God’s Gift of Light

During this season of Lent we have included an insert in each Sunday’s service bulletin titled, “Reflections from the Center for Reconciliation.”  Today’s reflection is about sin, brokenness and alienation in need of reconciliation.  The Book of Common Prayer states, “sin is the seeking of our own will instead of the will of God, thus distorting our relationship with God, with other people, and with all creation.”  

There are times when “relationships are broken due to circumstances beyond our control…. For example, victims of abuse, rape, racism, bigotry, the miscarriage of justice, etc. can feel alienated from others because of their experience….”  Whatever the reason for broken relationships the difficult work of reconciliation is required for healing.

John’s gospel describes Jesus as the "light of the world" and the "light of life."  Blindness is the opposite of light.  Light is the renewed and healed relationships that were broken.  The story about healing a man born blind is symbolic of this theme.  It is a story we can read as a drama in which there is a debate between the man born blind and some Pharisees.  Pharisees were the religious leaders during the first century of the Christian era.

The drama begins with an introduction: “As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth.”  Then, suddenly, the scene shifts to a dialogue between Jesus and the disciples.  The disciples asked about the cause of the man’s blindness and whether it was because of his sin or the sin of his parents.  Jesus responded by talking about the purpose of his blindness  “He was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”

The question asked by the disciples reflected the view that when something bad happened to a person it was thought to have a causal effect that could be explained by sin or by failure to uphold the law.  Jesus’ response was that those familiar categories are not correct when it comes to understanding God.  The healing of the blind man was an occasion for experiencing the reality of God’s presence and power.

Jesus said,  “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”  Then “he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva.”  In commenting on this story, the New Testament scholar Gail O’Day wrote, “Spittle and clay may not be where we would expect to see God’s presence lodged, but then we would also not expect the Word to become flesh and dwell among us.”

After he was anointed with mud the blind man followed Jesus’ direction and “went and washed and came back able to see.”  The gift of sight had a profound impact on the man who received his sight.  It also had an impact on everyone who heard about it and came into contact with him.

The second scene of this drama tells us that the blind man was a beggar.  “The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar” began asking questions.  The fact of being blind had resulted in economic deprivation.  The blind man lived on the margins of society.  He lacked access to the social systems of care and support for those who could afford it.  He could only sit and beg and, because he had been born blind, he had never been able to work.

Next the third scene follows with neighbors asking questions: "Is this the man who used to sit and beg?"  They could not agree about the answer they heard so they asked where they could find Jesus.  When the man said, "I do not know," they took him to the religious leaders, the Pharisees, for further questioning.

The Pharisees asked questions that were similar to those of the neighbors.  When they heard his answers some of them wondered how a person who did not observe the Sabbath could do this, and others said that no sinner could perform such signs.  Then they got to the essential question, “What do you say about him?  It was your eyes he opened.”  The man now able to see answered, “He is a prophet.”

The Pharisees could not believe what they heard so they questioned his parents.  The parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes.  Ask him; he is of age.  He will speak for himself.”  But the Pharisees who had already asked him refused to accept the truth of his statement.  Questioning the parents resolved nothing.   

In the final scene the Pharisees once again questioned the man.  The point of this round of questioning was the man's reluctance to make statements about things he didn't know.  He simply accepted what had happened and told them, "Though I was blind, now I see." The interrogators were not pleased, they became angry and reviled him.  “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.... We do not know where this man comes from.” 

With his new sight the man had a skillful retort, “Here is an astonishing thing!  You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.  We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will.  Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.  If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

The entire drama demonstrates that the Pharisees were the ones who refused to see.  They could only accept that the blind man was born in sin.   They could not see God at work in giving the gift of sight.  Nor could they see God at work in any way that contradicted their preconceived views.  They were so sure of themselves that they “drove [the man] out.”

