be with you for this
fourth week of Lent as our Turn Around- Take Off journey continues with yet
another encounter between Jesus and, well this time,
with the man who was born blind, Once again,
like the story the Samaritan woman, we see Jesus
in action choosing the way of compassion.
When his disciples raised questions about the connections between the
disability of blindness
and sin, Jesus brushes away their analysis.
And of course, well Jesus dismissed the theology that says
illness or disability are a result of sin
either your own or that your parents or even your grandparents
certainly other people bought into that theology,
So the blind man not only had to deal with loss of sight
and its economic consequences but also the moral condemnation of
other people. So Jesus responds with compassion
and at one level like the story of the woman at the well
it's a go and do likewise story. Live s life of compassion,
be a healer, bring sight to the blind, see what needs doing
where people are really hurting and respond practically
and concretely. I find myself thinking about other Gospel stories were Jesus
heals a blind person
and there are lots of them and that in itself says something significant.
Particularly the one from the Gospel of Luke where Jesus
asks very specifically up the person who was blind,
"what do you want me to do for you?" Not a bad question
and the response is direct and clear, " Lord
let me see again." So when we are out and about in the community
maybe that's the question we need to ask people?
Ask the spiritual but not religious perhaps?
Or those living on the street? Or
Aboriginal people? " What do you need what do you need from me
from the church?" And then listen very carefully
and respectfully to what they say and then do our best to respond
to their need not ours. Maybe
the question we have to ask ourselves and our church
is, do we really want to see?
For clearly John wants us to be thinking about
spiritual blindness and the ways in which we are not seeing clearly
short-sighted folk who don't have a view of the larger context
the far-sighted who can't focus on what's right in front of their noses
or the middle age spoke with their presbyopia and reading glasses
and then later astigmatism and cataracts. I know,
I know I'm stretching the metaphor but can we talk about seeing
with Jesus' eyes or with Jesus' glasses?
Depth vision, 3D seeing
differently, clearly, honestly, lovingly;
Maybe we need to be talking about a church
that needs the gift of sight that has been working hard for some time at not
seeing
what is happening all around until suddenly the numbers and finances have brought
a crisis
where we can't help but see our present situation?
But then what? John talks a lot about what happens
after the healing. The reactions that the onlookers, neighbors, family the religious
authority
the people who don't want to believe that the man can now see.
We doubt out often the capacity of God's power
embodied in Jesus Christ to bring about such change,
to open our eyes to the fullness of life. We are disturbed when someone is
transformed
when the system shifts. Clearly
we all spend a lot of energy in not seeing. We all have our defenses our
blind spots, usually to protect us from hard truths,
from changes that might be painful to make even though they would enhance life
our own and that our neighbors. But then
it happens. Suddenly we see
and our world has turned upside down.
Can you remember times when that has happened for you?
When the lights went on? When you could say I once was blind but now I see?
I get it, how did it happen?
What brought about that change? A person,
a prayer, a crisis and falling apart,
an encounter? Maybe it was the witness of another person?
Perhaps a survivor of Indian Residential Schools telling his or her story
forcing you to see breaking your heart
open? So our eyes are
opened we see which sometimes means
it's hard to fit back into the old ways of living.
Sometimes others aren't so thrilled about the changes in us.
Maybe they're feeling threatened or judged, simply uncomfortable?
That seems to be what happens in this story to the man who receives
his sight. He's confronted by interrogation and anger
and eventually he's kicked out at the community because he insists on telling
the truth of
what happened to him. He becomes a witness.
One thing I do know that though I was blind now I see
and he even asks the religious authorities surely with typical Johanin
irony
do you also want to become his disciples?
So is this what we are called to do?
To witness to how our lives have been changed
even if speaking this truth sparks push back?
Can you remember the time when that happened?