Sunday, March 8, 2015

Along the Way…the Blind Man

Sermon John 9:1-17  (18-41) March 8, 2015 Lent

Along the Way…the Blind Man

I love hearing and reading about miracle stories. I’m amazed at the stories of survival from incredible circumstances. I must not be the only one since a television series called ‘in an Instant’  just started this week on ABC.
But, the miracle stories of healing are the ones that still catch me with a lump in my throat.
Maybe I’m cued into these stories because of all my years working as a nurse. And as a nurse I became acquainted with the wonder of healing from disease, illness and accidents. So, when I hear about the healing stories in the Bible, the miracles that Jesus performed, my ears are tuned a little closer to what is said.

SO when I started into the study of these verses (which by the way go a lot further than verse 17-the story doesn’t get close to ending until verse 41).
I discovered that the story doesn’t start with a person asking Jesus for his help.
It doesn’t start with Jesus taking pity on someone who he encounters along his way.
My eyes and ears got a jolt because
                     it starts with the disciples debating the question
                                        of why do bad things happen to people,
who is at fault for all the things wrong in the world.
They witness a blind sitting on the roadside
                                           and all of a sudden
                                 this man is the object of discussion.
       The man never asked to be part of the debate about sin
                                                           and yet
                                  he was entered into this encounter at
                                                no request of his own.

Has that ever happened to you?
Have you ever been somewhere sitting by yourself minding your own business and the next thing you know you overhear people talking about
                                                               you
                                                  and your situation
                            and you wonder how you ever got into their conversation
                                                   without an invitation?

I think we do this more often than we realize.
We witness all around us circumstances and conditions that make no sense to us and we ask the questions,
                        “Whose fault is it that there
                                               are poor and suffering,
                                               homeless and diseased,
                                               unemployed and disabled,
                                               abandoned and addicted,
                                               imprisoned and prejudiced,
                                               angry and hurtful, hateful
                                               people in this world?”
We, like the disciples, walk along the way and ask Jesus (and each other) these very questions.
We ask these questions as if we can find an answer through the process of debate and discussion. We assume there is a moral solution to all of these situations that still exist today.

Jesus looked at his disciples as they asked the question about sin and let them know that looking at this man on the side of the road was not a question of morality.

                        This man’s disability had nothing to do with any moral dilemma.

        Nor, is this man’s disability a purpose of God.
That’s right.
 I said this man’s disability is not God’s purpose.
We have too often used it that way.
Our modern translations make the words of Jesus awkward.
        And the words of Jesus weren’t meant to come out that way.
What is the purpose of God is the need of the moment for God’s works to be made known.
God must be revealed!
And God is to be revealed through Jesus’ act of healing.

Jesus takes the initiative and performs a pure act of grace.

Jesus astonishes the crowd and the leaders, once again, through the miraculous signs he performs.
The man does what Jesus says and washes the mud from his face in the pool of Siloam and he receives his sight. His eyes have been opened and he has experienced healing. When he is questioned by the crowd he lets them know it was Jesus who gave him his sight.

The rest of the story that doesn’t make it into our reading this morning is in the rest of the chapter. The man becomes the subject of debate again!
This time among the religious authorities.
They question him and his parents.
They want to know who is responsible for this man’s sin.
They want to know who the sinner is, is it his parents, Jesus or this man.

They are caught in the moral dilemma of defining sin for the world. According to the understanding of the day, sin was anything that was bad, any act that was against the commandments, any disorder that was not perfect was defined as sinful.

Yet, the writer of this gospel makes it known from the beginning that Jesus has come into the world to take away the sin of the world (1:29).
Jesus has come into the world to give access to the Light of God and the Love of God. That love and light has come through the very act of grace given to this man through his healing.
His ability to see goes beyond the gift of physical sight. As the story progresses he comes to the realization that Jesus is more than a prophet, or a man that comes from God. By the end, through all the pushing and shoving and challenging that he gets from these authorities he comes to the point where he sees Jesus as the son of God in verse 38 and says to him, “Lord, I believe.”

The disciples witness the power of God at work through Jesus as he brings healing to this man. They witness the grace and love of God revealed as the blind man receives the sight of faith in Jesus. They receive their answer to the question about sin as they witness this man restored to new life and made whole.
Sin is not about actions or moral behavior,
 it is not about conditions of birth or looks.
Sin is about a person’s relationship to God.
Through God’s incarnate Word revealed in the life of Jesus one is able to see the Light of God come into the world.
When the eyes of those who witness God at work through the presence of Jesus come into the Light they move away from darkness.
They move away from judgment, they move away from blind accusations.

Now you might be sitting there thinking, ‘that’s a lot of lovely fluff you just spilled out.’ You might be asking me how any of what I said can make sense today. So let me share a story of my own experience.

 I remember being blinded by my judgments when I worked as a nurse in the Burn Intensive Care Unit. One of our patients had a 90% burn injury. She was a young woman in her 20s. I worked night shift and often in the middle of the night she asked me to read the Bible to her. I did in those wee hours and it brought comfort to both of us. She eventually recovered after about 3 months in our unit. Back in the 1980’s this was a miraculous recovery.  She was discharged to go home and begin life out there in the big wide world.
However, this woman was badly disfigured.
I remember begin angry at God. I remember telling God how unfair this was for this woman. I argued with God about her return to the ‘real world’ and wondered how she could have a productive life and a full and rich life knowing she would always have trouble facing the public looking the way she did.
A few years later I was working in the hospital clinic doing examinations of children.
A woman walked in pushing a stroller.
I saw her via my peripheral vision. I caught a glimpse but that was all.
She walked with confidence.
Her voice was cheerful.
She recognized me before I realized who she was.
She came to me and told me all about her life over the past few years since her discharge from the hospital.
She talked all about the grace and kindness of her family and friends.
Her eyes were full of light and life.
She talked about how she was accepted in her community and how the children in the neighborhood were scared at first but then they fell in love with her. She said she knew God loved her because love was all around her.
Because of the circle of love surrounding her she became a childcare worker and was now in charge of caring for children. That is how she came to the clinic that day.
                                    My eyes were opened that day!
                                    I saw the Light of God at work.
                              I saw God revealed to me in that moment.
In that moment the work of God healed my spiritual blindness and gave me sight again.

As she talked with me I no longer saw a disfigured face.
I saw a woman full of joy.
I saw a woman fully restored to new life.
And her story of relationships and new life restored my relationship with God and brought me into new life.

Our questions and comments to Jesus can change
                                                          from
                    wondering whose fault it is, who is the one with sin, who’s to blame
                                                              to
                                                  show us God’s love,
                                          reveal to us the glory of God,
                                             shine your Light so we may see!

Yes, I love to hear about miracle stories.  
Our God through the presence of Jesus offers us new life and an opportunity to be made whole in his Light.

May we see what God has for us today. Amen. 

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