March 2, 2008

Seeing in a New Way

by Julianne Stokstad

Light is one of the most ancient universal religious symbols. Ancient people associated light with God and God's goodness. The lack of light, darkness, is associated with sin, suffering and death. Light and dark; life and death; blessings and curses; good and evil; a good person and a sinner, this kind of dualism is prevalent in the gospel of John. John speaks often about the light that is Jesus Christ bringing God's living word into the world and the darkness that is humanity not seeing the power and presence of God.

Light of course is essential for seeing. I am struck by how the scriptures in Lent this year seem to have a common theme: seeing. Several weeks ago Jeanette preached about Nicodemus who just didn't seem to see how he could be born again. Last week you heard about the woman at the well, the triple outsider-a woman, an outcast and a foreigner, into whom Jesus looked deeply and she became the first evangelist. And this week we hear of a man born blind getting his sight and it seemed to get everyone all riled up.

All the gospels were written to help the early Christian communities: to help them to remember Jesus and his teachings, to help them to see themselves in the story. Now we too can look into the stories to find ourselves. Can we see ourselves in this story? Is it even possible to have a glimpse of the truth of ourselves?

This story begins as the disciples are walking along with Jesus (what a wonderful thing that is to do). Jesus saw a man blind from birth. What did Jesus see, I wonder as he gazed at this blind man? When we see someone we don't know coming into church, what do we see? We might look at their clothes (the blind man no doubt was dressed in rags), or perhaps their expression or their behavior (he was probably holding out a begging bowl, with his eyes staring blankly). We might notice a variety of physical characteristics, gender, age, and race to help us deduce much about the person-their status especially with respect to our own. Is the person like us or not? If this stranger has an evident difference from us, is this how we see them? We all tend to pigeon hole people based on certain identifiable characteristics. The blind man had an evident affliction by which he was known. Did Jesus gaze into his eyes and see more than the blindness? Did he see the man in a new and different way? I suspect he did.

Of course, the blind man couldn't see Jesus, but he surely could perceive someone had stopped in front of him. He could surely hear the disciples rudely ask their question to Jesus about him as though he weren't even present "So who sinned, the man or his parents?" Apparently the disciples saw something different as they looked at this blind man as they tried to figure out why this man was blind. That is the wrong question, Jesus replied. Don't blame the one who is suffering. There is no such cause and effect. There was a belief in those times (and now too) that blessings came from God and if one was suffering, one must have done something wrong. Jesus told his disciples, "Instead look for what God can do." And with that Jesus bends down, spits in the dirt, mixes up the potion and puts it on the blind man's eyes and tells him to go wash it off. Then Jesus and his disciples continue on their way.

But this story doesn't end with that. The man went to the pool, washed off the dirt and saw. I find it interesting that he never asked for this healing. Can you imagine, for example, being in the hospital and a healer comes and without permission tries something new and it works? It would be puzzling. It was puzzling to this man. He was blind and now he can see. What is very interesting is that no one gets excited and gives thanks for his healing; instead he faces four rounds of tough questioning. Some of his neighbors don't recognize him, presumably showing that all they saw was his blindness. Who is this man now? So they take him to the Pharisees who hear his story and get bent out of shape because Jesus broke their rules. The priests followed very specific rules, written in their Torah, about keeping their worship pure and holy. Jesus broke the rules and was therefore a sinner.

The no longer blind man recites again how this happened and they don't believe his story and go with him to his parents to check it out. His parents, fearful of the power of the Pharisees to kick them out of their community, answer carefully, Yes, yes, this is our son, born blind, we don't know how it happened, ask him. And the Pharisees ask him again. The former blind man is getting testy with all these interrogations. All the Pharisees can see is what used to be, that he was born a sinner, and not liking his answers, they kick him out of their community.

Several points stand out for me in this story. First it took the blind man a while to understand what had happened to him. He didn't ask for this healing, but he had to participate by going to the water and washing off the mud. This reminds me of baptism, because so often when we are baptized, it takes us quite a long time to live into the blessing and promise of that day. Our acceptance of the grace God gives us is a journey, a process that takes time. Second, Jesus came back to him, sought him out and led him into belief. And so it is for us. Christ comes to us in our struggles and when we are able to give over our afflictions and struggles to God, and just trust God, and then the peace of God will flow into us.

As we think about the story of the blind man, I wonder with whom you identify?

The Pharisees aren't very appealing in this story. Not many of us would self identify as a Pharisee, for they seem so heartless in their insider arrogant judgment about how things are and how they should be. Locked up in prisons of certainty, they knew where God was and they could not see anything differently. Their inner darkness blocked their vision of what happened right in front of their eyes. So I suspect, if we had to choose and were not allowed to just stand back and observe, most of us prefer they role of the blind man, touched and healed by Jesus. Yet how do we allow that to happen? What might we be doing to keep the light away from our lives?

How clearly do we see ourselves? Do we even want to be known deeply, by heart? Our culture teaches us to be strong and independent so try to hide our struggles whatever they might be. But not all of us do that. Those writing reflections in our Lenten book have given us a great gift. I want to say that I am getting amazing feedback from those out of our community to whom I have given our Lenten booklet. For example, one friend wrote, "I am so impressed with your people. They have so beautifully responded and given of themselves in those messages. I love it." I hope you tell those who wrote for the booklet if you appreciate it, feedback is important. From reading our Lenten booklet, it is clear we have many different experiences, that there are different ways of seeing and understanding our relationship to God, to community and to ourselves. Yet in all, God is active in all of our lives. Through this simple booklet, we see each other with new eyes and see the wonderful ways in which God brings God's love into our lives.

The paradox is that we are all in need of Jesus' healing touch bringing us to God. We all have vulnerabilities, broken parts of us and pain and suffering. Some of it had nothing to do with our choices, some of it did. The question I want to leave you with is how might God be calling us to love more fully? Are they ways in which we come across as stuck Pharisees? How might we welcome the love and healing that I know is here for us into community? My friends, God is here. Love is here. Can you sense our still-speaking God calling us forth to new life?

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