“Threatened by Liberation” (John 9:1-41)

So here we have another looong story from the gospel according to John. 

We’re discovering, in this season of Lent, that there are a lot of looong stories in John’s gospel. This one, in particular, seems to go on longer than is necessary. I mean, it feels like a Zack Snyder director’s cut.

What if we shortened it down a bit? What if we did a little editing, cleaned things up a bit, and made this story more concise? 

How about this:

As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. Jesus said to him, “Go, wash.” Then the man went and washed and came back able to see.”

And everyone rejoiced.

There. Isn’t that nice? It’s short and sweet. It tells the whole story. (Sort of.) And it even has a happy ending!

But, like the original theatrical release of Justice League, it misses so much.

Because this healing story—this “sign,” as John calls miracles—is anything but short and sweet.

It is plagued by complaints and controversy and complications and complexity and conflict.

Everyone did not simply rejoice. There wasn’t unanimous celebration and joy at this man gaining his sight.

The neighbors interrogated him. They brought him to their leaders, who began an inquiry, an investigation, an inquisition. They even brought in his parents, and interrogated them. Then the leaders questioned the poor man again.

Clearly, these religious leaders, these holy muckety-mucks, felt threatened. But what was it that they felt threatened by?

Well, they felt threatened by Jesus. Jesus healed on the Sabbath. 

Worse than that, Jesus associated with people who were on the other side of boundaries of caste and class. 

Like, this man born blind.

Why was the man born blind on the wrong side of those social boundaries? He was on the wrong side because it was believed that things like blindness, or disability of any kind, were signs that one was not in God’s favor. 

If this man was blind, then it must be that God made him blind because of sin—either his, or his parents. And a person who is a sinner or the child of a sinner is not welcome among the religious elite. 

At least, that’s what the people thought.

Which is why the disciples ask Jesus, “Who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Jesus replies, “neither.”

And then Jesus heals him, to show that this man IS worthy of being welcomed in the temple and in all the places where the righteous gather. This man had always been worthy; his disability did NOT mean he was not worthy. 

But Jesus goes ahead and heals him so that others can see that, too; so that others can see that acceptance by God does not depend on whether one can see or not, or is able-bodied or not, or any of the other conditions that are used to justify excluding people from the house of God.

Like every human being, this man is a beloved child of God, worthy of love and affirmation and welcome. His disability doesn’t change that one bit!

Do you see how this causes the religious muckety-mucks to flip their lids? It tears apart the boundaries they had set up, boundaries that gave their world order and structure. 

If this order and structure were to be turned upside down, they’d have to rethink everything!

They’d have to rethink their theology, which insisted that some people were favored by God and others were not.

They’d have to rethink their social values, which put them in a higher, more favored status than others.

They’d have to rethink their own privilege.

For them, that was too much. Far easier and safer (for them) would be to find some fault in this person who was healed, and find some fault in the person who did the healing.

Hence, the conflict.

Just as the religious muckety-mucks were threatened by this man’s liberation, so are many today threatened by people’s liberation.

This year, there are a frightening number of states that have passed or are currently considering laws that seek to deny people who are gay or transgender their liberation and wholeness.

According to the ACLU, there are currently 413 bills in 40 states that, if passed, will cause great harm to LGBTQ people. 

Some of these bills attempt to limit the ability to update gender information on IDs and records, such as birth certificates and driver’s licenses. This puts transgender people at risk of losing jobs, facing harassment, and other harms.

Some bills attempt to undermine and weaken nondiscrimination laws by allowing employers, businesses, and even hospitals to turn away LGBTQ people or refuse them equal treatment.

Despite the safeguards of the First Amendment’s right to free expression, some of the proposed bills will restrict how and when LGBTQ people can be themselves, limiting access to books about them and trying to ban or censor performances like drag shows.

Some bills target access to medically-necessary health care, like Medicaid, for transgender people. Many of these bills ban affirming care for trans youth, and can create criminal penalties for providing this care.

Some of these bills prohibit transgender people from using facilities like public bathrooms and locker rooms.

Some of these bills prevent trans students from participating in school activities like sports, force teachers to out students, and censor any in-school discussions of LGBTQ people and issues.

All of these bills are harmful to the health and wellbeing of LGBTQ people. All of them deny them the liberating wholeness that is essential for human life to thrive. And more LGBTQ people will die violently at the hands of others, or at their own hands, as a result.

