Clearing the Eyes
Sermon
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Cycle A Gospel Sermons For Lent And Easter
The scripture today is one of honest inquiry but turns quickly to a realization that what the disciples have known, or thought they knew, is no longer applicable. When it comes to encountering a blind person they turn to what they have been taught. If a bad illness or disability befell a person like the one that befell the blind man, it must be because he or his parents had done something wrong. Today, we understand that if a person is born blind it would be because of any number of prenatal conditions having nothing to do with being a marker of someone’s sin. But science is not at play here. The conclusion of the time, was that a “sin” was passed down from parent to child, hence the blind man was a sign that the parents had done something egregious and the man was a symbol for it.
The disciples asked a question direct out of their understanding: “Rabbi, who sinned so that he was born blind, this man or his parents?” (John 9:2).
If I might redirect our thinking for a moment before I return to Jesus’ answer I would like you to think about sunglasses. I would like you to think about the various kinds of sunglasses that we wear. We have sunglasses in all manner of colors to affect the various spectrums of light so that we might accomplish special tasks. Some are glasses to enhance the sport we play. The person who fishes wears glasses that take the reflection off the water so he can see what is happening underneath the sundrenched surface. The golfer chooses glasses depending on whether she wants to better see the undulations of the green or simply diminish the bad things that happen to our eyes with UV ray exposure. So too, we see people wearing sunglasses at night, not to blot out the sun, but to take the glare out of headlights or streetlights. In doctor offices now, you have a variety of colored glasses designed for use with lasers, to detect bruising after an accident, or see a blood clot that is disrupting flow through the veins. All sorts of sunglasses, or color-specific glasses if you will, enable us to be healthier or have more fun.
Now, think of the ancient mind with its filters. If I, in the time of Jesus, believe in an all-powerful, all-knowing God but don’t know the way of DNA, or the science of environmental damage to a unborn baby, it makes perfect sense to filter my view of life through the lens of something bad happening to me or to another as either the result of my parents doing something wrong or me not following God’s ways. After all, God wouldn’t create someone blind without there being a reason or lack, right?
While you and I may scoff at that idea today it really is a reasonable attempt to understand why things happen to people. If bad things happen... my bad. If good things happen... God’s goodness is upon me. The length of this scripture passage deals with other such ancient understandings of how things work, how the rules of the Hebrew people had been formed to address them, and now, how Jesus is reframing them.
Night was coming... a portent of darkness. Jesus was saying he was the light of the world.
The mud and saliva... a crude mixture reflecting uncleanliness was being used to clean.
Jesus was imitating God when God formed humankind from the dirt.
Healing on the Sabbath... a heresy never to be violated for it would anger God. Jesus was challenging that perception and making it clear that the only violation of God comes from those who do not heal when they have the chance to do so.
There was challenging of authority. The disciples knew Moses, they taught Moses, they knew sin when they saw it. Jesus said he came so that those who were blind would see and those who think they see will become blind.
Folks, the sunglasses of our own views must be taken off if we are to see. Every one of the complaints in these 41 verses are legitimate when viewed in the context of the time and the people. But Jesus was removing the lenses that colored their view of the world and attempting to help all see clearly or at least more clearly. If they give assent to the scripture that said we can only see partially now, while in this place, sight will be restored.
So what is it that Jesus wants us to see?
First, we walk past needs of the world all the time and normally, we don’t stop. Jesus was simply on a walk and came upon the blind man. How often do you and I stop to engage that which is in front of us? When we lay our money on the counter of the person earning minimum wage at the gas station do we really listen to their answer when we ask them how they are? Do we really stop to look deeply at them so that our “thank you” is genuine and heartfelt? Do we ever stop and say to them how much we appreciate them being there for us day and night to meet our immediate need, or ask them what their hopes and dreams are...or do we just walk on by?
Second, are we willing to challenge our own conventions and rules. After all, how can I possibly stay for fellowship when my family is coming at one and I have to prepare dinner? Code phrase: Church people, you are not my family, you aren’t worthy of my time. Or our own conventions with the eight most heard words in church life, “we have never done it that way before!” Code phrase: I’m not interested in anyone else coming in if they don’t think and act just like me. Or how about all you grandparents. “I can’t come to Bible study because I have to go see my grandkids play sports and I do see every game, pastor.” Code phrase: my grandchildren are my god for they are more important than anything else.
Now lest you think I have a hard heart, there is a place for having dinner with your family, with both your families. There is a place for considering traditions and their value as well as considering the need for new traditions for new generations. There is a place for letting your grandkids know that you love them as well as letting God know that you are trying to get your life in harmony with the Divine’s wishes so that your grandkids will see God through you. We are called to put down our conventions and rules no matter how deep they run in our church lives, in our family lives, for the purpose of sharing God’s love. While I want to have dinner with my family, it is critical that my family be broader than blood. While I want my grandkids to know I love them it is equally important that they know that God loves them.
