4 Lent 2011

The Rev. Julia W. Messer
4.3.2011 Forth Sunday in Lent-- Year A-RCL1 Samuel 16:1-13, Psalm 23, Ephesians 5:8-14, John 9:1-41

The man born blind...and Perspective

Children’s Chapel send off story:

Today’s gospel reading is about Jesus healing a blind man and trying to help those around him get a better understanding of who he was. Jesus was trying to offer them a clearer perspective—perspective means a way of seeing things. For example, let’s say you want to have a cookie before dinner. You want the cookie because you’re hungry. The way your mother sees it is that it is too close to dinner and you might not eat all of your dinner if you eat a cookie first. Your brother might see it as unfair because if you ate that cookie you would have more than he does. And the way your dog sees it is that he is hoping you do eat the cookie and the crumbs fall on the ground so he can eat it all up. One cookie, but 4 different ways of seeing it—or as we say, four different perspectives.

So in today’s chapel, be sure to listen to how people see things and how their perspectives are different.

~~~

You may not know this about me, but I love soccer. I’ve been a player, a fan, an assistant coach for a boys JV team, and a soccer referee for over half of my life. And being a referee isn’t easy…you would be surprised at how many people shout at us during a game that we must be blind or deaf. It’s true--how many of us have at some time yelled at a game or even on a TV screen “REF, come on! That was a foul! What are you-- blind?!”

     Sometimes referees just don't see things correctly, even when they are right beside the play. With the gift of instant replay that offers numerous different angles, it might be revealed that the referee actually called the right play. And then again sometimes the refs are watching too much and miss a foul. And let’s face it, as players, as fans, and as coaches, we are horribly biased towards our own team. When we see our team commit a foul, we aren’t going to actually shout out “Hey ref, we’re the ones that fouled!” Referees are there to offer an unbiased perspective which can shed new light on a situation, and they are right there in the mud with the players, meeting them exactly where they are at that moment in time.

     Perspective. It can make a world of difference to us when we change how we see an event or how we respond to it. Whether it is a hidden picture that is suddenly seen or hearing what the other person had to say about a situation, our perspective can suddenly shift when “we get it”.

     I feel the same applies to the readings today as well as the Lenten season in general. The “Lord does not see as mortals see” (1Sam16) and God does not act how we might expect Him to. God didn’t act the way the Israelites thought they would see God’s actions. Jesus did things that people thought he would not—like healing people on a Sabbath after Sabbath, which we hear about again in today’s reading.

     I love the conversation between the once blind man, the Pharisees, and Jesus when Jesus tells them that he will make those who do not see, may see, and those who see, may become blind. Then the Pharisees actually wonder “Are we blind?” Talk about trying to figure out what is and what isn’t!  In this situation Jesus is like a referee, in that he was right there where they were, trying to offer a clearer perspective of God and God’s grace.

                                                         

   When the Pharisees wonder, “Are we blind?”, Jesus tells them that “If you were blind, you would not have sin." But now that you say, ‘We see’ your sin remains.”

Sounds a little confusing, but what Jesus was trying to convey was that if you cannot see what you are doing is sin, then you aren’t in the right perspective to see what is really going on.  If you do not realize your eyes are shut, then how can you know they are opened?

 

   The Pharisees sinned because they knew the word of God -- they knew the loving and forgiving God that revealed Himself to Moses and the other prophets -- yet they could not see they were not showing this love and forgiveness to God’s people. They condemned anyone who followed Jesus, threw them out of the synagogue, and looked down on a blind man and his family because he was born differently from them.

Yet it was because this man was different than the others that he truly got to experience the world. While he had to rely on other’s generosity to help him live, he got to see the world in its fullness-- in its cruelness and its generosity. What the man knew of the world was through the ways he experienced it… through sound, taste, feel, and smell -- this is how he ‘saw’ the world. Yet Jesus went out and found this blind man, and made the first move. Jesus initiated healing for this man, by getting down into the mud then placed it on to the man’s eyes. But the man also had to be willing to go and wash in the water of Siloam (which means being sent). The man had to be willing to be sent in faith that he would be healed. The man first heard Jesus before he saw him, yet that was enough to make this man take the first steps in faith. In the Gospel reading, it doesn’t say how far away the pool was from where he was, nor does it say how many obstacles the man might have run into, but we can infer that he persisted in the hope of being healed.

     Once there, the man was healed and was given a new perspective on life -- one where he could not only see, but also experienced God’s grace first-hand. It only took this one experience for this man to know that he wanted to become a disciple of Christ. And as a follower of Christ, he would still get persecuted--but he already knew what that was like. Life wasn’t magically going to be perfect for him, but he received a gift far greater than physical sight. He was given spiritual sight and could see and he received God’s grace.

     Certainly there are moments in all of our lives when we grapple for God’s guidance and we may feel blind. Previously we might have had spiritual clarity and life seemed bright and clear. Then we may have found ourselves, or find ourselves, struggling to discern God’s voice in the crowd around us. Or we may find ourselves like the Pharisees, who were intelligent people, yet refused to see the miracles that occurred right before their very eyes! A man born blind could see! They couldn’t accept this because Jesus healed on the Sabbath and must therefore be a sinner too. The way they thought God interacted and the way God DID interact, did not fit into their neat little box of how they understood God.

     Yet God calls us to open our eyes to the presence of Him in our lives. God call us to look at our lives from the perspective that He calls us to live each moment with meaning and love. When we hear God’s voice and go where He calls us, we might have our eyes opened to new wonders or God’s grace. Sometimes, God may call us to a place that makes us to roll up our sleeves and get in the mud and grime, and meet others which also let’s God meet us there in the dirt of life.

     We may be blind at times, or think we are unable to truly see what is going on around us, but maybe just maybe, we are in the perfect position and have the perfect perspective to be able to see God’s work in the world.

What I think best describes the formerly blind man’s perspective is best said by theologian, Joni Erickson Tada. She wrote wrote, “Faith isn't the ability to believe long and far into the misty future. It's simply taking God at His Word and taking the next step.”

        +  In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.+