Word to the Wise
Sunday, March 2, 2008 - Fourth Sunday of Lent
[1 Samuel 16:1B, 6-7, 10-13A; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41]"Do you believe in the Son of Man?" He answered and said, "Whi is he, sir, that I may believe in him?" Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, the one speaking with you is he." He said, "I do believe, Lord," and he worshiped him.
Some years ago (more than I care to admit) a theologian at Emory University wrote a pioneering book called FAITH DEVELOPMENT. This book and others like it created quite a stir. The basic premise is that we all go through different stages in our faith, which roughly correspond to various stages in our human development. We don't all go through these stages at the same time or in the same way, but the stages are recognizable. (This reminds me of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's pioneering study on DEATH AND DYING.) When one reads the wonderful story of the man born blind from the Gospel of John today, one wonders why it took so long for someone to recognize (or to remind) us of this process. In the Gospel of John, as we saw last week in the story of the Samaritan woman at the well (also from the Gospel of John), individuals often come to a complete faith in Jesus by stages. Faith is a living thing and it is not simply an intellectual grasp of abstract theological principles. Friendship requires that we spend a lifetime learning about the one whom we love. Ask any couple who have been married a long time! My parents were married nearly 52 years and they were always exclaiming to me, "You'd thing HE/SHE would know better by now!" Although marriage has not been my experience, I have been blessed with friends whom I have known 30+ years. I am still getting to know them. Perhaps the song from the musical CAROUSEL says it well, "Getting to know you. Getting to know all about you!" In the gospel incident today, the Man Born Blind begins to know Jesus not simply because Jesus smeared mud on his eyes and told him to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam. He grows by interaction with the community, specifically the cynical and unbelieving Pharisees. Scripture scholars tell us that this account reflects what was going on in the early Christian community at the time of the composition of the gospel. In any case, one wonders how the man would have "developed" if the people around him had not questioned his experience. He goes from the stage of simple interaction-with-physical healing to prophet to seeing-in-a-new-way-with-the-eyes-of-faith. At the same time, those who question him become blinder and blinder. As Jesus says, "I came into this world for judgment, so those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind." One wonders if that is not the case with our own very secular culture. The more we Christians bear witness to what we "see," the more the secular culture tries to suppress it (in the name of separation of Church and State, of course). Often on retreats, I challenge the retreatants to think about where they are in their faith. I don't name "stages" but I do ask them to think about the "time" they are in. If they can, I ask them to think about the history of their faith. Who is it that we "see" and do we believe in what we see with the eyes of faith? AMEN
config
view
logs
3840.0 KB
64 ms
4
