Readings for Lent 4A:
Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-14
March 2, 2008
The Rev. Karen Faye Siegfriedt
St. Jude the Apostle Episcopal Church, Cupertino, CA
Paul said to the Ephesians: “For once you were darkness but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of the light- for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.” [Eph. 5:8]
The themes of today’s biblical readings are about people moving from darkness into light; from not being able to see, to seeing clearly. They are also about people remaining blind, stuck in old ways of thinking. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul speaks to a people who are lost in a moral fog. He tells them that they have in Christ, a light to show them another way to live. In the gospel story, Jesus’ healing of a blind man, highlights the rigid thinking and the spiritual blindness of those around him. Today I want to talk about moving from a place of blindness to a place of seeing. I want to talk about Christ as “the Light of the World.” [John 9:5]
In her book, Knowing Jesus in Your Life, Carol Anderson writes about her own blindness due to having been brought up in a very protective environment and her subsequent naiveté. This is what she wrote:
“I come from a very small town in New Jersey, from a moderately conservative family. Less than three months after I started college, I became involved in a civil rights demonstration, and I was arrested. The demonstration was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me…In the 1960’s, my fellow activists and I believed that by protest and action we could create a better society and actually change the world. I was so swept up in that belief during my college years, that I was arrested several times. It became more important to me than my studies.”“As part of that commitment, I spent a brief part of my senior year as one of the few white people at a black college. One day I was out walking with a roommate, a young black lady from one of the islands off the South Carolina coast. She was frightened because it wasn’t good for a black person to be seen walking with a white. Before long, a pick-up truck pulled up beside us. I looked around and realized that the men in the truck were members of a white racist organization. My friend said, ‘Just get out of here, this is trouble,’ and fled. Innocent as I was, I thought people could just be reasoned with, so I stayed and waited. A man jumped out the truck, stared at me, called me a nigger-lover, and struck my knees with a baseball bat. I fell to the ground and another man started kicking me. A car mercifully came by and the men left before any further damage could be done.”
“My knees were badly hurt (even now I can’t kneel for long in church) but more importantly, my life changed that day. I saw in the eyes of those men a hatred so deep, an evil so powerful that it was more than just human: it was a larger evil, a violence that could take over a group of people. I looked into the face of the leader who was assaulting me and there was such bitterness and hatred inside of him. I realized that for all the idealism I and many others were espousing, there was a fundamental need to change the human heart before any real progress could be made. What I saw in that man’s face was the fact that behind so much of the disorder of the world are some very broken people who when banded together, become a very effective force for evil. And I began to question whether social protest and changing laws alone could solve the problem.” Later in her life, Carol became an Episcopal priest and is now spending her primary time and energy introducing Christ into the lives of her parishioners as the key agent for change. Jesus said: “I am the light of the world.” [John 9]
Like Carol Anderson, I too believed that if I could enlighten those who were stuck, they would eventually change and all would be well. I was naïve and the learning curve has been steep. I have now come to believe that a fundamental change in the human heart needs to happen before any real progress can be made. That is why we need the light of Christ to fill us with grace and make all things new.
The truth is, most people don’t want to change. They are comfortable with where they are. Many folks are unable or unwilling to venture out of their system of thought and so they remain stuck in their current reality. The ego is always trying to protect the self at all costs thus hindering new insights. The ego does this through defense mechanisms such as denial, intellectualization, rationalization, repression, and displacement. That is why it can be so difficult for us to change ourselves and our ways of thinking.
We need more than ego strength alone to move us forward; something greater than ourselves. We need the light of Christ to move us from a place of darkness to a place of being able to see clearly. So we come together each Sunday to hear the gospel, a gospel which sheds light on our current ways of thinking and challenges our cultural norms. Today, we have a wonderful opportunity to use this gospel story to reflect on our own blindness which prevents us from seeking that which is good, right, and true.
Blindness can show up in a variety of ways. There is physical blindness caused by a failure of light to properly reach the retina and the brain. There is emotional blindness caused by past wounds and anger. When we are angry, we have difficultly thinking clearly. As a result, we perceive information poorly and then project it back in a distorted way. That is why forgiveness is necessary in order to see clearly. Then there is spiritual blindness; a type of blindness created by a self-centered lifestyle out of which power struggles and a lack of concern for others arise. There is blindness due to rigid thinking, prejudice, and an inability to reason out side the box. There is blindness caused by intellectual pride, the refusal to explore outside our current system of thought; the refusal to admit that we are limited. There is moral blindness where we are easily seduced by the values and habits of the culture, many of which are alienating and hurtful. And there is blindness that comes from a lack of experience, unrealistic idealism, and naiveté. Blindness prevents the human race from moving forward. Blindness also causes tremendous pain and suffering. Many of these aspects of blindness show up in today’s gospel story. Let’s take a closer look.
Jesus and his disciples meet a young man, blind from birth. Jesus uses this example of blindness to point out once again that suffering is not retribution for sin. He then heals the man. In ancient times, people believed that if something unfortunate happened then someone must have done something wrong to deserve it. So, in the case of a man born blind, people assumed that either the baby or his parents sinned. This is bad theology, a theology that continues today as we judge others for their misfortunes.
Next in the story are the neighbors who are unable to understand or accept this extraordinary healing. Most people are uncomfortable with new data or the unknown. In response, they do all in their power to dismiss new possibilities. I know that when I worked in research, many scientists became uncomfortable with unusual data points that didn’t fit their model of what they had expected. Unable to give a logical explanation, they would sometimes throw out these data points as aberrations. And so it was with the healing of the blind man. Some of the neighbors actually denied that the man healed was the same person who had been a blind beggar: “No” they said. “But it is someone like him.” Today thousands of cases of physical blindness are being cured (from the lens, to intraocular pressure, to the retina). But back in 1st century Palestine, curing blindness was a miracle. I believe it still is! The learning curve is steep indeed.
Next on the scene are the Pharisees. They are not the least bit interested in the man born blind or his healing. They are interested in rules, regulations, and technicalities. What concerns them most is that Jesus healed on the Sabbath and that was against the rules. And because Jesus operated outside their system of rules, they convinced themselves that Jesus was not from God “for he does not observe the Sabbath.” Unfortunately, this kind of rigid thinking and spiritual blindness continues in the Church today. Many of us are so attached to a particular way of thinking, a particular kind of music or worship, a particular way of “doing community” that we often overlook the Christ in our midst. We refuse to listen to the experience of those who are on the margins, excluding them from full participation in our communities of faith.
As the story continues, the authorities become so frustrated that they feel compelled to discredit the healing. They seek to trap the once-blind man by having him repeat the story over and over again. Being unable to bully him, they dismiss him saying: “You were born entirely in sin, and are you trying to teach us?”
Jesus finds the man who has been thrown out of his community of faith and lets him know that He is the light of the world. Having suffered much and having experienced much grace, the once-blind man is now able to see the Light, not only with his eyes, but with his mind, heart and soul.
We live in a culture of much intellectual and technical knowledge. We are experts on the scientific and psychological models. Most of us work hard to be decent and generous human beings. For this I give God thanks and encourage you to continue to seek that which is “good, right, and true.” But there is much that technical, intellectual, and psychological knowledge cannot see, or choose not to see. Only the light of Christ can bring us to that place of fully seeing.
So after reflecting on this gospel story, the question for us today remains the same one asked of Jesus by the Pharisees: “Surely we are not blind, are we?” [John 9:40]
| Updated March 3, 2008 |
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