Let me review a bit.  Last week I said that in this First Year of the Three Year Lectionary that most Christians of the Western Tradition share each week, we are in the midst of some of the longest Gospel Readings, and they all fall within the Season of Lent this year, and they are all from the Gospel of John. 

You will recall that two Sundays ago we had the story of the late night meeting of Nicodemus and Jesus; last week we had the story of the Samaritan woman from Sychar who meets Jesus at the well in the town plaza … next Sunday (just one week before Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week) we will read the story of the Raising of Lazarus from the Tomb.

I have also said each week that when we read these stories from John’s Gospel the form of literature that they take, the form that are most like is the one-act play.

In the one-act play the scene is quickly set, the characters are quickly introduced, and the action moves from beginning to conclusion with directness of purpose; and most of all, what happens in a one-act play is that we (the audience) are drawn into the play itself.  That has been happening over and over again as we have been reading these Johannine stories.

So this morning the story is this:  Jesus is walking along with his disciples.  He comes upon a man who is blind who is identified as someone who was born that way.  The question is asked by the disciples, “Who sinned that this happened … the man himself or his parents?” 

It’s a common understanding of things gone wrong, not only in biblical times, but even today.  When something happens of such personal magnitude that we find ourselves disabled, or sick, or wounded so deeply, we often say, “What did I do wrong to deserve this?”

So we understand the question, it is expected.

The answer, however, is not expected.  Jesus says, “No one is to blame.  This man was born blind and now we have a chance to see God at work in this man.”

And then he spits on the earth at his feet, makes some mud in his hand, applies it to the blind man’s eyelids and says to the man, go and wash in the pool of water (Siloam, a place of healing waters), the man does and he comes back seeing.

There’s great confusion.  Everyone is astonished and trying to figure it out.  How did this happen?  Is this the man we knew, maybe, maybe it’s someone else, it looks like him, I don’t know … The Pharisees get involved; they are the religious leaders who want nothing more than religious life to be pure and meaningful, but they go about it with rules and directions and too much holding to rules and directions and everything has to be just so and if anyone colours outside the lines, well then he’s a sinner and so is this Jesus because it’s Shabbat and you can’t do these things on Shabbat everyone knows that so this Jesus can’t be of God and this can’t really have happened … so let’s ask his parents … Ask him yourself, he’s old enough to answer!  … So, tell us now, what happened … really … I told you already, he spit on the ground, made mud, put it on my eyes, told me to wash, I did, I see … why do you want to know this?  Do you want to become his followers too!  Gasp ….

So they do the thing self-righteous obedient religious people always do, they drove the blind man out of town.   “Thanks a lot, Jesus … I had a life, it wasn’t the best, but it was something, and now here I am at the edge of town. 

Along comes Jesus, “Do you believe in the God Presence in the world?”  “Yes.”  “I am that Presence.”  And the man worships him.

Some Pharisees come by and ask, “We’re not blind are we?”

Yes.

Fade to black …

That is the question … it’s the whole point of the Johannine story.  It is something that is asked of followers of Jesus over and over again.  Are we blind? 

As followers of Jesus, as people who come into the church each week to worship God, to listen to what God is telling us, to hear the message of the Gospel, to eat and drink with Jesus around his Table … as people who are commanded to: Love God, Love our Neighbor, Heal the World … then seeing what we see, do we shut our eyes and become blind?

Do we see our sister in poverty and turn our back, do we see our brother in trouble and walk away, do we see our children in need and back away from them?

Do we shut our eyes to the illnesses of our society, close our eyes to the wounds of hatred and violence, fix our focus on ourselves and our abundance and not the scarcity of others.  Do we close our doors, the doors of our hearts, to those who are different?  Do we refuse to walk across lines of faith to embrace the children of God who worship in a different way, with different customs and different traditions?  Do we ignore the cries of those who tug at us seeking our attention, our prayers, our love?

Do we become blind to the war that still rages, do we become insensitive and irresponsible to the heating of our planet by our own actions, do we become those to whom rules matter most and people take second place.

If so, then we are blind; we are those who sit in darkness … and the Gospel – which some believe to be only a personal gift, only a means of making us feel good about our sins, about the things done and left undone – the Gospel rather is the word of God which comes to us with piercing truth and demands that we change, that we wash the mud of blindness from our eyes and be open … open to the reality of the world in which we live, which calls to us to become responsible and loving and faithful.

Let’s look again at the prayer of confession we said at the beginning of our service today, and read it together.

Rock of our salvation, we confess that we live in opposition to your gracious will for us. We have failed to be a blessing to others by turning our backs on the needs of the poor, and by exploiting your creation without regard for those who come after us. By our sins, we are exiled from your presence; our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost. Breathe your Spirit on us, O God, that we may live. Amen.