John 9 – Seeing with New Eyes
/Lectionary Readings for Sept. 4, 2021 15th Sunday After Pentecost, Year B
Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23 v1 Choose a good reputation over great riches; being held in high esteem is better than silver or gold.
Psalm 125 v2 Just as the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, both now and forever.
James 2:1-17 v17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.
Mark 7:24-37 The Faith of a Gentile Woman
But this week we continue our series exploring the book of John, now with Chapter 9.
Weekly Meditative Exercise
Growing up, I thought meditation was something only Buddhists and yoga people did. We’re Christians; we don’t meditate; we either pray or go to Bible Study! I had to go to seminary to discover that Christianity includes a long and rich tradition of embracing meditative practices as a way of keeping us connected with God, ourselves, and each other.
During the coming months, I’ll be sharing a different meditative exercise with you each week. I encourage you to spend some time each week (ideally 10-30 minutes) trying each exercise. You will naturally find some more appealing and effective than others. Think of this as going into Baskin Robbins and trying a different flavor of ice cream each week. You’ll like some but not others, and after 6-12 months you’ll better understand what’s available and what helps you.
This week’s exercise focuses on Mindfulness / Attentiveness (pages 114-117)
From Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun. InterVarsity Press, 2005.
Desire: to live wholeheartedly in the present moment, alert to God and without judgment
Definition: Mindfulness/attentiveness is a state of active, open, nonjudgmental attention to what is unfolding now in the moment in the presence of God.
Scripture: “Surely the Lord was in this place, and I was not aware of it.” (Genesis 28:16)
As you engage with this exercise, I encourage you to ask...
What is God leading you to notice? How will you respond?
Peace through Leadership Quotes
“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” ~ Helen Keller
“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” ~ Unknown
“What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.” ~ Mother Teresa
As Christians, our vision is that our families, our communities and our world can live in peace. But this doesn’t happen by accident. This happens through our commitment and our work. We can do this work through acts of kindness – spoken or not. And the most important place for this work to begin is at home.
Any time I preach or lead a group, regardless of age, I start the same way. I’m going to say three short sentences. Please repeat each sentence, with enthusiasm.
God made me. God loves me. God has plans for me.
Preface to Today’s Scripture Reading
Last week we read the story of Jesus saving a woman from being stoned to death. That act of great mercy and forgiveness was immediately followed by a long and testy verbal exchange with the Jewish religious leaders which ended with those highly esteemed church leaders trying to stone Jesus. This is neither the first nor last time people try to kill Jesus; the way He regularly escapes angry mobs... Jesus seems to have nine lives.
Leaving that scene, Jesus and His disciples come across a man who had been blind since birth. Jesus cures his blindness by picking up some dirt, spitting in it, and rubbing the dirt on the man’s eyes. Once washed away, the man can see. (If you’re a germophobe, you may find this story deeply disturbing since it sounds like a good way to get an eye infection!)
In our weekly Bible Study, one person pointed out that this is the second chapter in a row in which Jesus worked with dirt to improve someone’s life – a brilliant connection and one which reminds us of the second creation story in Genesis chapter 2 where God formed Adam from the dirt.
Notice that the blind man never asks for anything from Jesus. Jesus just walks up to the guy and performs the miracle – no questions asked, no confessions, no discussion of theology, no going-away blessing... just a miracle. Much like Jesus used everyday items as object lessons to describe the Kingdom of God, in today’s story Jesus uses the blind man to convey the concept of spiritual blindness and to give us hope that, no matter how spiritually blind we may be, if we are open to God’s spiritual healing, God will help us see the world in a new and incredibly exciting way.
Let’s open the eyes of our ears, minds, and hearts as our drama team shares today’s Scripture.
Read John Chapter 9.
Can you even begin to imagine what it was like for the blind man to see for the first time in his life?!? To get a glimpse of how he may have reacted, go to YouTube and do a search for “See color for the first time.” WARNING: After putting on special “chroma” glasses, some people are so overcome with emotion that their language is not “family friendly.” Grown men cry (everyone cries) and the strongest people are often too weak to stand. Once people get past being overwhelmed, they often run, jump, and dance with excitement. They can’t help but name every color they can see. The comment I loved the most was, “This is a whole new world! ... You guys get to see this all the time?!?”
