All I know is:  That I was blind and now I see!

Questions and more questions:
Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parent, that he was born blind?
Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?
How were your eyes opened?
Where is he? (the one who sent you to the pool of Siloam?)
How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?
What do you say about him?  It was your eyes he opened.
Is this your son, who you say was born blind?  How then does he now see?
How did he open your eyes?
Why do you want to hear it again?  Do you also want to become his disciples?
You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?
And the question that spoke to me:  Surely we are not blind, are we?

The disciples start all this questioning, asking "Rabbi, who sinned, this man 
or his parents, that he was born blind?  For the blind man, did the birth 
defect mean that he had somehow sinned in the womb,  or was he the
victim of his parents' transgression? 

The disciples saw what they had been taught to see -- a man who was 
being punished by God.  They obviously knew something of his story -- that 
he had always been blind.  So they raised a question already answered for 
them in the Book of Job:    Remember Job's so -called comforters who 
attempted to convict him of sin as the reason for his misfortune?  

It has been said that the world we live in is created for us by our 
perceptions -- by what we take in and what we filter out, by how we 
interpret the data we receive and by how we choose to respond to it.  The 
writer Anais Nin said "We do not see things as they are.  We see things
as we are."

Jesus asks the man, after he washes in the pool of Siloam, "Do you believe 
in the Son of Man?"  and our friend, who has just received his sight, says:
"Point him out to me, sir, so that I can believe in him."  Here Jesus gives 
an explanation that I think is worthy of our reflection:  

            Jesus says"  You have seen him and the one speaking with you is 
            he….I came into this world …. so that those who do not see may see, 
            and those who do see may become blind.

            IN OTHER WORDS, THOSE WHO HAVE MADE A GREAT 
            PRETENSE OF SEEING WILL BE EXPOSED AS BLIND!  

The man may have received his sight, but there were some powerful
people who were not interested in receiving theirs.  It's at this point that we 
see the comedy of shallow human comprehension!  They all thought they 
knew just how the world worked, and they weren't about to change their 
perceptions or their beliefs!  

This was, in a sense, a messy situation!  For the Pharisees it was easier to 
know how to handle someone's blindness  --as being the result of God's 
judgment.  But, now, when blind people get miraculously healed -- in God's 
name, ----  now this Jesus was here again, complicating their nicely "put 
together theology."  What if this healing had really happened? There must 
be some other explanation!!!  Or at least we'll create another reason.

They could try and get a confession from the blind man -- maybe get him 
to admit that he wasn't really blind -- it had all along been a hoax.  Or maybe 
they could get the parents to admit that their son wasn't really blind - get 
them to contradict their son!

It would seem that too many had decided in advance what was the truth 
and then they had to make the facts conform to their own prejudices, 
or fears.  Do we sometimes catch ourselves deciding in advance what
is the truth before we listen with an open mind?

Then there is the community, who have probably seen this particular blind
 man around town, since his birth and of course known about his blindness?  
            One says, "Isn't this the man who used to sit outside and beg?"  
            Some say "Yes", but others say "No, he just looks like the same
            man."
            It takes them awhile to get around to asking the man himself :
            "So how were your eyes opened?"
            "A guy named Jesus made mud, spit on it and rubbed it on my eye,-- 
            told me to go wash in the pool and I did. Now I can see."

 Not the act of healing which most physicians would choose to imitate today.

And the parents?  They simply answer, "yes our son was born blind -- 
but as to how he can now see, we have no idea -- ask him."  But we might 
ask them --  Was the fact that he was born blind such an embarrassment 
that you rejected him AND HE'S  NOW FORCED TO BEG?. Were you
tired of neighbors wondering what you had done to bring such punishment
on your son?

How did the blind man see himself?  Well, after a life of nothing but 
rejection-- how was he supposed to feel?

But then comes the touch of Jesus!  Jesus saw someone in need and he
didn't use that person's plight to develop a political or moral agenda.  Jesus
took the opportunity to demonstrate God's act of mercy!  WHERE ARE
WE IN THIS SCENARIO?  Which question are we asking?  Or on which 
belief are we stubbornly fixed?

This brings us to another important question:  Was BLINDNESS the only 
marker, the only characteristic, by which this man was identified?

What about those in our community for whom we see only by the markers 
or labels, with which they have been forced to live?  What about those who 
stand on the street corners - how do we decide whether to help or ignore?  
What means of justification or judgment do we use?  What about some of 
those veterans who have come home only to discover that there is no work 
for them,…..sometimes no home, or loved ones to welcome them home.  
Vets with PTSD!  many of them homeless on our streets!   Are they 
identified as "NOT DESERVING?"  How are we influenced by these labels
under which they have been forced to live?

