The Rev. Ann R. Lougee
March 2, 2008
O Say, Can You See?
John 9

Once upon a time, long, long ago, when Norm and I were very young, I was up in the middle of the night with our newborn first baby, Richard. I was changing his diaper by the dim glow of a night light, and all of a sudden Richard looked intently up over my shoulder.

I assumed from the baby's staring that Norm had gotten up and come into the room behind me, but when I turned my head to speak to him, I discovered that there in the darkness was...nobody, and I screamed. My mind was set on seeing something different, so it startled me. When our minds are expecting one thing, or are set on one way of seeing or doing things, and something else happens, we react emotionally.

We may also fail to take in new information from the world around us. If Archimedes had had his mind set only on getting clean while taking his bath, he might not have discovered the important principle of the displacement of water by an immersed body and never have gone rushing off shouting "Eureka!" "I've found it!"

One of my favorite 20th century philosophers, John Lennon, gave us the saying, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." The Bible is full of stories of people who missed or almost missed what God was doing because, like the Pharisees in John's gospel, they were busy making other plans, expecting something else, and couldn't see with their spiritual eyes what was happening there and then.

Take the prophet Samuel for example. He almost missed anointing David king of Israel because he had never imagined that God would choose a young shepherd lad over his much more impressive-looking brothers. Afterwards, Samuel says "God does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart."

Elijah the prophet almost missed a visitation from God because he expected God to come as earthquake, wind or fire, instead of the "still, small voice" within him.

And, of course, we remember Jesus' male disciples, who almost missed out on Easter, because they didn't expect the revelation of God's life-renewing power to come first to the women in their group.

Well, today's story from the gospel of John is like that: expectations are confounded and, therefore, some don't see what's happening. It's actually a pretty funny scene: Jesus does a miraculous healing and the Establishment folks say, "Well, you picked the wrong day to do this. And who are you to do this kind of work, anyway?"

They miss the point. For John's gospel, the point is that those who witness the work should recognize that the one who did it is full of the power of God.

But there are some folks in every situation who can only look for what's wrong, and miss the opportunity to celebrate something good. By the end of today's story the healed one is saying, "I believe," while the Pharisees are left bewildered and outraged, asking, "are we also blind?"

Jesus responds, "My calling is to bring sight to those who do not see, and to question the vision of those who think they do see." Then, just in case the reader has missed it, the gospel writer closes with the point he has been leading up to all along: that God is at work in and through Jesus, and that those who are not willing to recognize that, who continue in their spiritual blindness, bring judgment upon themselves.

The challenge and opportunity to recognize God at work comes anew to the people of every time and place. God's revelation is on-going (as we like to say, "God is still speaking").

There was a time when blind people were under the stigma of having been cursed by God for sin -- either their own or their ancestors'. They were often rejected by their families and put out on the street, forced to beg for survival. We see that differently now.

People who had mental illnesses were often likewise assumed to be cursed by God and either rejected by their families or hidden away as embarrassments. We see that differently now.

There was also a time when the (capital-C) Church preached anti-Semitism and persecuted Jews, quoting from this very gospel against "the Jews," and slandering the Jewish people as "Christ-killers." We see that differently now, too.

But people had to struggle with those issues. They had to be led by those with the vision to see God's will in a different way, so that our present-day eyes can be open to the injustice of those forms of blindness, as well as others, like slavery.

In biblical times, slavery was accepted as a given, and that view persisted until the middle of the 19th century in this nation. John Newton, the composer of one of the most beloved hymns of all time, Amazing Grace, was a slave-trader who made his living sailing ships across the ocean to transport and sell human beings who'd been kidnaped from Africa. At one time, he even threw some of his human cargo overboard to lighten the ship in a storm. But he underwent a sudden enlightenment, he said, when one day he looked into the eyes of one of these chattel, and recognized a human being.

The United Church of Christ has a proud heritage of being in the forefront of the struggle against slavery, from the time of the early New England abolitionists. Our Congregational forebears helped slaves escape through the underground railway, and fought to abolish slavery in this country before, during, and after the Civil War. Our denomination and its predecessor denominations have been, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "drum majors for justice."

In similar fashion, God has been at work gradually opening eyes to the injustice experienced by other people, too. It began, and continues, with the struggle for justice and equality for people from different racial and ethnic and religious heritages.

The struggle for justice and equality progressed to include women. We also became aware of the injustice of excluding people with physical and mental and emotional limitations.

None of these struggles are finished once and for all, but must continue to be carried on by people of vision. Today the on-going struggle for justice centers on the issue of equality and inclusion for gay and lesbian, bisexual and trans-gendered people. The United Church of Christ is leading in this struggle as well.

For a long time, we were the only mainline denomination to ordain openly gay and lesbian, partnered clergy and to welcome their gifts into our work and worship. That welcome still surprises some people. But God's inclusive love and justice has a long history of surprising people, because, as the prophet Samuel said, God looks on the heart and not on externals.

General Synod is the gathering of elected delegates from all of the UCC Conferences in the United States in each odd-numbered year, and in making pronouncements it speaks to the churches but not for the churches.
Because all of our churches, Associations and Conferences are in covenant with one another, however, we are called to prayerfully consider all actions taken by General Synods, free to respond according to the leading of God's Spirit.

So the General Synod of 1985, in voting the United Church of Christ to be an Open & Affirming denomination, encouraged the different settings of the church -- Conferences, Associations and local churches -- to adopt similar nondiscrimination policies.

In 1992, our Northern California-Nevada Conference voted to become Open & Affirming. I have been proud to be known in the Redding community as the pastor of a church that voted itself, five years ago, to be an Open and Affirming congregation.

But within this very congregation itself still, there are those who are here because we are Open and Affirming and those who are here in spite of it. We see other denominations being threatened with splits and schisms, and we recognize the pain experienced by people on both sides of the question.

The Pharisees in John's story were blind to the unexpected way that God was working in and through Jesus. Just so we can be blind to the ways that God is at work in and through the church, seeing only negative aspects to differences in perspectives.

Or we can open our eyes to see that these struggles are opportunities to really learn about each other's lives, to learn about each other's hopes and fears and dreams and tears, to learn thereby to love one another, and to discover God in our midst in the doing of that, because God is love.

That's what we are about to celebrate at the Communion table. This is the gracious good news of Jesus, that God is love, that God is among us when we love, that the gift of love is free for all who will receive it.

Let's not miss what God is doing, and the gifts and blessings that every situation offers us, just because we might have our minds set on something else, making other plans. Amen.