Having Eyes to See

I had cataract surgery about a month ago.  It has been very successful.  I now have 20/20 vision in both eyes.    I have been wearing glasses since I was about 7 years old and I couldn’t see much without my glasses.  They were the first thing I reached for after getting out of bed in the morning and took them off when I went to bed at night.  I still require reading glasses, however, it's a different world out there and I see it with new eyes.

I had the opportunity to preach on Sunday and, coincidentally, last Sunday’s Gospel reading was John 9: 1-14.  This is the account of Jesus giving sight to the man born blind at birth.  The Gospel reading has taken on a new meaning for me from the many times I read it previously.  I now see it with new eyes.  I was certainly not blind before the surgery, but it is a whole new world out there for me to take in.

I have had many favourite singers in my life – favouring songs by Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchel aPeter Paul and Mary, nd similar singers – one of my favourite songs for a long time has been one by Leonard Cohen or St. Leonard of Song as I like to call him.  You may know the one that begins with an H but I can’t say the title because we are in Lent.  However, I think I have a new favourite

I can see clearly now the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's gonna be a bright, bright sun shiny day
It's gonna be a bright, bright sun shiny day

So, this Gospel reading is an account of a blind man receiving his sight – a miracle performed by Jesus.  It was a not just any old miracle – the man was blind all his life – he was born blind.  This was undoubtedly seen as a miracle by the people in the account, “Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.”  This is wonderful for the man who now could see for the first time.  The story might have ended there if it was a fairy tale – now that he could see, he found his princess and they lived happily every after.  But stories of the people of God in the bible never seem to be that simple.  No, in his new life, in which he is able to see, he is caught up in the midst of quarrels and disagreements and schisms in Israel at that time.

The man who was blind, now could see.  However, he was not the only one in this Gospel who was blind.  There are many in the story who are blind and remain that way.  First, we have the neighbours who don’t believe what they see - they can’t believe their lying eyes – “Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him: but he said, I am he.”

Next, we have the Pharisees – you can always depend on them not to see what is before their eyes.  This could not be a miracle because Jesus broke the rules and healed on the Sabbath.  Some one who is a sinner could not perform God’s work.  Then there were others who believed the man was a fraud – he had not actually been blind. 

Then we had the man’s parents.  They were blinded by fear. They were afraid to acknowledge Jesus as the one who performed this wonderful thing for their son:

His parents answered, “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.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

Finally, we again have the wilful blindness of the Pharisees.  They completely reject the man who had been given his sight.  They can’t believe what they have seen, “They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.” 

So, we can see for this Gospel, that there are many ways in which we can be blind – turn a blind eye to how God is working in the lives of these people.  It can happen through physical blindness – but more to the point it can happen because of disbelief, or fear, or denial, or doubt and so on.  The question for us today is, how are we blind – how do we turn a blind eye to where God is in our lives?

It is a challenge for us and for many Christians to actually see and hear what God is doing in our lives and in the world.  As with those gathered in our Gospel reading – the formerly blind man, the family, the neighbours, the Pharisees – we are blind or turn a blind eye to God acting in the world and in our lives.  We may see where God is calling us but, like the parents of the blind man, be afraid to respond to what we see. 

We may be like the Pharisees – yes, those enemies of Jesus – and believe that God could not be doing because God is using a sinner.  We may be stuck in our old ways and believe those ways are right and God could not be calling us to be a church in different ways. 

There is no question that to follow the example of Jesus – to hear and truly believe his teaching, to love one another as he loves us, is no easy thing – to put it mildly.  But as they say the journey begins with the first step.  One way that you can be on that journey is to recognize God’s presence in your lives right now.  God is present to us and offers us the opportunity to be on that journey.  I invite you to reflect on how the Triune God is present in your lives now.  It may be in the wonders of God’ creation – in the great outdoors.  It may be in music.  It may be in gathering to study holy scripture.  It may be helping with the community dinner.  It may be in worship and being part of gathering in the name of Jesus Christ – it only takes two or three gathered together. 

Once you identify that, see if you can deepen that relationship with God but continuing whatever it is and acknowledge how God is present in your life and give thanks to God regularly and often.  It may also mean trying new ways and seeing if you can identify God’s presence in new ways.  I have never been one who finds God’s presence in the midst of nature. 

I don’t do that naturally.  However, I have been enjoying being part of the Holy Strollers and walking with others in the great outdoors that God has created.  I am beginning to find God’s presence in those walks.  So, I invite you to try something new and see if you can identify God’s presence in a new way.

A wise person once said, give thanks to God in all things.  I would say, give thanks to God in as many ways as it is possible for you.  That would be a step on the journey that Jesus calls us to be on as Christians.  Then we will have eyes to see and ears to hear more fully God’s presence in our lives.  Something to consider on our journey.  

