March 19, 2023
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois
John 9:1-41, selected[1]
We
remain isolated from one another. Even though we gather again with less fear of
spreading disease, we share fewer common experiences. While we may be watching our
friends and family through social media, we really only see what they choose to
share. With more options for news and entertainment, we share fewer common stories.
I’m watching The Mandalorian while my friends are watching Outlander,
and I never did watch or read Game of Thrones. I mostly read online newspapers
on my phone or computer, and short snippets from a variety of sources, while
others may only watch one network on TV.
It
can be tempting to look to the past, to feel nostalgia for what was. People
were friendlier, more supportive, happier. At least that’s what I remember. Am
I selectively remembering, leaving out the times when I was lonely, angry,
mistreated? Do I forget when I left someone else behind, when I shouted at
someone who didn’t deserve it, when I blamed someone else for my problems?
We
forget, in our nostalgia, that even if things were great for us back then, they
weren’t great for everyone. We can look through our history, if we dare, for
how our society and others have brought great suffering and hardship to others,
and even our own ancestors. And we can look to our scriptures, too, seeing that
the distant past was also full of turmoil, cruelty, fear, and loss.
In
our story from John today we see the man born blind who has been failed by his
community, his family, and his religious leaders. The first thing the disciples
ask when they see him is “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he
was born blind?”[2] Modern folk might think we’ve evolved past
thinking that blindness is a result of someone’s sin, but have we really? I’ve
heard religious leaders in our own time blame disease, natural disasters, and
even poverty on what they perceive to be the sins of others. The Pharisees,
jealous of their religious power, argue that Jesus can’t have healed him. He
must be lying, or Jesus must be using some evil power.
The
blind man’s family distances themselves from him after his healing, fearing
that they will be shunned by the community. When they are asked about him, they
say they don’t know how it is that he can see. “He is of age, ask him.”[3] The community fails to accept what has
happened; they don’t recognize this man who used to sit and beg. It can’t be
the same person, the blind beggar. We must be seeing things.
Long
ago, and right now, we struggle to see beyond our preconceptions, our own view
of the world. When faced with someone else’s experience of life that is
different from our own, we get stuck. We stop listening. It is uncomfortable to
think about the difficulties of another, and we start thinking “Well, if it was
me, I would…” We choose to be blind to the experiences of others. We choose to
be isolated, holding on to a worldview that makes us comfortable, even if it no
longer matches with the reality we experience.
What
is it like to be the man born blind? Can we really imagine what it would be
like to live in a different reality? In a world structured around sighted
people, to be blind means adapting and coping with a world filled with
obstacles. It means constantly teaching others how to interact with us, how to relate
to a world they don’t understand. And unless Jesus happens to be walking by, it
means living in a world that cannot be changed, a world that is radically
different from most others.
The
experience of living in a different world is not limited to blindness. A black person
in America lives in a different reality than a white person. Neither reality is
right or wrong, good or bad, but they are different. As a white person, I can
be blind to the many obstacles that others face, because they don’t appear in
my world. It takes effort, listening and learning and looking for the things I
don’t see because I don’t live in the same reality as a black person.
As
a man, I don’t live in the same world, and face the same obstacles, as a woman.
As a straight, cis-gender person, I perceive love and relationships differently
that a person who is LGBTQ. As a person who is making enough money to get by,
but struggling to pay down my debts, I live in a different world than people
who buy and sell businesses, or those who face eviction because the paychecks
stopped coming. I climbed the stairs to stand at this lectern, but there are
others I know who will never see this view.
The
man born blind was transformed. He was healed, and his world changed. And we
can celebrate that and be grateful for God’s healing power. But transformation
happened in that community also. As the man began to tell the truth of his
experience, over and over to the crowds, the Pharisees, and even his own
family, slowly they began to understand.
They
resisted, of course, because it is difficult and uncomfortable to understand a
different world. It takes real effort to listen to the different experience of
another and not overlay our own experience. To imagine what life is like for a
blind man, a black person, a woman, a gay or transgender person, a
differently-abled person, a different person, is hard. But it is possible.
Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see
may see, and those who do see may become blind.”[4] Becoming blind, to not see for the first
time, opens up a world that we never knew before. To enter the different world,
the life experience of another, and seek to truly understand, is part of the
gift of grace and healing that Jesus offered to that community, and that Jesus
offers to us.
I
have always had friends who were different. The longer I live the more
different worlds I encounter. I have not always chosen to understand their
worlds, to accept that their world is not bad or wrong. But I have been
transformed. I have come to understand my own blindness, and, even when it is
painful, to see things in the different worlds of others.
I
can’t tell you how or why it happened. All I can tell you is that I was blind
and now I see. Before, I saw things one way, now I see differently. I am seeing
things in a new way. Before, I believed the world worked in a specific way, that
my world was the only one. Now I understand things differently. Now I am seeing
things I didn’t see before. And I believe it was Jesus who put mud on my eyes
so that I might see. I believe that Jesus is the light of the world, and with
that light I have received my sight.
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