Every time I go to begin writing this, the words seem to fall short. In the midst of these challenging times, what can I, one person, say to help encourage love and compassion over all during the pandemic? People are scrambling for some sort of control in a circumstance where we have none. This need to control is part of who we are as humans. The need to control our environment and those around us pervades how we interact with the world.
It is from this aspect that we will approach the readings for the fourth Sunday in Lent. In the Gospel reading from John the issue of control is real - what did the blind man’s parents do or what did he do to cause this blindness? It is important to note that the light/dark imagery (Ephesians reading) and the sight/blind imagery (John reading) are often oppressive to people of color and people living with disabilities. I invite you to wrestle with how these oppressions exist in your context and what it means for your preaching of these texts. Many have written on these topics, so I will not rehash them here, but rather focus on control aspects of the text.
So let us look to the Gospel passage, John 9:1-41. In this text we see multiple instances of the need for control and how Jesus responds to them. The first is that the man born blind was at fault or his parents were at fault. Jesus responds that no, this is not the case, but we quickly run into something that I find a bit troubling and requiring of further examination. That being in verse three where we are told the man “was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” (NRSV). Did God make someone blind so Jesus could come along and heal them? Is this who God is?
No. I propose that we look at two words in the Greek that help us to further understand what Jesus means. The first is what is translated as ‘revealed’, φανερωθῇ. This word means more than just something that is revealed. It means that what was previously unseen becomes apparent. The man born blind did nothing - and truly there is no problem with being blind - but through his blindness what is previously not known, the realm of God, now transitions into the knowing and showing of the realm of God.
The second Greek word to look at is the preposition, ‘in’, or in Greek ‘ἐν’. The word is often translated as ‘in’, however it can also be translated as ‘by’. If we translate it as ‘by’, how does this change how we see the man being born blind? The man is not the revelation himself. The revelation is who Jesus is. The healing of the man is the way by which Jesus is revealed.
This turns the whole idea of the man being in control of his own future to Jesus being in control of our futures. This is a foreshadowing of Christ’s crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension. That Jesus will make sure that we are reconciled to God through the power of the Holy Spirit. This revelation is how we come to know who God is and how God acts in the world.
For queering the text, consider placing a LGBTQIA+ individual as the blind man - cast out or society as we are and begging for human decency as often we must. It is through us that the diverse and ever expanding realm of God is realized. Just as there is nothing that the blind man did to make him blind, we have done nothing to make us queer. It is not in our control. God made us this way to witness to diversity through being our authentic and true selves. Not as outcasts of society, but as members of it. The man born blind was incorporated back into his community and queer people shall be too once those who seek to control us are able to step back and allow us to be who God created us to be.
We want control - control over the future and control over the world around us. The lack of control we are currently experiencing is creating deep fissures in the world in which we live. Those fissures cannot be healed by human alone, but only through God working in humans. As church, we are called to still be the church, even when we are not worshipping on a regular schedule. Love your neighbor. Give them food. Serve them food. Do not hoard toilet paper. Provide the help you are able. Isolate yourself as you are able. Sometimes it is the simplest action that shows God sees them. We are the Church Universal in these times.
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