Oh that I might see...

Scripture Reading: John 9:1-15, 28-41; . Mark 8:22-27 Text John 9:1-7

Brothers and Sisters, here in England and North America, we don’t often see cases of physical blindness. Sure, many of us require corrective lenses and prescriptions, and our eyes may progressively degenerate as we age, but we’ve had this technology in some form or another since the late thirteenth century. Increasing numbers of people even have the option of laser corrective surgery to change the shape of our eyes and “restore” our vision should it be lost. But even the earliest date for eyeglasses is well over a millennia removed from the healings of the blind recorded in the time of our Lord. In that time, it would not have been uncommon to see two people walking down the street holding one stick – the person in front serving as the eyes of the person behind. Imagine if every one of us who can’t see a thing without our glasses had to be led around! Signs of intense physical blindness are not as common here, and while I am no expert on the sufficiency of care provided by NHS here or at home, our visually impaired are more able to live independently here than they would have in the time and place of our passage today.

The individual healed in this passage was blind from birth. In the Greek, we read “ejk geneth”, which my commentaries tell me means “from the hour of birth” . This phrase is found nowhere else in the New Testament. The Disciples’ question at first would seem strange. How could this man have sinned prior to being born blind? We know from our Old Testament reading of the Ten Commandments that God “punished children for the sins of their fathers to the third and fourth generation”, but they don’t refer to fetal sin. So the sin of a man born blind would have to be that of his fathers. But we can also read Ezekiel 18:20, which says that 20 The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him.
The blind man would therefore not be punished for the sins of the fathers, and so the sin must be his own. Psalm 89: 33 but I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness, and other single verses devoid of context, were commonly used in Judaism to argue that there was neither death nor punishment without sin and guilt, and that fetuses could indeed sin. The question of the disciples, then, is a scholarly one in the midst of a debate. Which passage should be given primacy as the root of this man’s blindness?
But Jesus had his own agenda. The blind ones were the disciples! Jesus said “Neither this man nor his parents sinned”, not implying that they, like him, were without sin, but that the man’s congenital blindness was not a specific punishment. This man’s blindness was a result of sin; in a perfect world, he would not have been born blind. But it was not his sin nor his parents; it was the sin of the world.
“This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life”. Well wait a minute, I’m tempted to say: this man was born blind simply so that Jesus could heal him? Isn’t that a little harsh? Surely God wouldn’t afflict an innocent man who had neither sinned as a fetus or been born to evil parents such that he deserved blindness! Imagine living all those years, just to be healed one day to set straight some dim-witted disciples on a matter of doctrine!
Perhaps, however, that’s not what Jesus meant by this passage; the blindness, not intended by God in Creation, is there because mankind has disobeyed God as we have already seen.

Jesus is about to show his disciples that God can, and desires to, show God’s authority over all things by making use of the effects of sin, including physical and spiritual infirmities.

As a third point, in this passage we see that God demonstrates His love to all men by giving them the grace they need every day to live with the effects of sin.

Jesus goes on to say that he is the light of the world; in his presence it is truly “light”. As work generally ceases when the sun goes down (at least, without the conveniences of artificial lighting), so Christ’s departure from the world would end the miraculous works of his ministry on earth, making it seem as night. In this text, Jesus looked beyond the questions of his disciples, who reduced the blind man to a subject of discussion; he saw a man, without sight, and had compassion – turning their question into an opportunity to perform an act of mercy, bring healing to a broken man, and set the disciples straight.