What about those young people -- out there on the streets who have "come 
out" to their families and are rejected and forced to live on the street?  
There are many questions in our community for us to consider this day!!! 
SURELY WE ARE NOT BLIND ARE WE?

I was reminded of the words of Isaiah:  "And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest 
upon him;  The Spirit of wisdom and understanding;  The Spirit of 
knowledge and fear of the Lord.  He shall not judge by what his eyes
see nor decide by what his ears shall hear…"

HE SHALL NOT JUDGE BY WHAT HIS EYES SEE NOR DECIDE BY 
WHAT HIS EARS SHALL HEAR!

Amazing Grace how sweet the sound ….I once was lost, but now am 
found; was blind, but now I see!  "All I know," he tell the authorities, is 
that I was blind and now I see"!

Those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great 
pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind."

Remember, a few weeks ago when the Rev. Douglas Travis said that 
people want to know God not things about God?

We are called to be intimately connected with one another, to serve as 
priest to one another.  That's what the "priesthood of all believers" means!

God is deeply implicated in our lives, in every place and moment and 
person in our human experience……In the book 
Down and Out in Providence, the former bishop of the Rhode Island, 
Geralyn Wolf who lived as one of the homeless, says this:

            It was from the cross that Jesus made the new family.  
            To John he said, "Look, here is your mother" and to Mary, 
            "Here is your son."  In the shelter,  Bishop Wolf continues, 
            it's not about class or race, schooling or jobs;  it's about 
            staying with someone when they are dying inside.

As Gregory of Nyssa said long ago, "human life is not directed toward a 
static goal….but a continual process of stretching and being stretched 
out toward God."  

We are called to open and to stretch our hearts and minds, to serve as 
priest to one another.  We cannot stand above anyone in the presence
of God -- only are we to stand along side one another! 

Surely, we are not blind, are we?  I once was lost -- but now I'm found,
I was blind -- but now I see!  

AMEN 

Second Sunday of Lent                                                                                             March 16, 2014           
Lections (RCL):                                                                St. Michael and All Angels, Albuquerque           
Genesis 12:1-4a                                                                                 The Very Rev. Douglas Travis           
Psalm 121                                                                                                                                          
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17                                                                                                                         
John 3:1-17


Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, . . . and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

Wouldn’t it be nice to be one of God’s chosen? To have God come down and tell us exactly what to do with our lives? And of course, implicit in the idea that God’s going to tell me what to do with my life is the notion that, if I’m obedient, everything’s going to work out just fine and I will be blessed! I will be happy, content, serene. And life will rarely be a challenge . . .

But let’s think for a moment about what really happens to Abraham.

He’s 75 years old when he gets the word from God that he’s to leave his country, everything he’s ever known and loved, to set out for a new country! Imagine setting out on such an adventure at 75!

God assures Abraham that he will be the father of a great country, but somehow he and Sarah keep failing to have a child! How is he to be the father of a great nation if he has no progeny? As it happens, God waits till Abraham’s about 100 – just to be sure Abraham gets the message! – before Sarah finally conceives . . .  at the age of 90! And then later, as we all recall, God requires of Abraham that he sacrifice Isaac, their son! [Now, the story of Isaac’s sacrifice is probably God’s way of prohibiting the ancient Israelites sacrificing their children – something they were inclined to do. But as the story is told we nowhere see Abraham deriving any message other than that obedience to God required the death of his beloved son. What a horrible decision to have to make!]

ARE WE FEELING BLESSED YET? The fact that God calls us scarcely means that the journey is going to be simple or easy!!

Now let’s lay Abraham aside for a moment and think about Jesus. Let me unpack a little today’s Gospel.

“Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” [Interesting – a Pharisee – a 1st century Episcopalian – comes to Jesus by night because he doesn’t want his fellow Pharisee’s to know what he’s up to, but he can’t quite deny that there’s something going on with Jesus because he keeps doing these things that only someone from God can do. Nicodemus’ experience requires that he take Jesus seriously] Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can SEE the kingdom of God without BEING BORN FROM ABOVE.”

Those of us raised in the evangelical south were taught to think that being born again was a matter of going to a hot August night revival, having a dramatic experience in which we personally encountered Jesus, to whom we gave our lives in that moment, and thereafter were able to rest assured that we had purchased celestial life insurance. Now hear me very clearly. I believe in the born again experience, but with this twist. Whenever I’m asked, “Have you been born again?” my response is always, “Which time?”

