“Open Your Eyes!”
John 9:1-11
October 25, 2015
Mark S. Bollwinkel
[this
sermon is delivered by the pastor as he makes pottery on a potter’s wheel…]
Jesus
heals a blind beggar with saliva and mud.
This is the only such example in the gospels of Jesus healing with
mud. Potters rejoice at this story for
many reasons, not the least is our passion for clay! It describes the opportunity for us to open
our eyes to the God who is right here in our midst.
In our
scripture this morning, a man born blind is begging by the side of the road as
the disciples and Jesus walk by. “Who
sinned him or his parents?” asked the disciples assuming the long held
tradition that God rewards the faithful with health and prosperity and punishes
the sinner with illness. It was believed
that such punishment could be contagious, passed along the generations (Ex.
20:5, 34:7, Ps. 109:13-15, Isa 65:6-7), so much so that one born with a
physical challenge such as blindness was cast out of the family unit and left
to their own devices rather than “contaminate” the family. Thus the man born blind begs by the side of
the road.
In
many miracles reported in the gospels, the recipient has confessed faith in the
divinity of Jesus. Jesus acknowledges
this often with a phrase such as “your faith has made you well” (Matthew 9:22,
15:28, Mark 2:5, 5:34, 10:52, Luke 5:20, 7:50, 8:48, 17:19, 18:42). But not in this case. The beggar was minding his own business and
didn’t ask for the miracle. Jesus
explains that the man is blind so that God might use him as a sign of Jesus’
divinity. Only later will the man come
to faith.
When
the Pharisees get wind of this healing occurring on a Sabbath day they are
outraged and investigate. First they go
to the man healed. The officials don’t
believe him and then go on to question his parents. Now his parents had already kicked him out
of the household to fend for himself on the streets. It is no surprise when they dodge the
Pharisees questioning and let their son face the consequences alone. [Note: the
text suggests they were afraid of expulsion from the synagogue, historically
Jewish Christians weren’t expelled from synagogues until after 80CE].
The
officials go back to the man healed for a second inquiry and try to trap him in
their theological dispute. They are
outraged that the literal word of their scriptures wasn’t followed according to
their interpretation and that somebody was healed on the Sabbath; keeping the
rules and regulations of their religion was more important to them than the
needs of people. But not to Jesus. The formerly blind man answers them, “I do
not know whether he is a sinner or not but one thing I do know is that once I
was blind and now I see and only a man of God can do that!”
Jesus
comes along to check on the man who, along with being healed without being
asked, has run into trouble with his parents and been kicked out of the
synagogue as a result.
In
this story, the author of the gospel John seems to be much more interested in
the implications of Jesus’ divinity rather than the miracle itself. We are not told why he used saliva and mud,
although any potter could tell you.
Rather, the author is interested in who is really blind and who can
really see. The parents and Pharisees
can’t see God when he is standing right in front of them in the form of Jesus,
while a beggar born blind, just minding his own business, is the one who ends
up really seeing God in his midst. He is
the one who will say to Jesus, “Lord, I believe.”
Opening
our eyes to God’s gift of beauty, truth and love is what art can do. The Hassidic Jewish rabbi and philosopher
Martin Buber once defined “art” as “the residue of the dialogue between the I
and Thou”. Human beings are an art-making
species. Since the birth of Homo sapiens,
we have drawn on cave walls, created music, spoken poetry and formed images and
utensils out of clay. Human beings can
not not do art.
In
August while visiting the museums of Santa Fe, New Mexico, I saw a quote on a
wall from a young Native American man, who said in effect, “We don’t know what
‘art’ is. It would be unthinkable for my
mother not to weave in the shapes of her dreams in the blanket she is making to
keep her children warm at night, or for my grandfather not to paint the symbols
of our clan on the pottery we will prepare our food in. We see Spirit in everything we do, in every
moment. What you call ‘art’ is simply
‘life’ to my people.”
Art in
all of its mediums is simply and profoundly the reminder of transcendence
available in each moment.
If
we have eyes to see.
Contrast
drinking from a Styrofoam coffee cup, mass produced by the billions to drinking
from your favorite coffee mug each morning as you wake up. Our morning rituals often involve a
refreshing warm cup of something as we take a breath and launch into the
challenges of the day. Maybe your mug
was decorated by your grandchild and given at Christmas; maybe your cup is an
antique once owned by your parents; maybe your cup is a sleek and stylish
travel mug designed to fit just right in your car’s cup holder as you commute
down the road. But we all have favorite
food and drink utensils we use at one of the most sacred moments of each day,
that moment we stop to nourish our bodies and for some of us its also a moment
to thank God we’re alive. Coffee out of
a Styrofoam cup just isn’t the same. Our
favorite cups have history, meaning and necessity in them; they call us to
remember that something important is about to happen as we nourish our bodies
and spirits. They are art!
A
painting can evoke a memory. A poem can
confront our assumptions. A concerto
can move us to ask forgiveness. A dance
can remind us that we are alive.
Good
art reminds us to open our eyes to God’s gift of beauty, truth and love.
Here in Carmel-by-the-Sea, we are blessed with many art
galleries offering visitors and residence alike the chance to see beautiful art
produced locally and in some cases by famous world renowned artists. We are a part of a global art economy with
the sale and investment in art.
Like
any economic transaction, the industry of art investment can be full of ethical
challenges and failures. When it comes to Christian stewardship, every penny we
earn and spend should be measured in relationship to our investment in the poor
and suffering of our communities. That
includes making and buying art. Our stewardship always should reflect a
balance between the commitment to care for life’s essentials for self and
family with God’s call to invest in a future where all of God’s children have
enough.
Assuming that we humans can not not do art, the
challenge is to, rather than abstaining from art making or appreciation, do our
art in ways that reflects God in our lives.
The Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC was dedicated in
1922 and cost $3 million dollars, a huge sum for public art at the time. Yet Daniel Chester French’s marble statue
and Lincoln
Lilly Hitchcock Coit’s estate endowed the building of Coit Tower San Francisco San Francisco
The Vietnam Memorial on the Capital Mall in Washington DC
cost $8 million in donations, but Maya Lin’s elegant simplicity and the over
58,000 names of honored dead inscribed on the polished marble walls are a
priceless.
Could all of that money been spent on the homeless then
and now? Absolutely. Yet this art’s contribution to move a nation
to its potential for peace, justice and forgiveness is beyond calculation.
Good
art reminds us to open our eyes to God’s gift of beauty, truth and love.
Sure we can pour our ice tea or orange juice out of a
Tupperware pitcher. There is nothing
wrong with Tupperware; I love my Tupperware.
Yet in the moment we refresh ourselves or someone else with a cool
drink, poured out of a vessel with the mark of human design, color and weight, singularly
unique, minutely flawed here and there…as each human being is…yet beautiful and
true…is to be reminded of the divine in the human touch of creatively and
purpose.
It is God’s nature to create. When we are creative we co-participate in
God’s spirit. And can there be a better
medium to record that dialogue between “I and Thou” than a bit of clay; simple,
common mud and water, textured and fired to last a life time? Any potter can tell you why Jesus used mud to
heal. And why he told the man to wash
himself clean in the pool of Siloam. In
Jerusalem, the pool of Siloam was fed by the waters of Hezekiah’s aqueduct
built under the city at the end of the 8th century BCE to stave off enemy
siege. Today’s visitors can see that
it still runs today; life giving waters that can save those in desperate
times.
The pious and proud were blind to what Jesus was doing
and who he really was. An outcast
beggar was the one who could see in the end.
The art around us can point us to the reality of God’s love, beauty and
truth all around us.
If we have the eyes to see.
Amen.
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