"Jesus gives us real eyes to realize where the Real lies." (Rohr) John 9

John 9: 1-41

John’s gospel is not a book that can simply be read like any other. Well, yes it can just be read for the stories it tells about Jesus, but if that is all that one sees in this gospel, then there is a lot that is missed. It is a lot like a treasure hunt. Look for the clues and find the treasure.

John doesn’t want us to simply learn the stories and teachings of Jesus. In fact John has absolutely no parables. Instead John hopes we will search out the depth of Christ hidden in symbols and mystical analogies throughout the writings. I think this gospel is one meant for contemplation and imagination. It is meant to give us opportunity to experience the very meaning of Jesus’ ministry and Christ, the savior.

For example, it is easy to simply read that Jesus saw a man blind from birth and go on from there. But let’s contemplate that. Jesus “SAW” him. Did the disciples? I would say no. They saw his blindness and looked for blame. Jesus, on the other hand, saw a man, and all that made up this man. 

I like the thought that Jesus SEES us. Not just our weight, our hair color, our race, our clothes, the dirt under our fingernails. Jesus sees who we are and why we are. All that makes up who we are becomes potential for showing the love and the glory of God. Yes, even, or some say especially, the hard stuff. 

Jesus always seems to see the potential.

I also had to notice that no one asked Jesus to heal the man, not even the man. Just a sidebar.

And then Jesus makes mud by spitting in the dirt and slathering it on the man’s eyes. Everyone say it together….ewwwww! Knowing John’s propensity toward symbolism I simply had to do my research. Interestingly enough, people once believed that saliva had healing qualities. We know that diseases are passed through saliva but there are in fact qualities in saliva that may have medicinal effects. But I believe that John was not referring to Jesus conjuring up a medicinal salve. 

Instead, I am drawn to John’s overall message of a new creation through Jesus the Christ. We all have heard in the 1st chapter of John the words that sound so much like Genesis.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

While Genesis does not refer to spittle as being part of creation, there are other Hebrew scriptures, not in our canon, that talk about God adding spittle to the dust to form us. One finds the same type of story in the Dead Sea Scrolls.And in fact many other ancient creation myths incorporate the saliva of the gods in the making of creation. Including some native American tales. If the potter is to form the clay it must be moistened.

One theologian suggested that Jesus is making new eyes for the man. New eyes that would bring the man out of the darkness of his blindness. New eyes that would cause this man to see light. And thus, when one is born again, created anew, given sight, one is given a new way of seeing the world and God in it. 

But I wonder if John isn’t suggesting a new beginning for all of creation. A New way of being together. One that will bring into our lives new wine, new birth, and new sight. One that is without blame or shame but rather filled with potential. And so, perhaps John would want us to notice that Jesus mixes the dirt with his own saliva and ultimately with his own blood to form a new creation. And, at least in John, Jesus, after his resurrection,  breathes life, the Holy Spirit, into them. A beautiful creation motif.

But while there are other things we might consider in today's reading, there is one more thing I want to look at. I mean, really the depth of John’s writings could take up our entire day, but we have a pancake breakfast to go to.

Have you ever heard, or maybe even experienced, once you have seen something you can never unsee it? This is usually used in relation to horrifying sights. But perhaps it is also appropriately used in relation to things that are beautiful, mystifying, awe inspiring. Like the true light.

I bring this up because now that this man has received his sight, now that he has seen light, he will never be able to unsee it. Even if he were to go physically blind again, the memory of that light will remain and will affect him. 

What does this mean for his everyday life? It means he is about to be thrown out of the temple. He is about to learn to walk in a new way, separate from the old way of the temple’s religiosity.  This is why his parents refuse to make a statement to the Pharisees about their son receiving his sight. They feared being thrown out of the temple. Their entire way of life and understanding of God is wrapped up in the temple and its practices. And so they refuse to confess what has happened to their son and basically throw him under the bus. “He is old enough. Let him tell you.”

I’m reading a book by Richard Rohr, “Jesus’ Alternative Plan.”  Rohr writes:

“ We can become so self-protective we will lie through our teeth, as the saying goes. For the person—or the church or the society—caught in the trap of denial, security becomes an idol. WE become incapable of loving and incapable of truth.”

Security becomes the idol. The way it was and has always been becomes an idol. Jesus came to shake all of that up. 

I’m not sure what the man did after this encounter with Jesus and the Pharisees, but he must have had to rethink his entire way of being and seeing creation, God, mercy etc. His sight would now need to find God outside of the temple.