In her commentary Gail O’Day writes, “The Pharisees looked at Jesus and the man born blind and saw sin.  The man born blind saw the power and presence of God in his gift of sight and recognized Jesus as the one who made that power and presence possible.”  The man worshiped him; his life was transformed.

How do we see and what do we know?  We can be blind to truth that is right in front of us.  You may know about John Newton, the author of the hymn, “Amazing Grace.”  Newton was "spiritually" blind.  As a successful slave trader in the 18th century he saw African people only as a commodity to be traded and used.  Then, amazing grace burst into his life, and he was given the gift of sight.  One day Newton looked into the eyes of one of his slave cargo, and instead of an object, he saw a human being, a child of God.  All the slaves he had shipped were human beings but he had failed to see them as they were.  Until that moment he was blind to the truth.  Years later he wrote, "I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see."

The work of God is the work of reconciliation, of healing and forgiveness.  It is the work of compassionate love giving the gift of sight and new life.  What keeps us from experiencing and being transformed by the healing power of God in our lives is our own blindness to God’s power and presence in the lives of those around us.  Our transformation happens when we let the light shine.  We heard about it in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, “Now in the Lord you are light.  Live as children of light – for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.”  May our eyes be opened, and may we be reconcilers and healers of broken relationships so that the light of God's love will be visible to everyone.  Amen.

Refreshing Water of Life

In your service leaflet there is a reflection from the Center for Reconciliation.  We are using different reflections each week during Lent to remind us that Christ has given us the ministry of reconciliation.  Today’s focus concerns how the church can create safe spaces for people to engage in the emotionally difficult work of reconciliation.

The biblical stories from the Book of Exodus and the Gospel of John are about reconciliation.  As we heard in our first reading the Israelites in the Exodus story quarrel and wrestle with God without realizing that it is God who is testing them.  John’s Gospel account is about Jesus’ relationship with a Samaritan woman and what it means to include those who are religiously and culturally different.  The message of these stories is that we are to be reconcilers, people who bring others together out of respect, and who work hard to understand that God is the God of all people of every nation, ethnicity and religion.

Throughout the wilderness stories there is disagreement and quarreling between the people and Moses.  Moses had led the people out of Egypt and into the wilderness on their way to the promised land.  As they traveled through the desert there was no water and the people became thirsty and angry.  In desperation Moses cried out to God, “What shall I do with these people?  They are almost ready to stone me.”  The Lord replied, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go.  I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb.  Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” 

The dispute between Moses and the people was serious.  Moses felt his own life was in danger.  The details in this story are important: the elders were taken along as witnesses.  Moses’ staff, which was so significant in the story of the plagues, is the chosen instrument, and God’s presence is dominant: “I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb.”  Moses will strike the rock with his staff and God will cause water to gush from it bringing life to the desert and the people.

Israel’s journey from Egypt through the wilderness to Mount Sinai and the promised land was a time of danger and testing.  The Israelites met with numerous obstacles as they moved from one camping place to another.  There was insufficient and bitter water, and not enough food.  People were fearful and complained, unprepared for the challenge of faith in the wilderness, so they longed for a return to the security of slavery in Egypt.  They grumbled against Moses, “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?  Was it just to have us die of thirst with our children and livestock?”  They quarreled with Moses and they tested God, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

By testing God they learned that God is the “Rock,” faithful and worthy of trust.  From the Rock came streams of water, enough to sustain life for their journey.  While they thought they were quarreling with and testing God (Massah and Meribah mean quarreling and testing), it turns out that God was, in fact, testing them.  The Lord took

the initiative, cared for them, and reconciled them to God.

Although the Samaritan woman in the Gospel of John was not thirsting in the desert wilderness, she was in a wrong place at a wrong time.  She lived and worshipped in the wrong place, she was the wrong gender, and she had an unconventional marriage.  Jesus, however, refused to judge her. 

