St. Paul’s United Church Sunday, March 6, 2005

Blind But Now I See – Rev. David Mundy

1 Samuel 16:1-13 Psalm 23 John 9:1- 41

Last Sunday evening some of us who should have known better waited and waited for the presentation of the “big” Oscars for movie excellence, including Best Actor. As expected, Jamie Foxx won for his portrayal of music legend Ray Charles. One of the reasons Foxx was given the nod was his remarkable ability to create the impression that he was physically blind, the way Ray Charles was as the result of a childhood illness.

In interviews Foxx mentioned that during the shooting of the film he actually had his eyelids glued shut so he could not see and was forced to live as a blind person for hours at a time. On a couple of occasions there were breaks when everyone left the set, forgetting that Foxx couldn’t see. Suddenly he was on his own in the dark with no one to guide him. While he speaks about it with humour it must have been an unsettling experience. Of course, part of the brilliance of Jamie Foxx’s performance was his ability to enter into the sightless world of Ray Charles and “see” in a different way.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be blind? Fortunately very few of us have experienced a total loss of vision although a fair number of us have limited sight which has been corrected in a variety of ways, including the eyeglasses which we now take for granted. I have been wearing glasses that correct my myopia, my short-sightedness, since I was eight years old. A severe bout of the measles as a child affected my vision and today I am virtually blind when I take them off. Everything becomes a blur and we would all would need to say a prayer if I were behind the wheel of a car without them

Blindness and sight are important metaphors in our culture and our religion. We admire those with insight and we want leaders who have vision. There is an old proverb which states that “the eyes are the windows of the soul” and there are a number of hymns which say this in their own way. We began worship by asking God to “Open my eyes that I may see glimpses of truth thou hast for me.” And we will be sent forth by one of those old favourites with the words:

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me,

I once was lost and now am found, was blind but now I see.

This morning we listened to a lengthy scripture passage in the gospel of John which is about blindness, both the physical and spiritual blindness that holds us back from life. It is also about vision restored through the grace and the healing touch of Christ.

The story begins with the disciples wondering what caused the blindness of a man who was born that way. Were his parents at fault or was he? Their question was a genuine one. They assumed that the blind man was reduced to begging for a living as a sign of God’s disfavour.

It probably comes as a surprise when Jesus tells them that whatever they have been taught, that isn’t the way it works. The man isn’t blind because of some terrible thing he did in the womb or because of the curse of his family history. And then Jesus heals the man’s blindness, which should be wonderful news except that no one wanted to believe that he has the power to do this.

There is a rather dark humour to what happens next in the story. The neighbours can’t decide if the healed man was the same person they saw every day begging on the street. The poor guy keeps saying, “it’s me, it’s me!” His parents know that this is their son, but they are so rattled by what has transpired that they aren’t sure whether the healing is a good thing. The religious authorities actually propose that the man was never blind because they didn’t want to accept that Jesus could heal him! And they are also disturbed that Jesus did this on the Sabbath when he wasn’t supposed to “work.”

In the end the person who had been blind seems to have the clearest vision because he is willing to recognize Jesus’ power, and we are left wondering how the others could have such impaired vision. To be fair, it is often through hindsight – there is another one of those words we use – that we gain clarity.

Actually one of the hymns I just mentioned is an example. You may know that Amazing Grace was written 300 years ago by John Newton, the captain of a slave ship who was converted to Christianity during a storm at sea. Out of that life-changing experience he eventually became an Anglican priest. It’s important to know that Newton didn’t immediately change his outlook on slavery. It was only at the end of his life that he recognized that claiming ownership of another human being is wrong. Today we can sing Amazing Grace wondering how a Christian culture could ever have condoned something as evil as human slavery, but our vision isn’t always 20/20, is it?

Just a few weeks ago we had a bulletin cover with the photograph of the only black moderator of the United Church, the Right Reverend Wilbur Howard. That should be cause for celebration, but we also read that in the middle of the twentieth century no congregation in our denomination would call him to the pulpit for more than two decades after his ordination.

There are many other instances of our difficulty in seeing what becomes quite clear over time. It was not all that long ago that we felt that people with mental illness or who suffered from depression were the authors of their own problems, not unlike the disciples wondering about the “fault” behind the man’s blindness. Those stigmas are disappearing, slowly but surely.

We see certain physical illnesses with very different eyes from others. I was at a social gathering years ago where another guest, realizing I was a minister, asked the question “Would you visit someone with AIDS in the hospital?” I knew by the tone that it was a provocative question and was not surprised when he expounded that people with HIV and AIDS were the authors of their own fate with the implication that they shouldn’t receive pastoral care.

At the time I was a member of the AIDS committee in the city where I lived and I did visit AIDS patients in the hospital fairly regularly as an aspect of my involvement. He thought that this was a waste of my time and the implication was that by doing so I was condoning the sexual behaviour which led to the disease.

So I asked him if he thought it was okay that I visited individuals with cancer, and he said that of course I should. I told him that I had recently seen a man who, it turned out, was dying of cancer because of his smoking. He had just undergone the amputation of both of his feet because of circulation problems but he admitted that he wouldn’t stop smoking, even then. I asked the man at the party if it was still all right that I visited this unrepentant smoker, and he decided that it was. But he did not change his mind about those with HIV and AIDS.

There are times when we have trouble seeing the forest for the trees because of the deep emotion attached to the situation. At the moment there is probably no more controversial situation for the Christian community than the public debates over same-gender marriage. How are we supposed to respond as the government of our land makes gay and lesbian marriage legal? Some of us wonder whether we have been blinded by the permissiveness of our society that says “anything goes.” Yesterday there was a “rally for marriage” at a local church which undoubtedly supported a traditional view of marriage between a man and a woman. At the same time some of us are convinced that we have failed to see gays and lesbians as human beings, made in God’s image, because of our stereotypes and prejudices. Many of us find ourselves in the middle, doing our best to see our way forward. We aren’t really sure, one way or another, but we want our Christian faith to inform us and lead us to compassion rather than hardening our hearts.

Is it possible to be spiritually blind and to recover our sight? So much depends on our openness if we are willing to respond to Christ. Did you notice in the story that the man wasn’t healed all at once? In some of the other healings in the gospels Jesus simply touches the person or says a word or the one who is healed reaches out and touches him. Here Jesus makes a paste of saliva and mud to place on his eyes. Then he sends him through the narrow streets of Jerusalem to the pool of Siloam, a name which means “sent,” where he washes the mud away and has his sight restored. Why did he have to go through all of this? No explanation is given so we can make up our own!

Life is like that. Sometimes it takes time for sight to be given or to be restored. Sometimes we feel rather foolish stumbling along with mud on our eyes. Developing Christian insight and vision can come gradually and we may learn to “see” in other ways. In the movie Ray we are made aware that his perception of the world around him is heightened through his other senses. Actually, science is now discovering that those parts of our brain usually stimulated by the images we receive through our eyes can be activated in other ways, including through touch. This is all part of the wonderful adventure of our Christian faith. Whatever ways we get there, we are all people who have been touched by the grace of Jesus Christ. In a few weeks we will remember that by Christ’s stripes we are all healed and celebrate that we have been lifted into resurrection life. We really don’t need to wait until then to receive these gifts.

I would encourage you this morning to consider how Christ can come to you in this moment. Each one of us can ask to see more clearly and like the blind man we can say “Lord, I believe.” I will leave you this morning with a prayer which you may know as the lyrics of a song from the musical Godspell, but they were written by Richard of Chichester 800 years ago. Day by day Oh Dear Lord Three things I pray To see thee more clearly Love thee more dearly Follow thee more nearly Day by day . Amen!