 

COVID Rears its Ugly Head

I can hear in my head the theme music for the movie Jaws:  duunnn dunnn… duuuunnnn duun…

Well, I can confirm that it is not necessarily safe to go into – well in this case not the water – but places where people gather – like churches – if you let your guard down about the reality of COVID.  I can hear the murmurs – COVID?! – that’s no longer a thing, is it?  After all, we have the vaccine for COVID and there are no reports in media or government press releases about COVID outbreaks, are there?

Well, let me assure you, or perhaps scare you, that COVID still is with us.  My wife Lorna came down with COVID after contact with someone – not quite sure who – in our church a week ago.  You know, church is where two or three or more are gathered in the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ.  Well, that’s just it, we are called as Christians to gather together.  That means if someone has symptoms of COVID and joins the gathering anyway or perhaps has no symptoms – they will likely infect others.  Our collective memories of COVID and the pandemic and all that we had to do, such as masking and hand washing and getting vaccinated have faded as time has passed.

Lorna came down with symptoms much like those of a cold – sniffles, cough, fever, and feeling lousy etc.  Due to unrelenting brain fog (her words), she suspected that it was more than a cold and dug out an old COVID test kit and, sure enough, the two lines appeared showing she tested positive for COVID – not a good thing in this case where you want to see a negative result. 

Now Lorna and I are fully up to date on our vaccinations.  Being vaccinated does not make you immune but will just lessen the severity of the symptoms.  I am symptom-free at this point and may have escaped.  Perhaps as result of being a special person; actually, just a matter of good luck.  However, that doesn’t mean I am free of COVID and have been lying low until I get a test kit and check it out.  These are not as readily available as they were at the height of the pandemic. 

There is also conflicting information online at government websites.  One site I checked said that if you are symptom-free you don’t have to isolate, but others say you should isolate if you are in contact with an infected person. 

We both stayed home from church last Sunday.  We have heard of a number of people with symptoms who have tested positive or suspect they have COVID - there may be more who are infectious but don’t know they are.  Our church – like many – has a demographic that skews to the older age – so they are in the vulnerable category, as Lorna and I are, and may be susceptible to symptoms that are more serious.  I believe it is a good idea that organizations where people congregate have policies that reinforce the necessity for people to stay home if they have symptoms that could mean they are infectious.  Also reinforcing rules around hand-sanitizing and providing hand sanitizing gel are good ideas.  We must not let our collective and individual guards down. 

Remember, the water may look safe – but who knows what lurks beneath the surface.  Blessings indeed. 

So Many 40’s

We are in the midst of the season of Lent in the Christian calendar.  Lent is forty days long, excluding Sundays which are of Lent but not in Lent.  Last Sunday was the second Sunday of Lent.  I have been thinking of the fact that the number forty (40) occurs frequently in the bible.  If you are familiar with the bible, I’m sure you can think of some of the times when this happens.  Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness after his baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist.  It rained for 40 days and nights during the flood which God sent to cover the earth.  The Israelites were in the wilderness for 40 years after escaping from slavery in Egypt.  Moses was on Mount Sinai for 40 days and night in his encounter with YHWH (God).    That is just a few of the better-known examples of the number 40 occurring in the bible.  However, if we take a bit of a dive into this, we will find there are many more – including some that are rather obscure e.g. the Egyptians spent 40 days embalming the body of Jacob – how’s that for obscure.   

So, is this just a coincidence – or is there a deeper meaning in the number 40 than just a measurement of mathematics or a length of time?  Well, to explore this I did what most people would do these days, I started with a question to AI.  I found out that the number 40 occurs 146 times in the Old Testament and New Testament.  This is the type of question that AI is good at answering. As noted above, there are occurrences where the number seems to be significant and others where it is not so much.

Here’s a few more examples:

·         Jesus appeared to his disciples for 40 days between his resurrection and ascension

·         Elijah traveled 40 days and 40 nights without food to Mount Horeb

·         The first three kings of Israel—Saul, David, and Solomon—each reigned for 40 years

·         Several judges, including Othniel, Deborah, Barak, and Eli, served for 40 years.

