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Being blindFriday, December 2, 2016
Matthew 9:27 If we're from the west, from the First World, then we know better, and we believe the doctors when they say we'll be blind for the rest of our lives. Jesus walked the streets of a Third World country, and the people didn't know what we know now. And so they called out to Jesus, and they were healed. Their blindness was not a fact of life after all. They could see! In The First Christmas, Marcus Borg distinguishes between fact, fable and parable when reading and seeking to be lifted up by God's word. This Bible story may be any of the three. But if I read it as a parable, then I am not only reading it to hear the history and ascertain the facts ... more than that, I'm reading it to learn how to respond to my own blindness, and understand more of what to say and do as I walk with Jesus. Today's lectionary text from Isaiah 29 outlines an important syllabus of events in our experience: we see God's work among us, we praise and worship him, and we "acquire understanding and receive instruction" about how to live. How much does this class cost? What is the tuition? It's free, if I choose to open my eyes, open my mind, and open my mouth in gratitude. And to be still while God speaks in his still, small voice. The silence today is pregnant with your presence, Father. Always that is true, sometimes I feel it a little more deeply. Free my mind and eyes and mouth today to follow you and cry out to you and love you. |
We are mostly embarrassed to do such a thing. We mostly don't believe in this kind of healing, because we have been enlightened by the Enlightenment and several centuries of rationalism.