Spirit of Peace UCC

March 2, 2008

John 9 “Man Born Blind” from The Message Bible

Rev. Jean Morrow

We all love drama, don’t we? The story of the man born blind is a one-act play in six scenes with a huge cast of characters. We have disciples, neighbors, Pharisees, parents, Jesus and the man himself. These last two people are the only so-called sinners in the story…Jesus because he broke the Sabbath and the man because he was born blind. They are also the two who make everything else happen, while the others stand around asking questions.

If there were auditions for this play, I expect most of us would go after the part of the blind man. It’s a hard part…a challenging part with lots of lines and on stage through every scene…but it’s a great part. In the opening scene we find him minding his own business…he hasn’t sought out Jesus for a healing, Jesus and the disciples stumble across him. So, as he is minding his own business, the light of the world passes by and opens his eyes…and shoves him, center stage, into the spotlight…where the critics stand ready to ask question after question.

How were your eyes opened? Where is the man who did it? How could he do that? What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? What do you say about him, since he opened your eyes?

Not one…not one…said, “Hallelujah” or “Thank you, God.” No one asks what it is like to see for the first time…no one asks if the light of day hurt his eyes when he saw for the first time…no one said, “Did you see your reflection in the pool?” All they want to know is how, who, what, where…

And, it would appear that this poor man has been pushed center stage…alone! Jesus healed him, with the disciples standing near by, I suppose…but they have moved on, disappeared, and he is alone.

That’s not unlike many of us who find our own eyes of faith opening as we live more deeply and authentically into the teachings of Jesus…and then find ourselves in the loving, healing presence of God. There we are, trying to make sense out of what is happening to us…deciding what we will say about it, how we will describe it, which is a task, indeed, if faced with the kind of opposition faced by the main character in our one act this morning.

His answers are timid one-liners at first. “I am the man,” he says. “I do not know.” When pressed, he responds a little more boldly, “One thing I know, I was blind but now I see.” But the questions go on and even his own parents back quietly stage left and into the wings. Yet, the man grows both in eloquence and in courage, finally answering the Pharisees so sharply and directly that they throw him out…out into the streets. They are the inquisitors. They have a right to know. As far as they are concerned, what has happened to the man is nothing compared to what it might mean…and that is their job: to decide whether or not this healing constitutes an authentic act of God. They honestly think the get to decide!

They disgust us, don’t they? We find them repellent. Unfortunately, one of the reasons may be that they remind us a little of …well…us. However much we want to play the part of the blind man, we are not naturals for the part. We don’t have the preparation. We aren’t outcasts, most of us. We aren’t living in the margins of society…brutally pushed there because of our real or perceived sins. We’re insiders – fully initiated, law-abiding, pledge-paying, praying members of the congregation of the faithful…or in shorthand, Pharisees, who can get pretty worked up in our own anxiety about whether or not a mighty, miraculous act should be ascribed to God.

For instance, when children see the Virgin Mary in a field while playing…is it God or not? When a methamphetamine addict is cured through the power of prayer…is it God or not? Thousands of people flock to stadiums all over the country to hear famous evangelists and a dozen of them are healed on the spot, littering the stage with their discarded wheelchairs, crutches and braces…is it God or not?

There are a lot of astounding things that happen in the world that may not have anything to do with the power of God. They may have to do only with the power of the human imagination, or the power of suggestion, or worse yet, with the power of outright deception. What if something is not God and we believe that it is?

The story of the man born blind suggests that there is another question at least as important as that one. Not “What if it is not God and I believe that it is?” The more important question may be “What if it is God and I believe that it is not?” That’s the one question the Pharisees forgot to ask. They were so sure of everything…that God didn’t work on Sundays…that this person Jesus was not a spokesperson for God…that anyone born blind had to be a sinner and ditto for anyone who broke the Sabbath…that God did not work through sinners…that God did not work on sinners…and that, further more, no one could teach them anything!

Their system was a closed one and it worked. It closed Jesus out and it closed them in…but they were closed in an inner darkness because their fear of being wrong kept them from experiencing the light. There was one more important question to ask, “What if it is God and I believe it is not?”

Every time this drama repeats itself in our own time, we get to try out for a different part. Maybe we are not cut out for the blind man, but maybe we could add a part. Maybe we could be the dazzled witness who boldly exclaims with wonder, “Praise God, will you look at that!” while everyone else is lining up to play 20 questions. Because, perhaps it is wonder and joy, not suspicion, that is the beginning of authentic faith, and seeing is believing only if we are willing to believe.

In a few minutes, we will be invited to eat and drink at the table of love…a table where we are asked to remember that there is a light for the world and a way of life that really is life…and that God is present here. It is a lot to believe. Are you willing?

Amen.