Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday March 12, 2023
Scripture: John 9:1-41
Our bible story this week is another long story, like all of the stories we’re reading this Lent, and on the surface, it feels like a short episode that has been padded out to fill a chapter… not that students or writers ever do anything like that, right?! We have an encounter between Jesus and a man who had been born without sight. Jesus spits on the ground and makes mud out of spit and dirt then smears the mud on the man’s eyes. Jesus tells him to go to an ancient pool of water in Jerusalem to wash, and when the man came back to Jesus, he could see for the first time in his life.
And then the rest of the chapter is dialogue – Jesus, his disciples, the man who can now see, his parents, and the Jewish leaders, all trying to understand what has happened. But despite all of their talk, I still have questions.
How come his neighbours don’t recognize him? The only thing that has changed about him is that he can now see – there shouldn’t be any obvious outer change. Are we the ones who are blind – blind to anyone who is different than us, to the point that we can’t see them unless they fit in with what we define as “normal”?
I also wonder about his parents. We are told that they are afraid of the temple authorities, but I wonder how they felt about this change in their son. Are the delighted that he can see, or do they mourn the loss of the son who they raised?
And finally – how can a gob of spit and some dirt make someone see?
But John doesn’t answer any of these question for us. We have a man who begins the story in one place, he encounters Jesus, and he ends the story in another place. His body is transformed by his encounter with Jesus, and now he can see. The world which was previously hidden from him has now been revealed to him. Jesus, an unknown stranger, is now literally visible to him, but also metaphorically he can now truly see who Jesus is.
And the religious leaders of the day… they don’t trust this sort of revelation. They don’t trust a revelation that they don’t have control over. And this is why Jesus tells them that even though they can see with their eyes, they are blind to who Jesus is and how God is working in the world.
To me, this is less a story about a man who was blind who can now see, and more a story about revelation. Jesus has revealed the world to him, literally, in the sense of giving him sight, but also opening the eyes of his heart so that he can see God-in-Jesus, re-shaping and transforming the world.
Yesterday was the 3-year anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring a global pandemic. I’m sure that most of us remember this time 3 years ago in great detail. On March 11, I was in Halifax attending research presentations; on March 12, I came home a day earlier than planned; on March 13, we were convening an emergency meeting of the Official Board and Session to make decisions about how we were going to make decisions in the pandemic.
The lectionary – the cycle of readings that we usually follow in worship – it follows a 3-year cycle. As I was planning out worship for Lent this year and going through the readings, they brought back very vivid memories of worship through Lent and Easter of 2020. The last time that we read this story of a man born blind who encountered Jesus was on March 22, 2020. That was the first Sunday that we were fully virtual, with Ross on camera, Bertis at the piano, and me here in the pulpit.
This week, I looked back to see what I had said about this reading three years ago. After the announcements in which I simply said “everything is cancelled,” let you know where to find the bulletin to follow along with, reminded you to check in with friends, family members, and neighbours, and let you know about the daily check-ins at 1pm on Facebook Live which had started a few days earlier, we read the same bible story that we heard today.
From my reflection that day: “I want to ask the question of what is being revealed. Five years from now, when we look back at the time of Covid-19, what will be the revelation of this era that we are currently living in? Is it selfishness that is being revealed, or is it generosity? Is it fear that is being revealed, or is it love? Will we hide our eyes so that we don’t see the plight of others, or will our eyes be opened to see the face of Christ in the face of our neighbours?”
It's only 3 years later, not 5, but I think that a lot has been revealed to us. The past 3 years have revealed deep divisions in our society. They have revealed systemic racism that causes great harm. They have revealed, to those of us who are descended from settlers, the depths of the horrors of the residential school system that our church participated in. But I also think that the past 3 years have revealed depths of generosity in our world. They have revealed to us how important community is. They have revealed a need to re-set our priorities for how we use our time. They have revealed how powerful it is to be able to gather together and sing together. They have revealed the truth of John Donne’s famous poem written 400 years ago, and because it’s 400 years old, I can forgive it for its lack of inclusive language. The poem that begins, “No man is an island, entire of itself,” and later on says “any man’s death diminished me, / because I am involved in mankind.”
Much has been revealed to us. Much continues to be revealed to us. And just as Jesus was with the man in the story as the world was revealed to him – the world in all of its painful beauty – Jesus has been with us through the past three years. Jesus is present in all of the mucky, muddy, messy places in life… and Jesus sometimes even uses a gob of mud made out of spit and dirt to bring about revelation.
And may the God who has been present since before the beginning of time, the God who works in the mud and muck of this world even today… may this God be with us through all of our tomorrows, bringing insight and enlightenment and revelation and transformation. Amen.
by backonthebus on flickr
Thank you, Kate. I remember that on this date, I was getting emails telling me the border was going to close and I needed to get myself home.
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