To be born again is to have a conversion, to be lifted up to higher and broader horizons, to see things in an altogether new way as God touches and molds our lives. And it’s going to happen again and again and again, if we’re truly open to experiencing God’s influence in our lives. God is nothing if not surprising!

 “Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ [Notice that Nicodemus does what we all do – he automatically goes to the merely physical world – Jesus has to lift him up to give him a new vision.]

“Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can ENTER the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” [In Hebrew, Greek, and Latin the word for “spirit” is the same as the word for “breath” is the same as the word for wind.” God breathes God’s Holy Spirit into us, and we’re lifted up into a different, broader, more meaningful world – a world we’re disinclined to believe really exists.] Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen.” Jesus is referring to an experience, an experience he had and an experience he ushered in for his followers – the experience of God. This matters. All human desire is ultimately the desire for God, the desire for communion with God, and without providing that experience no religion can long endure.

In 1960 there were 3,444,265 Episcopalians in the United States. In 2011 there were 1,923,046. We all know about our statistical incline, but now let me share a statistic that will blow your socks off.

In 1962 22% of Americans reported having had a “mystical experience”. In 1976, just as I was commencing my seminary career, 31% reported such an experience. In 2009 48% of Americans reported having had a mystical experience![1]

In other words, in the last 50 years, as the mainline denominations have reported a 40 to 50% decline in membership, the percentage of Americans who report having had a mystical experience – a direct experience of God – has risen from 1 in 5 to 1 in 2, nearly half the population! What’s going on!!!!!

Jesus said, “We speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen!” Jesus said, “Let me tell you about my experience of God!”

We are all Abraham, called on a journey into the mind of God, called on a journey to know ourselves in God. The great Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, wrote: “There is only one problem on which all my existence, my peace, my happiness depend: to discover myself in discovering God. If I find Him I will find myself and if I find my true self I will find Him.”[2]

And as surely as we are all Abraham, so are we all Nicodemus, coming to Jesus in the night, hoping that it’s all true, that God really is there for the asking, but suspicious and more than a little bit inclined to want to keep our cards close to our chests. And yet the deepest appetite every human being has is to know God – not to know about God, but to directly know God.

I am convinced that many of the people who have wandered from our churches have done so because we appeared to offer no path to actually knowing – to actually experiencing – God.

Let me sing the praises of this parish. From everything I know of you, you’ve done more than just about any parish I know of to foster your members actually having a relationship with the living God. Keep it up! I’m convinced that’s the church of the future.

We are all called on the journey. We are all called to be born again . . . and again, and again. We all want to know – to really know - God. And so we are all pilgrims. But pilgrims spend great amounts of time walking in the dust, putting one foot in front of the other, again and again and again, before they arrive at their destination.

I’m a great friend of 12 Step Programs and Alcoholics Anonymous. Are you aware that as surely as there are 12 Steps so there are 12 promises! And to my mind, the last promise is the greatest:

WE WILL SUDDENLY REALIZE THAT GOD IS DOING FOR US WHAT WE COULDN’T DO FOR OURSELVES.[3]

Continue the wonderful work you’re doing as a parish. Continue the wonderful work you’re doing as individuals. Continue on your journeys, continue your lives as pilgrims. Continue to seek to be born again . . . and again and again. And invite everybody to join you on the pilgrimage we’re in fact all called to.

_____________________

[1] Cf., Diana Butler Bass, Christianity After Religion, p. 3.


[2] Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, p. 36.


[3] Alcoholics Anonymous (“The Big Book”), p. 83.

“Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful,
             slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love” (sung)

I’ve been singing those words ever since Wednesday.
Those words from the prophet Joel are often read on Ash Wednesday,
     and in the church I grew up in we sang this refrain every Sunday throughout Lent.
For me, these words hold within them the whole purpose of Ash Wednesday and Lent:
God’s invitation to turn away from all that distracts and misleads and tempts us,
            and return our attention to God’s steadfast love and grace.

Today is the first Sunday in the season of Lent.
If you have been around churches for a while,
            you’ll recognize the signs.
The vestments are purple – including a drape on the cross.
We don’t say or sing Alleluia, because it’s a season of penitence.
And our story today is the story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness.
In every year of our three-year cycle of readings, this story is read on this Sunday –
            in versions from Matthew, Mark and Luke.

