March 3, 2008 Sermon
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Lent 4 - A
March 3, 2008 Allan Conkling
Have you ever met anyone who was blind from birth? Over the years I have known many people who are visually impaired, even legally blind. Usually they are older folks with cataracts, macular degeneration or other retinal problems, for which the miracles of medicine are improving every day. But I have met only three people who were truly blind from birth. One was a girl many years ago who went to my church. She was in my Sunday School classes for a long time, until about 12 when she was sent away to a school for the blind. A few years ago I met a man named Javier from the Episcopal Church in Juarez, Mexico. Javier played the guitar and sang in the choir in the church there. John was a parishioner in my church in Kingsville. He also sang in the choir but additionally, he was one of the lay readers. He had a copy of the King James Bible in Braille.
Stories of Jesus healing of the blind people are found in several places in the Bible. Unfortunately they are usually tied in with the old metaphors of blindness which stands for sin and seeing which stands for salvation. The hymn Amazing Grace for example, perpetuates this association:
"I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see..."
The book of Revelation perhaps more than all the others makes the equation: light = good and darkness = evil. Yet the folks I have known didn't consider themselves any more or less sinful than any one else. They certainly never felt they were lost in darkness. John the lay reader did say that he had been prayed for several times by faith-healers and evangelists, who told him that he was blind because he didn't have enough faith...That's why he liked our church!
In antiquity people with visual impairments were often revered. Homer, the composer of the Odyssey and the Iliad was supposed to have been blind. Egyptian art shows blind musicians playing in the court of the Pharaoh. Today however, there is no glamour or prestige in blindness. Many individuals rely on public assistance and disability payments, and many buildings make little provision for the blind. If you are Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles or Jose Feliciano, people still look up to you but most of the time in our society people with blindness are painfully aware that they are a burden to others. So what is the point of today's readings?
Most people in this world, thankfully, enjoy the precious gift of sight and even take it for granted. Fewer by far are blessed with gift of insight. Insight, unlike vision, is not something you are born with, rather it is something you acquire. Insight comes from trials, setbacks and sufferings...from living. One's vision might be a perfect 20/20, but you can still go through life as though lost in the dark. So, when Paul says, "Live as children of the light - for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true," he is not talking about visual acuity. Far from coming at a snap of the fingers or with a bit of mud smeared on ones eyes, release from spiritual darkness is a lifelong process. It begins when we give ourselves fully to God, and begin to see the world through the eyes of Christ.
How differently things would be if we allowed Christ to enlighten our lives! What would we see if we truly took a risk and asked God to uncover our blind spots! The way we lived our lives might be different; and the way we raised our children, or treated others, or handled our finances. Illness, suffering, failures, and disappointments in life might be seen less as attacks on our person rather as opportunities for growth and insight. We might start to see "outside the box" in our church, and start searching for new ways to bring the light of Christ to others.
At this point in the season of Lent we are rounding third and heading for home. Have you been challenged by Lent yet? Does your faith seem to be growing, or staying about the same? Remember, Lent is less about what we do than about being open to what God is doing in us. Jesus said, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." That light fully revealed in the Easter celebration is our goal, our end, and our beginning. Here is the invitation and the Good News: Meet the Lord today in your prayers, in fellowship, in the Bread and Wine of Christ's Body. Let the Spirit of Christ open your eyes, then listen for God in your heart: "You have seen him, and the one speaking to you is he."
Copyright © 2003 Emmanuel Episcopal Church. All rights reserved.
Revised: 03/16/08