When every person’s right to be their authentic self in a welcoming society is affirmed, we all benefit. Even the lawmakers who sponsor these hateful bills benefit from a society where every person is free to be their authentic self. 

For some of these politicians, the reason they’re doing this is because they are trying so hard to deny or ignore or fight a part of their own identity, something about themselves that they are trying so hard to keep hidden.

Have you noticed how often elected leaders (as well as pastors) who are outspoken in their hatred for the LGBTQ community end up getting caught in some sort of same-sex “transgression?” 

They’re not just trying to destroy other people; they’re trying to destroy a part of their own identity that they wish wasn’t there.

Wouldn’t it be better, for them and for everyone else, if we could learn to accept and affirm every person as God created them?

Fortunately, California is one of ten states that currently have no hateful anti-LGBTQ bills. At least, not yet. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t Californians who would like to see bills like these become law here in the Golden State.

And the rhetoric from other states doesn’t stop at the border. Our LGBTQ youth hear, every day, the hateful, violent words of those who, frankly, would prefer that they weren’t a part of society.

What God is calling us to do is to be bold in our identity as an Open and Affirming congregation, to let every person know that God loves them no matter what, that every person is beautiful in God’s eyes, just the way God made them.

There really is no more important message for us to share than that.

Because every person needs to know they are loved.

And every person needs to learn to show love to others. 

That’s the most important thing. Read the gospel, and tell me I’m wrong. I don’t think you can.

Because Jesus was all about preaching good news to the poor, the cast out, the least of these; Jesus was all about bringing sight to the blind and freedom to the oppressed. Jesus was all about proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor, which means the year in which all those who had been denied liberty are set free—free to be their whole, authentic selves.

The story we’re living today is every bit as messy and complicated and drawn-out as the one we heard today from John’s gospel. Anytime a person is made whole and liberated, people are going to raise a stink about it and fight it.

But that doesn’t change the fact that the way of Jesus is the way of liberation, the way of wholeness, the way of affirmation, the way of welcome. 

And it doesn’t change the fact that God’s love is everyone.

Sermon: "Spiritual Boot Camp: Well-Defined" (John 9: 1-17)

On the internet, I saw where someone asked a fitness question: “How do I get a well-defined body? I’ve been working hard at the gym for years, but my body doesn’t match the guys I see in the fitness magazines. What am I doing wrong?”

Having a well-defined body means that you have muscle, and that you have a low enough body fat percentage so that the muscle can be seen. Weight training will help you get the muscle; proper diet will help you get rid of body fat.

But that’s only part of the answer. The other part of the answer is that you will never have a body that is as well-defined as those you see in the fitness magazines. That’s because a model in a fitness magazine has several things you don’t:

First, there is a good chance that he uses steroids to achieve that muscle mass.

Second, the photographer uses professional lighting which is adjusted to make muscle more noticeable, in a way that doesn’t happen in real life.

Third, fitness models often fast before a photo shoot. They don’t eat. They don’t drink. Not even water. They’re basically starving and dehydrated at the time the photo is taken.

And then there is photoshop.

Even the fitness model, in real life, doesn’t have that well-defined of a body.

Physical exercise is important. Eating a good, healthy diet is important. Being healthy is important.

But it’s also important to stop judging yourself by unrealistic standards.

This leads to today’s spiritual boot camp lesson: Be careful how you define what it means to be “well-defined.”

Often, people who are just starting on a physical fitness program say they are doing so because they are fat. They say: “I’m fat. I need to exercise.”

But when you say “I’m fat,” you are defining yourself. And it’s a distorted definition.

Muscle definition does not define who you are as a person. The amount of fat you have does not define who you are as a person.

So don’t say “I’m fat.” You can say, “I have fat.” But don’t let that fat define you. Don’t say, “I am fat.”

Because you are so much more than that.

How we define ourselves is important. How we define what it means to be well-defined is important.

When the disciples saw the man born blind, they thought they knew how to define him.

They said to Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned so that he was born blind - this man, or his parents?”

They had been trained by society to define all people born blind as sinners, or as the children of sinners. Why else would God have allowed them to be born without sight?

Jesus immediately challenged their definition of the blind man. He answered their question by saying, “Neither.” Neither this man’s sin, nor the sins of his parents, caused him to be born blind.