Jesus’ traveling through Samaria seemed calculated to highlight his presence among those who were considered “unworthy.”  At the end of the story, the despised Samaritans came out to meet Jesus because of the testimony of this woman.  They invited him to stay with them and after they listened to him, they concluded that he was not limited to what either Jews or Samaritans expected in a messiah.  They confessed that he was “the Savior of the world.”

The story becomes intriguing in revealing how this woman emerged as the unlikely witness who brought a whole town to Jesus.  Her encounter with Jesus did not begin well.  They did not even use language the same way.  He asked for water, but she hesitated because of her surprise at being asked.  Jesus told her she should ask him for a kind of water that would quench all thirst.  She continued to think about the endless task of drawing enough water for her household needs, but Jesus said,  “The water that I will give will become…a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”  What an astonishing statement!

There are many dimensions to this story.  It is about Jesus’ identity as the one who comes from God, makes God known, and is one with God.  It is also about religious tensions and the struggle to overcome them.  The story of the Samaritan woman has been referred to as a “paradigm of all reconciliation” in which an ancient enmity begins to heal through the conversation at the well, her testimony, and the experience of more and more Samaritans who come to hear Jesus because of her witness.

Two people, taught to loathe each other because of religious difference, create the possibility of reconciliation and shared faith through serious conversation and acceptance.  It is a narrative that invites us to look deeply into our own lives to see what leaves us fearful of looking into one another’s eyes, especially if those eyes belong to someone who is different.  The Samaritan woman serves as a model in which real listening, questioning and sharing lead to profound understanding and faith.  It is a story of reconciliation that invites us to step into an unfamiliar place of dialogue from which may come the possibility for real healing and new life. It reminds us of the reality of God’s presence: the One who makes all conversation possible, the Rock from which flows life-giving water.

None of us has been an ex-slave wandering in the Sinai wilderness, hungry for food or thirsting for water.  None of us has drawn water from a well in Samaria.  What we learn is that God is gracious and cares for all people, and we can be agents or ambassadors for reconciliation.  In the midst of our doubts, divisions, testing, and frustrations while attempting to resolve problems in our relationships, God is there to sustain and provide the water of life.

The gospel proclaims that Jesus is himself the living water that springs up, wells up within us and satisfies our insatiable human need -- our thirst for God.  As the late poet Denise Levertov wrote in “The Fountain:”

            Don’t say, don’t say there is no water.

            That fountain is there...

            it is still there and always there

            with its quiet song and strange power

            to spring in us,

            up and out through the rock.

Amsn.

Called to an Adventurous Faith

We heard in our first reading that Abram responded to God’s call and journeyed to an unknown land.  He had no maps, charts or computers to guide him.  It was an act of faith trusting in God and going to the land that God showed him.  He had to leave his family and country to make this journey.  It was a decisive break with all he had known. 

Do you ever think about faith as a journey, a journey both inward to self-understanding and outward toward others and as part of our covenant relationship with God?  We talk about Lent as a journey or a religious pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the cross of Calvary.  We sometimes follow it imaginatively in our hearts and minds as we read and reflect on the Biblical texts for Palm Sunday and Holy Week.  The readings today, however, suggest a deeper, richer, and a more exciting metaphor: they suggest an adventure.

Abram's decision to go to a strange land is significant.  The whole biblical story and the influences of Christianity are the result of a decision to embark on an adventure.  The history of faith begins with those who were willing to accept and risk an unknown future, to adventure and struggle with an unknown destiny.  To leave home and all that seems secure is a difficult decision.

Prior to the time of Abram the biblical history and story was about the separation, alienation or estrangement of human beings from God.  That history culminated in the Flood, the story of God's intervention to correct what had gone wrong.  Then, following the Flood, Abram became the first ancestor of the Israelites, and he was the first person with whom God made a covenant.  At the time of establishing this covenant, Abram's name was changed to Abraham and his wife's name was changed from Sarai to Sarah.

