The Sunnybrook Pulpit
Rev. Ross Smillie
March 26, 2017 – Fourth Sunday of Lent
I Once Was Blind, But Now…?
As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. – John 9:1-7
A few years back, I took part in a program called
Choices, which teaches people tools for more rewarding
living. One of the tools they teach is called “changing
your glasses.” (slide one) Often, they taught us, we get
stuck looking at the world in one particular way, and we
start thinking that is the only way to see things. But
sometimes, it is worth asking yourself, “what if I tried on a different set of
glasses?” (slide two)
Changing your Glasses
 What if, instead of being judgmental, for example,
• Judgemental
or
Trusting
you made a conscious decision to try being more
• Closed
or
Open
• Angry
or
Accepting
trusting.
• Rigid
or
Flexible
Right
or
What If?
 If your typical stance is a closed, defensive one, try •• I'm
Not Worth It
or
Deserving
being more open.
• Coping
or
Choosing
 If you are often angry and rigid, change your
glasses and be accepting and flexible.
 If you are pretty attached to being right all the time, ask yourself “What if
the other has something valuable to contribute?”
 If you often view yourself as not worth it, try on being deserving.
 And if you are just coping, not really living, but just getting by each day,
make the choice to take charge of your life.
The glasses we wear affect the way we see the world. And we can change the way
we live by choosing to see the world differently. That’s not to say changing our
glasses is easy. We get in the habit of seeing the world in a certain way, and
sometimes we have to break an old habit, we have to stop putting on those old
glasses and consciously choose to put on a new set.
None of us see the world as it truly is. We are always interpreting the visual data
that our eyes send to our brain. There is way too much information to take in, so
we screen it, filtering out what we don’t think is important, and focusing on what
seems more important and interesting. In the process of growing up, we develop a
“worldview,” a way of seeing the world. And we filter what happens to us through
this way of seeing the world. It helps us to make sense of what happens to us. If
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everybody you meet has pretty much the same culture and
upbringing as you, they will see the world the same way you do,
so they will have a similar worldview. You may take your
worldview for granted. It is like the air you breath; most of the
time you won’t even notice it. But when you meet people who
have a radically different experiences and upbringing, you
discover that they see the world in dramatically different ways.
As we read this story of Jesus healing the man born blind, we ought to identify
with the blind man. He is us and we are him. We are all blind as bats, but our eyes
can be opened, just as his were.
This story is filled with paradoxes. There is a man who is physically blind, but is
open to receiving sight, and there are people who physically can see, but are
spiritually blind. There is this strange irony that the ones with good eyesight fail to
see what God is doing. Some of the Pharisees, not all but some, criticize Jesus for
healing on the Sabbath. They have been taught to see some things as being the
signs of God's presence, and even when the evidence slaps them in the face that
God is doing something new, they cannot see it. It becomes clearer and clearer as
the story goes on that Jesus is more interested in spiritual sight than in physical
sight. And at the end, Jesus puts the paradox plainly: "I came into this world for
judgment, so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may
become blind." Jesus came "to bring sight to those who cannot see, and to question
the vision of those who think they do see."1
The way to see, the story suggests, is to become aware of the ways in which we are
blind. When we are infants and toddlers, we are still learning to see, and so we are
open to being taught. But when we become adults, we settle into established
patterns of thinking and acting and seeing, and we are only usually open to seeing
things in a new way when some crisis forces us out of our preferred pattern and
makes us look at life in a new way. Most of the time we are quite comfortable
with what we see and what we don't see, and it is simply too challenging, too
threatening to try to see things in a new way. And so we resist the new.
There are many who are spiritually blind, who do not want to see: addicts who
cannot imagine life without their crutch; violent and abusive people who enjoy the
sense of power that hurting others brings them. They literally cannot see how
much better their lives would be if they could learn a different and better way.
There are many who know they are blind but who cannot learn to see: the people
who come out of jail wanting to live a new life, but end up falling into the same
old ruts; the women who painfully extricate themselves from one abusive
1WPOG blue
sheet - March 17, 1996
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relationship only to get themselves right into another one, because they have
become so used to that way of life, they literally do not know how to live another
one. And there is you and me, who in our own ways are blind and resist seeing
things differently. Perhaps it is in a conflict within the family, where really taking
others’ frustrations seriously would mean having to change the way we see our
roles in the family. Perhaps it is a situation at work, where in order to grow we
need to change. Perhaps it is in the community, where to really make a positive
contribution would require us to try a new approach or learn a new ability. The
grace of God comes through recognizing our own blindness and being open to
having our eyes opened. (slide four)
There is a special kind of blindness that afflicts those of us who
are part of a dominant group in society. It is exceptionally
difficult it is for us to really see what life is like for those in
subordinate positions. It is really hard for men to see what it is
like for women to walk alone after dark, what it is like to live
with the possibility of being attacked and sexually assaulted. It is really hard for
white people to perceive what life is like for people of colour or aboriginal people.
It is really hard for straight people to understand what life is like for gay and
lesbian people. It is really hard for wealthy people to understand the struggles of
those who live in poverty. It is hard for healthy people to see how life looks for
people with disabilities or mental illnesses. The inability to see what life is like for
subordinate groups makes life indescribably more difficult for people in those
groups, and it is not too surprising that they are sometimes frustrated and angry at
the lack of understanding they experience. What they find particularly upsetting is
the unwillingness of people who do not share their experience to be willing to
listen and to try to see life through their eyes. And so they ask in frustration, “How
can you be so blind?”
Up in the left front corner of the sanctuary, there is a stone from the Red Deer
Industrial School. We keep it there, in part, I think to remind ourselves of how we
need to learn to see with a different set of glasses. That stone is a reminder of the
particular form of blindness that kept our church from seeing how much damage
we were doing to First Nations children by taking them away from their families,
communities, and culture. That blindness afflicted the whole society. The
government funded it and the churches administered it. The United Church was
one of those churches involved. We were involved because we thought education
was important and we wanted to make sure that all children had access to
education. Those were the glasses we were wearing: we thought we were doing
good. It took us longer than it should have to realize that an education that tried to
educate aboriginal children out of being aboriginal was a racist form of education.
Our glasses were dirty and they needed to be cleaned, and even changed. We were
the first church to recognize the destructiveness of the system, and to pull out of it,
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and I suppose there is some small pride to be taken in that. We acknowledged our
blindness and tried to learn a new way of seeing by seeking out a different
relationship with native peoples. We are still seeking that new relationship. It is
not easy, and it will not happen overnight. We are being healed, but we are still
blind, and the only way to experience the healing is to admit that we need it.
As we live into this story of Jesus healing a person born blind, let us confess our
own failure to see, and let us place our trust in the light of the world, who is able
to help us see. Let us pray:
Healer of blind hearts,
We confess that we see what we want to see and
Do not understand what we do not want to understand,
And we become defensive when our definitions are challenged.
We seek healing for ourselves, but are suspicious when it is offered to those we
consider unworthy.
Judge us into repentance, touch us with humility, and send us to wash in your
pool of blessing,
for you are the light of the world and you can restore our sight. Amen.
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