Jesus spat on the ground, and worked the moistened dirt into clay; he applied this – a substance from himself – to the man’s eyes, and sent him to the Pool of Siloam to wash (interestingly, Siloam translates as “sent”). Very rarely in his healing acts did Jesus give up something physical of himself; the other instance, in Mark 8:22-27, says Jesus “spit on his eyes and put his hands upon him”. In this case, the man’s eyes were not immediately healed; he saw men who looked like trees, walking; Jesus touched his eyes again, and the man was healed. In other healings, however, Jesus simply spoke and the men were healed. In these two cases, perhaps Jesus sought to emphasize the difficulty of healing; perhaps the men suffered from a great degree of physical blindness; in John 9, it is congenital blindness; in Mark 8, perhaps something very similar.
In her book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, American writer Annie Dillard describes surgeries that correct the severe cataracts of people born blind. The medical accounts she cites describe the inability of the newly-sighted to see things clearly, to perceive shape, colour, or perspective as they could when they were blind, and it is entirely possible that the blind man in Mark 8’s confusion of men and walking trees could be like this early stage. She writes, “In general, the newly sighted see the world as a dazzle of color-patches. They are pleased by the sensation of color, and learn quickly to name the colors, but the rest of seeing is tormentingly difficult. Soon after his operation a patient ‘generally bumps into one of these colour-patches and observes them to be substantial, since they resist him as tactual objects do. In walking about it also strikes him – that he is continually passing between the colours he sees, that he can go past a visual object, that a part of it then steadily disappears from view…The mental effort involved in these reasonings proves overwhelming for many patients. It oppresses them to realize, if they ever do at all, the tremendous size of the world…On the other hand, many newly sighted people speak well of the world, and teach us how dull is our own vision…One girl was eager to tell her blind friend that “men do not really look like trees at all”
Perhaps this is what Jesus was getting at – in healing these blind men, showing the difficulty of healing and of seeing fully.
If this man – with his originally-blinded eyes – can be taken as representative of humanity, Christ’s act of healing his affliction can be seen to represent his much larger act, mankind’s greatest affliction: Sin. At Calvary, Christ offered up his life and body, without holding back, that we might be able to see and respond to God. It required saliva to heal these physically blind; it required blood to heal the blindness of sin. Isaiah speaks to this several times in his messianic prophecies, describing on several occasions the “opening of blind eyes” when the Messiah comes.

In the book of John, light and darkness are contrasted continually – John uses “light” in reference to Jesus no less than twenty times! Jesus enabled people to see spiritually; and in the case of these men, physically. It is interesting to note that this man did not solicit Jesus’ healing. Jesus initiated the healing; but it caused the man to ‘see’ spiritually as well – he counted himself as a disciple of Jesus before the Pharisees, who subsequently threw him out of the synagogue – perhaps not literally, as we might picture; but certainly cutting him off from fellowship.
Jesus sought out the man, revealed that he was talking to the son of man, and was worshipped by the new convert; the blind man was enabled to see, and those who claimed sight were shown to be blind. We may not always see the physically blind who live among us, or the deaf, or frail; we’ve designed systems to help them fit in; but neither do we always see the spiritual blindness of those about us; and no system can correct for or explain that. We even suffer from blindness ourselves! I confess that it was quite by providence that I chose the passage for this message; I had no idea of its personal significance. It was by more than coincidence that I was confronted with my own blindness towards others as I was preparing this message. My soul twisted in sadness as I realized how I had played the part of the harsh Pharisee, externally convinced of my justification, yet blind to struggles deep within myself and insensitive to those around me.
We have seen in this passage that Jesus saw the need of the blind man – the subject of his disciples’ question. He recognized his weakness, his affliction, and the physical darkness in which the man lived day by day. He approached the man, spat, and made clay, and used his elemental substance to let the blind man see. Our Christ was humiliated, shamed, and rejected by those who could not, would not see; He initiated healing for us when he offered up his substance as a sacrifice, descended into darkness so we could see light, and rose from the dead in Victory. Let us therefore go forth from this place assured of his victory and seeing the world for whom our Saviour died, in the light of the resurrection that we are gathered to celebrate here today.

