March 26, 2017 "A GodWork"

I Samuel 16:1-13 John 9: 1-41 As scientifically advanced as we have become, as much as we know about human nature and the balance of the universe, we tend to ask the Wrong Questions, to seek Easy Answers to Complex Problems. When someone dies, we do not ask Jesus Question of Lazarus’ Sister: “Do you believe in the resurrection?” “How would you like to honor their faith?” We do not even inquire if they believed in God or if we do? We ask the Forensic Question “How did they die?” or “Did they suffer?” As if knowledge of a pulmonary embolism, versus ventricular blockage, were something important, and that a quick unexpected death may or may not be preferable to Cancer or a lengthy goodbye. Last Sunday, with the Samaritan Woman at the Well, we named that of necessity every household had to go to the Well at least daily. This morning Jesus disciples observe a blind beggar at the Pool of Siloam. Everything in the Middle East, whether Israel or Palestine, is made of limestone. The houses are limestone, the churches are limestone, even the aqueducts and public water pools are constructed of limestone. Trees are scarce and limestone is plentiful. However, limestone can be extremely porous, absorbing water until super saturated, then gushing forth as the air bubbles trapped in the rock react to being compressed, consequently the pools routinely erupt and surge, much like the geyser Old Faithful, or a living mammal breathing, Creation breathing life into the world. Because of this, there was an ancient myth that if you were blind or lame, and could be physically in the water of one of these pools when it surged, your ailment would be cured. Perhaps it was the mineral deposits or metals, but then again the water is polluted enough you do not want to sit in it waiting for the surge. That, made the pools a place where the poor routinely gathered and begged. None of Jesus’ Disciples asked “Why is there suffering?” “How do we solve poverty?” or “Will the poor always be with us?” Not even, “Is pain and suffering related to sin?” Instead, like us they assigned blame asking “Who Sinned, This man or his parents?” We have a desire to attribute blame with responsibility and to project our interpretation on the circumstance of others. We jump through complicated mental gymnastics to avoid responsibility, in order to blame someone. Around the world, climates have been changing. Possibly this is a Cycle that occurs every two hundreds years, possibly it is natural, possibly it is related to pollution. Polar Icecaps are melting, There have been greater number and velocity of Hurricanes and Volcanoes than previously on record; YET, 10 days ago, when we had +29 inches of snow in 24 hours, we described An ACT OF GOD! Not a Miracle, but Curse. In our minds we have made an equation, People (either do Good or Sin) PLUS not what we want or expect {Blindness and Disability, Illness, Devastation, Snowfall}, EQUAL Punishment for Sin. Who did it? Who angered the Gods, to cause our suffering? Whether Greek or Roman or Canaanite Gods, or the One Creator. Redeemer and Sustainer, we are human and we ask the same questions. When there are suspicions of Cancer, well meaning friends ask: Did you smoke? Were you exposed to carcinogens? Are there others in your Family who gave you this gene? As if, by asking questions, we can assign blame, either to the individual, or those responsible for them, or to God; and can comfort ourselves that we are safe. I served as a Chaplain in Clinical Practice at Harlem’s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in the early 1980s when the AIDS epidemic was first being diagnosed. The fear was that no one knew the cause. The disease was first named GRID, because the victims tended to fit a GRID of being Hispanic, Caribbean or African, related to intravenous drug use, tattoos, or prostitution and homosexuality. Overtime, we have come to recognize correlation as being different from causation, just as Fire Engines do not cause Fires, we came to understand that AIDS was not as contagious as we feared, but came to understand that victims of AIDS had less immunities against the germs we carry. In the early 1980s, fear was the reaction. The dilemma, according to Jesus, is that the blindness of this man cannot be attributed to he or his parents, those are irrelevant! The point of his blindness was to demonstrate a GodWork. Much like the conversations Jesus had with Nicodemus, and with the Samaritan Woman, we have to stop here, letting go all our pre-conceptions about Suffering and Sin, and Blame, and projections of Acts of God. Rather than asking Who Sinned, or Why do Good People Suffer, or Why do Corrupt people get away with it? We have a different starting point, of asking, “How has God used this circumstance for us, for others?” The point of this stranger’s blindness, was to demonstrate the power of God to heal from our worst fears, and also that there are blindnesses of vision, and there are blindnesses of our vision of the world. Remember back to the Book of Genesis, the story of Abraham’s Great Grandsons who try to get rid of their father’s favorite, Joseph and his many colored coat and dreams of power. They threw him down a well. They sold him into slavery. They told their father he was mauled to death and there was no hope in searching for him. From a different perspective, we hear of Israel going down into Egypt during a Famine, and we see the beginnings of Slavery and bondage. But in their lifetime, when Joseph had the opportunity of punishing those who sold him, as one in absolute economic/political/legal and religious power able to punish them for their sins, instead he named that God had used this circumstance to provide for their family’s survival and ultimate salvation. In this morning’s first reading. The people of Israel had never had a King, they were led by Moses, by Prophets and Priests as a Holy People of God. But the people wanted to be like everybody else and Samuel said NO. But God allowed the people to choose Saul as King. When Saul became seduced by power, Samuel could have said “See, I told you so!” or “You sinned and now you are going to suffer” instead God told Samuel to go to Bethlehem to ordain the one of God’s choosing. He went, and the one God chose was not a great leader, a great warrior, handsome, or wise, or ethical, the one God chose was a child, a shepherd boy; not for immediate leadership but years later, having been ordained as a child, claimed by God, he would become the best-loved if even one of the most humanly flawed Kings of Israel. In South Sudan, there is a marvelous and painful story, of a man who became blind. He came with his wife and daughter and three grandchildren to the Clinic and Surgeons. And they were able to surgically arrest his blindness and save his sight. When they took the bandages off his eyes, he took the youngest grandchild in his arms, because he had never seen her before. And he danced and sang, because he was able to enjoy this moment. The following day, walking home, he was shot and killed. We might, and many have questioned, Who sinned this man, or the one who shot him, that he lost his sight, and when his sight was restored he was murdered. But his wife’s response was “This was a “GodWork” the one thing he wanted in life was to see his grandchild and he was be satisfied.” Twenty-five years ago, my bride organized and led a Conference on the topic of AIDS Women and Children, with Elisabeth Kubler Ross as the keynote speaker. Elisabeth had pioneered the field of Hospice Care, the processes of death and dying and Grief and Loss; but in her own last two decades of life, Elisabeth transformed her home into an orphanage for children with AIDS. Our children had just been born, and Elisabeth asked the audience, “Who would be willing to parent a child? Of those, who would be willing to do so, if that child had a disease without a cure? You will have to glove to change the baby, disposing diapers as a bio-hazard waste. They will have temperatures and childhood ailments, that could be fatal to this child. You will need to administer shots to that infant every day, several times a day. You will need to take that child to the doctor, possibly several times a week. Now, how many of you would adopt a child, under those conditions? Now, imagine, that that child whom you claimed knowing that they had this fatal disease, what if, instead of only living for a few weeks or possibly years, became yours to walk down the aisle at their wedding, and to send them to college? Elisabeth said, few of us would, but that is Manifesting a GodWork.