Thursday April 7, 2011

John 9:18-23

"Now the Jews did not believe that the man has been blind and gained his sight until they summoned the parents of the one who had gained his sight. They asked them, 'Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How does he now see?' His parents answered and said, 'We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. We do not know how he sees now, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him, he is of age; he can speak for himself.' His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone acknowledged him as the Messiah, he would be expelled from the synagogue. For this reason his parents said, 'He is of age; question him.'"

Perhaps the obvious thing to talk about here is just the meditation chosen by the Little Black Book - on having the courage to stand by the truth and to stand by others under fire. And, more importantly perhaps?, to not simply try to find a way to avoid the conflict. Which is what the Pharisees are doing (as per yesterday) and what the blind man's parents are doing. Trying to keep matters from coming to a head. It's what I did for years about my sexuality. It's what I do when I hope, in my heart of hearts, that it's a man I fall for in the end rather than a woman - and however it galls me that if I did find a man I think most people would feel like my bisexuality was a "phase" of some kind (and if I ended up with a woman that I was kidding myself about men and hiding in the closet my whole life until then), I can't say it wouldn't be a nice way to dodge all the trouble if the relationship of my life was a heterosexual one. I certainly can't pretend I wouldn't rather be married in the Church than in California.

Having gotten briefly lost in that, however, what I wonder about this story from this little snippet is the fact that "the Jews had already agreed that if anyone acknowledged him as the Messiah, he would be expelled from the synagogue" and can't help wondering - when? Before they heard the case - in which case the blind man's declaration of Jesus as a prophet becomes the kind of gentle hedging of which we are all probably guilty even with our pet projects. Or was this in response to the blind man's language? They didn't want to expel someone who had just had a miracle performed on him, but they wanted to warn him off going further and warn anyone else not to take up that cry. Put that comment in a little box and assign it to the overemotional state understandable when he had been given new sight.

It's certainly clear from that declaration that the Pharisees are no longer looking for truth in the least. They have declared what they have decided, in their decidedly human wisdom, must be the truth. By going so far as to shun and expel from their midst any dissenting voice, the Pharisees are bringing the divide to a whole new level. It shows how deeply this would rock their world to its foundations (and chances are: they have no idea. Jesus is a radical.) and how much they fear the ground shifting beneath their feet.

I feel, now, the compulsion to finish that story from Studio 60 (I think) yesterday. The way that the show resolves the argument about gay marriage is by having the conservative character say that the world is changing too fast for the ordinary folk of the U.S. (it being different than the Civil Rights movement - explained after this objection raised - that homosexuals have not been living openly as long which is historically not true at all). I actually have no patience with this line of thought. I know, I should have patience with everything, but I reject it. That's the Pharisees. They just wanted the problem away.

That doesn't change the fact that they expelled a former beggar and cost him his family to one degree or another in the process. The fact that I can find some understanding for them and sympathy won't change the pain and awfulness that they are causing. Validating that, as a society, is encouraging people's souls to stop growing, to shrink.

And I think that Father Rolo was right this Sunday, that we can't think of this parable in terms of "what it says about these issues to my neighbor" but must think of what Jesus is telling us. What I think I have found this week is that I can't let myself shove problems away. I think I do that a lot, especially more knotty theological traps like the Pharisees were dealing with in the section I covered yesterday. You can't put them aside, you can cross-examine them away. You have to deal. Even if it gets you expelled from the synagogue. Even if it would be as easy as telling someone else to speak instead.

Because the Gift of Certainty I have talked before about feeling blessed with is worth far less if I am so afraid of opening myself up to having been wrong about some article of faith or letting God speak to me in a new truth, open my eyes to His real purpose for my life.

Dear Lord, help me to have the courage to open my eyes and to declare proudly what I see there. Bless me, Lord, be with me when my faith and my other beliefs are challenged. Help me have the courage to stand proudly no matter the consequences and help me stand by others in their time of need.