"June 6, 2004" - Wiarton Area United Churches

Romans 12:1-5, NKJV
I beseech you therefore bretheren,by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and perfect will of God.
For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly,as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function.
So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

'A Christian Mind'


God is alive and active in his world today, and everyday. He has created an incredibly complex world, and is constantly involved in sustaining it. And he is with his people, leading and guiding them in a faithful response to the gifts they have been given. Given the physical gifts of speed and endurance, I felt an outpouring of blessings last Saturday, as I climbed a mountain in the rain and fog; Even in the gathering darkness, obscured shapes could not hide the tremendous beauty and size of creation; and a double shadow cast on the blanket of fog by the two headlights of each car as it approached behind me was a reminder that this race, like all of our lives, is not something that we go through alone, but that we have Christ runing with us, standing beside us, encouraging us forward against all challenges, and easing our burdens in mysterious and wonderful ways. With prayers of praise, joy, and thanksgiving pouring out to our most worthy God, I didn't even notice the 6% grade, the rain or cold, or really think too much about the race leader until I had almost caught him; prayers for strengthening and encouragement carried me through that race, to a victory over the field, but even more so, to the wonderful feeling of being in communion with God. That is bigger than any race victory can ever be without the Lord.
The twelfth chapter of Romans urges Christians to live before God; to take all that we have been given, and offer it before God as an act of worship. First, lets look at why.
In the previous chapters, Paul has been dealing with some pretty heavy theology – outlining the extent of our sin, and the terrible judgement that we all by rights deserve – but also the wonderful, unconditional love of God, and the redemption of our sin through Jesus Christ, who died for us “while we were still sinners”. Chapter eleven ends with“For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.”
Our passage begins with “Therefore brethren” - as in “In light of” or “because of all that I have just said” – because Christ is our saviour, though we don't deserve it, Therefore, let us respond – and offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God –
A sacrifice is no minor thing. Once the offering was killed, be it dove, lamb, or bull, it could not be taken back; it was not given in part: a leg here, an organ there, nor was it given temporarily –loaned for a day or week every now and then. The ceremonial sacrifices of the Old Testament were offered regularly, as a constant reminder of the peoples sin, and of the promise of a coming redeemer, who would be the ultimate, complete, and perfect sacrifice. Christ's sacrifice was that sacrifice, and the victory of “the Lamb who was slain” over death fulfilled the element of death in sacrifice.
Sacrifice was required by God in the Old Testament laws; and the form of redemption outlined by God – the sacrifice of his son, was ordained by God to satisfy divine justice; he who was without sin became sin for us...” Christ's sacrifice too was required by God – and even the difficulty – the extreme suffering, torture, and separation of Christ from God – so terrible our apostle's creed calls it hell, could not be taken away. In the garden of Gethsemane, Christ prayed “Father, if it is your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42). Though it meant more pain and suffering than we can imagine, Christ submitted fully to God's will, and was strenghtened by God, to be a sacrifice. – in light of that, Paul says, let us respond – with giving our whole lives over to him. Christ is our saviour; let him also be our Lord. Since we are no longer slaves to sin and death because of Christ, let us take the life that we have been given, and give it wholly and completely to God. This, Paul says, is our 'reasonable service' – our way to worship God. In this way, everything that we do ought to be done as worship to God.
Today we are gathered together to worship and praise God; to learn from his word more about what he has done for us and what this means; to offer gifts to him, meet him in prayer, and have fellowship together – all things that we can trace to the traditions of the early church. These things, done faithfully, are made acceptable to God by Christ Jesus; but this service is only an hour of our Lord's day, which is one seventh of our week! This day we gather to be refreshed, to have our cup filled so to speak; to be lifted up as we lift up God's name – so that we might go out and live for Christ throughout the week. This is what we often think of as “Christian worship” - that we go to church; but there is so much more to the faith than that. The earth is the Lords, and everything in it; the world and all who live in it – and all that we do, in our work or play, we do before God, as an act of worship – either acceptable to God through Christ Jesus, our disgusting and horrid in his sight, unredeemed and doomed.
