God Sees The Heart

“God Sees The Heart”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

March 30, 2014

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

1 Samuel 16:1-13

John 9:1-41

ACIM: “Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them. In this sense, everything that comes from love is a miracle… Miracles are natural. When they do not occur, something has gone wrong.”

         Miracles are happening all around us every day! Every act of love is a miracle. Normalcy to us is being able to walk down the street without fear of harm. That’s a pretty good start since many people around the world do not have that luxury. News channels focus on the ab-normal, the extra-ordinary. They tell us about car accidents, shootings, drug busts, and outrageous things celebrities have done. (News has turned into such a tabloid!) They also sometimes highlight so-called “acts of charity” when people go “out of their way” to help others.

I saw a story this week about a police officer that wasn’t particularly busy. He saw a kid throwing a football in the air to himself, so he got out of his car and tossed the ball with the kid. I think this story is very sweet, but it shouldn’t be so extraordinary to make the news. Why is that so out of the ordinary? Remember, miracles occur naturally as expressions of love.

         Especially around the holidays, I see stories on the news about churches and organizations feeding families with turkeys for Thanksgiving or hams for Christmas. That is wonderful work that they are doing and I greatly appreciate and support it. But would the greater miracle not be for the gap between the richest of the rich and the other 99% of the population to close? It’s unfortunate when one individual shows lack of love to another, but it is catastrophic when a nation’s government and richest citizens show a lack of love to the rest of the population. Systemic sin is much greater than individual sin.

         The man blind from birth that we heard about from the Gospel of John today lived in a divided society too. He was a beggar on the street. Everyone knew him by face, but not even the Gospel of John gives the poor man a name. He was just, “that blind guy who begs.” The blind man did not ask to be healed, but Jesus approached him anyway. The disciples asked Jesus whether the blind man or his parents had sinned to make him blind. It was a common understanding in ancient times that sin caused disability.

In the Book of Numbers in the Torah, (14:18), it reads, “I, the Lord, am not easily angered, and I show great love and faithfulness and forgive sin and rebellion. Yet I will not fail to punish children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their parents.” So I have migraines because my great, great grandfather sinned?? I really can’t accept that kind of logic. The only sins of the parents that could harm a child before birth are if the mother drank or used drugs during the pregnancy. But I highly doubt that is what the disciples were asking about.

Either way, Jesus does not agree with that logic either. He says plainly that neither the man nor his parents sinned to make him blind. But I have issue with what Jesus says next. He says that the man was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. So let me get this right… God made this poor man blind from birth so that however many years later, Jesus could use him as proof that he comes from God… Yeah I’m not buying that logic either.

The God that I worship does not make people disabled or send plagues of disease. According to certain televangelists, God sent AIDS as a punishment to gay men. I can’t believe that for a second. As a person with a basic understanding of modern science, I know that disability and disease have causes that are just part of the natural world. In the womb, the eyes of the man born blind did not develop. That’s it, end of story.

So did Jesus actually do something supernatural by spitting in the dirt and putting it on the man’s eyes? I don’t know. Frankly, it doesn’t matter to me. Blind people live out full lives with the use of their other senses and most don’t seek out pity for their disability. What really matters is what this story can teach us. The answer lies in the best line of our reading from 1 Samuel: “For the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

It’s unfortunate that John decided to use the metaphor of blindness and sight to teach this, but it’s what we have to work with. But before we dive into the metaphor, let’s first hear from a blind Christian theologian about this passage. John Hull wrote an article titled, “Open Letter From a Blind Disciple to a Sighted Savior.” In it, he writes, “In the eighth chapter of this your fourth gospel you say that you are the light of the world and that the one who follows you will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life (Jn. 8:12) but, my Lord, I walk in darkness every day and have done so for twenty years.  Yes, I know that you only meant it metaphorically, but it is not very nice to be regarded as a metaphor of sin and unbelief.  Sometimes the metaphor is so graphic, that I can't help feeling a twinge of pain.” Can you imagine your weaknesses being used as metaphors for sin? What if your clinical depression was compared to a mind filled with evil? What if your bad knee was made a metaphor for not walking well with God? What if your cancer was used as a symbol for wrongdoing in the body of Christ? They are easy metaphors to go to because we understand our weaknesses, but they certainly do not make us feel any better about them.

Inclusive language is not about not hurting people’s feelings. It is about demonstrating with our language that we truly believe all people are created in the image and likeness of God. That is why in MCC, we change the words in Amazing Grace from “was blind but now I see” to “was bound but now I’m free.”

