Lent 4, 20051 Samuel 16.1-13, Ps23, Ephesians 5.8-14, John 9.1-41.In the Australian newspaper yesterday was a story of a little boy, referred to as Jeremey, about his short and tragic life. Perhaps it was ironic that the story was printed the day before the traditional celebration of mothering Sunday. This boy was murdered by hideous monsters, barely human sexual abusers of children. He had 10 cigarette burns on his chest. His older sister was also abused, sexually and violently. They were abused by their “babysitters” who were men their mother hardly knew, who were known paedophiles, and who had care of the children for very long periods. It seems there mum didn’t really care about them enough to ensure their safety. One wonders why she had them in the first place.
There was a history of complaints made to the relevant authorities about the welfare of these kids, and nothing much seems to have been ever done. The girl, the older of the kids, even told her mother what was going on, and she didn’t act, or didn’t care, or something. Departmental authorities made assumptions that these children were someone else’s responsibility it seems, someone else’s problems, and either handpassed them or just sat on their hands, the result being that the kids suffered horribly before Jeremy died. The abusers have been brought to justice, although what justice could there ever really be? And at what price is that justice? It took a little boy’s torturing and death to bring it about. The children have been let down by the very people that should have protected them, including their mother. Death by bureaucracy. The young girl is still alive, but undoubtedly scarred. I hope that one day she will recover.
In Rwanda, in 1994, 800,000 people were slaughtered. It was attempted genocide, the killing of the minority Tutsi people by the Hutu majority in that country. There were UN Forces in the country, and the rest of the world new about this massacre, but did nothing. The UN forces were in the country carrying out a monitoring role, and many of them did just that, sticking to the letter of their mandate and refusing to take action that might save lives. Some did shelter potential victims but only until the soldiers were evacuated. And the massacre went on. The United States Government’s State Department spokeswoman at that time was asked if what was happening in Rwanda was genocide. She responds,
"...the use of the term 'genocide' has a very precise legal meaning, although it's not strictly a legal determination. There are other factors in there as well."
Yet again, bureaucracy, red tape, diplomacy and legal mumbo-jumbo caused those who had the power to save to instead just sit on their hands while hundreds of thousands of people died. Disgusting, isn’t it?
A story told by a Priest who was living in Jerusalem for a year or two.
A car accident occurred in an area where ultra-orthodox Jews lived. It was the Sabbath, the day of rest of Jews. The occupants of the vehicle were very badly injured. When a person trying to help them went to a house to telephone for an ambulance, they were asked if the injured were Jews. But the accident victims were not Jewish. So the use of the phone was refused. One of the injured persons died. You see, it is only ok for them to act to save a life on the Sabbath if it is a Jew. They wouldn’t bend this rule. And to them, this was a rule that God had given them. They thought that their relationship with God was based on carrying out this rule, even if a non-Jew had to die for that relationship to succeed. Is this really what a relationship with God is based on? NO!
Now let’s look at our Gospel reading. Jesus is reported to have helped a man, blind since birth, to see. I won’t go into the grossness of the spit mud mixture, but the fact is this man can see, for the first time in his life. The problem is that this occurred on the Sabbath. And healing is not allowed on the Sabbath with few exceptions. Now, the strange thing, the dead give-away here, is the reaction of the Pharisees. They seem to miss the point that a man born blind can now see. I’ll say that again – a man born blind can now see! Wouldn’t most of us at least be a little amazed at this? Wouldn’t this be the focus of our attention? Well, not for these Pharisees. They can’t see this miracle for what it is. And it’s more than the gaining of sight, for it is also the fact that a person considered a sinner, and unclean and not allowed to participate in society because of his disability, is made clean. Perhaps the washing in the pool of Siloam is symbolic of this. The outsider is made an insider, a very common theme with Jesus. Well, the Pharisees are more concerned with a violation of the rules they hold so dear than with this supreme evidence of God’s grace and love. And they cast this man out, they punish the healed man for his belief in Jesus, which is ironic really since this man was an outsider when he was blind, and they make him an outsider again, even though he is now clean and there is no barrier to him being a full member of society.
The fact is that the healing Jesus offers us is always available, regardless of the day or the month or the year or the hour. It’s the manner that we may need to consider. We tend to think of healing in terms of making us better, of fixing up the broken bit of us, physical healing. That happens, and I want to acknowledge that. But often the healing is in the acceptance of the broken bit, to the point that it is no longer a broken bit but a different bit. It is a different ability, not a disability. The discovery that God moves with all people regardless of health and abilities is the true miracle and wonder in all of this. The fact that Jesus says so clearly at the beginning of the reading that a person’s abilities or state of health are not rewards or punishments from God tells us that God’s grace is available to all peoples. That’s the real wonder of Jesus healing powers, and this inclusiveness is what makes it divine.
I think that Jesus actually turns the tables on the able-disable thing. He shows us that the disabled are not those who are physically blind, or deaf, or ill, or leprous. The truly disabled, the ones who live a life that is deficient and unhappy and unhealthy are those who fail to see that God’s grace is open to all peoples. These are the people who apply rules to admit some and exclude others to their churches. These are the people for whom the two great commandments are not sufficient, who want great long purity codes to justify their own inhuman bigotry. These people are the disabled, the true disabled. They are not whole. The Pharisees ask at the end of the passage “Surely we are not blind, are we?” The answer, we know, is yes.
So I encourage you this morning, to seek the healing that is really needed in this world, the healing that will help us accept our brothers and sisters in Christ whoever and wherever and what ever they be. And accept ourselves as well. It all begins at home you know.
The Lord be with you.
