Musings: Notes From My Daybook

My text this week is John 9 and I am fascinated with the way in which story unfolds.  A blind man who has no stated interest in Jesus, gets caught up in a theological debate about sin.  The next thing he knows his sight is restored--and then trouble begins.  His neighbors don't believe him, his parents desert him, religious leaders pester him with questions and ultimately expel him from the community.

Yet all the while his faith grows.  His capacity to see speaks to his capacity to recognize the abiding truth of God's work in his life.

On the other hand, religious leaders, assuming perfect insight are castigated by Jesus for their blindness. 

John writes this story to help the congregation of people he served to make sense of the pressure that was coming to them because of their faith in Jesus.  These early Christians feared the loss of their way of life and their associations in the synagogues because of their convictions about Jesus.  John is suggesting that believing may well mean going it alone--without family, friends, or leaders.  But John also makes clear that Jesus does not abandon believers.  Jesus is in the beginning of the story and he is at the end of the story.

It's living the inbetween parts that really gets rough.  And in the inbetween parts, it might be good to remember that we are not forsaken, nor have we gone blind.  We are only blind when we fail to reckon with the reality of our brokenness and of the brokenness of the world.

The ambiguity of life's experiences are real. That is the haunting theme in the 1962 Bob Dylan song, "Blowin' in the Wind."  Dylan speaks almost biblically at one point when his lyrics state:

How many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind
The answer is blowing in the wind*

What do you see?  Do you see the love of God at work nurturing your faith and addressing the brokenness of the world?  Or do you see self-sufficiency and inevitable progress?  One is real insight while the other is darkness.

CER

*Dylan sang it well, but I am partial to Peter, Paul and Mary:

As a popular author Elizabeth Gilbert's TED speech is witty, funny, and probes a deeply human longing.    Her answer is poignant and powerful. . . . and strangely lacking in an obvious way.

What would happen if we seriously posit the possibility of God's presence in our world?  Maybe might come to really know the muse or genius that is up to something in our world?

"Seek God, not happiness"—that is the fundamental rule of all meditation. If you seek God alone, you will gain happiness—that is the promise of all meditation.  --Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Regarding the passion of seeking after things, Cardinal Wolsey is a real poster boy.  After Wolsey's well-documented and single-minded pursuit of power, position, and wealth ended in his fall from grace with Henry VIII, William Shakespeare places these words on his lips to Cromwell:

Mark but my fall, and that that ruin'd me.
    Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition:
    By that sin fell the angels; how can man, then,
    The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?
    Love thyself last: cherish those hearts that hate thee;
    Corruption wins not more than honesty.
    Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace,
    To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not:
    Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's,
    Thy God's, and truth's; then if thou fall'st,
    O Cromwell,
    Thou fall'st a blessed martyr!

Seeking self, or seeking God's agenda?  Jesus presents two alternatives.  Only one presents a way of sharing in the joy of God's life.

Of course, Bob Dylan has something to offer as well to Matthew 6.19ff, in his tune "Gotta Serve Somebody."