Sin and Sight

This week I have been wondering about the way people try to name us, and put us into neat boxes. Last week, we heard about the transformation of a woman who was an outsider in so many ways. Transformed because she was accepted as she was. Loved and renewed.

This week I have also completed my annual report for Presbytery. It is 12 pages of tables and questions – how many worship services each week, how many baptisms, am I up to date with safe church training, what continuing education have I done……    

This week we also saw on the news about the attack in London. People wanted to know is it terrorism or something else. Can we put a label on this incident?

Once we have a label, we think we know what is going on.
Once we have a label, we know where to file the information in our brains.
All we need is a label.

The thing with labels is that often we allow other people to label us.
And we label other people:

-           Druggie

-           Dole bludger

-           Nerd

-           Redneck

-           Do-gooder

-           Idiot

And labels are rarely positive.

In our story this morning, the art teacher expects a certain picture, but Luke sees the world differently.  The teacher says: “why do you do this, what’s wrong with you boy?”

Just because something is different doesn’t mean it is wrong.

In the gospel readings for the past 2 weeks, we have heard about encounters with Jesus, firstly Nicodemus, then the woman at the well. In today’s gospel reading we also read about an encounter between a person and Jesus. But in this meeting, the two men barely speak to each other. Most of the story is about the reaction of others.

The gospel reading this morning also asks about sin:
whose sin caused the man to be born blind?
Is Jesus a sinner for healing on the Sabbath?
How could someone who is a sinner work such a miracle?”
The Pharisees tell the man: “You have been a sinner since the day you were born! Do you think you can teach us anything?”

If I have a label on like this [paper plate with sinner in large writing over my face] what else do you notice about me?
Would you listen to me?
Would you help me across the road?

In this mask, I cannot see.
I cannot see other people,
or the world around me,
but I also cannot see myself.

The gospel starts with asking about sin, and there is a thread about sin woven through this passage. When we think of sin as something that is easily defined - such as questioning authority or working on the Sabbath; we can begin to think more about rules than about people.

Jesus saw the person who was begging,
he didn’t see the result of sin,
he saw a person.
A person who needed healing,
who needed to be made whole,
a person who was a social and religious outcast.

When we look at the healing miracles in the Gospel,
we see inclusion and compassion.

There is another thread running through the readings today, it is about sight and seeing.

How would you choose a king?
 - The tallest?
 - Strongest?
 - Best looking?
 - Brightest?

Saul was King, yet he no followed in God’s ways, so it was time to anoint a new king.
The prophet Samuel, does as he is told, he goes to Bethlehem and meets with Jesse and his sons.
And in turn, Samuel asks God if this is the one.
And each time God says no.
David, the youngest is called in from minding the sheep, and is anointed. David will become the king.

God told Samuel: People judge others by what they look like, but I judge people by what is in their hearts.

When choosing a leader, we have expectations, but God sees us differently, God looks at our hearts, not our bank balance or our body mass index.

I wonder if the sin in this story,
is the sin of not seeing and valuing ourselves,
and others, as God sees and values us.  

The Wrong Person gets Living Water

On Monday Ian and I went to the movies with some friends. We saw the movie: Hidden Figures. Now for people like Ian and me who like Maths and Science and technical stuff, it was great. If you aren’t into the technical stuff, it is a wonderful story.

The film is set in the space race era, at NASA; as the US attempt to get a man into space.

This was pre-computers, so all the calculations for the orbit of the rocket were done by people. The same for the calculations of where the rocket would land on re-entry.

Who do you imagine did all those calculations, and checked and double checked them? Calculations that could be the difference between life and death?

…..

Jesus and his disciples are travelling from Judea to Galilee.

Galilee is in the north, then [below that is] Samaria, then south of there is Judea.  Jesus and the disciples are heading north, but good Jews do not go through Samaria, they go the long way to avoid the place. But Jesus and the disciples take the ‘short cut’, which means a three to four day walk.

….

In schools, and some other groups, there can be people who are always left out – children that the other children don’t want to play with, or sit with. It maybe they have look different or smell different, or for some reason are considered ‘odd’.

We meet one of these ‘odd’ people in this morning’s reading. Well, maybe we meet two : )

This is the longest recorded conversation Jesus has with anyone in the Gospels, and

it is with a woman

who is not Jewish,

and worse than that,

she is a Samaritan

with a chequered past.

What was Jesus thinking?!

Well…

maybe he was just thinking

I’m thirsty

She has a bucket

We are at a well

Maybe she will give me some water, if I ask her.

Thirst led to a request, which led to a conversation

A conversation about where to worship.

The people of Samaria and the Jewish people are both descendants of Abraham.

But they were also enemies.

