Charlotte
Collins Reed
Christ
Church Episcopal
March 26,
2017
4 Lent A
When natural disaster strikes, whether
on a personal level or a global level, we watch as people spring into action, to
help total strangers, often at risk to themselves. While the attack in London this week was not
a natural disaster, we certainly witnessed the same phenomena at work as people
risked their own lives to help those who were injured. We have watched people pick through the rubble
looking for signs of life in the case of earthquakes, risk their lives to try
to save others in the case of floods, and offer generously to assist in the
face of tragedy upon tragedy. Disasters,
natural and otherwise, often bring out tremendous good in humankind as we
respond to our hurting brothers and sisters, often in far away lands. Such tragedies also raise important questions
about God's role in those events, and inevitably the subject of divine
punishment appears. When the earthquake
and tsunami hit Japan in 2011, I heard suggestions that this was caused by
divine wrath over egotism and populism.
I have heard the suggestion that the earthquake in Haiti in 2011 and the
hurricane there last year were God's punishment for allegedly making a pact
with the devil and that Hurricane Katrina was God's wrath being poured out upon
New Orleans for "tolerating and welcoming wickedness in their city."
On the one hand, when these disasters strike, we see all kinds of barriers come
down as people and countries reach out to each other across religious,
economic, racial, national, language, cultural, and countless other divides. On
the other hand, when disaster strikes, there seems to be a need to blame
someone. The explanations of
meteorologists and geologists do not suffice.
God must be angry and someone is to blame. But in most cases, the great burden of that
alleged punishment falls on the innocent.
This morning we hear Jesus' disciples
say to Jesus "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born
blind?" There seem to be only two
options for the cause of the man's blindness.
Either the man's own sin is the cause, which is doubtful since he had been
blind from birth and opportunities for sin seem quite limited in the womb, or
the sin of his parents is to blame.
Jesus' answer is that no one's sin caused the man's blindness, but the
blindness is the occasion for God's work to be revealed. Then Jesus spits in the dirt, spreads the
resulting mud on the man's eyes, sends the man off to wash his face, and the
man comes back to Jesus able to see.
While we still don't know the cause of the man's blindness, what we do
know is that the man born blind can now see.
The resulting furor among the people
sounds a bit like the resulting furor in the aftermath of a disaster when blame
turns from God to whichever human being is responsible for failed levies, lack
of disaster preparedness, inadequate warning systems, and on and on. In the gospel reading, the formerly blind man
is peppered with question about his healing, as if he is guilty of his
recovery. How did it happen? Who did it? Where is he? What did he do? And on and on. The man who was formerly blind does not know
the answer to some of the questions-after all he was blind when the story
started- and the answers he does give are not believed. Mistrust and suspicion abound-just like they
do in the days and weeks following a natural disaster.
At first glance, the reading from I
Samuel seems to have little to do with the healing of the man born blind. The prophet Samuel is sent by God to identify
the second king of Israel, Saul being the first king. God sends Samuel to Jesse the Bethlehemite,
for the new king is to come from his sons.
Seven of Jesse's sons pass before Samuel, but none is the one chosen by
God to be Israel's new king. So Samuel
asks Jesse "Are all of your sons here?" And Jesse replies "There remains yet the
youngest, but he is keeping the sheep."
The implication is that youngest son could not possibly be the next
king. But sure enough, David, the youngest, least experienced son, is the one
God had chosen to be King.
What these two stories have in common
is the call to see the world with God's eyes.
In the eyes of the disciples and the others in the gospel reading, the
man's blindness must point to someone's sin.
In the eyes of God, the man's blindness was an opportunity for God's
works to be revealed. God could use that
situation to show God's power in the world.
Likewise, in the eyes of Jesse and his first seven sons, and perhaps
even Samuel, an older, wiser, more experienced son would be the best choice for
Israel's king. But in God's eyes, the
youngest, least likely of the brothers was the best choice. God sees the world differently than we do,
and the categories we set up for success and promotion may not be God's
categories.
When disasters become occasions for
finger pointing and blame, and we look to see who God is punishing, we take a
dark situation and make it darker. Yes,
there is always room for evaluation and to see how people might prepare better,
respond more effectively, and learn things that will help in future disasters. And yes, human error and human sin have human
consequences. But the writer of
Ephesians warns us to take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness. The same writer tells us that the fruit of
light is found in all that is good and right and true. The fruit of light is found by seeing the
world through God's eyes, seeing the brokenness and working to heal, seeing the
damage and working to repair, building up rather than tearing down, seeing the
youngest, smallest, least experienced and having the vision of a great leader. This is the same God who says in the book of
Isaiah "My ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your
thoughts," and "Behold, I am about to do a new thing." That new thing is not to tear down and
destroy, but to create and build up. On
Good Friday, on the day that we mark the crucifixion of Jesus, on a day that
would incur God's wrath if anything would, we do not tremble before an angry
God. Rather, we stand before God and we
pray the collect for Good Friday found in our prayer book: "O God of unchangeable power and eternal
light....let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are
being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that
all things are being brought to perfection by him through whom all things were
made." We are called to proclaim a
God who sees life where the world sees death, who raises up that which has been
cast down, and who expects us to do the same.
Amen.
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