In the original Greek, Paul uses the word suschematizeshtai, to describe the idea of 'conformity to the world' – the root of the word, schema, refers to a constantly changing outward form – always changing, taking up the latest fashions or movements, rooted in nothing but the spirit of the age. On our own, we would live kata sarka – by the lowest denominator of life; according to the basest sinful perversions of our God-given instincts. With Christ, however, we can be kata Christon – dominated by Christ; or kata pneuma – dominated by the spirit.
Most western cultures today are characterized by the devil's handy tool of secularism. It sneaks its way in the door in a non-threatening manner, often content to leave the external structures of a tradition if it can simply rob it of its reason for being. In churches, too much emphasis on cultural relevance – though it is important, can lead to a form of idolatry; Biblical truth and deep commitments are laid aside in favour of fuller pews and harmless faith. Many contemporary “Christians” today know nothing about Christ, much lest know of his saving work, and the freedom he offers. What is Christianity without Unity to Christ? “Christian” is an adjective for 'nice' where convenient, and conversely, a word used to demean the principled, ridicule the hypocrite, or mark the fundamentalist. A society that has been sprinkled with Christianity dulls and lulls our spiritual senses to sleep, until the external actions of Christianity are what mark us – going to church, being charitable and generous, hoping people get married rather than just shacking up; but the heart of the matter is what secularism wants – that deep commitment to Christ, that delight in working for his glory, and doing his will; that courageous stand for principle in an age of inclusive relativism. The church faces a very real pressure that seeks to reduce it to a social club with religious overtones, and we sometimes confuse our commissioned aim of bringing culture to God with the more convenient, but false dyslexium of bringing God to culture.
Christianity is not just about going to church – its about living and working for Christ. It is not a one-day or half-day commitment, but a lifelong service to our Lord. It is about studying, growing, and developing, bringing ever more of our lives under God's will. A fact of life is that we all must work; and believer and unbeliever do work, and often side by side. Can one frame a house, manage an office, or fix a car to the glory of God? Christian philosopher Calvin Seerveld says YES! Turn to Psalm 127:1, and we read that “Unless the Lord builds the house, its workers labour in vain.” To think otherwise is to say that work isoutside the realm of God's saving Grace – outside of or beyond redemption! To say that Christian and non-Christian work is the same, is a to create a dichotomy, a false dualism, a break that says that a person is a Christian and a worker (two separate things, not necessarily related). Christian workers, on the other hand, see all of their life as under the God's sovereignty and his redeeming Grace; and go about their work in a God-directed manner. Work under and for Christ is extremely difficult and challenging – it requires the very best, for God is not pleased with half-hearted worship! It shows love, charity, and mercy, within a responsibly managed organization, and it requires humility, in light of who is truly in charge. The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard put forth a very Biblical proposition that “everything, absolutely everything, should serve for edification. The sort of learning, [and we can add working, playing, reading] which is not in the last resort edifying is for that reason unchristian.”
This world that God has made is corrupted; likened to a shirt, it is a soccer jersey caked with mud from a soggy field – but us trying to wash the jersey without God is like trying to wash it by soaking it in even muddier water. It is deeply stained, and we cannot clean it. Only with God can we begin to change the bathwater and start scrubbing; and this shirt will only be completely cleaned when Christ returns in glory. We have, therefore, a mandate – we live in the world, and cannot deny it or withdraw from it. Paul calls for transformation by the renewing of your mind. The Protestant Reformation that gave birth to our denominations marked a distinctive call to reform - not only in the church, but in the believer – and it was not meant to remain in the 1600s, as a past-tense, one-time or occasional reform. Renewing is not Renewed – it is an ongoing thing; faith is making us alive, showing how dead we are to sin. “Christians!” Paul pleads - “be constantly re-examining, rethinking,renewing! Take all of your life, and seek to bring it before God!”