And like many family feuds, it permeated into many parts of life.

Where to worship was one such area. 

This woman who was ‘wrong’ in the eyes of many,

This woman talked theology with Jesus.

The woman who was the wrong gender

and the wrong colour and

from the wrong place,

who was without a husband

becomes a theologian and an evangelist.

She saw in Jesus something that others had not.

And Jesus saw her in ways that others had not.

This woman is often portrayed as a sinner, but there is nothing in the conversation between Jesus and the woman to suggest that Jesus saw her in that way. In the time when Jesus was on earth, women were property of men. And without a man, you didn’t have a home, or food. Without a husband, or son or father, you needed to resort to begging or prostitution. 

……

Each of us will have received messages from family and friends and colleagues, about who we are and what we are. I was told at school that while I was an enthusiastic singer, I was not good enough, and was no longer part of the school choir.

The people who did many of the calculations in the rocket program were black women. In a time when only some schools took non-white children, and educational pathways were limited, NASA realised they needed the best available brains.  That didn’t mean they were treated equally. The bathroom for ‘coloured women’ was across the campus from where one of the characters was working. Her boss wondered why she disappeared for 40 minutes a couple of times a day.

I have lived in country towns where the phrase ‘the wrong side of the tracks’ was real. Disadvantage was shown by the railway track, or the river, or the highway.

It is easy to see people in terms of one characteristic – colour, gender, religion, race, test score. But we are not one characteristic.

The reading about Jesus and this woman, is one of my favourite in the gospels. I really wish she had a name!

This story speaks to me of how we are known, fully known; and loved. Despite what others may say about us,

No matter how odd people think we are

No matter how hard a life we have had

No matter what our life might look like to others

Jesus comes

Is willing to chat, not tell us off

And offers us life giving water

When Jesus offered the woman living water, it wasn’t to wash away her sin.

Living water is about refreshment,

like rain after a hot day

or a hot bath in winter.  

When the woman left her water jar behind. She also left behind her abandonment, rejection, marginalization.[i]

Are there things you would like to chat with Jesus about?

What difference does it make to you that you are fully known, and fully loved?

Are you willing to accept the life giving water Jesus is offering?  

---

[i] Karoline Lewis, Holy Conversations in Working Preacher, posted Sunday, March 12, 2017 10:30 PM 

Questions about Love and Life

Nicodemus Monologue  http://resources.mennonitechurch.ca/FileDownload/12314/Nicodemus_monologue.pdf

In a book[i] I was reading this week; the author talks of different kinds of love.
“for-who-you-are” kind of love and

“in-spite-of” kind of love.

I would add “because-of-what-you-do” kind of love.

In considering this passage from John’s gospel, the way we think about God’s loves for us, will have an impact on how we understand this passage.

If we think God loves us in spite of our faults and failings,
then we will feel anxious. What if we fail too many times?

If we think God loves us because we are good or kind,
we are likely to feel judged. How good is good enough?

But if we think that God loves us “for-who-you-are”,
we might read and understand this passage differently.

And as much as I would like to be able to understand much more of the Bible in terms of knowledge, belief and faith are not about up here [head].

“the word belief, before our modern, scientific age, wasn't about statements or theories--it was directed toward a person: to hold dear, to prize, to commit oneself to that person, to be in a relationship with that person whom we trust….
Most simply, to believe meant to love. …. Faith is about beloving God" [ii]

Nicodemus was so concerned with knowledge and the physical world, he missed much of what God was saying to him.

I wonder what we miss that God is telling us or showing us?

….

Maybe like me, it is at night that questions and concerns come to the surface of your mind.
The busyness of our days
the noise of TV and radio and
the world around us
can distract us from those things that most concern us.
Have I stuffed up big time?

What if I had done ….

Is this pain something serious?

Am I really loved by God?

Does my life mean anything?

….

A Story of Love https://re-worship.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/reflection-john-3-16.html

---

[i] Wilderness Wanderings, Marilyn Brown Oden, p23-24

[ii] Marcus Borg quoted by Kathryn Matthews in UCCSAMUEL [amended slightly]

Testing

2008 Proclamation of the Word

Firstly a word about the devil or Satan. In Hebrew the word is Ha-satan, and in Greek it is Diabolos. We translate these words as Satan and the Devil, which is commonly used to denote the personification of evil, but in the way these words were used in the time the Bible was written, these beings were adversaries. We meet the Ha-satan in Job, an adversary who came to test Job and his faithfulness. Here Jesus is in the wilderness, and diabolos comes to test him – which is precisely the role of an adversary.

At the end of Chapter 3 in Matthew’s gospel Jesus is baptised, the spirit descended as a dove and a voice from heaven says: This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Then the very next verse Jesus is being led by the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted.