Thanks to these home videos, we can watch and listen to people have transformative experiences as they discover what has always been around them, but they were previously unable to perceive and enjoy. Our Bible Study group “saw” the issue Jesus illuminated with this story. Around the world and across millennia, human society has a pattern of insulating itself from problems and “undesirable” or troubling people. We make ourselves “blind” to the issues and problems of our day because the issues – and the people – are inconvenient to us. But Jesus dealt directly with social issues and discarded people. What others avoided, He engaged with.
In Jesus’ society, anyone with any kind of skin disease was labeled a leper and forced to live outside the city where “clean” people didn’t have to see them or worry about becoming contaminated with whatever they feared. Modern cities often act in a similar way when they build low-income housing or homeless shelters on the outskirts of town – far away from the middle- or upper-classes. Out of sight, out of mind.
Human trafficking has existed for thousands of years – remember Joseph’s brothers selling him into Egyptian slavery (Genesis 37:26-28)? When Anne and I moved to Reno, NV in 2002, we both knew about the brothels on the outskirts of town – again... can’t see it, not a problem. What shocked me at the time was that NO church in the Reno/Sparks region was actively protesting this form of modern-day slavery. The close connection between legal prostitution and illegal sex trafficking has been documented for decades (click here to see a 2012 report). When interviewed, one brothel sex worker explained, “No one really enjoys getting sold. ... It’s like you sign a contract to be raped” (The Guardian, 2007). I have personally seen a copy of the actual contract they have to sign, and I can tell you that it is legalized slavery.
Nearly 20 years ago when I asked one Reno pastor why no church was expressing outrage over this, he explained with a tone of hopelessness and helplessness in his voice, “The industry is just too big and too powerful for us to fight. We’re better off focusing our time, energy, and money on other issues.” Wait, what?!? You have GOT to be kidding me! How do we go to church and sing “What a Mighty God We Serve” and then don’t even make a whimper in protest of legalized slavery?
Lacking religious leadership, a group of women with little more than determination and their faith started a program in Reno to help women escape human trafficking. They have spent the past 10+ years talking with anyone who will listen, asking everyone for help, and relentlessly lobbying government agencies to reform the existing systems. Their organization is named Awaken, and they have succeeded beyond everyone’s dreams. Churches are finally publicly supporting them and finally talking openly about these issues.
Awaken... I like that name and that word. It’s an action-oriented word. It’s a word focused on looking forward, not back. It’s a word that calls us to be intentionally mindful of our immediate surroundings. When Jesus healed the blind man, his newfound eyesight awakened him to new realities, new possibilities, and a new understanding of God’s presence and power.
To what is God trying to awaken each of us?
Our HOPE Food Pantry has awakened many of us to the extent of food insecurity in our community. That newfound awareness has awoken us to additional issues and opportunities.
To what is God trying to awaken each of us?
This past week I was finally able to attend the local Rural PRIDE Network’s monthly meeting. This is the support group for LBGTQIA+ people in Susanville and the surrounding counties. There is a great deal I will need to learn about and learn from the members of this group. I can only anticipate that my eyes will be opened to issues and opportunities of which I’m currently unaware.
To what is God trying to awaken each of us?
Make no mistake, this whole eye-opening, awakening stuff can feel overwhelming – much like seeing color for the first time. Once God reveals something to us, we can’t unsee it. This is when the power of a faith community is so important. We NEED to discuss what we hear and see (what God “puts on our hearts,” to use churchy language) so that, together, we can better understand the world around us and how we should respond to it.
Consider adding this simple request to your morning prayer, “Lord, help me SEE Your presence around me more clearly today. Help me SEE Your presence in other people. And help me BE Your presence to people who need to hear, see, and feel Your love, Your grace, and Your peace.”
I look forward to hearing how God opens your eyes and where that may lead us as we strive to love God, love ourselves, and love others.
Amen? Amen!