None So Blind

John 9:1-41

I was watching a video recently of amazing young people who were doing amazing things with very little. Missing a limb or two they skied the wild slopes, rap danced with a precision many with all their limbs could not, played competition basketball and scored goals or produced tricks on a skateboard at the skateboard park. The last young man was born bind and started skate boarding at 7 and skates everyday. I can’t even stand up on a skateboard yet this young man does stunning tricks and manoeuvres with out the ability to see. When he falls off he spends time feeling the floor of the skate park and familiarising himself with the space. He then goes and attempts the trick again.

 

On a recent episode of the Landscape Painter of the Year a finalist painted stunning landscapes with his feet. Born without hands he has develop a particular practice which allows him to create art many of us who have all our limbs would be jealous of.

 

On another level I am amazed at the number of pets born with legs or sight go on to live amazing lives. We may say they are not aware of their situation but a long look will tell you they are, but they have learnt to run, jump, play and love with out the need for their full complement of limbs and faculties and bring joy and love into the world.

 

Today we meet a man born bind who has been begging all his life. He encounters Jesus and Jesus responds and heals him, giving him something he has never had at any point in his life.  This raises many questions and we could spend time unpacking the impact on the young man now he can see. What does he do? How does he live? All he has ever done is beg. He has no work skills, no ability to earn a living yet he has lost the only capacity he had to earn a living, his blindness.

We could spend time unpacking the impact of forcing people off disability pensions and into the work force with out them ever being given the necessary skills to actually engage. We could explore the impact of forcing a western materialist consumer culture on people who have for many thousands of years lived a completely different life in tune and in touch with the world they occupy, taking only what they need when they needed it. Instead we force our way of being blind on others with the certainty that we see everything.

 

The little ditty, there are None so Blind as they who do not see, is the point of Jesus and the young man’s reaction from his neighbours, his family and the religious elites. These are people who know, who see and are certain that how they see is the only way to see. They have a body of knowledge, of learning that is proven, factual and definable. The have a body of knowledge for which there are proof texts, case studies, evidence and they are not to be deterred by an actual event which defies any of these.

 

They are certain of their truth and try and convince the young man he is deluded, or that he has been faking it all these years, or that he is just making it up. According to the tomes on their shelves and the traditions they have inherited what he says simply couldn’t have happened.

 

Thic Nat Hanh, the Budhist teacher refers to this as the mind of discrimination. We discriminate on what we think and we make others experiences, lives or faith less than ours because that is simply not how we see it. It is this mind of discrimination, of this not that, of this over that, that causes the pain we experience in this world because we are unable to hold ourselves open to the incredible range of possibilities yet unexperienced by us or others.

 

In this story, Jesus reminds us bluntly that those who are certain they see do not. You can not see if you do not hold with in you at the same time the possibility that there is more, that what you see isn’t all there is and that you can and will be surprised by happenings and events you never imagined. Those who are certain have constructed, not a temple of wisdom and knowledge, but a stone tomb in which they are trapped and where they will suffocate for the lack of seeing.

 

An encounter with Jesus only comes to those who are willing to see, to be surprised enough to catch a glimpse of God scurrying between the trees of knowledge, information and certainty; of God slipping in out of chaos, violence and tragedy; of God plugging away in the ordinary tasks of being human. It is the seeing of God striding across the desert, floating on the breeze or plunging into the deeps of the oceans. We limit God if we only look for God in what others or we say we know, no matter how enlightened or wise they or we may be. We miss God at work in the smile of the broken hearted, the cheeky eyes of the children in refugee camps or in the playfulness of adults who are fighting addiction. We miss God when we have already decided how God works. That is the mind of discrimination and it is the mind John’s Jesus confronts in this story.

 

The blind man suffers the type of stereotyping any one who suffers from any kind of debilitating illness experiences. If you have a longterm chronic physical or mental illness you are discarded to begging on the side of the road of life. You are overlooked for jobs and promotions, excluded from social activities and events even by friends and family, you are presumed to be malingering or at least playing the victim. We see that in the policies of successive governments toward welfare in this country. It is seen not as a means to improve the life of those who are unable to do so for themselves but as something of begrudging necessity we shouldn’t have to do. This is the mind of discrimination. 