. A common misconception in the minds of Christians is the thought that this world, that physical life, is passing away; that we live on earth in tortured bodies for a little while, then spend the rest of eternity floating around in heaven, looking on in ease. But Christ came to redeem the world! He was resurrected in the flesh and will return in the flesh to judge the living and the dead! This falsehood is a Platonic ideal, separating mind from body and elevating one over another! Jesus Christ did not suffer only in the body or in the mind; but in his complete person. His was a very physical suffering. No – Christ is indeed coming again, because God loves the world and will redeem it; on that day, Christ will come making all things new! But knowing that the world will be perfect then is no excuse for being slack or indifferent now. Charles Spurgeon, a 19th century reformed baptist, writes “Let not the hope of perfection hereafter make us content with imperfection now;if it does this, our hope cannot be genuine; for a good hope is a purifying thing,even now. Again, in 2 Corinthians 10:5, Paul writes that we are to use the mighty weapons God has given us, in casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. These weapons, appearing weak to a militaristic world, – include the word of God – and faithful study of it, both personally and within the community of saints. Prayer is another powerful weapon – as is the Lord'ssupper, that sacramental, physical reminder of the suffering and sacrifice of our Lord. Using these weapons, we can be armed for the spiritual battleground, able to face the challenges, conflicts, and choices we are faced with in our lives, and equipped by the spirit to do what is in line with God's will.
How then, do we know how to do God's will? Paul gives us further guidelines for a lifetime of satisfying, fulfilling, and joy-filled Kingdom work. Verse three says “do not think of yourself more highly than you ought – but soberly, for God has dealt each of you a measure of faith. We can't very well work for God if we don't know our calling! Paul tells us to look carefully at ourselves, see what we are good at, and develop it to edify and glorify God. We need to know our limitations, our constraints (and I often have problems knowing when or where to stop, slow down, or simplify). God is more pleased with one job well done than with a half-dozen jobs that need to be re-done! Likewise, a small task done well is more pleasing than a large and grandiose one gone awry. Verse four reads For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function.
So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. If this analogy sounds familiar, it is because we see it again in 1 Corinthians 12:25-27: there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. As each part of the body works in small steps, synchronized with the rest of the body, a beautiful home can be built, or a landscape decorate a canvas. Without eyes or hands, painting is difficult! Without feet, it is hard to stand. My race last week was but one stage of something larger – a relay race around the Cabot Trail of Cape Breton Island. It is the combined effort of all the runners that leads to success; the network of support that encourages each runner in their stage and provides physical nourishment, that allows everyone to cross the finish line. Beyond the self, the Christian community is the same way. Each can serve in their own way, large or small. The stoic philosophers of ancient Greece had something right when they said “Cannot an earthworm serve God? Do you suppose that it is only a general who can serve God? Cannot the lowest private or camp attendant fight his best and give his life for the cause? Without the contributions of each soldier, from the lowest ranking to the highest, the largest campaigns would crumble; operations like D-Day would be disasters; dead in the water. A soldier is trained to follow orders; trained to do a task, to do it well, and to let others to their tasks. A highly organized army is efficient and effective, and while we may sometimes have difficulty seeing how carrying rounds of ammunition from point a to point b, or swimming under heavy fire among thousands of others in frigid waters, up to a beach trapped with treacherous mines – how that effort by one can win awar, it is the combination of all these things that establishes a beachhead, enables others to arrive, and push forth to liberate nations.
Soldiers of Christ, fellow teammates in this race, we are rarely privy to the nitty gritty details of our Lord's battle plan. We know the outline – the mission, the aim, and the overarching purpose, but not the thrust of each battle. By the renewing of our minds, we have the objectives and orders – Present the gospel, and call people to repent – and by the renewing of our minds, we can understand what we are to do, and have the strength and courage to do it. Tasks can be difficult, small or menial – but the Lord's soldiers in the Lord's army have the strengthening sence of the holy spirit; the guiding directive of God's holy word, and the comforting closeness of a community of faith and prayer, to be nurtured in times of relative peace and carried with the heart in times of war. Let us go forth to the battleground this week and onward, filled with joy for the privilege and responsibility to do God's work on earth, and with desire to please him by our work.