In 1994, Nancy Eiesland wrote the book, “Disabled God.” The point of her work was to show that all people, including those we label as “disabled” are “imperfectly perfect” reflections of God. She points out that no matter healthy you are now, you can become disabled at any time. Instead of categorizing people as “abled” and “disabled,” she rather uses the labels “temporarily abled” and “disabled.” I remember how actor Christopher Reeve played Superman, the superhuman come to save the day. Ironically, the actor fell from a horse, broke his neck, and lived the rest of his life as a quadriplegic. These bodies of ours are resilient, but they are also incredibly fragile. God didn’t push Christopher off of the horse. He just fell. And that’s the messy stuff of life.

Humans try so hard to clean up life, to fix everything. Much of what we have figured out we can do through technology is wonderful. We have found cures and treatments to diseases. Thank God for that. But regardless of how hard we try, we have to accept that life is not neat and tidy. Many things will not go our way. Accidents happen. Life happens. Shit happens… But that is no reason to live in fear. Living with caution is common sense; living in fear is just senseless.

The true miracle of the encounter between Jesus and the man born blind was what happened in the blind man’s heart. Living as an outcast of society, perhaps he had doubted his worth. No one would let him work, so maybe he felt he had nothing to contribute to his community. But Jesus showed him otherwise. Regardless of the state of the man’s physical eyes, abundant life in Jesus was still available to him. In the beloved community Jesus was building, those whose disabilities were welcomed with open arms. A life of joy really was possible for him. The miracle was the man’s shift in perception from accepting the lies told to him to receiving the truth of his sacred value.

These final words from the blind theologian John Hull really touched me. He says, “What I want is inner healing, the healing that comes from acceptance, from inclusion, from the breaking down of barriers through mutual understanding, for an acceptance of different worlds, of different kinds of human life.” We each have our own worldview, our own perspective, our own understanding of the world. That’s just the beauty of God’s diverse creation. But Jesus calls us to perceive one thing in common: each fraction of a second, each holy instant, miracles are happening all around us. Pay close attention. God will make you smile. Amen.

Thirsty?

“Thirsty?”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

March 23, 2014

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Exodus 17:1-7

John 4:5-24

         Good morning church! I don’t know about you, but I’m thirsty! You look thirsty too! Somebody say, “I’m thirsty!” Jesus was thirsty when he got to the Samaritan city called Sychar. The name “Sychar” was a pejorative term the Jewish people used against the Samaritans. It means “liar” or “drunkard.” So Jesus went to the city of drunkards to get a drink… of water that is.

         A Samaritan woman met Jesus at the well and Jesus asked her for a drink. She must have gasped! It was against the law for a man to address a woman and it was highly taboo for a Jew to address a Samaritan. Remember, Samaritans were a sect of Jews that were left in Israel during the Babylonian Exile. The Samaritans had built their own temple on Mt. Gerizim and claimed it to be the only place to worship, not the main temple in Jerusalem. When the Jewish people returned from Babylonia, they brought with them new teachings about the Torah that the Samaritans reject to this day.

         The Samaritans call themselves “Guardians/Keepers of the Torah.” Jews in ancient times called them the pejorative term “cuthim” referring to the city of Kutha in Iran. They were essentially saying, “These people are not Jewish. They claim to be descendents of Abraham, but they intermarried with other races, so they are not part of us.”

         When Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well, he did not care about rules of segregation. He saw the woman as a child of God, an heir of God’s promises, even if she was a Samaritan. Not only did Jesus speak to her; he asked to drink from her cup. Her lips were not unclean to him.

         Jesus takes the opportunity to teach her the message of the Gospel. Jesus tells her about a “living water” that will quench thirst forever. She takes him literally and asks where she can find this magical water so she doesn’t have to keep going to the well. Jesus responds with a sort of “word of knowledge.” Has anyone ever told you things about your life that they never would have known? These people have a special gift. The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus had this gift. Jesus asks her to bring her husband to him. She responds that she does not have a husband. Jesus then says, “I know you don’t have a husband. You’ve had five husbands and the man you’re with now is not your husband.” Now this sounds like what we call in the drag community “throwing shade” or “reading.” This catty practice is done to show the other person their faults. For example, I could ask my friend Trisha, “Girl, who put on your makeup, an orangutan?” But of course I wouldn’t do that because she always looks perfect…

         Contrary to popular belief, Jesus was not talking down to the Samaritan woman. He was not calling her a slut for having had five husbands. No one knows why she had had five husbands but it was likely because they had died or dismissed her for some reason. Her story was not one of shame, but rather of misfortune. She had been tossed around as property and by now the man who she was with would not even take her as his wife. So Jesus showed her compassion, not judgment.

         He tells her something that would be considered blasphemy to both the Jews and the Samaritans. He says that soon, people will not worship in any temple. Instead, they will worship “in spirit and in truth.” Keep in mind, the Jews had destroyed the Samaritan temple in 128 BCE and it would not be rebuilt until after the Gospels were written in 135 CE. The Jewish temple in Jerusalem had been rebuilt since the Babylonian Exile, but it would soon be destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 CE, four decades after Jesus’ death.