 

Jesus seeks out the young man and asks him clearly what does he now see – what is his world view? Does he see within the restricted worldview of all who seek to discriminate against him or others, or has he seen the darkness piercing light of God in the midst of the world’s blindness. He answers in the affirmative – he has seen God. 

 

It is time for the church and for us to stand with all those who do not fit into the body of knowledge possessed by those who believe they see but are blind. It is time to look to catch a glimpse of God in the midst of the issues we face individually and as an institution. It is time to let go of certainty, the mind of discrimination and face the damage from the past by such as the treatment of indigenous peoples, of child abuse by members of the church, of the treatment of women, the exclusion of the LGBTI community and more, and begin to see the beauty of uncertainty and surprise, of God loitering with intent in our midst.

 

Unless we do we will continue to exclude just as the elite did in this story. 

Open Space At The Well

John 4:5-42

 

Today we have another long Gospel reading. And it is a reading chock full of theological, Christological and Trinitarian themes. It also tackles many of the social ills of both Jesus and modern-times – gender politics, relationships, racism, nationalism – these are just some of the ideas tossed around in this encounter at the well.

 

It is also integral to John’s project of connecting Jesus directly to God and to the key historical and theological themes of Jewish history and religion. Jesus is the living water intricately inter-related with God and the entire revelation of this historical drama – past, present and future are all to be found in him. Like God, Jesus is the centre point of the story, its beginning and end, and John goes to great lengths to get this mystical truth across.

 

What I would like to concentrate on is the space in which this story unfolds – at a well in the middle of the village where the woman is an outcast because she has a history of living with men and not being married to them. She is not a prostitute but a woman captured by the religious laws of the time and as a result living in a perceived sinful relationship. It is no surprise that John portrays her as feisty and astute, to be compelled to live such a lifestyle requires or ensures one develops a level of survival skills most ordinary people never do.  She has had to argue for her life on more than one occasion and she will again. No man dominates her. She is in charge of her life and will make the decisions and the arguments to ensure she continues to not only survive but thrive.

 

Jesus meets her in an open space. This is not a meeting that takes place behind closed doors or in a place that would give power to one or the other. It is not in her house or in a synagogue. It is in the square in the middle of the village near a well. It is a non-threatening environment one level in which both can speak freely. Perhaps its like a coffee shop or the old front bar in a pub. In both places people share far more openly than they do in the office, in the home of a stranger or on a bus. These are the open spaces where all feel safe to talk, discuss and occasionally argue.

 

The choice of space is important for us. How do we create a safe open space where we and others can communicate at the level of honesty and acceptance these two did? This is an important question if the church, you and I, are going to engage with those who are outside our building this morning. What could that open space look like – a garden, a café, a choir practice, a concert ? What does it require of us to engage in such an open space way? Are we sufficiently comfortable with ourselves and our understanding of ourselves that we can talk, be challenged and change our ideas just as Jesus and the woman did? Are we prepared to go into the centre of our village and have conversations like this one? And how do we do it with intention and not by accident? Jesus places himself in this space intentionally, he was loitering with intent, and when the opportunity for a full and frank discussion cam about he took it. Are we ready to do the same and go into the world with the intent to do so?

 

Jesus meets her out in the open. Jesus didn’t invite her to a special place to have this discussion, it happened when they both needed refreshments, he because  he was travelling, she because this was the safest time of the day for her to get water. They met at a spot where all could see what was going on and both risked the gossip and scuttlebutt of those who peered out from behind half closed doors, discretely pulled back curtains and those who accidentally had to go outside to get a better look. This was a controversial meeting between two controversial people in full view of the local media and, was no doubt, on the social media network almost instantly. But they had nothing to hide and were comfortable with the fact that their meeting would have an impact on others.

 

This sense of out in the open challenges us in the church who always want people to come inside – our building, our choice of space, our particular world view or theological position and away from the prying eyes and ears of others. Are we confident enough to have these controversial conversations in full view of others? To be able to sit down in places that are not our own and work through the possibilities of faith with others? Or do we always want to do it  in our safe space, on our terms, surrounding by people who believe as we do? It is a challenge the church has only intermittently taken up but must begin to consider if we are to remain as the living water in this world.

