trash

 So here’s the story as best I remember it from Sunday afternoon of the Tucson festival of books: Luis Alberto Urrea told us about Negra and her daughter Nayeli whom he first met when Negra was seven years old and living in the trash dump in Tijuana, where he was a relief worker, and he became friends with her and has known her ever since but when he went back years later with an NPR radio crew to interview her and her family, they decided to have something special to eat and they had shrimp but this was the first time Negra’s daughter Nayeli had ever had shellfish and she went into anaphylactic shock so they jumped back in the NPR van and drove back into Tijuana in search of a clinic and they came to one. This is her only shot to save her… he was holding her and she was getting cold. She was hardly breathing and they got to the clinic and then went to the door and the doctor came out, put his hand up and halted them: No, Indio, she is Indian, and we won’t treat her here. At this point, Luis learned about the power of the media, he says, even for a small one, a forgotten one, like Nayeli’s daughter, the Indian girl from the dump. The NPR producer had his microphone with him. He pulled it out, put it in the doctor’s face and said, do you mean to tell me and you mean to tell our audience, our large audience in the United States, in Mexico, in Canada, in Latin America, in Europe, and in Spain that you won’t treat this girl because she’s Indian?! Oh you misunderstood me he said, and then he treated her and her life was saved, the little one the forgotten one. I want to remember that story because our Lord was both the little one and the Savior in his own story. Will you look at David who is the shepherd? He was the forgotten one, the kid they always just left out in the field when something important was happening and it was God’s prophet who made sure he was in the picture … so Jesus, from this small little village, on the edge of the empire of the time on the edge of Israel became the savior of his country and of humanity, and he did it not forgetting that he was both lamb and shepherd. When we look at Psalm 23 “the Lord is my shepherd” and then we listen to the gospel, we may want to remember not just the ninth chapter of the gospel of John but the 10th, which is when Jesus says, I am the good shepherd, I know my sheep and my sheep know me …. he know he says as a shepherd, my sheep know my voice. And elsewhere he talks about the shepherd going after the one lost sheep and leaving the 99 behind to search for that lost one sheep… so I tell the story because it relates to our Old Testament lesson and our Psalm and our Gospel reading because we are often in the place of Jesus, of being in God's hands as he works in the world: we are the ones who are called to not forget the little one, to be oh, assistant shepherd, as it were, to go after the last little one, and bring it back to life.

Garbage: at the Tucson festival of books, Sunday afternoon, 5 March 2023, Luis Alberto Urrea told us about this episode in “this American life” — on the experience of people who live in the trash dump in Tijuana. Another episode in this true story is found online at:

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/249/garbage 

Never since the world began

"For ye were sometimes darkness..."
The Man Born Blind - Duccio 1308-11
http://edgeofenclosure.org/lent4a.html

• 1 Samuel 16:1-13
• Ephesians 5:8-14
• John 9:1-41
• Psalm 23

There is a pretty bad movie, starring Robert Downey Jr and Meg Ryan, called "Restoration", that despite its awful contrivances still intrigues me. Not because of its picturesque frivolities but because of its actually serious topic. "Restoration" is set during the period of the restoration of the English monarchy after the Interregnum under Parliament and Oliver Cromwell the Protector. (The time is the 1660s of our era.)

So there is a reaction against the constraints of a Puritan dictatorship not only in politics but in morals. (For a more balanced and thorough personal account of these changes, read the diaries of Samuel Pepys - or listen, as I did, to Kenneth Brannagh reading portions.)

The hero, if we can call him that, of the film, is the King's new Physician, a fool, as we meet him, who quickly gets himself into trouble as he trivializes himself and the already frivolous life of court.

But then plague strikes. And all becomes more serious than he can handle......

And in some sense he finds redemption - a restoration to himself, if you will - as he begins to serve people who need him: a physician after all.

He finds his calling in horrendous times.

No one wants them.

Cue Gandalf talking to Frodo: 
Frodo: ... I wish none of this had happened. 
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times but that is not for them to decide. All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you.

Did God ever choose such times? Well, yes, in a sense. Look at the times into which he sent his Son.

If ever the world needed a Shepherd, a light-bearer, it was then (and always now). Imperial occupation, corrupt quislings leading the people, abject poverty, ongoing contagion, - it was time.

Perhaps it is always time. Time for a Shepherd. Time to bear light into the world.

And so the light comes into the world. It does not only come once, but for all. All people, all times.


So often when we visit somebody in hospital, there are some old words that hold comfort and meaning. The 23rd Psalm, and the Lord's Prayer. This is not hiding. This is facing the light.

Here they are as they appear in the "new" Prayer Book of 1662, the time of the Restoration.

PSAL. 23. Dominus regit me. The Lord is my ſhepherd: therefore can I lack nothing. 2 He ſhall feed me in a green paſture: and lead me forth beſide the waters of comfort. 3 He ſhall convert my ſoul: and bring me forth in the paths of righteouſneſs, for his Name’s ſake. 4 Yea, thou I walk through the valley of the ſhadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy ſtaff comfort me. 5 Thou ſhalt prepare a table before me againſt them that trouble me: thou haſt anointed my head with oil, and my cup ſhall be full. 6 But thy loving-kindneſs and mercy ſhall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the houſe of the Lord for ever.


Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven: Give us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our treſpaſſes, as we forgive them that treſpaſs againſt us; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. Amen. 

We too might long for a 'restoration' of times before. What we face instead are new times. What we carry forward from the past is - not nostalgia - but resources that last: Word, sacrament, prayer, fellowship; with these to sustain us, we carry forward the light that is always with us.

What we carry forward is also vision - a vision, a longing, for how things can be - and indeed what the blind man saw, and what disturbed the universe, was something new: not since the world began had a man born blind received his sight. This is not restoration; this is new.

Light has entered the world, as it has since the first dawning, as it did this morning. And as it always does it is old and it is new. We have not chosen our times; we choose how to live them.

http://bible.oremus.org/

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114272/

http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1662/baskerville.htm

the man born blind

Jesus spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man's eyes, saying to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see.

One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.

In the name of God, Father, source of all being, Son, eternal Word, and holy Spirit.

What would it be like to be blind from birth? What would it be like to know you would never know the world as others knew it?

What you knew was what you could touch and smell and taste, the feel of wind on your face or rain or sun, the smell of sweat or dung or sweet clover, the taste of - infamy. For many thought that the sins of his parents had been punished by his affliction.

Jesus would have none of it.

Jesus spit. Jesus spit in the dirt.

And he made mud. He made soil - clay - earth. Out of the dust he fashioned something new that had never been in the world.

As in Genesis when God formed a man out of the dust of the earth now something new was being created.

This man - this one - was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him.

God will be glorified in this: the action that Jesus takes now.

Jesus took the mud he had made from earth and spit and smeared it across the eyes of the man born blind. Hold still.

And he told him, now go - and wash in the pool of Siloam. So the man went and washed - and he came back, seeing.

He did not see Jesus.

He saw his neighbors - who could not believe their eyes. Is it him? Sure it is. No it cannot be.

So they called in the experts.

The Pharisees.

And these Pharisees were more concerned with keeping the sabbath than with the giving of sight to the blind.

Not restoring sight, mind - giving it for the first time.

But he made something - mud - on the Sabbath. That's work! He broke the Sabbath. A ha!

What do you say about him? You are the one he made to see.

He is a prophet of God.

Get his parents.

Yes, he is our son - but how it is he can now see we do not know.

They did not want to be ostracized - shunned - thrown out of the synagogue.

And so they stuck to what they knew - only what they knew - and did not stick their necks out. Not even for their own son.

Okay, come clean with us. How did this happen? They confronted the man.

Come clean now. Tell the truth. Give glory to God.

You know he's a sinner -

- I don't know that.

One thing I do know: that though I was blind, now I see.

What did he do? How did he do it?

He is getting a little tired of this. Why do you keep asking me these questions? Do you want to become his followers?

Now that was a little - cocky?

They dismiss him: you were born entirely in sin!

And they throw him out - out of the synagogue, out of the community.

At this point he has nothing left - nothing left of his old life. Neighbors, parents, community - all gone.

One person is left - if he knew where he was. But he has only heard his voice. He has never seen him.

Jesus seeks him out - and finds him.

Do you believe in the Son of Man?

Who is he? Tell me, that I may believe.

The one who is speaking to you now - the one you have seen already - he is the one.

Lord, I believe.

The man called Jesus, the prophet, a man sent from God, is now before him: and he knows who he is.

It is the Lord.

And he worshiped him.

His old life is gone.

His new life has begun.

Jesus explains what has happened. First he says that he has, through his actions and his being, brought judgment to the world.

Those who do not see may see; those who do see may become blind.

It certainly seems so; for the man born blind sees who Jesus is - and the experts miss it entirely. In fact they reject the truth.

And it is there before their eyes. It is Jesus.

Jesus goes on to explain:

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. They hear my voice and they follow me.

Come follow me.

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What shall we do with this invitation? We have watched as one man, born blind, lived into full recognition of the one he was dealing with. At first only a voice and a healing touch - he heard it was 'the man called Jesus' - soon his own bearing witness bears fruit in continuing recognition and growth in understanding.

He is a prophet. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.

Who is the Son of Man that I may believe in him? Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him.

We have seen this progression - and the falling away of all earthly supports as the man turned and worshipped the one who had sought him out and given him sight, sought him out again, and given him - insight, salvation, life.

In him was light and life and love - from the foundation of the world to its fulfillment, this is the one who gives those things.

And he stood before him, and then worshiped him.

What are we to do?

How are we 'born blind'?

It is not an affliction to punish us for our sins or those of our parents - so don't beat yourself up - but it is an occasion for God to reveal his glory.

What is it that we are not seeing? Is there something we are sensing, or hearing about? Is there someone seeking us out?

How shall we be ready? And do we want it?

Open our eyes, that we may see - and seeing, believe;
and believing, worship - and worshiping, follow.

