My famith and I had a wonderful time at Our Savior's (Synod Authorized Worshipping Community) this past sunday, April 3, 2011. It was the second time that I had been invited to preach by their pastor, Rev. A. Steve Rode. Our Savior's was formed in response by Christians who wanted to remain part of the ELCA after the majority of their church decided to leave. Please keep this inspiring community and their pastor in your prayers. Presently they are meeting at the Dominion Common Room at 8 Dominion Drive, San Antonio, Texas.
John 9: 1-41
Shall we be honest --- transparent --- not keep any secrets? When I first read our gospel in preparation to be with you today, I had a flood of mixed emotions. I had that mix of joy and sadness which can be found in the words of the lyrics of the popular hymn by John Newton that speak to this lesson:
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now I'm found;
Was blind, but now I see.[1]
The fact is that after hearing the gospel what promptly came to mind are the recent --- and continuing --- experiences of our church --- the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). As you certainly remember in 2009, the ELCA church wide assembly passed two resolutions in particular that have had far reaching repercussions, specifically resolution 2 that the “ELCA will commit to allowing congregations that choose to do so to recognize same-gender unions” and resolution 3 that accepts “those in committed same-gender unions to serve as rostered leaders in the ELCA.”[2]
My mix of emotions is not simply because of the joy in the intent and decision of our assembly and the sadness because of those who disagreed chose to the leave our church. Rather, it was for a different reason---mixed emotions in living out the Christian faith.
Perhaps I was open to that connection found in our gospel because about the same time that I began to prepare for today, I happened to have a conversation with a woman who shared a story with me. She recounted that the 2009 decisions of the church wide assembly and the subsequent discussion and impact on her particular congregation, she and her husband had a conversation with their son. It was then that he chose to tell them that he was gay and in a committed relationship. He had kept secret his homosexuality and his 5-year partnership because he knew his parents were committed and active Lutherans.
In other words, on the one hand his parents’ faith opened a conversation. Yet at the same time, it had prevented him from being honest on this important aspect of who he was and his significant relationship. Although his sexuality was not a complete shock to his parents, the fact that he had to be secret about his important relationship as well as his feeling that a door had been shut in his face because of their faith was extremely painful.
Our gospel not only points out those times when the religious leaders are blind, but more importantly points to the struggle between secrecy and transparency, night and the light of the world, Jesus --- the struggle of living out the Christian faith; a life which calls us to transparency in all that we are and how sin sometimes drives us into blind secrecy.
We see this tension between secrecy and transparency playing out through this whole episode in today’s gospel. It is suggested that the man is blind because of some undisclosed sin that the parents or he himself had done. Jesus responds not with a diagnostic discussion on where sin originates, or what that sin may be, but instead Jesus proposes that the man will be an example of God’s work that will become transparent. To that end, Jesus mixes a concoction of mud and his own saliva to hide the eyes that will be healed. Jesus then commands the man to go to one of the most public place in Jerusalem to bathe his eyes uncovering them being able to see…for all to see.
This miracle stokes confusion among the people around this healed man with some suggesting that he is an imposter, whereas the healed man states he is really that same man who they knew as one way, and tells these same people exactly what had happened. Except now, Jesus is not around, somehow disappearing until later in the episode.
The incident does not end there because the healing happened on the Sabbath thus bringing the religious leaders into the story. It would be interesting to speculate if the episode would have been different if it had happened on any other day of the week? Instead, now behind closed doors, the man and his parents are ultimately brought before the religious leaders who are divided on whether the healing trumps a Sabbath or a Sabbath trumps a healing; a discussion which either hides or makes transparent God’s love in and through Jesus.
The episode then concludes with Jesus searching for and finding the man, Jesus being revealed for who he is, and the religious leaders “with” Jesus expressing surprise and incredulity that they might be the ones who are blind. "Surely, we are not blind, are we?"
Jesus reply is cryptic, both transparent and secret. Being blind is not a sin. Saying "we see" is.
Now, we could at this point, end here and suggest how wonderful it is to be transparent rather than secretive …but there is something more. There is a danger because when we are most spiritually confident is when we are in greatest spiritual danger to ourselves and others, that it is precisely when we feel strong in faith, precisely when we are feeling the most committed, precisely when we are the most "religious," that sin may lie closest at hand.
This is why piety --- daily living out of devotion to God --- can be the deepest form of idolatry. Perhaps we can see that being played out since 2009 in our church. Deep piety may in fact be why some have chosen as the reason to leave our church. And some who have left in a sense out of piety claim they are the true standard carriers for faith in a secular age, whereas we who remain in the ELCA are seen by some as no longer living out our faith.
This lesson is a good reminder that everything about us, even --- and especially --- our piety, our devotion to God, living out our faith, can be twisted and distorted, making secret what should be transparent in the love of God found in Jesus Christ. This is why Martin Luther said that we always need to remind ourselves that we are always really "weak in faith, cold in love, faint in hope."[3] Yet in God’s grace in Jesus Christ we can be confident in faith, hot in love and strong in hope.
So how do we come to terms with this tension between secrecy and transparency and truly be truthful with ourselves and with others and thus live out our faith more honestly? On one hand we are called to live out our faith. But by the same token living out our faith can become an obstacle for some! How do we live with this irony? We cannot have a split personality either. In Luke 8:17, Jesus says that there is no point in trying to look good in public while doing evil in private. “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.”
If we want to avoid living life in fear of this web of secrecy and transparency, there could be one simple standard – live life as if you are in a fishbowl in the middle of Times Square in New York City. When the spotlight hits, people will see good things and criticism of us will be because those who see us cannot handle the brightness of our goodness. But more fortunately for us, as Martin Luther reminded us, Jesus died and rose for the weak in faith, the cold in love, and the faint in hope. Happily, this lesson is a reminder that it is not our "religiousness" that matters, but rather Jesus, the "light of the world," who came that all might see.
Similarly, we need to be very careful that in our claim to see---those who claim to possess the truth --- and it pains me to say this --- we can in fact be spiritually blind, a condition which mistakes ignorance for certainty and error for truth. When we admit we are blind and do not see the way is opened for the healing of that blindness. In 1 Peter we hear these words, “But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.”[4]
Let us be like the man in this gospel, let us be transparent before all so that we too can look up and recognize Jesus as a prophet, but also as the Son of man, Jesus fully revealed to us, the divine figure of the Risen Christ to be worshiped. And let us at the same time be humble and aware of all that may obstruct our vision and the vision of others, so that we and others can live lives not of secrecy but transparency. Amen.
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