Jesus has just been baptized.
While he was in the water, the Spirit descended from heaven as a dove,
            and a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with whom I am well pleased.”
God says, “This is my Son,” and with those words lays claim to Jesus as God’s own,   and sets Jesus on a particular path of ministry and obedience.

But what does this mean?
What does it mean for Jesus to be God’s Son – living in the world as a human being?

Immediately after being baptized, and hearing these words spoken over him,
            Jesus goes into the wilderness and fasts for 40 days.
Actually, the story says that The Spirit of God leads Jesus into the wilderness
            in order that he might be tempted.
Whatever it is he needs to learn or make clear for himself in his fasting and temptation,
            it is by God’s hand that he finds himself there.
Jesus is tempted by the devil.
It is helpful to remember that “the devil” here is not the horned creature
            who rules over hell in later mythology.
The word for devil – dia ballo in Greek – is a noun that means “one who attacks, misleads, deceives, diverts, discredits or slanders.”
In their encounter, the devil tries to mislead Jesus about the meaning and purpose of his life and ministry.
Instead, Jesus defines for himself what it means to be the Son of God.

Jesus has been fasting for 40 days, and he is famished.
He is fully experiencing the discomfort and vulnerability of being human.
The devil – the exploiter of weakness – tempts him to choose divine power over human weakness.
His temptations force the questions –
            Can you really abdicate power and be fully human?
            Can you really exercise restraint and work in obscurity?
The devil tempts Jesus to use his divine power for his own good,
            to take back what he has denied by living as a human.
And each time, Jesus chooses to trust God and follow through as God’s human Son.

On a website called Journey with Jesus, Debi Thomas writes,
“If those forty days in the wilderness was a time of self-creation, a time for Jesus to decide who he was and how he would live out his calling, then here is what the Son of God chose: Deprivation over power.  Vulnerability over rescue.  Obscurity over honor.  At every instance in which he could have reached for the certain, the extraordinary, and the miraculous, he reached instead for the precarious, the quiet, and the mundane.”

In short, Jesus decides each time to throw in his lot with us –
            the ordinary, mundane, vulnerable humans for whom he came.
His fast and temptation bring Jesus face to face with his humanity,
            and he chooses over and over to trust solely in God’s love and grace.

The journey of Lent is a journey of facing our own humanity,
            in all of its messiness, vulnerability, and obscurity.
Ash Wednesday brings us face to face with the most mundane, terrifying reality: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
In Lent we remember the many ways we are tempted –
            tempted to forget who we are and whose we are,
            tempted to choose the easy way, or the way of power, instead of love.

Maryetta Anschutz, head of the Episcopal School of Los Angeles, helpfully describes some of our struggle with temptation:
“Temptation comes to us in moments when we look at others and feel insecure about not having enough.
“Temptation comes in judgments we make about strangers or friends who make choices we do not understand.
“Temptation rules us, making us able to look away from those in need and to live our lives unaffected by poverty, hunger, and disease.
“Temptation rages in moments when we allow our temper to define our lives or when addiction to wealth, power influence over others, vanity, or an inordinate need for control definies who we are.
“Temptation wins when we engage in the justification of little lies, small sins: a racist joke, a questionable business practice for the greater good, a criticism of a spouse or partner when he or she is not around.
“Temptation wins when we get so caught up in the trappings of life that we lose sight of life itself. These are the faceless moments of evil that, while mundane, lurk in the recesses of our lives and our souls.”

Wow.
If none of that makes you wince, maybe you don’t need Lent.
But for the rest of us – who heard too much of ourselves in Anshutz’s descriptions of daily temptation and mundane evil – Lent is an invitation and a blessing.
Just as God’s Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness,
          that he might be tempted and thus remember what it means to trust God alone,
God’s Spirit leads us into a Lenten journey.
We are invited to practices of prayer, repentance, and fasting,
            to assist us in seeing ourselves more clearly –
            our faults, our ordinariness, and our messy choices.
But it is not to make us feel guilty, or to suffer as Jesus suffered.
Lenten practice is meant to free us – to clear our minds and help us see –
            even with all our faults and messiness, we, too, are Beloved of God.
We, too, can trust solely in God.
We are God’s children, and that is our primary identity,
            the most important thing.

Lenten practices are really meant to help us get out of our own way
            and show up for God.
Skip a meal and spend time in prayer instead.
Add a practice of meditation or Scripture reading, daily or a few times a week.
Commit to being in worship each week.
Join a group reading Down and Out in Providence and discussing what it means to follow Jesus in a world where children experience homelessness.
Take a morning walk and thank God for the day ahead.

