blind spots

Introduction to the reading

This morning we will hear another reading from John’s Gospel, another encounter between a person and Jesus, that is life changing.

We have heard about Nicodemus who came at night, asked some questions, and wasn’t ready at that point to show himself as a follower. Last week we heard John 4, an unnamed woman, an outsider in so many ways, also confused by the words of Jesus. She went and told, and many believed.

We skipped some chapters, which included Jesus telling a man to take up his mat and walk - on the Sabbath; feeding of the 5,000; Jesus walking on water towards the disciples in the boat during a storm; the woman caught in adultery “If any of you have never sinned, then go ahead and throw the first stone at her!”

John 8: 12 Once again Jesus spoke to the people. This time he said, “I am the light for the world! Follow me, and you won’t be walking in the dark. You will have the light that gives life.”

This morning, another unnamed person, also an outsider. There is a healing in the story, but also much more.

Reading: John 9: 1-41 in 3 voices

Where to start?

The passage begins with the disciples asking who is to blame for the man being blind. Who sinned.

Just as today we ask what parents did to have a child with a disability; or what did a person do to get a chronic illness. Surely, they have made some bad choices, they have sinned, they have displeased God in some way.

In the gospel of John, sin is not doing something wrong;

sin is not believing in Jesus, or not being in a relationship with Jesus.[i]

Jesus is saying that we are asking the wrong question.

The question is not: who sinned?

The question is: what can God do from here?

What healing grace, what possibilities, where will God go from here, and what is God calling us to do as part of that.[ii]

I know some people here are concerned about the future of the Parish, we are a long way from having to close. What if the changes we are seeing in the Parish and community is God encouraging us to look at opportunities for the future, what if they are opening up new possibilities.

Last week we saw how the way the woman addressed Jesus changed:

Ø  a Jew

Ø  Sir

Ø  a prophet

Ø  Messiah

Ø  the Saviour of the world

this week we see a similar pattern.

Ø  Someone named Jesus

Ø  Jesus

Ø  “He is a prophet!”

Ø  “I don’t know if he is a sinner or not.

Ø  Jesus could not do anything unless he came from God.”

Ø  “Lord, I put my faith in you!”

The man born blind, who does what Jesus tells him, and goes and washes the mud from his eyes, has not seen Jesus. So, when the religious leaders ask who healed him, he only has a name to go by, a name that was not unique. It isn’t until towards the end of the reading that the man sees Jesus, and man puts his faith in the one who gave him sight.

While this story is about the man being able to see, it is about more than that.

One of the quotes I put on Facebook this week:

The transformation of the blind man is important, but it’s his surrounding community’s resistance to transformation that the passage really wants us to see. Oh, how we hate change. Oh, how often we choose to keep mud in our eyes, so we don’t have to grow. And who can blame us? new sight is scary. It requires us to give up a lot. We have to throw out old familiar maps before new ones can be drawn up. Everyone’s roles get reshuffled. And nobody can claim certainty about what will come next.

It seems we are called not just to new sight, but brave sight.

Are you ready?[iii]

The religious leaders do not believe, will not believe, that Jesus is able to heal the man born blind. For them it is not possible for someone born blind to see. I wonder how often we do the same thing?

What areas or topics do we close our eyes to?

In what ways are we like the religious leaders, rejecting facts when they do not confirm our long-held beliefs.[iv]

You have probably heard the saying: None so blind as they who will not see.

[image on screen https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/matthew_henry_189365?img=3]

We all have blind spots, about ourselves and about other people and situations. Our blind spots usually make perfect sense to us, just as it made perfect sense to the religious leaders that a man born blind will not be able to see.

Our blind spots may be about young people, older people, immigrants, indigenous people, unemployment, or a range of other topics. And we are usually unaware of them, that is why they are blind spots.

In the church I notice that at times people have blind spots about the Scriptures.

In all these areas: No matter what anyone says, their way of looking at things is the only way.

It is not uncommon for people to only read stories and watch TV programs that agree with their existing viewpoint.

Change is hard, changing our ideas, or changing where we shop.

When people encounter Jesus, Nicodemus, the woman at the well and the man born blind, all are changed. Yes, there is confusion, there is uncertainty, but there is new life and new understandings.

Are we brave enough to ask God:

·         to open our eyes?

·         to unblock our ears?

·         to soften our hearts?

·         to open our lives?

are we willing to see new possibilities for life:

·         for ourselves?

·         For those around us

·         For this Parish?

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[i] https://www.workingpreacher.org/narrative_podcast.aspx?podcast_id=971

[ii] https://www.workingpreacher.org/narrative_podcast.aspx?podcast_id=971

[iii] https://scontent.fsyd5-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/27628840_1537601666287106_5270463692127532460_o.jpg?oh=9cc78d513dd255d16fb22ba62f2523fd&oe=5B24EA79

[iv] Thomas B. Slater, https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3387