Homily for 10 May 2015--The 5th Sunday after Pascha: "See the Glory of God or Find Someone to Blame?"

See the Glory of God or Find Someone to Blame?

Homily for the Fifth Sunday after Pascha (10 May 2015)

Acts of the Apostles 16:16-34…………….John 9:1-38

 

In today’s Gospel reading, St John shows us two very different ways of looking at life.  One is to look at things that happen and see how they reveal the glory of God.  The other is to look at things that happen and try to find someone to blame.

Unfortunately, that second attitude seems to be more common.  When something goes wrong, or something bad happens, people everywhere look for someone to blame.  It’s the Jews.  It’s the Muslims.  It’s the Americans.  It’s the North Koreans.  It’s the immigrants.  It’s the rednecks.  It’s the pointy-headed intellectuals.  It’s the feminists.  It’s the religious right.  It’s the gays.  And so on.  When I was growing up, we knew who to blame for everything—the Communists.  Now I see things more clearly and blame the Republicans.  (No offense to those of you who may be Republicans--you know I don't talk politics in church.)

Of course, when life is good and things go right, people will sometimes say, “Thank God.”  But generally we are like the disciples, who want to blame either the blind man or his parents for his blindness.  We are like the Pharisees, who do not rejoice that the blind man has been given the ability to see, but instead want to find out who has undermined their power by healing the blind man and has broken the Law by healing on the Sabbath.  They know what they want to see, and don’t need to be bothered by the facts.  Finally, when they can’t get the answers they want, they turn to making personal attacks on the man who had been born blind.

But Jesus and the man born blind see things very differently.  Jesus tells the disciples that the man was born blind not because of sin, but so that the works of God might be revealed in him.  And the man born blind answers all of the Pharisees’ questions with the simple declaration, “If this man were not from God, he couldn’t do anything.”

In every situation, we can see God at work or we can look for someone to blame.  We can rejoice that someone was healed or we can blame someone for breaking the rules.  We can feel sorry for ourselves in sickness or in hard times, or we can thank God for what we do have and trust in God’s help to deal with our problems.  We can complain about the people who don’t come to church or we can give glory to God for bringing enough people to church so that there is a church to come to.  We can be happy that people love each other and want to get married, or we can denounce them for being the wrong religion or the wrong race or the wrong nationality or the wrong gender.

What we cannot do is refuse to see God at work in the world.

Everything we are, everything we do, everything we have comes from God.  All creation reveals the glory of God.  Sometimes it’s not easy to see.  Sometimes it’s hard to understand.  But our job is to believe in God’s love and goodness and mercy at work in the world and in us.  Jesus is the light of the world, and God opens our eyes to see that light.

So let us live in Jesus’ light and see the glorious works of God and give thanks and praise and glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God, unto the ages of ages.  Amen.