Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year A

It’s all about the questions.
 
The pharisees are asking the wrong ones. Most of the characters in the story of this man born blind but now seeing are doing the same.
 
Not “who sinned?” but “How is God present in this life?” Not “How did it happen?” but “What is life like for someone seeing for the first time?” Tell me…so that I may see too.
 
“How is the question that demands an explanation,” writes John Wurster. But this kind of explanation cannot be explained. There’s just too much mystery here. Too much grace. Too much love and mercy to try to describe it adequately. The question that matters is not who did this, or how, or when, but what happens when you begin to see?
 
The thing is there are all sorts of forces that resist this kind of seeing. We might be tempted to ask the why of this one, but it may be more productive to interrogate what this resistance looks like. It sows fear, of course: “We know the law. We know that God has spoken to Moses…but we do not recognize God in this.” Power employs intimidation, either/or thinking, the idea that there is one right way to preserve a way of being that, frankly, does little help people thrive.
 
But here, according to John, God is working on the sabbath, counter to Genesis 2, as Jesus heals this man with adamah¸ with earthly dust (to dust…) mixed with water, with mud simply rubbed on his eyes. How? Who knows? Tell me how the Spirit of God hovers over these living waters, if you can. But She does, creating life in abundance. Imagine the nerve of a God who would violate his own rules! Imagine a God who would be about life—your life, our life, all life—above rules and systems.
 
I mean it. Imagine it, if you can. It just may mean our salvation. Can you see it? Can you perceive it?
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: 1 Samuel 16:1-13 † Psalm 23 † Ephesians 5:8-14 † John 9:1-41
 
About the Art: Painting (detail) by Joyce Walker. Card design by Barbara Anderson. This is an image of a series of cards produced for Lent, 2023, this theme based on resources from Jill Jones. 

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