New eyes, new creation, new ways of worship, new birth, new wine, all leave us in an uncomfortable but hopeful place. The birth pains are inevitable, but worth it.

Rohr writes;
"Jesus gives us real eyes to realize where the Real lies"

May we have the courage to see.

Windmills and Unknowing

John 3: 1-17

It’s evening. The work of the day has been finished, or at least put away till tomorrow. The stars peacefully shine above you and the moon is just bright enough to light your steps. Most people are home tending to their own evening rituals. It's quiet. The silence settles in around you like a tonic for the day's busyness. You let out a slow breath. It’s a good time to go visit with Jesus. 

I’m jealous of Nicodemus to be honest. He gets to go and visit with the man Jesus face to face. He gets to look into the eyes that blaze with eternal love. He gets to hear Jesus’ voice. Sometimes sounding gentle, sometimes a little scolding, but always full of love.

We’ve always been a little hard on Nicodemus. Does he come at night because he doesn’t want others to see him? Maybe. But doesn’t Jesus tell us to go into our prayer closet alone and shut the door? To not pray where others can applaud you? And isn’t prayer merely a conversation with God, the Trinity, the three manifestations of God? 

How often have we heard a sermon telling us that Nicodemus walked away not saved, not a Christian, because he didn’t accept Jesus into his heart and get born again? We have a whole rhetoric built up around the one phrase Jesus uses only once and only in John’s gospel.

I recently finished reading Barbara Brown Taylor’s book “Holy Envy.” She asks us to rethink this encounter between Nick and Jesus. 

She suggests that Nick comes in and begins by telling Jesus what he knows about him. We know that…(I assume the “we” to be the royal we.) We know who you are…we know we see God in you. We know what God looks like.

And Jesus says, “You can’t possibly know anything about the Kingdom of God, the way of God, the works of God, unless you are born from above, or born again.”

Jesus doesn’t tell Nick to get down on his knees and confess his sins so he will be saved. I don’t think that is what this is about. Jesus says you must be born from above, born of the Spirit.

Nicodemus asks Jesus…How? How does one make this happen? What must I do?

Taylor points out that Jesus does not give Nicodemus a road map to how to get there. BTW…I like road maps! But Jesus says the Spirit will make it happen the way she sees fit. Simple. The wind blows where it will, don’t try to control it. God knows Iowans of all people should know how uncontrollable the wind can be. 

So how do windmills glean the power of the wind? Well, yes they are standing on firm foundations. A single pole that connects them to the ground, keeps them grounded if you will. But they harness the power through flexibility. They move and turn and sway with the wind. And if the wind is not blowing, they wait silently.

I want to be a windmill. I want to harness the power of the Spirit when she blows through. And more than that, I want to see the church become a great windmill. A windmill that harnesses power when the Spirit moves and waits and watches and remains prepared for when she does. And I want a road map for all the in between times. But the wind does not give roadmaps.

 

When I heard about the revival at Asbury College recently, I immediately wanted to find out what they did to get there. I wanted to see their road map to revival. Funny thing is that they didn’t know how they got there. They could make all kinds of suppositions like they had their theology right, or they knew how to pray or to preach. But truth is, the Spirit showed up and threw a wonderful surprise party! Hopefully, they aren’t like Peter who wants to build a permanent building on the mountain top. Sometimes the energy must be taken back down the mountain to those who need it.

You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?

No Jesus, we are the church and we don’t understand. But please Lord may we be ready and available for the surprise party. Reminds me of the parable of those who were  invited to the wedding reception for the King’s son and weren’t available to come. 

So what is this born again anyway? As I read Taylor’s thoughts on Nicodemus and Jesus, I heard in my mind that call of John the Baptist’s and of Jesus’

Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent. Repent does not mean getting down on your knees and confessing your sins. Repent means to change your mind, to turn around. I’ve always thought of that in relation to sin but I wonder. I wonder if it isn’t more as Paul writes in Romans:

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.  (Then you will be born from above.)

We need to see life, see success, see hope through the eyes of God, through the Spirit, and then, with fresh understanding, born again minds, we can see what God is doing.

As difficult as this is for us as individuals, I mean we have our whole identity bound up in what we have learned from society, it seems nearly impossible for the corporate church. We are invested in what we understand, what we have been taught church to be. How do we let the Spirit blow in and change our minds? How do we let go of what we deem important to be available for the surprise party the Spirit wants to throw? How do we become windmills here where we are planted? What is our identity so invested in that we can’t give it away?

You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?

No Jesus, we are the church and we don’t understand. 

