Healing. It has weighed heavy on my heart the last week, in places and people near and far, how healing is so badly needed. And as much as how painfully we may sometimes need physical healing, or restoration, or calm, I think most of all we need one thing, assurance of God's presence and love. It sounds so simple...
The gospel reading for this Sunday, 4/3, was the whole ninth chapter of the gospel of John. This details Jesus' healing of a blind man, and the long discussion that happens from it between the man, the Pharisees, the man's parents, and Jesus. Understanding Jesus' identity is at the center of this and many other stories in this gospel.
Click below to read the sermon.
Vicar Brett Wilson – Lent 4A – John 9:1-41 – CELC Lancaster - 4/3/11
I admit it. I like watching infomercials. The pitch, the amazed faces, the refrain of “but that's not all!” My favorite infomercial is for a product called, “your baby can read!” It is full of videos of toddlers, some barely a year old, recognizing printed words, and two and three year olds reading storybooks.
When watching an infomercial, I know it's too good to be true. But it does make me curious. The pitchman stacks up research, and presents the product surpassing amazing odds. Yet I don't really believe what I see. It's a healthy skepticism, when it comes to infomercials. I know that if I bought the product, a lot of them would just be plastic which would gather dust, break, or disappoint. I want hard knowledge. I want to see, know, and believe. So the questions follow. Because from the depths of us, whether about a product, our relationships, our identity, or our faith, something in us says, “Tell me, so that I may believe.” Tell me, so that I may believe that this infomercial product will work. Tell me so that I may believe this relationship will work. Tell me, so that I may believe in myself. Tell me, so that I may believe in God.
When the worst happens, we ask questions. How. Why. This is the first question the disciples have – why is this man blind – who sinned? But this is not relevant. His blindness does not come from anyone's sin, it is not someone's fault. But this man, as each of us, is in Christ's hands for healing, as muddy and real and unexpected as that healing may come.
When miracles, not like “your baby can read,” but a real miracle happens, from God's own presence, we sometimes question that too. Jesus cured the man of the blindness he was born with. Cured! The man says, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.” But the Pharisees question this mystery “prophet” who has wandered onto the scene again – curing on the sabbath. How could this be? Who is this Jesus? I cannot blame the Pharisees. I ask questions too – how can this be, that I too am healed, forgiven? Who is this Jesus to me? We, like the Pharisees, have the best of intentions. Like the Pharisees, like the formerly blind man, we cry out, “tell me, so that I may believe.”
We think if someone tells us the answer to all of our questions, all of our analyzing, the “why” of all the tragedies and miracles in our world, we would believe and understand. But that kind belief is more like an infomercial, like being sold something. And Jesus isn't selling anything. Jesus just is. John's gospel isn't about convincing us. It's about literally fleshing out the person of Jesus, who we experience through his “I am” statements. The Messiah. In today's story, the light of the world, the son of man.
The blind man already has the information he needs, and it's not some list of facts or the perfect pitch. It's one thing. One thing that's impervious to all of mine and the Pharisees' questions. He says, “ One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” That's it. One thing I know. But it's not even so much knowledge, not like the facts and answers that we look so often when considering something. This is faith, trust, love of the God you know and are known by. One thing I understand or experience, it could also be translated. Not so much knowledge, but acknowledgment. Acknowledgment of the God who created, healed, comforts, and holds all of us. Acknowledgment that this Jesus, he's the one, the one who brings forgiveness, healing, and the light of the world. This unnamed man doesn't know all the right names to call Jesus or even the fullness of his identity, because when Jesus asks him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” he responds, “who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” Jesus acknowledges that he himself, Jesus of Nazareth, is the Son of Man, and the man's immediate reply is, “Lord, I believe.”
Faith, is not something that we're sold on by a convincing argument, of heaped up promises, followed by endless “wait, there's more!” Faith is the gift of the Holy Spirit in you. God has baptized, claimed, forgiven, fed, loved, and sent you. Sometimes, it can be hard to express that to others, to share our faith, especially when all the questions stack up against us. Some of you have experienced friends, family members, or even just others reaching out to you, saying, “tell me, that I may believe.” And God has blessed you with your own story to tell. "One thing I know," one of you might say, is that when I was going through my divorce , or diagnosis, or depression, or doubt, I hurt so much, but somehow I got through it, and I've come to recognize that the somehow was Jesus.” Through miracles, tragedies, and the blessing of the everyday, Christ heals you. One thing I know. Christ reaches out to heal you each day. Amen.
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