So the first thing that becomes clear is that being in God’s favour does not make life any easier for us. I know some people think that being faithful to God means that everything in their life will go smoothly, and they will continually be blessed by good health, obedient children and favourable finances. Life isn’t like that.  When Dolly Parton sang, I didn’t promise you a rose garden, it could be the song that goes with this reading. Life with God is many things, but it is no guarantee of a smooth, pain free existence.

One writer suggests in Matthew’s gospel the focus of the temptations is clearly vocational rather than a lesson about private morality. It is about who Jesus is, what Jesus relies on, and what his agenda is. So when we talk about temptation in terms of personal immorality, that isn’t what this gospel is about. There are plenty of places to read about how to live, try the beatitudes in Matthew, or Paul’s fruit of the spirit.

Here the temptation is for Jesus to use the power he has, to short circuit God’s plans, to take his future into his own hands, rather then trusting God.

And I think that is one of the greatest temptations we face today. We are told in the media that we can have it all. One of the catch phrases of the women’s liberation movement was that women could have it all. But now many people, both men and women are realising that work and family and sport and hobbies and relationships add up to more than the number of hours in a day; and more energy than most people can muster. But we are sold the lie. The lie that we are in control. The lie that we can choose our future. The lie that we can be successful because we want to be. The lie that we can pack more and more into each day and week.

Now I strongly believe in personal responsibility, there is no point lazing your way through school, sleeping through the day, then wondering why you haven’t made CEO of Telstra. But on the other hand, the idea that we are in control of our future is a con.

And that is the con diabolos is trying on with Jesus.

In the Genesis reading we heard about Adam and Eve and the temptation to eat from the tree in the middle of the garden. The food looked good, tasted good and would give them wisdom. Now if we knew about such a super food, I can imagine it would be on the menu in most households. But here God is saying that just because something looks good and is healthy, and you want it for good reasons, the getting of wisdom, doesn’t mean you can just reach out and grab it. God gives us much, but that is the point; God offers, gifts, reaches out to us, and in response, we rebel hands grasp and take what is not offered. We are to receive God’s gifts, not reach out and grab them for ourselves.

Jesus had been in the wilderness for forty days when the adversary appeared. Now I’m not much good if I haven’t eaten for a few hours, let alone a month or so, and I like my creature comforts. I can well imagine that after forty days in the wilderness I wouldn’t have much hesitation in conjuring up food and anything else I could get, just to get me out of there. Sure Jesus could have jumped from the temple and seen if the voice at the Baptism was true, if he really was the beloved, if God would really send angels to catch him. But Jesus knows his mission is more complex than food and politics, power and prestige. Jesus knows the importance of waiting for God.

Jesus does use the power he has at times, at times when it brings food and healing to others. Jesus shows who he is, and brings glory to God in the process.  If Jesus had tried showing of like a circus magician, who gets the glory.

Maybe that is why we are tempted to prove our worth, to show what great jobs, what brilliant children and grandchildren, what grand homes and expensive holidays we have. Because they show how well we do, they show what clever, successful people we are.

Lent is a time for us to stop, to reflect, to listen to what God is saying to us, about our lives, and our hearts.  Lent is time for us to be vulnerable, to spend time in the wilderness, to lose some of the comforts we place around ourselves, things that help us to ignore God. TV, books, chatter, work,…. a whole lot of activity that pervades our modern lives.

Sometimes I wonder if we have as people become like a large shallow body of water, trying to cover as much ground as possible, getting spread so thin, that we risk disappearing altogether. Lent is a time to reconsider our priorities, a time to live deep, rather than expansive lives.  A time to take stock, to journey with Jesus in the wilderness. And this can be scary. Letting go of some of the comforts of life, time to look at what is essential for us.

Time to face the reality of who we are, to see ourselves as the broken, sinful, people that we are. Time to acknowledge the shame and guilt we carry with us. Time to recognise the emptiness in our lives. The emptiness we try and fill with activity, with possessions, with relationships.

Time to see that we need God. Not as another box to tick off for the week. We need God because only God can fill that hole within us, only God can heal the wounds of our hearts, only God can put back together our fragile lives. Only God can offer us forgiveness, grace, belonging, love, that frees and enables us to truly live. Only God. Because we can keep building stronger defences, we can keep working harder, we can have bigger houses, we can fill our days with busyness.

But we know, when we finally stop the activity, when we finally sit and be still and quiet, when we can’t sleep at night, when we are in hospital facing surgery, when our lives are in a mess, then we know that houses and money and busyness are not what makes our lives. What makes our lives is being the people of God.

This lent, join Jesus in the wilderness, be vulnerable with God, open up your life and let God make you whole. This Lent, choose God.