Abraham's story tells us that he did not seek God, it was God who proposed the covenant to him.  A new relationship was needed, and God initiated it.  God offered to make Abraham and Sarah the forebears of a huge nation, provided that Abraham would follow God wherever that might lead.  Abraham chose to trust God, to accept this adventurous faith, and do what God asked, although he was already a seventy-five year old man with a wife and no children.  Life can be full of surprises at any age.

Another account of adventurous faith, although different from that of Abraham, is our gospel story about Nicodemus.  Nicodemus was also asked to make a significant decision.  He was a good person with enviable qualities, a leader and Pharisee, and a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Council.  People looked to Nicodemus for guidance and saw him as a mentor.  He was a courageous seeker of truth, but he was also a cautious person.  So he went after dark to see Jesus and to question him about what he had been hearing.  When he met Jesus he said, “no one can do the signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”  Then he was caught off guard by Jesus' reply, "No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."

Perhaps Nicodemus should have known that if new life is ever to be lived there must be a new direction, a transformation.  After all, this was Abram's story, and it was part of Jewish history.  Nicodemus undoubtedly knew the prophecy of Ezekiel, "Thus says the Lord God:  I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you to your own land.  I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.  A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.  Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people and I will be your God."

Nicodemus had some doubt about Ezekiel’s prophecy and asked Jesus, "How can anyone be born after having grown old?"  Jesus replied, "The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."  In other words, some things cannot be predicted or proven.  Mystery is real.  The wind comes, who knows from where or how, cleansing, invigorating, freshening, and then it is gone.  It is the same way with God.  Faith and trust are needed to assure that change is really possible, and that new life can be attained.  Jesus said whoever believes, whoever has faith in God, “may not perish but may have eternal life.”

In your bulletin insert on “Reflections from the Center for Reconciliation” there is a quotation that speaks to the reality of adventurous faith and the concept of friendship.  It requires faith and trust for the work of reconciliation to occur.  Reconciliation is about “restoring relationships to the center of our lives, ministry and mission.  Friendships that open into reconciliation validate the message of good news.  Our practice becomes inseparable form our message, and affirming the imprint of God in each human being compels us to love as an extension of God’s love at work in us.”

Adventures often result in surprising experiences, exciting and sometimes risky or dangerous undertakings.  There is a sense of the unknown and the unexpected.  The poet Maya Angelou once wrote: "Because of the routines we follow, we often forget that life is an ongoing adventure.  We leave our homes for work, acting and even believing that we will reach our destination with no unusual event startling us out of our set expectations.  The truth is we know nothing, not where our cars will fail, or when our buses will stall, whether our places of employment will be there when we arrive, or whether, in fact, we ourselves will arrive whole and alive at the end of our journeys.  Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art: to bring all our energies to each encounter, to remain flexible enough to notice and admit when what we expected to happen didn't happen.  We need to remember that we are created creative and can invent new scenarios as frequently as they are needed."

During this season of Lent God calls us to an adventurous faith, a journey toward the place that is our center, our inner self where the Spirit of God is within us.  It is the place of our wholeness, our authenticity, the place of from which creative responses to life’s challenges emerge.  It is where our awareness of God’s presence within and around us surfaces.  Are we willing to leave the comfort of the familiar and go on an adventure of faith?  Our corporate adventure in faith is our covenant with God and our relationships with one another.  It is our love of God and our compassionate care for each other as we care for ourselves.  This level of meaning has to do with our worship, our outreach and service to others in friendships that lead to wholesome relationships and reconciliation.

Let us risk an adventurous faith, to be creative, and to work for the sake of God's love in the world.  "God so loved the world that... whoever has faith in God may not perish but have eternal life."  Amen.

Our Human Freedom

The story in the Book of Genesis about the tree of knowledge and the narrative in Matthew’s gospel about Jesus' temptation in the wilderness share a common theme.  The accounts of Adam and Eve in the garden, and Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness are stories about us.  Do we live as God desires, or do we yield to temptations and fail to live purposeful and responsible lives?

