The readings on
which this sermon is based can be found at:
http://frsparky.net/a/r015.htm
s015g14 Lent 4 30/3/2014
‘How can a man who is a sinner perform such
signs?’ John 9.16
I wonder if this observation is the reason behind
that statement in Hebrews: ‘We do not have a high
priest who is unable to sympathise with our
weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect
has been tested as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore approach the throne of
grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy
and find grace to help in time of need.’ (1)
I guess that I am not the only one who
finds a sinless Jesus remote and unreal.
The difficulty is that we get caught up in the
religious language of sin, which becomes all
consuming.
I wonder if we really need to translate this
question as ‘How can this man who is not
a ‘christian’ perform such signs?’
Quite some years ago, after moving to a different
State, I chose to go to a general practitioner who
specialised in acupuncture. I had given up
smoking using a home acupuncture kit many years
previously. However it happened that over
time after the move rheumatoid arthritis started
to set in. As the disease progressed I went
to this doctor every week for needles. I had
regular blood tests, went on pear and rice diets,
but what was obvious to everyone except me, I was
getting worse rather than better. I did
lots of walking in my job, yet I was not
benefitting from this exercise. Anyway,
after a considerable time I changed my doctor.
I had lost so much weight he thought I had
multiple myeloma. This proved negative and
a referral to a rheumatologist and a course of
steroids and methotrexate proved the diagnosis and
appropriate treatment. I am now back to my
old self, taking only one anti arthritis
medication. But I tell this story because
it made me realise that I can be entirely
oblivious to something which is blindingly obvious
to others. And sometimes ‘professionals’
can be blind to the lack of response to their
treatments.
So if we have difficulty in accepting God’s
forgiveness that we have to go to Church each and
every Sunday, as well as tithe, I wonder if we
ought not be better to go to a psychologist,
psychiatrist, psychotherapist or councillor
instead. Most likely appointments wouldn’t
be more frequent than monthly, it would probably
be far less expensive than tithing and if they
don’t work we can always return to church.
But one would not keep going to a medical
professional week after week when they provided no
lasting relief; indeed any medical professional
worth his or her salt would terminate a patient if
the therapy they offered were not effective,
necessitating meeting on a weekly basis like this!
They would surely suggest someone else.
But of course, the church has a vested interest in
people continuing to come, week after week: her
own existence and preservation. Therefore
every absolution actually is conditional and
therefore pretence.
So what makes the church proclaim herself to be
the sole dispenser of absolution, but then insist
that it must be repeated weekly? Perhaps
there are people out there who sin more frequently
than I do, but weekly absolution seems somewhat
over-kill. I just wonder whose needs are
being met. It is certainly not the world’s
needs which are being met, and the world
recognises narcissism when it sees it.
Recently I saw someone blame the church’s
dithering on matters of human sexuality as a prime
reason that the modern generation have deserted
the church in droves, and I wouldn’t want to argue
with this - it certainly is true. But I
wonder if it is not more fundamentally the
emphasis on sin that has driven people out of the
pews. Modern secular humanists have
recognised that the church’s emphasis on sin
actually doesn’t do anything to help society as a
whole. They recognise that no one is
without sin, but we need to get over it, and get
on with helping break down divisions within
society. Modern secular humanists actually
want to do things that contribute to the
well-being of humanity - so they admire those in
the helping professions, they join service clubs,
community groups, lobby for the environment, try
to re-float beached whales. I suspect that
many people think that God, if God exists, is far
more interested in these sorts of causes rather
than endlessly forgiving the sins of a small
coterie of devotees - and condemning everyone
else! And if we care to look there is a
good deal of scriptural evidence for the sort of
God recognised by secular humanists.
So Isaiah writes: ‘What to me is the multitude of
your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough
of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed
beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or
of lambs, or of goats .. Trample my courts no
more; bringing offerings is futile; incense
is an abomination to me. New moon and
sabbath and calling of convocation -- I cannot
endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
Your new moons and your appointed
festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden
to me, I am weary of bearing them.
When you stretch out your hands, I
will hide my eyes from you; even though you make
many prayers, I will not listen .. learn to
do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan, plead for the widow.’
(2)
To me it is no wonder that the people are leaving
the church in droves if our primary message is
that ‘god’ is so concerned in endlessly
forgiving the sins of a small coterie of devotees
that God condemns everyone else!
As I finished my sermon last week, we as church
need to see that the world has learnt the lesson
of love and while the world wouldn’t pretend it
does any better in exercising that love and
forbearance, the modern world realises that it has
to contend with a multiplicity of beliefs and
cultures. Therefore the world has
considerable justification in thinking that it is
certainly no worse when it comes to
sin than a church which blinds herself to the
existence of other beliefs and cultures.
.. Which leads me to reflect that we have grown up
in a church which has for centuries been the
instrument of literacy and I guess it is hard to
divest herself of this role of teacher, of
literacy, learning, morality, philosophy.
There is little around us that we enjoy that has
not depended on these learnings. Yet for
all the good that has been achieved, we have been
called to love and listen rather than teach.
And perhaps this is the cusp of history in
which we find ourselves. This is the sharp
divide between conservative ‘christians’ and
progressive spirituality.
Certainly the bible does talk about sin, but one
sometimes wonders if it is an invention of the
devout and the orthodox to divert attention
to what is really important and from where the
Spirit actually leads - the affirmation and
inclusion of others. Because the concept of
sin is so all-pervasive, and feeds into our own
personal insecurities, there is no way of knowing
how much of the words about sin in the bible
is from the devil rather than God.
The man cured of his blindness is moved to
reply: ‘I do not know whether he is a
sinner’. He is able to see that sin is no
longer a relevant criterion. A theology
that revolves around sin and forgiveness blinds us
to the need to extend practical love to others.
So James writes: ‘If a brother or
sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of
you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat
your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily
needs, what is the good of that? So faith
by itself, if it has no works, is
dead.’ (3) Surely we know
that life consists of more than food and clothing
(4) so if we deny dignity to people of other
faiths and none, or to those who are not straight
like us, are we not condemned by these words of
James?
One of the threats the church used to use for the
sin of Onan was that it would make you go blind,
perhaps originating in 1760 by the Swiss physician
Samuel-Auguste Tissot (5)
and enthusiastically proclaimed at the start
of the 20th century by John Harvey Kellogg of
breakfast cereal fame. (6) Curiously
this does link to our passage, because if we only
love those who reflect our own theology, we blind
ourselves to the legitimate need that others
beyond our natural and spiritual families have for
respect and love.
‘How can a man who is a sinner perform such
signs?’ The answer is easy: forget
about sin and work with others to create a more
just and egalitarian society - now that would
indeed be an amazing and Godly sign, welcomed by
all!
1. Hebrews 4:15-16
2. Isaiah 1.11-17
3. James 2.15-17
4. Matthew 6
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel-Auguste_Tissot
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harvey_Kellogg