What you do is less important than just doing something to
            show up, slow down, and open yourself to God.

“Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful,
            slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love” (sung)

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD. Amen

Two of my favorite subjects in school were math and chemistry. I liked the challenge of solving the answer to an equation or determining the chemical formulas of the reactants (the starting substances) and the resulting chemical formula of the products (substances formed in the chemical reaction). They were things that had order and could be reproduced. It seemed that if you knew and applied the method, you had the answers. How simple and easy, right? Well, the idea of it anyway. As much as I am an analytical person, a part of me yearns for the mystery. The part of our lives that we just don’t understand. Those things that are bigger than ourselves. There is so much in our lives and world that can be explained by math and science, that is a blessing given to humanity. The ability to discover, learn, and reason. What room is there then for mystery?

I recently had a conversation with a parishioner regarding our search process for a new rector. She said that she just didn’t understand why it has taken so long. She added that she thought we would be more than half way through the process by now. It made me think of one of the blessings of this community. We are not afraid to take action. If we see something that needs to be done. We come together to figure out a way to see that it is done. Look at all the ministries of this parish. The food pantry, 1children ministries, contemplative prayer, newcomers, Cafe Fix-it, all the various works under the ministry of Partnership in Mission & Advocacy, the list can go on and on. I can certainly understand this parishioner’s perspective. Look at all of our knowledge, experience, talents and abilities. Come on, with all of this, we should be able to find a rector, right? We are open to being transfigured - let’s get it finished. Let’s find that leader and go forth. We have work to do. My response to her was, I think its good to be where we are at in the process. Probably a little surprised by my answer, she asked, “you think so?” Of course fear and doubt about my answer snuck in to my head...

As you may know, I am in the process of seeking ordination to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church. I have gone through the discernment process with you my parish, and have been working through and almost finished with the next step of that process with the diocese. As a part of discernment with the diocese, I am expected to serve at a parish other than St. Michaels. I have served in two parishes in my time with the diocese. My current parish, where I have been for a year is Our Lady in the Valley located in the South Valley of Albuquerque. A purpose of this expectation is to learn from, experience and grow with another parish. This experience has been interesting and as a result, I have continued to grow into my calling. One of the most interesting things I have discovered is that people expect you to have all the answers. After all, you’re in discernment surely you know a thing or two about God. This of 2course is quite unnerving and causes me to seek answers about God from others my self. What I have discovered about God, is the more we know, the less we know. The more God reveals Himself to us, the less certainty we have.

Transfiguration is not just about knowing there is change. It is about what that change is going to mean. What will that change give you? Look at Peter, James, and John. They witnessed something truly amazing. They were so unsure of how to react, James and John didn’t say anything and Peter says, “Lord it is good for us to be here...” then “suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!" They were terrified. Can you blame them? Later, as they looked back on that experience, they understood that Jesus was the Messiah. That he was truly the one sent to save the world. No wonder they were terrified. To experience something that holy and unexplainable, how can we not be fearful?

If we are afraid do we miss the opportunity to experience the mystery? If we are so caught up on what’s happening or not happening in our search process or if the vestry understands our needs or how are we going to pay for this building or does the clergy know who I am - are we missing out on the mystery of this sacred place. This place that I know from so many of you that describes it as simply coming home. This place that reminds 3us that we are loved no matter who we are. A place that we all come together every week to share a meal and remember that God is with us. The mystery of grace found at this table in bread and wine.

A couple of months ago, I gave a sermon at the 5:00 service. In that sermon, I said that fear is a powerful motivator. However, fear in itself is not good nor evil. It is how we deal with that fear that determines the path we take. This morning, I am going to add a little more to that. I want to be a little fearful. I don’t want to have all the answers. That doesn’t mean that we don’t continue to learn. It doesn’t mean that math and science don’t have a place in the church. It simply means that I want the mystery of God to flow over us. To transfigure us into the people we are called to be. I want to experience the mystery of a community gathering, praying, and sharing that holy meal then going out to do the work we are called to do in faith and thanksgiving. You see maybe for a while, we forget all the rationale, knowledge and certainty of what should or needs to be done and recognize that we are afraid. We take time to move from thinking in our minds to praying from our hearts. When we do this, it is in that quietness of fear when we will hear the Holy Spirit guiding us. We then know our path.

Lord, it is good for us to be here. Amen.