March 6, 2005
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for Life: Seeing Justice Today we will hear the second sermon in a three-part series on the core values of Broad Street Christian Church. Last week’s focus was on spirituality. Next week’s focus will be on relationships. Today the focus is on justice, not in the big social issue sense we think of justice. It is important for the church to discuss those issues, and we will, but we will save them for another day. Today the focus will be on justice as I defined it in my March newsletter article. Justice is doing the right thing in the right way. Justice is a core value here because we believe that justice is what God wants for the world. Injustice happens when we are so afraid of something inside or outside of us that we create enemies to combat our fears. We make enemies of people who are different because we are afraid of being diminished by whatever and sometimes whoever is not just like us. We do injustice and make enemies of ourselves when we buy the lie that we are not enough so we numb ourselves with drugs, or drink, or sex, or money and find ourselves hung over and unsatisfied in the morning. We do injustice to others when we participate in what Detroit pastor, Charles Adams calls, “rabid racism, shattering sexism, and hateful homophobia”, and we are the worse for being instigators of it, or victims of these kinds of injustices. Justice happens when we are not driven by fear, but by the courage to treat people equitably, responsibly, and lovingly. Everyone the man born blind meets, except Jesus, treats him as less than he is. They see him through the lens of their own fears and prejudices; it is as if they can barely see him at all. They claim to see but they may as well be in a room with no natural light and shuttered windows. The irony of the story is that the ones who can see physically have no spiritual vision. Who are the truly spiritually blind in this story? There are several examples. There are the disciples, the ones who have walked and talked and eaten and slept with Jesus, are blind. These folks who believe they know Jesus best, have very little idea of who he is or what he can do. Their first thought upon seeing the man is that somebody has sinned, someone has so offended God that the punishment was that this fellow was born blind. “The disciples’ question assumes that suffering is caused by sin. The parents could be guilty. Several Old Testament passages connect the sin of the parents with the suffering of the child. Exodus 20.5 says, “…I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me…” We can be blinded too by the need to blame that we miss the bigger picture. So we ask, who did this, how could you be so careless, so negligent, so wrong, so clumsy, so stupid? Who raised you? Who can we blame? Blame is about expressing disapproval, but blame is not the point. Things happen, tragedies occur, we cannot explain everything, but God can redeem whatever difficult situation we lay at God’s feet. Jesus reminds them and us that not every difficult condition requires blame. “It is not about blame, it is about a means of showing you the glory of God”. He calls the man to him, stoops down to get a handful of dirt, and spits on it, a familiar folk remedy in his day, makes a mud poultice, and puts it in that man’s eyes and he is miraculously healed. He sends the man to go wash in the pool in Siloam, water from this is the pool was poured on the Temple steps at Jewish festivals – it would flow from the temple steps into the city as a symbol that the faith of the Jewish people would serve and satisfy the world” (www.lectionary.org/john4.1-41) p.2. The disciples were so blinded by the need to blame they could not see justice in the opportunity for a miracle he presented. We might see God at work and justice at play when we blame less and see instead the possibility of the healing work of God in our lives. But it wasn’t only the disciples. The man’s neighbors were blind too. They were so used to seeing this young man begging around the neighborhood that they do not recognize him in his newly sighted self. Have you ever undergone a change so transforming that people couldn’t relate to you in the same ways they used to? We know how to deal with you like that, but we are not sure if we can deal with you like this. We knew what to do when you were overweight, when you had a job, when you did what we expected you to do, we could handle that. But now you have changed, and we are not even sure we know you. That day, after Jesus gave the man the gift of sight, the newly sighted man goes back to the neighborhood with his head held high. He doesn’t have to feel his way, he doesn’t need the arm of a friend, he doesn’t have to beg when he gets there. He walks in the power of a miracle of God and his neighbors cannot agree on who he is. They dismiss him by not seeing the renewed person he has become. They could not see the justice of celebrating with him. “Isn’t that the blind fellow from around the block?”
