Church of the Redeemer | Iglesia del Redentor - YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GIVE ME TO LOVE YOU

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GIVE ME TO LOVE YOU

1 Sam 16:1-13
Psalm 23
Ephesians 5:8-14
John 9:1-41

LENT 4 http://www.io.com/~kellywp/YearA_RCL/Lent/ALent4_RCL.html

"Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"Is one of the crucial questions of human history that hides our perplexity at misfortune or luck. The answer to this question then is conditional on two things, the culture of respondents and the intention to respond to these or these.

The question is not new, I think that has been in the consciousness of human beings since we started talking and we started to be religious (Rappaport), back in the archetypal cave.

It is well to remember that it was not until the development of speech that we could escape the here and now. Before the ability to communicate our world was rather boring, it began and ended every day. There was no way to retain, let alone communicate the experiences of the previous day, and thus there was no way to make meaning. Time was always present, no yesterday and no tomorrow. There was no way to solicit the help of others in the process of problem solving.

As we begin to communicate, we were able to escape the here and now, and we consider the possibility of tomorrow or yesterday. The time I leave to be on time and created a complex web of meanings. Northop Fry, Canadian theorist and literary critic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Frye Says that this web of meanings it is responsible for a lot of human advancement and also ironically for much of the destruction and hatred in the world. It is the web of meanings that allows us to work together to solve problems.

However, the web of meanings in which we live and which is the result of the creation of speech, say such concepts as homeland / nation, true / false, life / love / death, fortune / luck, we can not escape. This web of meanings that most often governs our actions, no one can escape, thus solving our common problems will be negotiated within the benchmarks of that invisible but real web in which we all live.

The question of evil, as the question of God belongs to the web of meanings, in a complex and unclean process where we have sought to find answers to the experience of life and death, luck and misfortune.

Therefore the answer to the question "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" will be spun in within a web of specific meaning, in this case rabbinical Judaism of the first century and from the person and ministry of Jesus.

Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him.

For that there is disgrace in the world, that a loving God allow children born blind, children who do not know color or light?

The answer of Jesus is presented within the intentionality of the Gospel of John, where all history is interpreted theologically. The gift of sight or deprivation of the same is then raised in categories much more expansive, going beyond the physical or historical. As for John the important thing is not to explain away personal suffering, or resolving theodicy, but to say that in Jesus there is a new light, like nothing has seen in Human history so far.

The Gospel of John says that the view depends on the light that shines on it. And for Christians that light is Jesus, the Light of the World. The story was clear to the Johanine church of the First century, a church that was being rejected by the Jews and considered suspicious by the Romans, a small community, persecuted and from any point of view, insignificant.

The intent of the evangelist is to tell this church small and persecuted, and that those who see the church as insignificant because it is small are worse than a man born blind. The intention is to tell this church, insignificant and in danger, that those whom God calls, far from receiving blessings materials and health, far from offering an easy life, God calls them to be witnesses of Jesus in a hostile and indifferent world.

Fred Craddock famous preacher, divided into four scenes passage today:

In the first scene the man cured of his blindness tries to go home and he appears in his old neighborhood and when he gets there produces no joy or happiness, or welcome rather doubts and questions. His neighbors and those who had seen him begging, they said"Is this not the man who used to sit and beg? Some were saying, "It is he." Others were saying, "No, but it is someone like him."

He was well known to these people, their uncertain walk, its poverty, its dependence on handouts, his scarcity is well known, they know that misfortune was his identity from birth. Now after that Jesus touched their eyes, he walks upright, safe, certain, dignified. And these new Him is received with questions, who are you?

In the second scene, the man was brought before the authorities, who are wondering about these non-authorised miracles by a man of dubious reputation and in violation of the law. (As Jesus knead mud on Saturday had "worked" which was forbidden) the man was healed and that must be of God, but was healed on the Sabbath, and this is against God's law. How can you be of God and challenge His laws at the same time?

In the third scene, the parents of the man born blind were questioned by the religious leaders, they admit at the very least - he is our son- and they were acquainted with his identity from birth, he was source of shame to them, creating rumors about their sin or their ancestors’ sin. So they get out of the way and say "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself."

The fourth stage is the man himself being interrogated and more intensely by the religious authorities who were presented with irrefutable evidence of healing. But they tried then to ask the man to denounce Jesus as a sinner because he has broke the Law of God by kneading on the Sabbath. They are not concerned so much deny the miracle, as to discredit the miracle worker. The man armed with the experience of what happened and with simple but irrefutable logic, states that whoever is a sinner can not perform miracles.

A few days earlier, Jesus has was blessed him with the gift of sight and now their neighbors, their parents and the authorities of the synagogue reject him and expelled him. What kind of blessing is that! Now you have to see how mean people could be when in fear. Those who heard the story in the context of the Church of the first century would have see it as a very clear story, who has chosen to walk in the darkness of life with the light of Christ leading the way, should not expect recognition, welcome, joy from the neighbors, family or culture. Quite the contrary, it must be hoped that this new identity will be challenged, this new vision will be flouted and that even his or her physical existence will be threatened.

It is not easy to be friends of God. Santa Teresa of Avila said ”no wonder you have so few, by the way you treat your friends”

In today's world, Christians who want to walk life in the light of Christ, in some parts of the world may risk their physical existence but in other places like here in the United States will be risking the ridicule and discredit by their friends, their neighbors and specially by the culture as whole.

Some people do not have enough courage to walk by the Light of Christ and suffer because of his or her discipleship, look at the scriptures searching for something that responds to the world allegations, something that will make Christianity relevant, something that will make it socially acceptable.

In this land of opportunity, to be rich or to improve economically is very important, even more important for the majority of the immigrant community, so it is not surprising that we see emerge ministries that preach the gospel of prosperity. Here in the United States there are famous preachers such as Joel Oesteen, who is pastor of a church with 15000 members in Houston, Texas.

I do not think that the Church has been called to strengthen its members ability to make money, at least not as the central message of the ministry of Jesus. On the other hand the Church has been called to announce to those who believe that more is better, that new is better than old, that to have is more important than to be, to those the church is compelled to say they are actually more blind than someone born blind. It means that they have never seen the light, or color, and that their world is a world of permanent darkness.

The church is not called upon to be successful as the world measures success, with those rules that Jesus was the biggest loser in history. Not where to laid his head, the one who multitudes listening finished with a congregation of three at the foot of the cross, his mother, a friend of her mother and his own best friend. Finished betrayed by those who followed him closely, his inner circle, who apparently never understood the message of the Light of the World.

The permanence, the relevance of the gospel does not depend on giving us material rewards, but from the freedom that it gives from the slavery of them. This does not mean that the materiality is not important. As we saw, the blind man regained sight. This does not mean that the community is not important or that the culture in which we live is not important and that we have been given the luxury of ignoring them. Rather that the principles by which our culture is governed are not the ones that govern us.

We walked to Light of God, our eyes have been opened and now we see clearly that love is most important, that our families are more important, that our relationships are more important; that wherever we live or work, we have to live with the confident that this person or that person close to us is really our brother and our sister.

That we do not have to walk hesitantly, with scarcity as our middle name, eternally without those values that society considers important as success, fame or money, but now we can we walk, upright, alert and confident that all these things are not more than mirages we ourselves have built, that they are not real, that the Light of the World will pale and slowly blur them. That in the final analysis all of this will turn into manure and only the bonds of love can overcome the transit of death.

We do not love Jesus so we can get something from society, from culture, we love Jesus because our lives would be meaningless without his presence, without his teachings, without his healing, without his light. We love for love’s sake, because loving will only make us better.

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