Wednesday, June 13, 2018

June 10, 2018 Healing of the Blind Man John 9


            The healing of the blind man story we had for our gospel reading is almost comic.  The religious leaders are stumped to explain how this blind man received his sight.  How can a man blind from birth be cured by Jesus, who was in their opinion at best an iterant preacher who didn’t observe the Sabbath and spread about dangerous ideas?  Their investigation turns up more and more evidence against them.  They don’t know what to do.  And faced with irrefutable facts they blind themselves and deny the truth of the whole thing.  If the story were a joke the punch line would be near the end when some of the Pharisees say, “Surely we are not blind, are we?”
            Um, yes, you are.  Ironically a man blind from birth can now see while those who should see clearly have blinded themselves.
            But there’s more because there’s a second punchline said by the blind man.  When interrogated by the Pharisees he says at one point, “I have told you already, and you would not listen.”  They would not listen… Perhaps they are not only blind but also deaf!
            Before we shake our heads at them too much however, we also remember that when we criticize the Pharisees we are in dangerous territory.  Usually our biblical authors present the Pharisees as being an awful lot like ourselves.  And indeed this is the case here.
            “We are not blind, are we?” they asked.  And we too like to say we have sight, but it seems to be deep in human nature to ignore or avoid that which we see but do not like.  Two weeks ago, when we had confirmation, I preached about the way we humans have always wanted to be our own god.  We want to look to ourselves for our own fulfillment and not depend upon God.  Oh, we’re all for God when we’ve gotten ourselves into a situation we can’t get out of.  Then we’re all for divine help.  But for the most part, when we can do something ourselves, we do it – which is a good thing.  We are made to be that way.  But then rather than thanking God for our abilities we claim them for ourselves.  That is the beginning of our blindness.
            Last week at synod assembly there was a report from two pastors in the synod who went to Zimbabwe last year.  Those pastors were Deron Milleville and Dan Hoffman.  Life in Zimbabwe is nowhere near as primitive as we may picture.  They have cars, superhighways, cities, hospitals and the like.  They have solar panels for dependable power in remote areas and all sorts of things.  But on the whole people are still very poor.  They have little.  Yet what they have they are very generous with, and their hospitality is incredible.
            Offerings during worship are very different there.  People often don’t put anything into the collection plate.  This isn’t because they have automatic withdrawals from their bank accounts.  It’s because they have no money to give.  Instead they may bring food or other items.  And as is often the case, if they don’t have a church building but are meeting in a tent or in the open, they bring building materials for their offering.  Pastor Hoffman showed a photo of a man bringing a bag of cement and other people with buckets of bricks.  I’d like to see how our acolytes do with eighty pound bags of cement or buckets of bricks!
            The Lutheran church in Zimbabwe grows and grows.  The people are happy.  They live full and enriched lives.  And overall I’d say if you could measure happiness they’d beat us hands down.
            How come we, educated as we are, with the riches we have, and the security we enjoy, not be happier than them?  How come with all our blessings our churches decline while theirs grow?  Remember, the Lutheran church is a predominately African black church; not white European.
            Because we are blind, and they see.
            There is plenty in the news about political spin and “fake news”.  There are Trump lovers and Trump haters.  Each thinks the other side is moronic and wrong.  And I can’t pretend to be above such thoughts myself.  And yet, when I sit back and reflect, I believe both sides are blind to a deeper truth, and this is really just a sideshow that keeps us blind.
We live this myth we call progress.  We believe in economic development and growth.  We label ourselves “first world” and people like those in Zimbabwe “third world” and we seek to spread our ideals to raise them to be like us.  They’d be fools to accept!
            Here are truths that are right in front of our eyes, but we don’t want to see them.  Our way of life is consumptive to the point of disgusting.  Our lifestyles consume far too much energy.  (Think about it, when you drive to the grocery store your car is burning more energy getting to and from the store than the energy you body’s going to get from the food you buy.)  We create garbage by the mountainful, almost literally, with some landfills reaching as tall as skyscrapers.  It’s pretty bad when you’re cultured biggest construction are garbage piles!  But it’s worse.  In 2012 Forbes reported an ugly truth.  America’s biggest export is garbage.  Indeed, some of it is recyclables being sent to other nations for reprocessing, but still that’s not what we want to be known for in the world.
            And one final problem to point out, my family doctor, Dr. Doug Alling, has pointed out to me that most of his work is not about healing people.  It is medicating people against their lifestyle choices.  People’s consumptive habits are so bad that we have to use ongoing medical treatments to keep us functioning.
            We are no longer considered citizens, we are labeled as consumers.  When was the last time you read or heard a news article about good citizenship and compare it to how much you hear about things like Gross Domestic Product, economic growth, inflation and that sort of thing?         Our minds make these things supremely important, and it is to our cost.
            At synod assembly last week I heard more reports and worries about the church’s continued decline in this country.  I heard about hopes and strategies, about reorganization and new ideas.  While I don’t want to be too cynical, I admit that I sat there thinking we’re either too afraid or too blind to admit the truth.  We are victims of original sin.  Like Adam and Eve, when we think we can make it on our own we tell God we don’t need him.  We are simply too prosperous for our own good.
            And so what do we do?  Well, I don’t bring all this up to make us feel guilty.  Maybe we should, but guilt is not a good motivator.  If you’re like me in this regard, and I’m sure you are, you hear something.  You feel guilty.  You resolve to make changes.  And then two days go by and you forget all about it, or you just ignore it and keep doing the same old thing.
            No, guilt doesn’t work.  But I do think we need to be more aware that the gospel of prosperity, growth and development that is our unofficial national creed, is a lie.  It is ongoing blindness.  And I hope we can begin to relook at everything we do and ask ourselves, does this really lead to life?
            Those things that really lead to life will be lasting, of good quality, and they will equip us to be more effective in living God’s love.  Otherwise it will be a consumptive purchase that will bring cheap joy for a while but lead to no lasting satisfaction.  I don’t mean to say that we have to stop buying things, or that we cannot enjoy luxuries and comforts.  But we do need to limit ourselves and ask if we’re really getting lasting satisfaction.
            And never fall into the trap that avoiding hardship will lead to happiness.  It won’t.  Hardship wisely managed will lead to lasting wholeness.  Our whole Bible reading from 2 Corinthians is about that.  For the Corinthians were a lot like us.  They had lots, but were far less fulfilled than their poorer neighbors.
            God has called us to do good and lasting things – good things that lead to life and wholeness, not consumption.  Lasting things that will endure, not fade with time.  And so may we have the sight we need to see the truth of things.  And the courage and endurance we need to act on them, so that we can live in true happiness and fulfillment – the way God intended.

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