What is the mission of the Church?
The mission of the Church is to restore
all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.
The mission of the Church is
restoration. The focus of Lent is reconciliation. This theme was
introduced last week with Jesus and the woman at the well. It
continues today and next week in the story of the man blind from
birth, and the raising of Lazarus. While this is the theme of these
three weeks, today's gospel also points to the difficulty of this
mission of the Church.
The Gospel of John is filled with
meaning – literal and metaphorical, straight-forward and ambiguous.
This gospel has a sublime quality to it that allows for this breadth
of meaning. A prime example of John working on two different levels
was two weeks ago in the dialogue between Nicodemus and Jesus and
that misunderstanding between being born from above and being born
again. Because of these variety of meanings I'm going to play with
today's passage a bit.
As Jesus walked along he saw a man born
blind from birth. After Jesus met him, the man's eyes were opened
and he was able to see. What kind of eye-opening was this? Was it
literal? Maybe. Or was it something deeper? It's probably a
both/and.
Our world is full of blind-to-sight
images. REO Speedwagon sings of recognizing that a friend is more
than a friend. John Newton wrote of once being blind, but now being
able to see. Saul was blind to the presence of Christ until he also
had a first-hand experience where he gained his sight, seeing the
face of Christ in others. And there are countless other images and
stories of people gaining their sight, most of which have nothing to
do with physical ability.
As I said last week, restoration and
reconciliation have to do with being willing to cross boundaries and
reach out to the other, as well as being willing to open our eyes to
the possibility we may have been wrong and/or being willing to see
how we have sinned against another.
Restoration and reconciliation have to
do with opening our eyes.
Through an encounter with Christ, the
blind man was able to see the light of the world. Through his
willingness to see things in a new way he was restored to fullness in
Christ. Jesus said that he was born blind not due to sin, but so
God's works might be revealed in him. That revelation wasn't
necessarily the one-time-event of gaining sight, but may have been
how he lived out the rest of his life – revealing God's works to
those around him.
The mission of the Church is to restore
all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.
Through an encounter with Jesus, this
blind man was restored to unity with God through Christ. This blind
man was told to wash in the pool of Siloam, which means “sent.”
This is the gospel of John, so I don't think that's a coincidence.
After he gained his sight he is sent to proclaim the healing nature
of Jesus. He proclaims the healing nature of Jesus to the crowds.
He proclaims the healing nature of Jesus to the Pharisees, as well as
proclaiming that Jesus is from God to those same people. He who once
was blind is now able to see. And what he sees is restoration and
unity through Christ.
The problem, though, is that those to
whom he was sent are having none of it. They are more focused on
maintaining their divisions and barriers than they are in pursuing
restoration. They would rather keep their eyes closed, living in the
darkness of their own blindness, than risk opening their eyes to the
light and being part of a fully restored people living in unity. I'm
reminded of the final book in The Chronicles of Narnia in
which the dwarves refuse to open their eyes to the wonderfulness
around them – that wonderfulness found in the unity that comes
through reconciliation and restoration.
Again, this is hard work.
It's hard work for those who initiate
the process because it asks us to put aside our animosity and pride
and risk being rejected. It's hard for us to get past the
possibility that those with whom we wish to reconcile may not want
that, preferring an adversarial relationship, or no relationship at
all. And it's even harder for us to get past the possibility that
those with whom we wish to reconcile may accept our offer, putting us
in a position to actually live out what we preach.
It's also hard for those on the other
side. Mistrust is always there – is there an ulterior motive being
played out? Or a belief that we are being asked to change to satisfy
the desires of those asking us for reconciliation?
And in both cases it seems easier to
remain blinded by our own ways than to open our eyes to a new life.
This is played out in today's gospel
story. A blind man has an encounter with Jesus and his eyes are
opened to a new way of living. He is sent to proclaim reconciliation
and restoration through Jesus. His message is rejected. And those
to whom he was sent double down on their refusal to see, thereby
remaining blind.
None of this is about converting people
to Christianity. Neither is it about using this passage to condemn
the Jews for refusing to accept Christ.
What this is about is understanding
that, as the Church, we are to look for ways of reconciliation,
thereby restoring all people to unity with God and each other,
through the methods Christ himself used.
We may be ridiculed. We may be
rejected. We may be thrown out by those with whom we are trying to
reconcile. But we are all sent in an effort to show others that
there's a better way than walking in the darkness of our own
blindness.
And if, through our efforts, people
open their eyes to a new way of seeing, then we are one step closer
to fulfilling the mission of the Church – restoring all people to
unity with God and each other.
Amen.
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