Third, this passage is not about reasonableness and trying to make a “both/and” case like I just stated in the previous section. It is a passage that says you and I tend to let our own lenses take charge of our lives and we do it so much that we end up not being able to see Jesus when he is right in front of us. The implication is not pleasant. We are the truly blind, blinded by our own filters of what is right and wrong, what is righteous or not.
A number of years ago I was told of a story in a newspaper about a survey. The survey attempted to determine if one’s views of God and church affiliation were influenced by the political party one belonged to or if one’s political party of choice was determined by one’s view of God. Of course, this is sort of a chicken and egg kind of question. I’ve tried unsuccessfully to use the internet to find the story with no avail but my understanding of the results were that if one tended to see God as a judging God, that heaven and hell were an absolute, and that we needed to be saved from our sins, most times the person was a Republican. On the other hand, if one believed that God was loving and forever forgiving, that eternity is something not fixed but ever being revealed, that justice for the poor and reconciliation were the dominant theological position, then one tended to be a Democrat.
Having mentioned it earlier, it is worth repeating. I have never seen the survey so it is clear there is so much potential for distortion and ambiguity that I would be hard pressed to give it any real measure of accuracy. However, its accuracy is likely not in whether it measured things correctly, but in the fact that how we view things from our initial vantage points, and preferred lenses do color how we look at things. Jesus would like it if we would be willing to take off our sunglasses, our lenses, our view on things, and put on a different way of seeing.
My experience in life is that this only happens when we put ourselves into different situations than we would otherwise be in. For example: if you really want to know why children don’t like church, get on your knees and spend an hour that way. One of my teachers made us do this task and it wasn’t pleasant. Guess what, in the sanctuary the view from your knees (a child’s view) is the backside of pants and frankly, sometimes the smell. Being in the service is then defined by wanting to escape to where I could see, which we who are parents know, leads to a constant struggle to get kids to stay put. If you ever wonder why children run down a hallway when it is full of beautiful pictures, stay on your knees and recognize that no pictures are at their height. All they see is runway! Maybe that is why so many of our own “kids” decided to run away from church all together. Perhaps a walk in the other’s shoes might restore our sight just a little bit.
Jesus said, “I have come into the world to exercise judgment so that those who don’t see can see, and those who see will become blind.” To rephrase it in such a way that it makes sense in the story it might go like this, “I have come into the world to exercise judgment so that those who are willing to see differently can and that those who think they are already certain about what my rules are, will be shown the error of their ways.”
So this week... be sure and stop to meet a need as yet unknown to you.
This week give up your own sense of controlling everything with a set of rules you created. Live a week with some freedom to allow that the “other way” isn’t wrong, it just isn’t something you are used to. This week be honest about the sunglasses you have on. Sunglasses aren’t a terrible thing, unless of course, we demand that only one kind will do and therefore everyone has to wear the same kind. Explore the light... differently. See where it leads. See if things don’t look just a little bit different, a little clearer, with a bit more of Jesus in view. Amen.
The disciples asked a question direct out of their understanding: “Rabbi, who sinned so that he was born blind, this man or his parents?” (John 9:2).
If I might redirect our thinking for a moment before I return to Jesus’ answer I would like you to think about sunglasses. I would like you to think about the various kinds of sunglasses that we wear. We have sunglasses in all manner of colors to affect the various spectrums of light so that we might accomplish special tasks. Some are glasses to enhance the sport we play. The person who fishes wears glasses that take the reflection off the water so he can see what is happening underneath the sundrenched surface. The golfer chooses glasses depending on whether she wants to better see the undulations of the green or simply diminish the bad things that happen to our eyes with UV ray exposure. So too, we see people wearing sunglasses at night, not to blot out the sun, but to take the glare out of headlights or streetlights. In doctor offices now, you have a variety of colored glasses designed for use with lasers, to detect bruising after an accident, or see a blood clot that is disrupting flow through the veins. All sorts of sunglasses, or color-specific glasses if you will, enable us to be healthier or have more fun.
Now, think of the ancient mind with its filters. If I, in the time of Jesus, believe in an all-powerful, all-knowing God but don’t know the way of DNA, or the science of environmental damage to a unborn baby, it makes perfect sense to filter my view of life through the lens of something bad happening to me or to another as either the result of my parents doing something wrong or me not following God’s ways. After all, God wouldn’t create someone blind without there being a reason or lack, right?
While you and I may scoff at that idea today it really is a reasonable attempt to understand why things happen to people. If bad things happen... my bad. If good things happen... God’s goodness is upon me. The length of this scripture passage deals with other such ancient understandings of how things work, how the rules of the Hebrew people had been formed to address them, and now, how Jesus is reframing them.
Night was coming... a portent of darkness. Jesus was saying he was the light of the world.
The mud and saliva... a crude mixture reflecting uncleanliness was being used to clean.
Jesus was imitating God when God formed humankind from the dirt.
Healing on the Sabbath... a heresy never to be violated for it would anger God. Jesus was challenging that perception and making it clear that the only violation of God comes from those who do not heal when they have the chance to do so.
There was challenging of authority. The disciples knew Moses, they taught Moses, they knew sin when they saw it. Jesus said he came so that those who were blind would see and those who think they see will become blind.