In the Genesis story, God watered and planted a garden.  It was an extraordinary garden for Adam and Eve.  From the very beginning the story implies that human beings have shared in God's creativity.  The work of gardening is good work and Adam and Eve were "put in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it."

Near the end of the Genesis story, there is a theological discussion between the serpent and the woman.  God had said, "You may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die."  But then a crafty serpent said to the woman, "You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 

This manipulation by the serpent led Adam and Eve to view God's prohibition as an option, and their act of eating the fruit resulted in their eyes being opened.  They knew the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desired to make one wise, so they devoured its fruit.  With this act Adam and Eve turned from faithfulness and trust to sin and alienation.  God's intention for a life of harmonious relationship was set aside by their free choice of knowing both good and evil.

As a consequence of their behavior Adam and Eve met with disappointment and frustration.  While theirs was an act of disobedience, it was also a time of growth and liberation.  They were free to go against God's command, setting the stage for the themes of sin and alienation, forgiveness and redemption that runs throughout the Bible.

Thousands of years later following his baptism Jesus was "led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil."  Just as Adam and Eve had been tempted by the serpent in the garden of Eden, so was Jesus tempted by the devil.  His first temptation was about turning stones into bread.  Jesus responded by quoting from the Book of Deuteronomy: "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."  He pointed to the fundamental nourishment and direction provided by God's word. 

The devil was not satisfied so he took Jesus to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple.  This time the devil urged Jesus to force God's hand by throwing himself down, trusting that God would protect him.  But Jesus refused the temptation and again quoted Deuteronomy, "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test."

Then, for a third temptation, the persistent devil took Jesus to a very high mountain where he could survey all the kingdoms of the world.  It was a place of revelation and teaching.  Here, he promised everything to Jesus if he would only fall down and worship him.  Had Jesus succumbed to this temptation his role as God's Son would be completely negated.  So Jesus forcefully declared, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve only him."

In these stories Jesus repeatedly refused to manipulate God or to rely on anyone other than God.  Feeding the hungry was a primary responsibility for Jesus and his followers, but not by miraculously turning stones into bread.  Jumping from the top of the temple would have been a spectacular act, but it would only result in a cult following and would not have glorified God.  Turning to the easy way of idolatry might have resulted in personal power and prestige, but it would not have resulted in faithful service and honor to God. 

In Matthew's day the early Christians found comfort from the sustaining power of God's Spirit.  They also found courage for their own struggles because of Jesus’ victory over the devil’s temptations.  In our day, what it means for us to follow Jesus by refusing to give in to temptation, and refusing to exercise power and control over others, is to live by God’s word and to worship and serve God in all that we do.  It is our ministry and mission of restoring all people to unity with God and each other.

We are members of the human family of God.  We share the same DNA with all other human beings.  Adam and Eve are our ancestral parents and we are given to the same temptations as they and Jesus were by failing to listen to God and working for his intention of restoring all people into a harmonious relationship of love and service.  As Jesus’ disciples did so can we through prayer and service find the sustaining power of God’s Spirit in our lives.

To aid us in this ministry there is enclosed with your worship leaflet an insert of “Reflections from the Center for Reconciliation.”  It is the first of a series we shall use each Sunday during this Lenten season.  In today’s Reflection the question is asked, “what do you think is the human family that God dreams and intends?”  It states, we are all brothers and sisters, a family of God’s dream that we would work to build a world where we all truly live as a family defined by love.  As St. Paul said in his Letter to the Corinthians, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, and he has now given to us the ministry of reconciliation.”

To be fully human, to live a life of faithful service, to honor God in all that we do, to resist temptation for selfish gain, personal power or prestige, to use our knowledge responsibly -- these are the challenges we face every day.  May this season of Lent be a time for all of us to grow more fully into the nearness of God’s Spirit as the human family worthy of God's love.  Amen.