Jesus was always challenging our definitions. Society defines people. The media define people. The government defines people.

Some are defined as sinners. Some are defined as dangerous. Some are defined as abominations. Some are defined as lost.

Read the Sermon on the Mount and count how many times Jesus challenged the way society defines people. “Blessed are the poor.” That is not how society defines people.

Jesus challenged the definition of who is first and who is last. He turned those definitions upside down, by saying that the first will be last and the last will be first.

Jesus challenged the definition of the Sabbath. He challenged the definition of who is one’s neighbor. He challenged the definition of what it means to be rich.

And, Jesus challenged the definition of who is, and who is not, a sinner.

At the risk of complicating things, I will point out that we are all, of course, sinners. But the way society defines people, there are sinners, and then there are sinners. We’re all sinners; but only the people we don’t like are sinners. So when asked “who sinned, this man or his parents,” Jesus replied, “Neither.”

Then Jesus healed the man. That was proof that there was no sin. “See? He can see! No sin here. Move along….”

But some people find it very hard to move along. People had defined him as a sinner for so long, it was hard to see him as anything else.

“Isn’t this the blind man who we used to see sitting and begging?”

They argued about it. Some said yes. Some said no. Some weren’t sure. Some didn’t know how to define this man who was blind but now could see.

The man said, “It is me!”

But that wasn’t enough to convince everyone.

They grabbed him and took him to the Pharisees. The Pharisees knew how to define people. They knew how to define who was a sinner and who was not. The Pharisees would straighten this out.

But the Pharisees didn’t understand any better than anyone else.

They asked: “How is it that you can see?”

“Jesus did it. He put mud on my eyes, I washed, and then I could see.”

The Pharisees didn’t like this. Too many things were being redefined. This man, who they had defined as a sinner; he shouldn’t be able to see! And Jesus, who healed this man - he did it on the Sabbath. That’s not what the Sabbath is for! Jesus must be against God if he healed on the Sabbath. Jesus must be against God if he allowed a sinner to see.

Something’s not right. It all goes against their definitions.

They called for the man’s parents. This is a long story; we didn’t hear it all. They called for his parents, and questioned them.

“Is this your son? Was he really born blind? If so, how is it that he can see?”

The parents said: “Yes, he is our son. Yes, he was born blind. But we don’t know how it is that he can see. Did you ask him? He is of age, he can answer for himself.”

The parents knew that this man Jesus, who challenged so many definitions, was a dangerous person to be associated with, so they avoided answering the question.

The Pharisees went back to the man born blind. “We know you’re a sinner. We know this man Jesus is a sinner. The fact that he healed your eyesight - the eyesight of a sinner - is further proof of this. Don’t you agree?”

The man said: “All I know is that I once was blind, but now I see.”

The Pharisees then said: “But how did this happen? What did he do to you?”

And the man said: “I already told you! Do you want to hear it again? Do you want to be his disciples, too?”

Well, that did it. The Pharisees got mad. “YOU are the disciple of that sinner. WE are disciples of Moses. WE know how to define what is right and what is wrong. God doesn’t listen to sinners, and God doesn’t allow the healing of a man who was born blind!”

The man said: “I KNOW God doesn’t listen to sinners. Yet God listened to this man, and allowed him to heal my eyes.”

And then the Pharisees said: “You’re a sinner. We’re not listening to anything else you have to say.”

And it became apparent that it’s the Pharisees who were blind; blind to the truth.

And that’s how it is with people who refuse to let go of their own definitions and embrace God’s definitions. The way God defines things is often different than the way people define things.

The way God defines people is always full of compassion, mercy, grace, and love.

And God is always willing to give you a new definition. We’ve all heard how other people have defined us. We’ve heard how society defines us. We’ve internalized those definitions so that we use them to define ourselves.

But most of those definitions are not very flattering. People tend to be harsh, critical, judgmental.

What opinions and ideas of others do you allow to define who you are?

A friend of mine once told me that, for her, it’s not a democracy. Not everyone’s vote counts.

She said that when it came to how she felt about herself, how she defined herself, and whose opinion matters, she got to decide whose vote counts.

And the people who always defined her negatively, in ways that were unhelpful and unloving - their votes didn’t count.

When you hear how everybody else tries to define you, do you let their votes count? Do you base your definition on their definitions?

Try paying less attention to how critics define you, and more attention to how God defines you. God created you, you know. God created you in God’s own image. God knows all about you.