·         The holy of holies in the Temple was 40 cubits long 

·         Mosaic Law allowed a maximum of 40 lashes (stripes) for a guilty person

·         Goliath taunted the army of Israel for 40 days before David defeated him

·         The prophet Jonah warned that Nineveh would be destroyed in 40 days

I will leave it to you to decide if the examples are significant or not – for me some are and some don’t seem to be.  However, taking the big picture view, it seems to me that 40 has a significance beyond just its use as a measurement or in counting.  Looking at the symbolic meaning of the number, we find that 40 can symbolize completion.  Forty can be used to represent a complete generation.  Turning to another source for symbols, the Penguin Dictionary of Symbols states, “the number forty marks the completion of a cycle, ending in a radical change or a passage to a fresh level of activity or of living.”  Symbols can be difficult to tie down their meaning.  However, it does give us a different way of looking at the biblical stories.  For me, the 40 in those stories don’t as much mean a measurement but, rather, can represent the story of completion.  Whether the Israelites were actually in the wilderness for 40 years, rather it was a completion of their time of preparation for entering into the Promised Land to fulfill the promise that God had made to Moses. In the bigger picture, we are not ready to move to the next phase of something until we have completed the current stage we are living in.  That’s why we are not born fully formed – like Athena who came fully formed out of Zeus’ forehead.  We need to grow through the stages of life from infancy to childhood to adult and on.  Hopefully we will continue growing throughout our lives.

Something to consider and pray about in Lent.  May your Lent be a blessed one.  

 

The Two Adams

Recently, I heard an interview with New York Times Columnist David Brooks in which he referred to the idea of two Adams in the biblical stories of creation.  He noted how the two stories of creation in the book of Genesis give a very different picture of Adam and how humankind is still living out those different models of humankind.  Brooks noted that this idea was not original to him and it is one that I had not heard of before but on reflection it contains a great deal of truth.

First, let’s review what Genesis tells us about creation.  There are two accounts of God creating the world – the first in chapter 1, and the second in chapter 2, which, in my edition of the bible (the NRSV) is captioned ‘another account of creation’.  In both accounts, God creates humankind.  However, the accounts are very different for how those humans live after the creation.  In the first account, God creates humans in God’s image, male and female God created them.  In the second account, God creates ‘the man’ (Adam) from the dust of the ground – and, of course, later creates the first woman from the man’s rib. 

That is very different, however, the differences only get even more different.  In the first account, God gives Adam (and Eve actually) dominion over the earth, with the charge that they should be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over everything that God has created:

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Genesis 1: 28)

In the second account of creation, God places the human couple in the Garden of Eden – first the Adam alone but then creating Eve as his companion, “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” (Genesis 2: 15) 

The first account is one of domination.  Adam – humankind is to subdue the earth and all that is in it.  The world is to be used for humankind’s purposes.  Humans have been very good at this and continue to do it today.  We find new and improved ways of using the resources – both animal, vegetable and mineral – unfortunately, often to the detriment of the world God has created.  Admittedly, there have been benefits as well as detriments, but we are facing an ecological disaster of – well – biblical proportions, if we continue on the course we have set in conjunction with the first Adam.

We have the other option - humans (Adam and Eve) who were set in paradise and lived in harmony with nature.  That has not gone nearly as well as fulfilling the first account.  I must be honest and admit that I don’t see how that vision of humankind could be brought about in this world as it stands now.  We were, after all, expelled from paradise.  The best we can do is to take steps – small ones and perhaps not so small ones – to use that second vision of creation as a guide to how we should be living in harmony with creation.    That is something to consider in this season of Lent.

The River Beneath the River

 Our parish church of St. John the Evangelist, Strathroy ON, has a Joyful Noise worship service four or five times a year.  These services, which I participate in by playing my guitar, are under the capable leadership of Carolyn Hull-Johnston.  We have music which is not the usual traditional Anglican music provided by guitars, drums and squeeze box and, of course, voices.  The service, scheduled in a few weeks, has the theme of ‘water’.  This will give us an opportunity to worship using traditional and nontraditional music which includes songs such as Down to the River to Pray, Wade in the Water, and Healing River.  These songs, and more like them, happen to be some of my favorites.  I am certainly looking forward to this service as I do all the worship services at St. John’s

My wife, Lorna Harris, did some research into the history of some of these songs and found that many of the traditional ones in the genre of gospel music had hidden meanings.  I have written recently about the hidden meaning in songs with numbers such as the Twelve Days of Christmas and the hidden meaning in nursery rhymes, so I was especially appreciative of Lorna’s investigation into this genre of music which have been called “signal songs”.  Here is what she found out:

AI Overview

"Enslaved people used spirituals as coded "signal songs" on the Underground Railroad to navigate toward the Ohio River and freedom. Songs like "Wade in the Water" advised walking in water to hide scents from hounds, while "Follow the Drinking Gourd" provided directions to the North Star. 

 

Key coded songs used near the Ohio River include:

·       "Wade in the Water": Instructed fugitives to get into the river to hide their trail from pursuers.