 

Recently I was asked to write a response to a prominent Australian’s viewpoint on indigenous recognition and treaty. When the draft was finished it was sent off to an aboriginal QC in Sydney for comment. He was blunt. We do not have to engage with people such as this was the answer. But I suspect we do for the sake of the cause and for the sake of the other person. And we need to do it out in the open, not in selected forums and meetings where the primary audience is people like ourselves. Jesus sets the example.

 

The chosen space is a prominent, critical community landmark – the well. Everybody has to go to the well at some time everyday. Water is the most important element after oxygen in our lives. You can last up to 3 weeks without food but only 3 days without water. Water is essential to our very existence. They meet at the well because the need for water does not discriminate –village elders and the outcast and marginalised and rabbis and the incarnate Son of God all have the same need and use the same well to fulfil that need.

 

Jesus is not subtle when he says whomever drinks from here will get thirsty again and again and again. You will never be satisfied. The inference is that no matter what your past is or what you need is it cannot be satisfied by material necessities, no mater how important they are. Jesus is pointing to a deeper need which can only be satisfied by a mystical and graced gift coming from the heart of God.

 

The well speaks of depth, of going deep within to discover the truth about self and about the mystery we call God. The well speaks of the never-failing supply of life lived openly around the mystical source of life. The well reminds us that we all have the possibility of engaging at this depth if we are but ready to let our bucket down and engage honestly, openly and critically with God and ourselves.

 Finally this story is not about the past, hers or the dispute between the chosen people of God and those excluded; it is not even a story about the present, hers or the history they were living; it is a story about the future, the unfinished possibilities for creation; for Jesus, the unnamed woman and all the creatures yet to be. This is a story of expanding space, the surge for more that drives the Jewish, Christian and creations story. It is about the mystical future place in which is hidden the kingdom of God we can not imagine. The Jesus story leads us into the unknown, a future of fulfilment and wonder we can not imagine but only grasp a glimpse of in the chaos around us. 

Yes this is an ordinary story about relationships, space and human need but one  full of deep truth, power and mystery, just as is the stories of each of our lives and of how we  live them in the centre of our village. It is time for the church and for those of use who find our vitality within the church to step out into the open, create the space for others to be safe and to begin the conversations that will fill us and them with the water of life in a future kingdom we only hear rumours about now. Amen

Nicodemus and Progress In Faith

Fritz von Uhde - Christus und Nikodemus (ca.1886)

John 3.1-17 

The Gospel today has many themes in it, but I want to concentrate on both Nicodemus’ questions to Jesus and his growth in faith.

Initially Nicodemus is simply on another wavelength to Jesus and he is asking the wrong questions – indeed he could have dispensed with the questions altogether and just listened to Jesus.  But he, like many of us, has questions.

We are often looking for something.  Something fresh, something true.  In our faith, we search for meaning, for a sense of purpose. And sometimes we don’t find it.  What we find are our empty phrases heaped up in a pile for us to sift through.  Questions without answers that satisfy.  Or answers from Jesus that confuse.

God calls us over and over and we are often deaf to God’s cries.  The pleas of Jesus to know and understand him, go unanswered.  Our egos remove us from knowing Jesus because we often ask too many questions and even then, we ask the wrong questions.  Often we are caught in a rational and cerebral pursuit of faith.

Nicodemus’ search is certainly confused by him asking questions.

He comes with several questions and Jesus has answers, but they are cryptic to Nicodemus.  They are not answers for the feeble mind.  Perhaps this is sometimes our pattern:  we come with questions, intellectualising – but we are so intent on getting our questions out, that we are not hearing.

Nicodemus is certainly left floundering.

But his search is not in vain.  He appears again twice, later in John’s Gospel.  In chapter 7, he offers a hesitant defense of Jesus – he says of Jesus when the Temple police want to arrest him that: ‘Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing…’  So, gladly the faith of Nicodemus is growing and he is prepared to take a risk and defend Jesus against his accusers.

And importantly, very late in the Gospel - Chapter 19 - Nicodemus accompanies Joseph of Arimathea, bringing a hundred pounds of spices for Jesus' burial.  A hundred pounds is an enormous amount – but perhaps there is a symbol here - Nicodemus bringing so much spice shows his deep devotion to Jesus.  Finally, only after Jesus’ death, he has deepened his faith from his early questioning in today’s Gospel.

