I haven't preached in a few weeks and this text was rough for a tender area of my heart.
(for this to make any sense at all -- reading the gospel of John, chapter 9 would be helpful)
To the disciples the man
was a learning tool, an example they could use when asking Jesus about the root
of suffering.
To the neighbors he was
the blind man who had lived and begged on the outskirts of town his whole life,
to his neighbors he was a conundrum as a healed person. Vaguely familiar, but mostly disturbing.
To the Pharisees he was a
liar, trying to advance the agenda of this Jesus man. He had either had spent a life time lying
about his blindness, or was a trouble maker falsifying his healing and
exploiting the Sabbath.
To his parents he was
their son, once blind, now full of sight and utterly terrifying for the
spectacle created.
To the religious leaders
he is a sinner, not worthy of God’s attention, testifying to an impossible
healing, mystifying their faith and therefore too troublesome to remain in the
worship place and he is, as he began, driven out.
We never hear his name,
we barely get beyond his diagnosis, he is the man born blind living on the
margins of society so that everyone else will be comfortable. And as the man now healed, now freed from his
diagnosis he is making all others so uncomfortable he is driven back to the
margins, cast out of the center of religious and civil life so that the
orderly, rigid way of understanding God and God’s law will be neither disturbed
nor challenged.
The man is the poster
child for the issue – be it healing on the Sabbath or following Jesus or obeying
God correctly, he is simply the poster child, the object lesson, the statistic
without a story.
As so often happens when
we are rooted in God’s Words, I saw the gospel of Jesus come crashing into the
lives of many this week. I watched, from
a safe distance the playing out of Christian division beginning at World Vision
– a Christian ministry based out of Federal Way, WA. World Vision is a leader in the practice of
child sponsorship in third world countries.
A week ago World Vision announced they were changing their hiring policy
and now would be hiring people who were in same-sex marriages. American Christians disagreeing with World
Vision’s decision pulled their support of the ministry and it took less than 48
hours for World Vision to lose thousands of child sponsorships. So, two days after their change in hiring
policy World Vision, for the sake of retaining their ministry, rescinded their
decision, asked for forgiveness and are now taking calls from those same American
Christians asking if they can sponsor their children again.[i]
I lift up this story not
in hopes of adding to the division or drama, but rather because I have felt
broken hearted over the people who have been treated as objects in a lesson the
church is trying to teach itself, the children who are sponsored through World
Vision, the people who would like to work for World vision, the policy makers
at that ministry and even the critiques on both sides railing against each
other in social medias…they are all being treated as the man born blind was
treated -- learning tools, conundrums, poster children for an issue, statistics
without a story. So, for the common
critique of God’s Word that says it just is not relevant for our lives today –
I ask us all to hold these two stories close tonight and hear what Jesus was
doing then and what we pray Jesus is still doing today.
Looking at Jesus’
location, words and actions are what take this long story from John’s gospel
from irritation to astonishing. Our
gospel reading tonight began with the world “Jesus was walking along…” so we
have to back up a few verses to find out where he is at. It turns out, that at the end of John chapter
8 Jesus himself had been in a debate with the religious leaders. They did not appreciate his answers and so,
like any mature, righteous leader of the synagogue – they threw rocks at Jesus
and threw him out.
It is there, outside of
town, bruised that Jesus meets the man born blind. To Jesus this man is not an object lesson –
so our Healer responds to the disciples’ questions not by talking around the
man but addressing him directly. Healing
him with the mud of the earth and sending him to the waters. Jesus did what probably had not been done to
this man for years – he was seen, spoken to, touched and healed.
And then the man
encounters his neighbors, his parents, his synagogue and the religious
leaders. Notice that Jesus is in none of
those places. For the bulk of this
gospel story Jesus is absent, silent. It
is not until the healed man is driven out of the synagogue that Jesus is there
waiting, again, on the margins to receive the healed yet rejected man.
Where is Jesus when
religion is kicking people out?
Where is Jesus when
communities push people out and keep them down?
Where is Jesus when we
are so blinded by our own fear and need to control and understand that we stop
seeing one another beyond our diagnosis, beyond our labels, beyond our
weaknesses?
I think it is safe to
assume that most of us have experiences where we felt like the blind man –
labeled, misunderstood and rejected.
And experiences when we
have been the community member or the religious person – confused, fearful, and
embarrassingly dismissive.
As an ordained leader in
a large Christian denomination I realize this gospel story brings us to
dangerous grounds – where Jesus kicked out of center of religious institutions
that I am squarely in the middle of.
That is certainly the work of Jesus the Healer in this text as he finds his
way to the edge of society; healing, loving and acknowledging those who have
been kicked out too.
Adults born with
disabilities are not an object lesson to discover the root of suffering.
The healing ministry of
Jesus Christ is not an agenda to be argued over and picked apart.
The children all over the
globe benefiting from sponsorships are not pawns in a debate on doctrine.
And gay marriage is not
an issue to bring down the church.
Yet these are all common
behaviors of Christianity and they have been true since this gospel text was
first inscribed.
Jesus moves to the
outcast of society.
Jesus sees and heals and
touches.
Jesus gathers again those
who are healed and still rejected.
Jesus’ words in this
gospel story turn to the man now healed and ask him about his faith and his
experiences. Jesus desires to be known
by this man, Jesus is shining as the light of the world and the light of sight
for this man. And this is how we known Jesus too – not always marked by the
behaviors of religious institutions – but by light, by bread and wine, by
shared tables and stories, by healing touch and words of acknowledgement. We know Jesus by forgiveness that knows and
heals.
This ministry of Jesus,
this is the work of the body of Christ.
After the man born blind was healed he was sent to a pool of water named
Silom, which means sent. And we too, are sent as people who are seen
by Jesus and healed by his mercy and we too are sent to live lives that testify
to this kind of ministry. Not the
ministry of division and debate and pitting person against person. But the ministry of healing, of mercy of
acknowledgement of another person that does not stop at a label or diagnosis,
but a seeing the heart of one another as Christ sees us.
(we sing...Amazing grace how sweet the sound...)
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