Give glory to God - tell the truth. Come clean. He is the savior of the world.

And he is the good shepherd. The one who calls out to us by name, who knows us - and we know him.

And he calls us forth -

- where are we to go, if not to follow him?

Who is going to feed us, if not him? Who protect us, if not him?

Who lead us to shelter? Who provide for all our needs?

But the Lord is our shepherd.


Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd *
therefore can I lack nothing.
He shall feed me in a green pasture *
and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort.
He shall convert my soul *
and bring me forth in the paths of righteousness, for his Name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death , I will fear no evil *
for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff comfort me.
Thou shalt prepare a table before me against them that trouble me *
thou hast anointed my head with oil, and my cup shall be full.
But thy loving-kindness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life *
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

[Book of Common Prayer, 1662]

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Lord, open our eyes to your presence,
open our ears to your call,
open our hearts to your love;
that we might give ourselves to you
and walk before you as children of light;
through him who is the Light of the World,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[David Adam, Clouds and Glory (SPCK, 2000) p. 51.]


Thy word is 'a fountain of most pure water springing up unto everlasting life.' (Myles Smith, preface, King James Bible)

Spring up in me, O Jesus; that I may know you by your word, and by your work in me reveal your glory to the world.


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What would it be like to be born blind – and suddenly receive your sight?

What would it be like to be born blind – and suddenly receive your sight?

Would it be like this: like coming into a familiar place and seeing it as for the first time?

Would it be like coming back into health after a long illness?

Would it be like – discovering a new faith & embracing it & then coming home?

How would your family react? What would the neighbors say? The priests & politicians?

This man was blind from birth: and the question posed to Jesus was, which sinned, him or his parents, that this is his condition? It had to be one or the other, right? But Jesus shows them the way out of this false dilemma. Neither one: he has been born blind in order that God’s truth might be revealed in the world. But they still don’t see it. And so, Jesus goes to work: he makes mud, he who made the world, and he takes this primordial ooze and he spreads it across the man’s eyes.

“Go, wash….”

And then the man returns. Not all of them do. But this one does. And he can see. And his family and his neighbors can see that he can see.

Not a very comfortable moment. For him, for them. Can it be that this man had not sinned? That he was not being punished for some ancient fault? Can this be right? Is it a valid miracle if you do something like this?

So they take him to the experts – the Pharisees. The purest of the pure. They deserve sight, surely.

And oh dear – he says something unfortunate. He tells them the truth. What he has experienced: “I once was blind but now I see.”

And just how did that happen? “Jesus put mud on my eyes, then I washed, and now I see.”

And what do you say about him? “He is a prophet.”

This really upsets the apple cart. If sin is not the result of your fault, if sight is not the gift of the privileged few who – somehow – have not sinned, then what is the world coming to?

Grace. It is coming to grace. And truth, and light, and life, in the revelation of God’s glory in Jesus Christ.

Dangerous, dangerous words.

“One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

They cannot believe it; they cannot accept it. And so they drive him out.

Jesus finds him, and asks him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” Do you trust him?

And the man once blind begins his new life in the light of Christ.

“I came into this world,” says Jesus, “for judgment – for a dividing of the truth – so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.”

The experts are revealed in their blindness, their willful folly, their failure, their refusal, to see – it is much more comfortable in the dark with your eyes shut. So they pretend.

The man was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent Jesus while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as Jesus is in the world, he is the light of the world.

And he heals us. And then:

Once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. This is what’s next.

The apostle Paul tells us what we are to do with this new life, this new light: Live as children of the light.

“Though you once were darkness, now as Christians you are light. Prove yourselves at home in the light, for where light is, there is a harvest of goodness, righteousness, and truth. Learn to judge for yourselves what is pleasing to the Lord; take no part in the barren deeds of darkness, but show them up for what they are. It would be shameful even to mention what is done in secret. But everything is shown up by being exposed to the light, and whatever is exposed to the light itself becomes light. That is why it is said:
‘Awake, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine upon you.’” (Eph 5.8-14 REB)

It takes a while to get used to this new sight. It takes a while to get used to this new light. To be restored to wholeness, when we are used to brokenness, and even more to be made a new creation – this is the promise of Christ Jesus. In him we find a new identity, a new community, new selves and relations. This is proud and painful. The man once blind now has a new life to live. Blinking in the sun, he emerges into the morning. It is a new day.

It is the new day of the Lord. The light of the world is shining. This is the day that the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Amen.

JRL+ 3/2/08


Sources & Resources:

Lent IV, Year A

1 Samuel 16:1-13, Ephesians 5:8-14, John 9:1-41, Psalm 23

Frederick Niedner, "Living by The Word: Reflections on the Lectionary", The Christian Century, February 26, 2008, Vol. 125, No. 4, p. 20-21.

Barbara Crafton, "The Almost Daily eMo: AN ASTONISHING THING. FUNNY, TOO. / STILL HEALING THE BLIND", March 1, 2008, The Geranium Farm, http://www.geraniumfarm.org