But this development of faith over time does not take away from the fact that initially Nicodemus just doesn’t get it.  His mind is not so much shut as it is clouded.  He is looking for rational answers to the most complex of problems – who is Jesus.  Nicodemus is confused.

He interprets what Jesus says literally and Jesus keeps trying to get him to see his words as symbols pointing towards something heavenly. 

Maybe we can identify with Nicodemus – perhaps we sometimes wonder if our faith is lacking and it may be because either we are asking the wrong questions or indeed that we are asking questions at all.  For example, from the Gospel today, we too might want to know, like Nicodemus, how it is that we can ACTUALLY be born from above, or as some translations have it ‘born again’, when really Jesus is talking of the spiritual realm and how our faith comes from somewhere other than from earthly things.

Jesus says that no-one can enter the Kingdom without being born again.  Nicodemus dimly wants to know how anyone can be born after having grown old.  And he asks: ‘Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’  Jesus is not getting through to Nicodemus’ fragile sense of faith.  They’re like ships in the night.

And this being born into life in Christ is at the heart of our Christian faith in different ways.  If you asked an Evangelical Christian what it means to be born again they might well say that it is to accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.  If you asked a Pentecostal Christian they might say that it is being baptised into the Spirit.

So, when trying to understand Nicodemus and his role in the Gospel, it is not the words ‘born again’ or ‘born from above’ that are so important, but rather that here is a man who SEEKS.  He has a fledging quest for understanding and faith.  And in seeking, his life changes forever – from misguided questions, to defender of Jesus, to finally being the man who anoints Jesus after his death.

In a way, it is not even Nicodemus’ questions that are the problem, it is that he is caught up in them – he is stuck on another plain to Jesus.  Suspended in his own sense of logic.  Perhaps we too come to faith with our logic to the fore – waiting for faith to emerge through the many trials of life.  I suspect that we don’t get Jesus up front and that we simply can’t find deep faith by being ‘in our head’.  It is human to come with many questions, only to find there are few answers. 

As we grow older perhaps our questions are not helpful anymore and when we finally come to see Jesus for who he is, by quietly worshipping, we come with our hundred pounds of spices to lavish on him.  Not with our helpless questions, but with our devotion.  Our faith CAN develop beyond our questioning.

One theory about the development of faith has it that it comes to us in three stages: the first stage is childish faith – one that believes everything without question.  It might be seen as a magical stage.  A stage when faith is built on the literal truth. 

Then comes the second stage - a period of questioning – that is also a stage Nicodemus is at in today’s Gospel. 

Then if you are lucky enough, you come to the third and final stage – the faith of the child-like.  Not the childish, the child-like.  It is at this stage that there is a synthesis - mature faith questions AND believes.  It can open itself fully to Jesus.  To me, it is not enough to intellectualise faith as Nicodemus does initially.  Our intellect can sometimes tear us apart.  Perhaps even our constant questioning wreaks havoc.  Child likeness probably has quiet worship at its core.  The people that reach this stage are probably not asking questions of intellect.  They seem to be beyond that and somehow accept their faith as a given and deepen their awareness of God by BEING.  For Nicodemus the prayerful embalming of Jesus – simply BEING with Jesus - must have been a deeply profound experience for him, in the presence of God.

Perhaps the child likeness stage of faith is exemplified by an uneducated peasant who simply worships and praises God from deep within - without any University developed intellectual ability to question.  Further, it is like a person who sits and gazes on God and God gazes on them.  In a childlike way, they are happy just with that exchange.

If nothing else the picture presented in John’s Gospel of Nicodemus can help us see that for all our questioning, we CAN go through a transformation.  From questioner to worshipper.

Because I don’t think we can reduce the Son of God to a few questions and hope to get a clear and concise answer, or develop our faith instantly.

Again, Nicodemus’ problem, probably like many of us, is that he is stuck in his head and this prevents a deepening of faith.  The great theologian Schleiermacher once said – we all have a feeling for God.  This feeling he speaks of is not an intellectual thing, it is something in our gut.  It is devoid of logic.  Maybe we need to revisit Jesus with more of our emotion and less of our questions – to take us away from being ‘in our heads’ and rather take us into creative orbit with Jesus where we sit at his feet and worship – not ask questions, but just be with him.