“No, this guy can see. I know he looks just like him, he was wearing that same
outfit this morning.” “It’s him. But we have never seen him like that
before.” The disciples are spiritually blind; the neighbors are blind. Surely the religious leaders, the Pharisees will see and celebrate with him. But they too are blind. They are blind to the possibility that the stories about Jesus were true. He is a miracle worker. He is a healer, he is about the justice of a gospel that includes and stands with and helps whoever needs it. But he healed on the Sabbath so we can disregard the good news here and ignore the gift to this man’s body and spirit. We can, they think find a reason not to believe. You are the wrong type to be healed. You are too poor to appreciate what you have. It is the wrong day; this is a day to worship, to praise God, to remember the goodness of God. Only a sinner would work on the Sabbath, and sinners can’t heal. Even his parents are spiritually blind. They cannot see for fear; they have been threatened with expulsion from the synagogue if they say anything positive about Jesus. We understand this one, there are groups we belong to and organizations we hold membership in that we don’t want to exclude us. So it is with the parents. They don’t exactly deny him, but they decline for fear to speak up for him. The injustice is to their son when they are asked three questions. Is this your son, and was he born blind, and how is that he is able to see? They can only answer in a way that protects them. Yes of course he is our son, yes he was born blind, but we have no idea how he is able to see. He is over eighteen; he can speak for himself. They are the polar opposite of the Prodigal Son’s father. He waited for his son’s return and rejoiced with unabashed glee when he did (Luke 15.24). These parents would not say a word in support of their son for fear of rejection by their religious leaders. Leaders should never make us afraid, they are the ones most responsible for empowering and encouraging the people; unless they can only lead by fear. Then they are not so much leaders as they are abusers, and abusers must be called to accountability. Blamed, dismissed, disregarded, denied... what is the man to do? He keeps telling the good news he knows. Do you have any good faith news? Tell it? Have you know the miraculous, the healing, the courage-giving power of Jesus, tell it all. People will want to know how you got what you have, tell them that your spirit was broadened, your eyes were opened, and the good news in you has to come out. When they say, “You must be mistaken, this Jesus is a sinner, why don’t you just praise God and agree with us”, tell the truth you know. “How about this”, he says. “I am not a theologian. It is not up to me to say whether or not he is a sinner, but I will tell you what I know. I will praise God every day I wake up and see all of God’s creation. I was blind, now I can see. I was kind of pitiful, now I have power. I was kind of empty, now I have energy enough to talk with you and to see things I could not see before. I will praise God for every good and perfect gift, God has given to me, but I will not attack Jesus.” The man not only has his sight, he has insight and a vision that gives him the audacity to look eye to eye with the religious leaders of his day. “You may not know who he is, but I know him. I know what he did for me. I know how he changed my life, I know Jesus. Do you want to know him and follow him too?” They threw him out of the synagogue. It is at the moment of abandonment that Jesus returns. He reveals himself to the man, telling him that he is more than merely mortal, he is more than a prophet, he is the one who can change and renew lives. The one who had no sight now has sight and vision. He can see that the he is no longer an object of scorn and pity, today he has debated with Pharisees, the most learned men in the community. With every step, as the light dawns brighter and brighter in him, he points more and more to Jesus. That is what a grateful soul does. As light dawns, as justice comes we point to Jesus. We cannot control the light and we cannot horde justice as if it is ours to keep. Both light and justice must be shared. The who he knew his healer first as Jesus, then as a prophet, then as the Son of Man and finally, eternally as Lord and Savior, is the one standing before him now and the ones who thought they could see everything are revealed to be spiritually blind. But sight and insight can be discovered. Sight and insight for the disciples comes when they realize that God does not require blame; what God requires is that they and we, “to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God” (Micah 6.8). The Pharisees and the neighbors will see the difference between doing things right and doing the right thing. They need to hear the call not put ritual over righteousness. The Sabbath was indeed a day of rest, but the recovery of sight was more important. The man was changed from the way his neighbors remember him, but it was a good change. They and we can remember when we encounter one another the prophet’s call to “let justice roll down like water, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream” (Amos 5.24). For parents who forgot for a moment who their son was, can gain insight when they remember what God never forgets, “if my mother and father forsake me, the Lord will take me in” (Psalm 27.10). The man was changed by the gift of sight while those around him had their spiritual blindness exposed. Our lives can be changed too. They are changed as our eyes are opened and we are cured of our spirit’s blindness. For surely we cast blame, we dismiss, disregard, deny, but it is also in us to declare, we used to be blind, but now we see. Now we have vision enough to follow Jesus who, when he offered his first words about what his ministry would be, found his mission and ministry in the words of Isaiah’s words, “the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because God has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4.16-18). We follow Jesus who was all about justice, who can heal our spiritual and help us see with clarity. He is the one about whom we say along with the man with sight and insight “one thing I know. I was blind, but now I see” (John 9.25b). That is how we proclaim justice, and for that proclamation and for the gift of sight and insight, we say, thanks be to God, and may Jesus Christ be praised. Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
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