4 Lent A John 9:1- 41 10 March, 2002
Rev. Roger Haugen
Words, words, words! There is a long-standing university class exercise where you are to take a long piece of work and capture the meaning in a sentence or two. These 41 verses might be summed up as, “A man is healed, people found it hard to believe it but he is still healed” Why all the words?
Jesus saw a man who was blind and did what was needed -- he healed the man. That is where the problem begins. He did it on the wrong day, to the wrong person, without proper witnesses, all wrong! The religious authorities are only so willing to tell him so and Jesus is only too willing to play word games with these masters of words. The healed man, on the other hand, is just happy to be healed.
Someone once said that every age has, from time to time, the need to refresh its theology. What is theology? Theology is simply words that we use to speak of God. We need words to make sense, in our little world and little minds, of a God who transcends all we can possibly understand. So we create theology. Theology is more than words because the words we use reveal how we think of God and how we relate to God. Good theology keeps our relationship with God and one another in proper perspective. Bad theology places God subject to our thinking, makes God act according to our bidding, or make God into something that God is not.
In today’s Gospel we see Jesus poking holes in the bad theology of his day, and we see the theologians fighting to defend their carefully built theology. Jesus came to heal the sick and the blind, and the religious leaders want to protect the rules.
Jesus’ attack on bad theology is also a time for us to reflect on the bad theology which has crept into our worship of God, twisting God to fit into our image of what we think God should look like and how God should act. Bishop Ray Schultz reminded Synod Council last week of an old saying, “Remember to keep the main thing, the main thing.” This is what good theology is all about. God is to be given glory and praise.
“Who sinned, this man or his parents?”
In bad theology, sickness, tragedy and misfortune are often seen as results of not living right. We are told that AIDS is God’s judgment on immoral nations. Some have suggested that the terrorist attack on Sept. 11 was God’s judgment on the US for its stand on abortion, the lax laws on morality and any number of things these people are against. This theology takes shape in the less dramatic statement of wondering, “Why him and not me?” when good fortune strikes. The standard funeral eulogy these days seem to suggest that if you paint the life of the deceased in glowing enough terms, God will have to let them into heaven. This month’s Canada Lutheran has an article about funerals and the author recounts several incidents of bad theology that he has heard. He writes in one account, “I recently attended a funeral for someone who had died in a skiing accident. The homily questioned why such a tragedy should befall someone so good and loving. ‘This shouldn’t have happened to someone as good as Edward.’”
The other side of this bad theology would suggest that wealth is a sign of God’s blessing. God’s “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval” is wealth of the true believers. You can find “proof” in any Christian bookstore. Then there are the books that if you recite an obscure Old Testament prayer, you are guaranteed of blessing.
His blindness has nothing to do with sin -- he is blind. Rain falls on the just and the unjust. Good things happen to bad people, Bad things happen to good people. Read the book of Job. This blindness presents the opportunity for God’s work to be revealed. God loves you simply because God created you and continues to love you no matter what.
“This man is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath.”
Yes, we need to take time to worship God, to take time to prove to ourselves that the world will continue without our 24/7 attention. It is wonderful to gather with other Christians in worship but to demand rigid adherence to a time or a place is to make the day more important than the worship. We can get to the point that by rigidly observing the day we think we have fulfilled some duty, all that is required of us. We can look down on those who do not. We can be lead to believe that we live our faith one hour a week and leave our care and concern for others inside the church as we walk out. We gather to give glory to God, the more the merrier.
The Pharisees had it figured out how many steps you could take, how much of a meal you could prepare before you broke the Sabbath.
Nurses and doctors, pastors and others need to be about their callings on all days of the week. Good theology leads us to give glory to God at all times and places, together with others and alone, to be open to caring for people when and where we find them.
“How can a man who is a sinner, perform such signs.”
We can get caught up behaviour. Elections are won and loss over the slightest indiscretion of the candidate. Media go to great length to prove that a person is unfit to govern because he or she committed some questionable act. There is nothing like a sexual indiscretion to dry up the support of a tele-evangelist. We hear comments such as “Who does he think he is?”, “I am not worthy to assist at worship.” All with the implication that somehow we earn the right to be about the work that God sets before us.
We are all sinners, people whom God desires to forgive. At the same time saint and sinner. All people gifted by God to be about the work of the body of Christ. Our history, our failings do nothing to change that fact that Jesus died for each one of us. The magnitude of our service says nothing about our worthiness.
“Ask him, he is of age.”
The parents of the man who was healed did not want to be pulled into this argument, and who could blame them. The religious authorities had immense power over their lives. It was they who could throw them out of the synagogue. Bad theology gives religious leaders more power than God. Bad theology leads us to fear those in power and do as they say rather than what God requires of us. God does not follow our rules, so God will have to go!
We know about this one. I just have to remember the “Hymn book wars” of the past and I am reluctant to tell you that there is a new hymn-book being explored. The church can be a place of turf protection for those who have power rather than a place of welcome where people see, without any confusion, the love of God being lived out by all those present.
“Do you want to become his disciples?”
A tongue-in-cheek poke at the Pharisees. They knew God so well, they knew better than God what God expected. Bad theology makes God a buddy who is always there when we need a hand. Someone we are comfortable with and need no formality. No, God is beyond our comprehension, all powerful and yet at the same time so loving that God came to live among us so that we might not fear death or anything else that life may throw at us.
Jesus Christ is not to be our buddy but our Saviour. One who died that we might not die. Our place is to fall to our knees and give God the glory. It is our privilege to give glory to God and to seek to live as disciples, lives transformed through faithful obedience to all that Jesus commands.
“You were born entirely in sins, and you are trying to teach us?”
When all else fails, check credentials. Grace is not earned but a free gift. This blind man is healed, he knows the grace of God first hand, his sin has nothing to do with it. Bad theology would suggest that there are good people and there are bad people. The good people have credibility and the bad do not. Oh, yes, and the ones using this criteria are always the good. Good theology focuses on sin and grace. We all sin, we all are showered by grace. There is no distinction between us, and certainly not based upon sin.
Enough of bad theology! The ‘bottom line’ of this story – the “Main thing” – is that one who was blind can now see. Give glory to God. God has blessed us with life and salvation – why would we not give glory to God? In response we are to be about transforming lives, to be a part of the ministry that Jesus was about. Healing because healing is needed. Lifting up those who are bowed down because people need to be lifted up. Sight returned to the blind, because people are not able to see God clearly.
Theology is of use only to the degree it helps us to see God for who God is, to help us give God the glory due. This is why our mission statement is so important. “As members of the body of Christ and because of God’s unconditional love, Zion seeks to nurture all peoples through worship and community, and to walk with others in the journey through the realities of life.” God has transformed our lives through love and acceptance – can we do any less for those around us?
Thanks be to God.