The psalmist says to God:

“Lord, you have examined me. You know me. You know when I sit down and when I stand up. Even from far away, you comprehend my plans. You study my traveling and resting. You are thoroughly familiar with all my ways [Psalm 139].”

No one knows you as well as God does.

And here’s how God defines you:

God says, “I created you and formed you… You are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you [Isaiah 43].”

When Jesus defined people, he did it by looking at them through God’s eyes.

Followers of Jesus do the same.

We define people by looking at them through God’s eyes.

We define ourselves by seeing ourselves through God’s eyes.

The Place Where We Belong (John 9:1-41)

This scripture today is a story with many themes and sub-themes. What I see in this story will probably not surprise you. I see a struggle between two worlds: the world in which we live, and the kingdom of God. And just to be clear, when I talk about the kingdom of God, I don’t mean some other-worldly future existence; I mean a whole new way of living that is possible, starting right now. Think of Disney’s Aladdin, when he sings “A whole new world, a new fantastic point of view.” The kingdom of God is like that. As Jesus says repeatedly, the kingdom of God is now at hand. The kingdom is present within you. God’s whole new world is ready for you. You can start living in it right now.

In today’s scripture, I see the story of a man struggling to find his place – and a community struggling to find its place – in this convergence of two worlds. I see people trying to make sense of it all, trying to figure out just where they belong. It is a universal theme: Who among us has never wondered where we belong, and what is our place in this vast universe God has created? What is our greater purpose?

The story centers on a man who is born blind. In ancient societies, a man born blind didn’t have many options. Unable to work because he could not see, his only choice was to beg. There was no question about where he belonged or what his place in the world was. He was a beggar. That was his place.

Then Jesus and his disciples come along. The disciples see the beggar, and wonder why God would assign him this place: surely it must have been because he – or his parents – sinned.

They should have known better than to think that. It hadn’t been that long since Jesus had stopped the stoning of a woman caught in adultery. He had stopped the execution of that woman by saying, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” There was no one who had not sinned, and thus no one to carry out the execution.

So, no one is perfect. Why, then, was this man born blind? According to Jesus, he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.

I wonder if this whole story might not be a metaphor, or even a parable. I have no doubt that Jesus was capable of healing, or that he in fact did heal; but I think there is something even bigger going on here. After all, this blind man isn’t the only person to have ever felt stuck in one place…

To quote another Disney musical, it is Belle who sings, “I want much more than this provincial town.” Or what about Ariel, the little mermaid: she, too, feels trapped in her place in the world. She wants to find the place where she belongs; a place that, as it turns out, is in a whole new world. Same with Hercules, whose anthem actually includes the line, “I’ll find where I belong;” that’s what they all want: to find their place in the world.

I’m sure the blind beggar felt that there was somewhere he belonged, that there was some greater purpose for his life. If only he wasn’t stuck where he was. If only he could break free, somehow.

Are you feeling the connection with the man born blind? Because I think just about everyone, at some point, feels the way this blind man felt. I think we all have wondered where we belong. I think we’ve all wanted to do something big, something heroic, something that would make us worthy of the life God has given us. And I think we have all experienced those times when we felt trapped, unable to break free from the chains that bind us, from the forces that hold us back, from our own limitations. If only we weren’t held back, why, we could do something great.

That is how the blind beggar felt.

Then Jesus comes along, his fairy godmother, his genie, his sea-witch, all wrapped up in one. Jesus takes away the blindness. He removes the limitation that held this man back. He sets him free to do the work that God calls him to do, to fulfill that greater purpose, to find where he belongs, to experience a whole new world. In other words, Jesus makes it possible for him to live in the kingdom of God.

And that’s what Jesus does for you. Jesus makes it possible for you to live in the whole new world that awaits. His love shows you the way, if you will only follow him.

Not too long ago, we here at BKCC read through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which – I think – works to open our eyes to that whole new world more than any other passage of scripture. We learned that this whole new world is a world of blessing, but because it is a whole new world, those blessings do not come in the ways we are often told they come.

Instead of coming to us through force or violence, blessings come to those who work for peace. Instead of coming to those who seek to overpower their enemies, blessings come to those who work to transform their enemies with love. Instead of coming to those who are spiritually rich – convinced they have all the right answers – blessings come to the poor in spirit, those who recognize that God is much more than we are capable of understanding. Instead of coming to those who long for the best this world has to offer, blessings come to those who hunger and thirst for equality and justice for all of God’s children.