         By saying that true worship is “in spirit and in truth” was affirming God’s omnipresence, that God is everywhere, so everywhere is where God should be worshipped. Jesus sought to unite, not divide. The Samaritans and Jews had been long divided and Jesus saw the reasons for division as petty. Also remember that Jesus was not trying to start a new religion. He was a Jewish rabbi who taught the truths of his own tradition, focusing on the God of Love that he knew and loved.

But what came to be known as Christianity through the efforts of Jesus’ disciples initially became a unifying faith. The apostle Paul preached to pagans throughout the Mediterranean region, converting them- not to the strict Judaism of his upbringing, but rather to a new faith in the truths of Jesus called the Christ. Early Christ-followers worshipped with the assurance that God’s Spirit was among them. They worshipped in Spirit, affirming the truth they had come to know. We too continue the long tradition of worship in spirit and in truth.

         Like Jesus, we are called to meet the “other” at the water cooler, at the pub, at the gas station, and in the church with a nonjudgmental attitude and a spirit of coexistence. Who is the Samaritan in our society? Perhaps it is the Muslim, the Sikh, the Hindu, or the Wiccan. Perhaps it’s the drug addict, the alcoholic, the sex worker, or the homeless. Or perhaps it’s the queer person in our midst that does not want to assimilate to heterosexual standards of gender and sexuality. Many of us are taught from childhood to identify the “other,” the “stranger” and to stay away from them. But this is not the way of Jesus. Jesus was a friend to all.

         According to the Gospel of John, Jesus made a follower out of the Samaritan woman at the well and she in turn brought others to follow Jesus. As Christians, Jesus’ Great Commission calls us to make disciples of all peoples. In the time of the Crusades, the commission was taken to mean that everyone who does not convert is to be slaughtered. We have come a long way since then, but that mentality still lingers. Around the world, people still kill in the name of Jesus.  And in the U.S., non-Christians are still very cautious of Christians who attempt to convert or “save” them. I know I’m pretty annoyed when a Jehovah’s Witness or a Mormon wakes me up on a Saturday morning!

         But that does not mean that we should not share our faith. A general guideline that I use for sharing faith is to only talk about what my faith means to me. I have my own testimony about what my faith has done for me in my life and I’m sure you have one too. In some churches, testimony is practiced regularly. In many other churches, it has fallen out of importance. In MCC, let’s never forget the power of testimony. Over four decades of ministry in MCC, we have fallen back on the notion that we will grow naturally by people coming to us after they have been wounded by other churches. This phenomenon still occurs, but we cannot rely on it. There are plenty of “spiritual but not religious” people out there who could benefit by joining in spiritual community with us. We do not tell people what they need to believe in order to earn a ticket to heaven or buy “fire insurance” from hell. We simply worship in spirit and in truth: teaching the Gospel of Unconditional Love that Jesus taught and basking in the presence of the Holy Spirit that we feel in our lives.

         Since religion has been given such a bad reputation, many people live in a spiritually barren desert. Remember that Moses led the Israelites through the desert… and they were thirsty! Someone say, “Thirsty!” The wilderness they were in was called “Sin.” That is not referring to sin as we know it, as in “error.” Rather, the desert of Sin was actually called Pelusium, which meant “clay.” So the dirt was probably clay with no water or vegetation. So the people complained to Moses, saying, “Why in the world did you bring us out here to die of thirst?? We’re thirsty! Give us water!” So Moses prayed and God told him, “Go to the rock at Horeb (“dried up ground”) and strike it with the staph you struck the Nile with.” So he did, and water gushed out for the people to drink. Moses called the place Massah, which means “trials and temptations” and Mirebah, which means “quarreling and strife.”

         Folks, the people in the desert are thirsty! There is plenty of quarreling and strife out there. People are thirsty for something else. There must be another way… and there is! Our own special brand of Christianity or anyone else’s is not the Living Water. The Living Water that Jesus spoke of can spring out of nowhere, just as it did in that dry desert long ago. You don’t need Moses’ staph to make the water flow. You don’t need some special incantation. All we need is a sincere desire to quench the thirst of our siblings in the human family.

         Don’t judge people’s resistance to anything called “spiritual.” They have every reason to be skeptical. Don’t ever tell anyone “I have something you don’t” or “You need Jesus.” Just live your life in such a way that the Living Water flows from your very being. And maybe, just maybe, someone will take a drink. And maybe, just maybe, someone will follow you back to this well we call MCC to share their cup with us. And maybe they’ll share their water with you too. Are you thirsty? I know I am. Drink deep with me. Amen.