Creekside Church Sermon of March 14, 1999 "Who's Blind?" John 9:1-41	Rev. David Bibbee
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At one time or another we all have wondered what it is like to be blind. Sadly, for some of you, the loss of sight isn't imaginary. We can try to imagine what it is like to live without ever having seen a blooming flower or a smiling face, but it would never approach the splendor of seeing for the first time.

Max Lucado tells the story of a man named Bob Edens who was blind from birth, and how life changed after the hands of a gifted surgeon performed a delicate operation which gave him sight. This is how he described the experience of seeing for the first time.

I never would have dreamed that yellow is so...yellow. I don't have the words. I am amazed by yellow. But red is my favorite color. I just can't believe red. I can see the shape of the moon...and I like nothing better than seeing a jet plane flying across the sky and leaving a vapor trail. And of course, sunrises and sunsets. And at night, I look at the stars in the sky and the flashing light. Unless you see it, you never know how wonderful everything is.

Wonders had been around Bob all his life, but he couldn't see them. We too are surrounded by wonders, but we don't see them either. The wonders we miss outnumber those we see because we are afflicted with a peculiar kind of blindness which gives the false impression we are really seeing.

Today's lesson is about a blind man who sees, and sighted people who think they see but don't. Bob Eden's experience was not unlike the man in this story. We don't know his name. He didn't ask to be healed. Jesus just happened to see him while passing by. The disciples started playing Sunday school, sitting in a circle speculating about the cause of the man's blindness, making a case study out of him. "Someone sinned. Was it the man or his parents?" "Don't be stupid," Jesus said. "No one sinned. It was no one's fault. It is an opportunity for a demonstration of God's glory."

Putting spit and mud pies in the blind man's eyes, Jesus whom God had sent into this dark world, told the man to wash in a pool which was named "Sent." He washed and came back seeing and shouting. "I never dreamed yellow was so yellow!" Now he could look after himself. No more feeling around for things. No more walking down the sidewalk with a tapping cane. Now he could get a job, become a productive member of society, take up a hobby like bird watching or astronomy. What a wondrous happening. What a cause for celebration!

But you should know better. Life had just become more complicated for this "once was blind but now I see" man. The response to his healing is almost comic. In the time it took him to walk to the pool and back, people who had seen him every day no longer recognized him. "It's him." "No it's not him." "Well...it kind of looks like him." "I'm him!" he cried, but now he had some explaining to do.

They hauled him before the Pharisees who took turns asking questions, and it was soon clear they were more concerned about the means of his healing than the end. In healing the blind man, Jesus had violated the Sabbath. "What happened?" they asked. "Well...he put mud in my eyes, I washed. I see. That's about it." "Who does this Jesus think he is? they asked. "Who do you think he is?" "He's a prophet." "Shut up! If we want your opinion we'll ask for it."

Next they hauled in his parents. "Is this your boy?" His parents boldly responded, "Well...He sort of looks like him." They didn't want kicked out of the synagogue for saying too much. To be separated from God and the community was a terrible thing. "Was he born blind?" "Well, now that you mention it, he was." "How do you explain his seeing?" "Seeing? He sure looks blind to us. We haven't the foggiest. He's got his own apartment. We don't see him much. You'd better ask him." In other words, "You're on your own, son."

Once again the Pharisees asked the man, "What did Jesus do? How did he do it?" Finally he had had all he could take. "I told you, I was blind and now I see. Don't ask questions you don't want answered. He couldn't do this if he wasn't from God." "Didn't we tell you to shut up?" The Pharisees then answered the disciple's question asked at the beginning of this chapter. "In sin you were born." And they kicked him out of the synagogue and dropped his name from the membership roster. It's enough to make you think twice about being healed.

John has masterfully crafted this story. The blind man isn't given a name because he is not the subject of the story. This isn't about one blind person. The story is full of blind people. The blind man sees clearly. He sees that Jesus is a prophet; a man whose works are of God, and at the end, he believes Jesus and worships him. Don't be concerned with this man. He sees just fine. The problem is with the others...the townsfolk who could only see him as a beggar, his parents who intentionally didn't see him lest they get kicked out of the church, and the Pharisees who show that it is possible to read the bottom line of the optometrist's eye chart and yet be blind as a bat.