So Jesus blessed the man born blind. He opened his eyes to a whole new world. He allowed him to find a place where he belongs. He showed him his place in God’s kingdom. And then he … disappeared.

And the formerly blind man: did he then live happily ever after? Well, no. Because this is not a fairy tale. And Jesus isn’t actually a genie or a fairy godmother who is there to serve our will. Just because you find where you belong, just because your eyes have been opened to a whole new way of living… this does not mean that you will now have a life of ease. Indeed, in the kingdom of God, we are filled with the love of God, the same love that Jesus lived by; and look where that got him.

A part of me wishes I could tell you that entering this new life, living in this new world, this new kingdom, would bring an end to pain, suffering, poverty, restless nights, and turbulent days. But that is not the case.

When the formerly blind man went to take his place in the world, to begin living his new life, there was, right away, a controversy. When he started living in the kingdom, there was conflict.

First, there is a debate among his neighbors about whether or not he was the same person who used to sit and beg. I suppose one could argue that, now that he had a whole new life, that he was not the same person, and yet he assured them that he is, in fact, the man who used to be blind and who used to sit and beg.

Then they brought him to the temple authorities. It appears that they were not entirely comfortable with his leaving the place the world assigned to him, breaking free from that place and finding a new life to live. The temple authorities likewise were unsettled, especially since his healing had taken place on the Sabbath. They began arguing among themselves about whether this healer was from God, since he could heal, or if he was a sinner, since he had worked on the Sabbath.

They interrogated the formerly blind man some more. At this point he may have been thinking it would have been easier if he had just stayed in his old place, sitting and begging.

Then they brought his parents into it, and began questioning them. But the parents recognized that their son’s whole new life was causing quite a few problems for him, and they didn’t want anything to do with it. They didn’t want to sacrifice the place they had in the world for something new, and so they didn’t want to get involved. “Don’t ask us,” they said. “He’s an adult, he can speak for himself.”

So the interrogation of the formerly blind man continued. The authorities tried to get him to say that Jesus was a sinner, but he replied: “I don’t know whether he’s a sinner or not. All I know is that I once was blind, but now, I see.”

Well, eventually the authorities drove him out. No longer could he be among them.

Thus we have the struggle between two worlds that I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon. Those who hold tightly to the things of this world find it very hard to step into the new world proclaimed by Jesus. Those whose lives are built upon worldly wealth and possessions, those whose lives are intertwined with the systems of authority and influence in this world find it very hard to move to the place that has been prepared for them in the kingdom of God.

Likewise, those who do accept their place in the kingdom of God, those who find where they belong, those who discover the greater purpose God has for them: they discover that the systems of this world are often hostile toward them. History provides plenty of examples: Gandhi. Martin Luther King. Nelson Mandela. Oscar Romero. Greg Mortenson. Father Greg Boyle. All of them discovered their place in the world. All of them had their eyes opened to the new world, the new kingdom, of God. All of them felt that their life was complete, whole, only when they were working on behalf of that kingdom.

And all of them experienced the world’s hostility.

And yet, none of them wished to return to a life of blindness. None of them wished to return to their former places, because even though those former places were free from the hostility and persecution of the world, there they were not complete. There, they were not whole. There, they were not fully alive.

Each of them was forced to carry their own cross, and yet they felt the blessings of God, because they knew that, God, through Jesus, shared in their struggle. Through Jesus, God experienced persecution. Through Jesus, God experienced the cross.

It was only after they found where they belonged, after they began doing the work to which God called them, that they felt whole and complete. It was only when they struggled and faced hostility and made their lives into a living sacrifice that they truly felt the blessings of God.

God’s desire is that you live a life of wholeness. God’s desire is that your life be complete. There is no better way to live, no greater abundance than that, no matter how hostile some may be; because when your eyes are opened, you see the place where you belong.

And if finding your place in God’s whole new world means carrying your cross, entering into controversy as the man born blind did, just remember what follows the cross: new life. Resurrection.

What the world rejects, God affirms. Having our eyes opened so that we can find our place, the place we belong, in God’s kingdom may threaten the established ways and institutions of this world, but it is pleasing in God’s sight. Those whose eyes are opened find their place in the world. They receive new life.