Folks, the sunglasses of our own views must be taken off if we are to see. Every one of the complaints in these 41 verses are legitimate when viewed in the context of the time and the people. But Jesus was removing the lenses that colored their view of the world and attempting to help all see clearly or at least more clearly. If they give assent to the scripture that said we can only see partially now, while in this place, sight will be restored.
So what is it that Jesus wants us to see?
First, we walk past needs of the world all the time and normally, we don’t stop. Jesus was simply on a walk and came upon the blind man. How often do you and I stop to engage that which is in front of us? When we lay our money on the counter of the person earning minimum wage at the gas station do we really listen to their answer when we ask them how they are? Do we really stop to look deeply at them so that our “thank you” is genuine and heartfelt? Do we ever stop and say to them how much we appreciate them being there for us day and night to meet our immediate need, or ask them what their hopes and dreams are...or do we just walk on by?
Second, are we willing to challenge our own conventions and rules. After all, how can I possibly stay for fellowship when my family is coming at one and I have to prepare dinner? Code phrase: Church people, you are not my family, you aren’t worthy of my time. Or our own conventions with the eight most heard words in church life, “we have never done it that way before!” Code phrase: I’m not interested in anyone else coming in if they don’t think and act just like me. Or how about all you grandparents. “I can’t come to Bible study because I have to go see my grandkids play sports and I do see every game, pastor.” Code phrase: my grandchildren are my god for they are more important than anything else.
Now lest you think I have a hard heart, there is a place for having dinner with your family, with both your families. There is a place for considering traditions and their value as well as considering the need for new traditions for new generations. There is a place for letting your grandkids know that you love them as well as letting God know that you are trying to get your life in harmony with the Divine’s wishes so that your grandkids will see God through you. We are called to put down our conventions and rules no matter how deep they run in our church lives, in our family lives, for the purpose of sharing God’s love. While I want to have dinner with my family, it is critical that my family be broader than blood. While I want my grandkids to know I love them it is equally important that they know that God loves them.
Third, this passage is not about reasonableness and trying to make a “both/and” case like I just stated in the previous section. It is a passage that says you and I tend to let our own lenses take charge of our lives and we do it so much that we end up not being able to see Jesus when he is right in front of us. The implication is not pleasant. We are the truly blind, blinded by our own filters of what is right and wrong, what is righteous or not.
A number of years ago I was told of a story in a newspaper about a survey. The survey attempted to determine if one’s views of God and church affiliation were influenced by the political party one belonged to or if one’s political party of choice was determined by one’s view of God. Of course, this is sort of a chicken and egg kind of question. I’ve tried unsuccessfully to use the internet to find the story with no avail but my understanding of the results were that if one tended to see God as a judging God, that heaven and hell were an absolute, and that we needed to be saved from our sins, most times the person was a Republican. On the other hand, if one believed that God was loving and forever forgiving, that eternity is something not fixed but ever being revealed, that justice for the poor and reconciliation were the dominant theological position, then one tended to be a Democrat.
Having mentioned it earlier, it is worth repeating. I have never seen the survey so it is clear there is so much potential for distortion and ambiguity that I would be hard pressed to give it any real measure of accuracy. However, its accuracy is likely not in whether it measured things correctly, but in the fact that how we view things from our initial vantage points, and preferred lenses do color how we look at things. Jesus would like it if we would be willing to take off our sunglasses, our lenses, our view on things, and put on a different way of seeing.
My experience in life is that this only happens when we put ourselves into different situations than we would otherwise be in. For example: if you really want to know why children don’t like church, get on your knees and spend an hour that way. One of my teachers made us do this task and it wasn’t pleasant. Guess what, in the sanctuary the view from your knees (a child’s view) is the backside of pants and frankly, sometimes the smell. Being in the service is then defined by wanting to escape to where I could see, which we who are parents know, leads to a constant struggle to get kids to stay put. If you ever wonder why children run down a hallway when it is full of beautiful pictures, stay on your knees and recognize that no pictures are at their height. All they see is runway! Maybe that is why so many of our own “kids” decided to run away from church all together. Perhaps a walk in the other’s shoes might restore our sight just a little bit.
Jesus said, “I have come into the world to exercise judgment so that those who don’t see can see, and those who see will become blind.” To rephrase it in such a way that it makes sense in the story it might go like this, “I have come into the world to exercise judgment so that those who are willing to see differently can and that those who think they are already certain about what my rules are, will be shown the error of their ways.”
So this week... be sure and stop to meet a need as yet unknown to you.
This week give up your own sense of controlling everything with a set of rules you created. Live a week with some freedom to allow that the “other way” isn’t wrong, it just isn’t something you are used to. This week be honest about the sunglasses you have on. Sunglasses aren’t a terrible thing, unless of course, we demand that only one kind will do and therefore everyone has to wear the same kind. Explore the light... differently. See where it leads. See if things don’t look just a little bit different, a little clearer, with a bit more of Jesus in view. Amen.