One of the great people of this century was Helen Keller. You know her story. From the age of 19 months she was deaf and blind. Her remarkable life was an inspiration, and not just those who were visually and hearing impaired. I read that she loved to show the blindness of sighted people. To prove her point, she asked the men in her audiences to describe the color of their wive's eyes. Some things we fail to see because we aren't observant. Other things we fail to see because we decide not to see them, or as someone asked, "What good are your eyes if your heart is blind?"

Two weeks and six chapters ago we learned about Nicodemus' world of reduced awareness, and those two little words, "We know" which made him that way. Well, the Pharisees are using these words again in verse 24 and 29. "We know this man is a sinner." "We know that God spoke to Moses, but we don't know where this guy Jesus is from. We know he doesn't do things by the book. We know that he violated the Sabbath. We know he is different, he doesn't do things like us. He colors outside the lines. He therefore can't be from God." The Pharisees blindness was the very worst kind. They refused to see what they were seeing...a blind man with 20/20 vision. They refused to acknowledge the one who had done it. They had already drawn their conclusion and were looking for ways of arriving at it.

This is what Jesus was getting at when he said, "I came so those who don't see may see, and those who do see may become blind. A dark cloud of guilt will hang over those who claim to see, but choose blindness instead." But before we go any further, you need to know something. This isn't just about first century Pharisee blindness. It's our malady, too!

A couple of years ago I served on the planning committee for the first Caring Ministries 2000 Conference at Manchester College. The featured speaker was Dr. Bernie Segal, the renowned surgeon and author of such books as Love, Medicine and Miracles. Segal makes the case for a new method of treating the sick...one which treats them as whole people of body, mind, and spirit. Prior to the conference I received a letter from a pastor and church board which read:

"We are saved through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. We believe he is the son of God who died for our sins. These beliefs along with the divine word found in the Bible are the cornerstone of Christianity. They are unbending points. To dilute these points seriously jeopardizes this foundation. The New Age movement is a serious attack on these beliefs. Dr. Bernie Segal has been closely linked to this movement. We strongly urge you to investigate and re-evaluate this speaker and his message. As Christians in the Church of the Brethren we cannot support your acceptance of the New Age movement."

I didn't know I was an advocate of the new age movement! I imagined a patient of Dr. Segal's before the leaders of this church. "What did he do to you?" "Well, he treated me with respect and compassion. He prayed for me before he operated." "Admit it. He's trying to corrupt Christianity." "I don't know anything about that. All I know is that the other doctors said I was good as dead, but now I'm free of cancer."

I know a man who helps lots of people. He has worked diligently over the years for racial equality and social justice. He is progressive, liberal, and open-minded...sort of. But at the mention of Promise Keepers, he comes unraveled. "It's not what it seems," he says. "It's trying to set the gains made by women back fifty years. They want to keep women in the home and at the stove. It's a clever front for the far right of the Republican party to force their agenda on America. One of the men from the church had just returned from a Promise Keepers gathering, and was questioned. "What did they do? What were you told? I think the movement is masking it's real intentions." "I don't know anything about that," the man said. "All I know is that it opened my eyes to my self-centeredness and helped me commit to being a better father and more loving husband."

In a novel called, The Horse's Mouth, there is a painter who lives on a houseboat. Someone asked how he had become an artist. He looked as though his eyes were fixed on something far away, and said, "One time I was painting alongside Matisse, and I was stunned. Suddenly I saw the world in colors as if for the first time. He skinned my eyes, I became a different man; it was like a conversion."

We could all routinely use an eye skinning to really see the colors with which God paints the landscape of our lives. We have blind spots...all of us. Organized religion isn't looked upon kindly in this passage. The church often protects itself from voices which suggest God is doing a new thing. No matter how open we think we are, the new is very threatening because it reminds us we are not in control.

To the extent that you and I confess we are blind and unresponsive to God's leading in our lives and in the church, there is room for optimism. Those who know their need already are on their way to being restored. But if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. If we say we have no blind spots and resist God's leading into a new day, we deceive ourselves.

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