We live in a world where everything is explained, understood, dissected, probed, questioned, rationalised, intellectualised.  Our lives are about ‘doing’, achieving, about goal setting, meeting key performance indicators.  We seek meaning through reading, writing, enquiring - and I admit, that has its place too.  But it is a question of degree and priority.

Still some want answers that can be added and subtracted till the result is a prime number, or something else that fits neatly in their ordered minds.  As we can see, Nicodemus initially wanted answers - and he may be more like us than we know.

When our questions are all done and when our intellectualising does not satisfy us, I believe THAT is the time, when through our deep emotional response to Jesus, he becomes plain and obvious.  This is essentially a response from our gut, from the core of our emotional selves.  A kind of ‘being’, rather than doing – suspending our search for God by our frenzied pursuits.  Maybe we can reach a quiet state of unquestioning bliss without questions, without complex intellectual rigour.  A state, a place, where we can let go and let God.

God Values Creation

In todays readings we connect the story of the reluctant prophet Jonah with that of the obedient Son Jesus. The bridge connecting them is the need for repentance and how much more powerful is the call of Jesus than Jonah. Sitting between these two readings is the Psalm calling for purification from sin.

 

For those of us aware of our personal fault-lines and that of the world in which we live this maybe sufficient for faith. Jonah’s reluctant call to the people of Nineveh resulted in salvation for them in the face of the imminent wrath of God.

 

Yet a wrathful God about to wipe out even one whole city because of human nature is not an understanding of God I find easy to live with.  This is not about God being a God of love who simply wouldn’t do this but about a God who values human nature so much he came amongst us to be the archetype human being, living a life of obedience unto death.

 

Even the story of Jonah points to the value God places on humanity. A wrathful God would not have rescued Jonah. Someone who was so much bother, so sinful in terms of obedience to the will of God was, it seems to me, already set for the same destruction as the people of Nineveh. God goes to so much trouble to bring Jonah to repentance, again reluctantly, if we go on and read Jonah’s reaction to the redemption of Nineveh, it speaks of the value just one person has in the sight of God.

 

Jonah’s personal return gave hope for those in Nineveh – he was a sign of the value God places on the created world. The people of Nineveh become aware through the life and words of Jonah of just how much they were valued by God and respond, perhaps not so much to God’s wrath, but God’s hesed – unfailing compassion and generosity.

 

The life, death and resurrection of Jesus promises the same hope for us, and it is up to us recognise who values us and what that value means for our day-to-day life.  Jonah wasn’t valued because he was perfect he was valued because he was human. God did not focus on his sin but on his capacity for obedience, stuttering as it was, resulting in the redemption of both him and others.

 

This is a powerful truth. God values us not because we are sinners in need for a blood sacrifice but because we are conscious creatures capable of great blessing. The obedience of Jonah is celebrated in the obedience of others his goodness brings about. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus is celebrated in the lives, deaths and resurrections of ordinary human beings who embrace his life of obedience and justice.

 

Our journey this lent is to be one away from the wrathful God who punishes human beings for being human – for sin, and towards a God who values human beings as creatures of immense possibility, compassion and hope and who have the example of Jesus and the companionship of the Holy Spirit for the journey into wholeness, love and justice.

It Is Written

Matthew 4:1-11

 

As we begin the Lenten journey we will discover texts and stories we know well. We may have already decided what these texts tell us, what they are about and what they reveal about the Easter story we will soon hear. They fit a narrative we have breathed in over many years and a narrative that has informed our daily living and our worship/faith story. It is now so familiar we have forgotten it’s nuances and finer points, and may have difficulty in identifying how it influences our live.

 

Yet there are many, if not the majority of our present day society, to whom these familiar stories are foreign and unknown. A student at the school where I was chaplain said that if she hadn’t gone to the school she would not have known about Jesus let alone the Easter story. There was no family history of church, Sunday School or religion. Easter was just another embedded public holiday with no particular significance for her and her family. This was true of most of the students and when we began to read and unpack these stories it was a revelation for them.

