THE BLIND MAN St. David’s October 24, 2021

Being a Christian can involve believing in that which we cannot see----a supernatural dimension. Sometimes we have a hard time seeing and sometimes we don’t want to see. It might seem safer and less complicated if we were spiritually blind. What does God have to do to open our eyes, start some weird fire in front of our noses, a fire that doesn’t even burn fuel, like the burning bush in the Moses story?

So, we go to our gospel story for this week, the blind beggar. He was the lowest of the low, completely excluded from Jewish society, marginalized and rejected, even thought of as unclean. He was maimed and couldn’t have full citizenship. A healing miracle like this would renew his membership in the people of God. Jesus healed the deaf and dumb, the lepers, the woman with an issue of blood, even raised the dead. They were all “unclean” and his healing action brought them back into inclusion in society. Many middle-class people want nothing to do with poverty, unemployment, and other kinds of human need. These folks sometimes live on the fringes. We read all the time about the homeless and the street people, the drunks, the drug addicted, the squiggy kids, the prostitutes, those with AIDS. We turn the other way—,“don’t bother me!” When I was at VST, I remember the squatters who lived in the forests of the UBC Endowment lands. There was one individual who used to emerge at three in the morning in front of the Iona Building, about once a month. He would stand there in the rain and in a very foul-mouthed way, he would curse the theological college. We would phone the cops, but they could never catch him. It was as if he was cursing the very institution which should somehow have been reaching out to help, but wasn’t. When the Olympic Games come to town, they bring out the bulldozers to remove all the evidence of the down and out side of things. I remember at another church when some very needy people would show up at the end of the service, looking for help. It’s like, “Lord, have mercy on me!” They are dirty, they smell of alcohol and we don’t want them here, thank you very much. Besides, people say that the church should stay out of politics and economics. “Stick to religion”, they say. But the lesson says that Jesus stopped when he heard cries for help. After all there was a huge crowd and big things were happening. Why bother with this rif raf? But Jesus stopped, in spite of the fact that everybody wanted him to ignore this guy. Jesus stopped as a way of saying that “human need is my business.” The church is guilty of rebuking the cry of need, so often thinking that these people have only themselves to blame. You made your own bed, so now lie in it. You got AIDS eh, so you shouldn’t have behaved the way you did. So….too bad! But that is not the way Jesus approached people. We in the church want things decorous and orderly and in good taste. No miracles and conversions and messy emotionalism, because that would disturb the flow between the Introit and the Recessional, and besides, miracles don’t happen today. Only the uneducated believe in that sort of stuff. Some Christians think like this. I believe that the Salvation Army got it right with all their efforts to help unfortunate people. And yes, it can get dirty and bothersome. We need to recover our purpose of following our Lord by responding to human need.

But what about the blindness thing? We believe in a natural/supernatural reality that in some senses we can’t see. What does it take to open our eyes? We think we can’t see God. You can’t see air and wind and perfume and usually electricity, unless you stick your finger in a socket. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t real. There is blindness of soul when someone refuses to see because it isn’t rational. We refuse to see danger, like a war coming on, or the advent of global warming. The refusal to get vaccinated is an example of selective blindness. An example of blindness to what is important was: an encyclopedia had 4.5 pages on Jesus, 10 pages on jewelry, 11 pages on lace and 17 pages on guns! We have inner blindness, and we can’t cure our own darkness on our own. Incidentally, I don’t claim to have no vision problems myself. Spiritual practice has to do with keeping that vision working. There is the story of the blind man who carried a lantern. When people asked him what good that would do for him, he said that it was so others wouldn’t stumble over him. So, which is worse, spiritual blindness, or physical blindness?

Jesus stops and looks at us and says, “What would you like me to do for you?” In another biblical story we read about Jesus’ encounter with a rich man who had everything. That man didn’t end up following Jesus. Then there is the poor unfortunate who cried out, “Lord, have mercy on me!” That man was healed and followed the Lord. What about us? What do we really want from Jesus? Maybe we feel OK the way we are. After all there is much to keep us entertained where we don’t have to think about anything serious. We can just remain in a state of blindness, or we can say to him, “Lord, let me receive my sight.” And that could lead to a miracle!

        Amen