Taylor suggests “there is a place where human knowing runs out. Strong winds really do blow through people’s lives, and the Spirit does not hand out maps showing where the wind came from, where it is going, how you are supposed to handle it, and how everything will turn out in the end. Only the Weather Channel does that.”

I guess what we can know is this:

6 For God so loved the world that he gave his Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

And without belief, without faith, we walk in a hell of our own making.

Early in my walk as a pastor, I learned that I was not here to have the answers but to help people walk with the questions. Not a place I like but the fact is that I am one of Christ's teachers and I do not understand these things.

All we can hope to do is surrender ourselves to the Spirit and be willing to let the wind blow where it may. Maybe that means being on the move and maybe that means waiting and listening. Either way….have faith that we are loved even in our unknowing.

Living Water in the noon day sun.

John 4: 1-26

Imagine Jesus quietly, patiently sitting at the well waiting. Waiting for a drink? I suppose in some ways perhaps. We are made for companionship with God. Perhaps he thirsted for time with her. Perhaps he thirsted to satisfy her thirst. God is like that. 

And so, sitting in the noonday heat, he waits for her to come. And when she does, he speaks to her. She is not impressed. In fact, she puts up all kinds of walls. Thin places can be rather unnerving. Thin places are those places or times when the veil between heaven and earth, between the physical and the spiritual is so thin you can see and feel and hear and know the other side. It is a holy place. And I am certain that wherever Jesus was, became a thin place.

The trouble is that in that moment of sensing the divine’s touch, you know that all that you are, all that you have done, all your traumas and fears are revealed. There is no hiding in the noonday sun at the well.

She begins at the surface by identifying Jesus’ race. You look like, talk like a Jew. 

Jesus says “Ah, if you only knew me, really knew me, you would be so filled and refreshed.”

“Are you greater than my ancestry? I belong to such and such a religion, denomination, church. Are you saying you are better than those that I follow?” 

“What I have to offer will change your life forever!”

“Share that with me! Please!”

Like lowering a bucket into a well, Jesus slowly takes her deeper. From the obvious physical, to the outer rim of religion, to her own thirst. Yes, Jesus was waiting in the hot sun thirsting to relieve her thirst.

Here is where it all gets hard. “Let’s talk about you. The real you. The one that you hide from others and yourself. The one that has been traumatized by people, by society, by religion. Let’s lower that bucket even deeper. That’s where we will find that living water.

At that moment there is no veil. The thin place has become, there at the well in the noonday sun, the Kingdom of God. She feels it. She is unnerved. She’s confused. She wonders what is real? Her faith or his? Her temple or his? The world, the culture in which she has been raised or his?

Jesus says, it is time to get past all of that. It is time to not worry about which church to worship in. It is time to stop clinging to your ancestry. God is not a Samaritan, God is not a Jew, God is Spirit. God is another realm, another understanding, another way of seeing life. 

John, in his letter, writes that God is love. Relationship, companionship, caring, forgiveness, mercy, compassion…..love. The Spirit of God is love.

Jesus is not waiting to talk religion, politics,race, culture, or laws with her. Jesus is not waiting at the well to bring judgment for her choices or to shame her.  Jesus is waiting to go far beyond all that she sees as her identity. Jesus is waiting to talk with her true self.  The deepest part of her where living water awaits.

I believe that Jesus is ever waiting at the well for us, hoping to help us lower that bucket deeper and deeper. I also believe that while we thirst for that living water deep down in the well, we, for some reason, tend to avoid going to those depths. We prefer to stay on the surface where we find ready answers, answers with which we have grown comfortable, answers passed down from our parents, teachers and preachers. And when Jesus says “But wait there's more” we look for the catch. Kind of like those ads on television! 

Jesus says, “if you want to know God, if you want to know love, if you want to be part of the Kingdom of God, we will have to get beyond your rote prayers, creeds, and theological certainties. The living water requires us to dig deep, through traumas and shame and teachings that create the false self.”

A few years back I was fortunate enough to find someone trained as a Spiritual Director who took me through many of these levels to a deeper place in the well within. In many ways our conversations over the years looked alot like this one at the well. I preferred to stay on the surface but living water waited deeper. 

Jesus calls to each of us to find that living water deep within us. Thomas Merton, an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar, refers to this as our true self. The person God created us to be. The very image of God within.

We allow the Spirit to dig a deep well within us through times of contemplative prayer, silent meditation, spiritual direction, and many other ancient practices we have long forgotten. I would love to talk about these things with you further if you are interested in knowing more.

For now know this: God is waiting at the well. In the heat of the noon day sun and in the chill of the darkest night.