4A Lent
19 Mar 2023
John 9:1-41
Decorum. I like the word; it exudes order, logic, cleanliness, neatness, pleasantness and politeness, good taste, propriety. The word has taken a circuitous route through both time and culture, with the most ancient Indo-European root word meaning to take or to accept. Our English word comes more directly from Latin, where “décor” means beauty, as we use in the word “decorate”.
Jesus looks for decor, while the disciples and others look for decorum.
Decorum places the emphasis on the rules, the law, and on proper conduct. Embedded within it is a theory of blame that assigns illness, disability, or misfortune to wrongdoing by individuals or groups. Fingers point to the blind man or his parents for having sinned. The disciples operate under the assumption that one or the other party has sinned; someone had to have done something wrong for this to have happened. Jesus is not having it. Sin has nothing to do with it; yet the blindness will be for Jesus an opportunity to do God’s good
work. Jesus takes dirt and spit, earth and water, the very things God used to create humanity, and gives the man sight, then sends him, for that is what Siloam means, and he becomes an apostle. He is not asked any questions by Jesus, and in John’s version does not ask anything of Jesus. Like the two days spent with the Samaritans or the night spent with Zacchaeus, Jesus is reaching out, telling those with ears that God’s Kingdom is for them. It is for everyone who can see it. But not everyone can. Try one of those “find the 3D image” Magic Eye puzzles. I was good at solving them and while I doubt it makes me a better Christian, it does remind me that things are never as we think they are. All of us can be part of the community; we just have to see it the right way.
Not only did fingers point at the man and his parents for whatever perceived sin was committed, they pointed to Jesus. He healed on the Sabbath day; the miracle is not doubted but the timing and the person responsible for the healing are condemned. The bickering starts; what constitutes something or someone being from God? Is it living in accordance with a strict set of rules, or being free to love God and love each other?
Ironically both the disciples and the religious authorities are the ones stuck in the mud, one group bound up in the idea of sin; the other bound up in maintaining rules regardless of the validity of the the healing. They question the parents, who are rightfully fearful of the temple and religious authorities; they question the man and call out Jesus as an evil one.
But the man sees, or more accurately he comprehends or understands; when Jesus identifies himself to the man, he becomes one of the followers. The so-called authorities are left blind and clueless.
It becomes easy to fall into a routine, doesn’t it? Get up, have your coffee, do your exercise, read, clean, keep busy with a hobby, and on Sunday go to church. Or maybe your routine is to go to work most days of the week and relax on the weekend.
What if we started our day wondering what God had in store for us? Each day is a fresh opportunity to live out the Gospel. Thank God for whatever the day has in store for us. What is Jesus calling us to do or to be this day? Whatever it may be, it is to be done in community. Too often we think of community as a physical place, but Jesus teaches us that community is created when we bond together to do the will of God. And just what is that will? It is certainly not to go looking for individual sin; Jesus shows no interest in that despite what the church often teaches. It is not to set up a litmus test or set of rules or laws that determine right or wrong, in or out.
We are called to be not of this World even as we are in it. What is this World that Jesus warns us not to inhabit? Too often it is portrayed as anything material, anything outside of the group we have set up, worldly pleasures. We are to look to a world to come after our deaths. The Gospel tells us the world we are to avoid is the one of imperialism and exploitation, even if proclaimed in the name of Jesus. You are living in the realm of God here and now when you see everyone as your brothers and sisters in Christ. We are not the same, but we are equals before God and Jesus. I think that we were made to be different in so many ways because we have more diverse gifts to bring to the table. We are different because God made us that way; all of us with our different skills. As Paul said, not good to be all eyes or all ears. I think we are made to be of many cultures, many skin shades, many expressions of God’s gift of sexuality. We are meant to be curious, to delight in doing different things and to relish in all the ways we can be creative. We can also be healers, protectors, those who feed, those who entertain, those who create art. And at all times and in all places, give thanks.
If we really see, we know that we can live in the world in love and that we do not have to “other” anyone. We can call out the gross exploitation of the land, its resources, and its peoples. Jesus wants us to see what is in our midst, to make this world the kingdom of God. And you know what? It has never been easy for Christians to do that, whether today or a thousand years ago. But that is the sacred task to which we are called.
The promise of the passage is that the blind will see, the ordinary and disinherited peoples of the world become the apostles and the saviors. We are called; take off your blinders and decorate, make beautiful, the world.