 

While it was a revelation for them, the ideas within these stories were not immediately or readily understood. Living in a society where success, recognition and power were the valued goals and most were working for through good exam results, successful businesses or being discovered as a musical or sporting protégé, they found the ideas in todays story unimaginable.

 

Who, in their right mind, would say no to immediate gratification, adoration by the masses or the power to do just as you pleased? Who in their right mind would put themselves in a place to have to even confront such ideas? Who would decide for a way of life that put you at odds with all that you were being taught by an education system committed to a consumerist world?

 

The danger for those who hear or read this story is that we place it firmly in the Jesus tradition and see it as a story relevant only to his experience and the fact he was God incarnate and therefore responded to the challenges by conforming to type. It was inevitable he would reject these seemingly external temptations by a personalised evil.

 

The idea this was a battle between ultimate good and ultimate evil lets us off the hook. We may presume we do not have to face such questions for we are but ordinary human beings without the power or the options of Jesus. If we read Jesus with a high Christology, in other words as one whose divinity reigns above his humanity, then we find little in which to relate to in this story.

 

If we read Jesus with a lower Christology, where his humanity is as important as his divinity, we begin to understand this story as not only relevant to us, but as our own personal story. The decisions and developing self-awareness Jesus experiences are akin to the decisions and developing self awareness we experience as we move through the various seasons of our own human life.

 

Jesus goes into the desert to make sense of the events of his baptism – John, the call to repentance and the voice from above. This deep spiritual experience unnerves him and he needs time and space, a lot of time and space as indicated by the words 40 days and nights (a long time), to make sense of it all.  He has to wrestle with his human needs and desires and find a way to reconcile his awareness of God’s call on his life.

 

The temptations mentioned are a summation of the many different and difficult questions he faced, some minute in impact, others of great consequence. They are not just boxes to tick in Matthew’s attempt to define Jesus as the one expected, but are representative of the battles human beings face if they are serious about living lives committed to wholeness in relationships and experience.

 

At some point in our lives we have to make decisions about the importance of objects such as money and possessions, of objects such as success in work and life, of objects such as power and control over others; the failure to address these issues results in these questions returning unresolved in violence, anger, frustration and more.

 

Domestic violence, child abuse, racial vilification, persecution and more are examples of a failure to answer these questions effectively or not to answer them at all. Ignorance does not excuse us for our behaviour. At some point these are questions that come up in wedding vows, adulthood, communal living and more and if we fail to confront them they will not just go away. Our subsequent life will be in some punctuated by their breaking in on our lives.

 

Jesus understood this and confronted these questions with the experience of the saints and the scriptures. He resorted to tradition, both lived by others and experienced in the natural world – “it is written” – not just words on a page but words in lives and the created environment. Tradition in this context is the lived experience of those who translated their experience to oral and ultimately written record. He was not standing against these inner urges based on his own limited life experience, but reaching back to the community of saints who had found proven ways to deal with human nature. 

In this way the desert confrontation is one of human experience versus the base desires within each human being. This is the universal challenge commenced at the beginning of creation and continuing today. It is the evolutionary urge for wholeness and the conflict of random chance, order and adaptation.

 

Imagine for a moment how different the Jesus story, our meta-narrative would be, if Jesus had responded differently to the questions being human asks? Image for a moment how different our lives would be if Jesus had agreed to follow his basic interests and left each person to find their own way?  Now some will say this could never have happened for Jesus was God’s Son, God incarnate; but may well have happened because Jesus was also human, every bit as human as you and I.

 

“It is written”, the tradition of the communion of saints sits at the core of Jesus response to being human, it also sits at the centre of our own. Reading the Biblical stories or spiritual biographies and reflections, retaining the values and parameters of faith and experience, and spending time in reflection with a spiritual guide or mentor all help us to make our responses to the temptations of being human. We cannot do it alone and neither did Jesus. He was surrounded by nature, the image of God in creation, by angels and by the Holy Spirit, he was surrounded by the saints. “It is written” everywhere for us and our guidance. The temptation is to rely on our own experience and feelings and to ignore those who have made this journey before and with us – people, places and creatures.

 

Jesus embodies spiritual practices necessary for our wise handling of life. Let’s begin this Lenten period to read what is written all around us and to find what is necessary to live a Christlike response to being human.