Sermon on Fourth Lent, Year A: How do We imitate Christ?
Today’s gospel is a long story begins with the healing of a blind person. In the gospel of John and the gospel of Mark there are other stories of Jesus healing the blind, with other methods than mud and washing in the pool of Siloam. The methodology does not matter so much as does the act of grace, a gift of healing, given by Jesus. And then the story shows how others (mostly pharisees) object to the healing having been done.
The blind man's claim that “never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind” still applies today to some forms of inherited blindness. But the point I see in this story, is not an emphasis on the miracle, but on the attitude about how people deal with those who are sick. Jesus’s own disciples, the pharisees, many Jews, even the blind person’s own parents are looking for blame and cause beyond the simple explanation of illness, without doing anything constructive themselves.
Jesus instead simply is interested in showing “God’s works.” And what are those works? Healing and caring. That is what we are all called to do. Heal and care. And for those of us who are not active medical professionals (who now can cure many people of many diseases), we should support systems that help heal, and where that is not possible, care for those in need.
Our modern invention of health insurance goes a long way toward healing and caring for others. Yet, health care still is not equitably available to all. In this time of quarantine because of the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing, and quarantine likewise do some good. Yet, those practices, unfortunately, can and will lead to loneliness, loss of income, and deprivation of other necessities, which require caring to cure.
How can you open your eyes, and move your hands (aside from washing them), to heal in these troubled times and after?
Written for the parish of St. James & St. George 2020 March 29
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