Friday 7 April 2017

Sermon Coastal Unity Parish Sunday 26 March 2017: Lent 5

Readings: Ephesians 5:8-14    John 9:1-41

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our rock and our sustainer.  Amen.

What is our immediate reaction when we emerge out of a darkened space into full bright light?  We tend to squint a bit until our eyes get used to it.  Other times it is altogether too much and we head back indoors for our sunglasses.  But however we react it is a time of blindness.  Imagine how it must have been for the man who had been blind from birth.  Whether surgery or glasses, one suspects, and specialists will know this, that it is a gradual awareness as your eyes get adjusted and your whole system copes with this new perspective on how life looks.  It was very much like this for the man who encountered Jesus one Sabbath day all those years ago.  Blind from birth he was suddenly given the gift of sight – both physical and spiritual.  And certainly spiritually he took some time to understand what was going on, who this man Jesus was and the depth of the change that he brought to his life.
Both readings today are about blindness and the coming of the light.  Both encourage us to question how we respond, how we understand the coming of Jesus into our lives. Here blindness is defined not as the loss of physical vision but as our capacity to understand the provision of God in our lives and how it transforms us into people of the light.

Let us look at the story from the Gospel today a bit more closely. 

We begin with disciples and their concept that blindness is the result of sinning – either of the man or his parents – which Jesus quickly puts to bed.  He tells us that this healing is a sign of God’s work in the world, and that being differently abled as we can call it is not a judgement on our living.  The work of healing was about revealing the glory of God, the light that had come into the world through Jesus.  The light that would sustain through the darkness that was to come.

And he goes on to suggest that the people around this man suffer from a blindness far in excess of the one he healed.  There were the neighbours who walked by him each day but didn’t know him enough to be sure of who he was outside of the context to begging.  Is this the man??

How often do we see people as types rather than actually getting to know them ad individuals, each wonderfully made and each precious in God’s sight.  The homeless, the silent, the belligerent – is the encounter just to solidify our preconceptions or do we spend time hearing their story, offering our own for who knows, we might be the object of  their preconceptions too.

Then there are the Pharisees – fixated on their understanding of how to live in the way of faith.  There were so many things Jesus had done wrong: spit and mud was just unclean, disrespectful, ungodly as a means of healing.  Then it was an affront to God to heal on the Sabbath.  The argument went something like this: you can’t be from God if you heal on the Sabbath.    But he seems to have healed someone so how can he be a sinner? So, ipso facto, the man was never blind to begin with.  The fact that the parents swore he was born blind kind of put a hole in that argument but it probably didn’t put much of a stop on their condemnation of him as a sinner.
In other words, they committed all sorts of theological gymnastics to rationalise doing things that circumvent the way of Jesus almost entirely.

How often do we hold fiercely to our arguments and conclusions because to allow that Jesus might be pointing us in another direction would mean giving up our vested interests and views.  Do we sit in the safety of rules and regulations or do we have the awareness and courage to acknowledge that we might head off down the wrong track with the best of intentions?  What do we do in our faith life that, if Jesus were to walk in on us unexpectedly, he would say our sight is dimmed if not gone altogether?  I was part of a church that was divided over the minister staying or going – and it became a kind of flinging back and forward of rules of the church but each was held separate from the anchor of God’s love – forgiveness without accountability, judgement without reconciliation, and it was a situation that hurt a great many people. Likewise each time we adhere to rules that are far removed from how it is that Jesus teaches us to live: in love, reconciled with God and each other, compassionate, merciful, full of grace then our sight and our light is dimming, is it not? It is good to ask ourselves often if what we hold so tightly too is still anchored in Christ or has taken on the inflexibility of institutional blindness.

Then we have the parents – they were somewhat lacking in courage one could say.  Either that or they were politicians, hedging their bets.   Yes he was definitely blind at birth, no we don’t know how he can now see, no we don’t know who did it (I mean wouldn’t you be wanting to at least say thank you) and he’s of age – why don’t you ask him?  We are told that they were frightened of the possibility that they might be asked to leave the synagogue if they appeared to side with this man Jesus so they sidestepped instead. 

These people remind me of the times when we do not question or challenge that which is challengable simply because we are frightened of the consequences.  Doesn’t’ Jesus tell us that he will be with us in all that we do?  Doesn’t he tell us that we each have a responsibility to become mature in faith so that we as a congregation, as a church can walk the way of the cross in truth and light?  We have a responsibility to stand up against that which we believe is leading us away from God, to constantly be alert to the crooked paths of convenience and safety.

And finally we have the man himself.  When he was first asked what had happened he gave the story in a very practical way – well first he mad mud then he spread it on my eyes and then I washed it off and then I could see. When the Pharisees questioned him it was the same answer and it was only when they pressed him for an insight into the man who had healed him all he could say was that he was a prophet, a man of God. Trying to lead him into words of condemnation, the next time they talked they began the conversation with the statement ‘this man is a sinner…’ – and again his reply is quite pragmantic – you say he is a sinner – I don’t know about that - all I know is that I can see again. And then the light begins to increase.  He takes them on at their own game:  Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.’ Their answer comes from their place of defensive rightness, hitting out at someone who has a troubling truth: ‘You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?’ Like we might say as children “ I don’t’ care, I still hate you.  And they drove him out.  Recently blind man 1, Pharisees nil!
And then the light becomes even brighter – Jesus seeks him out and presents himself and the man says: Lord I believe.  The blind have become sighted and the ones who should have sight have shown themselves to be blind. 

Jesus elaborates on this, the nature of sin at the end of the reading, offering the priests a troubling challenge – that if you have never known the light, your blindness is understandable but if you know the light you need to be aware of the lurking darkness, be careful that your light does not dim and takes you away from the truth of living in the light of Christ.

Paul tells us that the fruit of light is to be found in all that is good and right and true and that we are to be constantly finding out, discerning what pleases God and exposing that which is unfruitful, of the dark.

Christ is that light, the one we follow, the one who challenges us and asks us to be vigilant and imaginative and open always to the spirit guiding us in new and better ways. For it is then that we will be walking the way of the cross here in this place.   Then the light of Christ will shine in us and through us for the healing of the blindness of the world.  Amen

Margaret Garland


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