April 3, 2011
Salvation and Sin
- John 9:1-41
- Dr. Teri Thomas
Whos fault is it? Who is to blame?
There is something wrong in the world. Things are not good in my life.
So someone must be to blame.
And since the problems of the world cannot possibly be my fault,
they must be someone else.
The alien, the minority person, the Muslim, the gay person.
It must be the fault of the unions or the teachers or the parents or the president or the congress
or the voters.
The fault has to lie somewhere and our task is to locate the guilty party. It feels like the blame game is happening more and more lately. As much as it may feel like it this problem is not unique to us or to this time in history. Just look at this morning’s gospel lesson. Jesus and the disciples are walking along and they meet a man who has been blind since birth.
The first words out of the mouths of the disciples- Who sinned?
Whose fault is this?
Did this man sin?
Did his parents sin?
They see a man who has never seen a flower, a sunrise, color, a human face and their first thought is about sin. And it wasn’t their own sin they were considering. Those disciples were playing the old blame game. They wanted to know whose fault it was. They needed some kind of reasonable allocation of guilt — so they could say he's blind because of this or that. They wanted to believe that the poor guy simply got what he deserved.
If the disciples can say he is blind because his mother sinned, then they can feel superior. They can feel safe. They can convince themselves it will never happen in their family.
We look for someone to blame. We would rather call a thing a curse of God, a fitting punishment for some previous fault or crime, than ever admit that such things just happen, and just might even happen to us. We insist on seeking out the guilty party, the one in the wrong,
that individual, community or nation that is different from us, and thus can be blamed for whatever currently troubles us.
The budgets won’t balance. So we blame the unions.
School systems are in trouble. So we blame the teachers.
Marriages are failing all around us. So let’s blame the gays and lesbians.
Unemployment is high. So we blame the immigrants.
Life isn’t going the way I want it to so let’s blame it on someone. Someone else must be sinning.
But Jesus did not see it that way.
Who’s fault is it that this man is blind?
It is not about fault.
The question is not- who can we blame.
The question is - how can we use this reality to glorify God?
And then he healed the man who was blind.
He doesn't look at him as a sinner, he sees someone to lift up.
He doesn’t see the man as a problem, but rather as an opportunity to show God’s love.
And so the Son of God, Prince of Peace, Lord of All, and Creator of the Stars of Night,
reached down into the dirt of the ground, spit into his own hand,
and slathered mud onto the man's eyes.
He doesn’t say it is illegal for blind beggars to sit on the city streets.
He doesn’t hate.
He doesn’t condemn.
He touched him.
He got down in the dirt.
He heals him.
He lifts him up.
He saves him.
Because that's what Jesus does.
When I read this story
I can't shake the connection of Jesus making mud
and giving the man sight- giving him new life-
and God digging in the mud in the Garden of Eden
and giving us breath, giving us life.
God lifted us up out of the earth at creation,
and Jesus is still in the business of lifting us up.
Actually, that is what Jesus is all about.
That is what salvation is all about-
lifting us up
giving us new lives
changed lives.
It is about believing that God loves us just as we are and that love has the power to make us new,
to transform our lives, to save us.
Salvation is so much more than sin and forgiveness.
It is light in our darkness
sight for our blindness
return from our exile
freedom from our bondage
I am not saying that sin doesn’t matter.
I am aware that often someone really is to blame.
But there is so much more to our faith
Salvation is about of sin and grace, yes,
but also gratitude and glory,
mystery and wonder,
life and wholeness.
Our salvation is not about blaming
it is about sharing a faith of celebration
seeking out God's realm in every moment of our living,
looking for, believing in, bringing to light
that image of God that deep inside every single one of us,
that makes every single one of us worth Christ's dying for.
The poet Leonard Cohen puts it this way:
Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack, a crack in everything.
That's where the light gets in.
That's where the light gets in…
Amen.
Resources:
Dirt ‘n Spit ‘n Life by RMC Morley, A Garden path
Seeing Is Believing, sermon preached by The Rev. J. Barrie Shepherd, July 1, 2004