·       "Follow the Drinking Gourd": Provided navigational clues to travel north, mentioning the riverbank as a road.    

·       "Steal Away (to Jesus)": Signaled that an escape attempt was planned.

·       "Go Down Moses": Used by Harriet Tubman to announce her arrival as a conductor in the area.

·       "Down in the River to Pray": Believed to contain coded messages about escaping to freedom. 

These songs functioned as map, instruction, and warning, particularly for crossing the Ohio River, which was a major boundary between slave and free state."  I like the Canadian connection, as for many escaping slaves, their goal was Canada as you know!

 

I recently heard a description of the hidden meaning in such things as, “the river beneath the river” which is particularly appropriate in this case.  If you dig beneath the surface of things, you just never know what you might find – perhaps a pearl of great price.   I invite you to do some digging and see what pearls you might find.  Blessings.  

 

Divinely Intended Tension

I am currently reading, Caring Enough to Confront, a book given to me recently by the author, Dr. Denis Shackel who is a friend.  In the book, the author tackles the challenges which are encountered in difficult conversations.  Denis Shackel analyses what makes some conversations challenging, why we should engage in them, and gives the reader strategies for engaging in those conversations.

As someone who, by nature, tries to avoid conflict and has at times not handled them well, I appreciate a book that engages this issue.  Denis explores these types of conversations and the situations that lead to them from an analytical approach which examines why they occur and the psychology involved as well as exploring the benefits of engaging these conversations in a positive manner.  Unfortunately, as the author documents, most are not handled in a successful way; 49% of challenging conversations are avoided, 48% are unsuccessful, and a mere 3% are engaged successfully. 

In considering the issues of challenging conversations, if we look at them from a spiritual perspective, they are, what has been named, Divinely Intended Tension.  This is a term, which I came across many years ago.  It was first, to my knowledge, coined by Friedrich von Hügel, (5 May 1852 – 27 January 1925) who was a Catholic layman, religious writer, and Christian apologist.  He was also a spiritual director with notable directees such as Evelyn Underhill.  When I encountered the phrase, I was immediately engaged with it, as I believe it is a perfect description of God’s intention for us in engaging the challenges that we inevitably encounter in life – particularly in our relations with others. 

In effect, Divinely intended tension" comprises situations where pressures, paradoxes, and opposing truths in life are purposefully used by God to foster spiritual growth, resilience, and dependence on divine grace.

Later, studying the psychology of Carl Jung, I came to see that Jung’s concept of the theory of opposites was a complementary concept which encompassed a way of balancing the opposing forces of the psyche as the path toward integration of the conscious and unconscious aspects of the human psyche. 

Both Divinely Intended Tension and the theory of opposites propose that if we are able to hold these tensions which occur in life, and do not avoid them or negate them, something which God intends for us will come forth in our lives.  In will become to a greater extent, the people God intends us to be.  However, as the statistics from Caring Enough to Confront, noted above shows, people overwhelmingly do not engage willingly with the tension we encounter in life.  I do believe that it is God’s intention for us to engage in those difficult times with others.  To do so is to follow Jesus’ commandment that we love one another – as difficult as that is.   

I will close with a quote which arrived in the inbox today which is apropos to this subject:

Ponder this universal teaching: If we stay present to our discomfort, we will also feel something else arising—something more real, capable, sensitive, and exquisitely aware of ourselves and of our surroundings. (The Wisdom of the Enneagram, 37)

 

Do you Have Eyes to See?

I had cataract surgery last week on both eyes.  The results are beyond my expectations - being able to see clearly at distance without glasses.  I still need reading glasses but that is what I expected.  I have been wearing glasses for distance vision since I was about seven years old, so it is quite amazing that I do not need glasses other than for reading now.  Indeed, I keep reaching for the glasses that are not on my face – something like phantom pain for an amputated limb – except there is no pain involved.

I have naturally had my vision on my mind during this time and brought into focus (so to speak) what we can see and what we are not able to see.  I have been aware that many things can be there in our lives which we are not aware of or may have missed seeing for many years – not because our eyes are dim but because we unconsciously or unknowingly have filters that don’t allow that image to register on our consciousness.

The best example of this happened some years ago when I was visiting a small town in Saskatchewan – Fort Qu’Appelle - where I had lived when I was a teenager.  Lorna and I had taken a trip out west and stopped off in Saskatchewan and visited some of my old haunts.  We drove to the United Church in town where my family worshipped.  I was raised in the United church – my father was a United Church minister, and we had moved to Ft. Qu’Appelle where he was the principal of the Prairie Christian Training Centre run by the United church.  In any case, Lorna and I found the United Church – which was right where I remembered it and got out and looked around.  It was pretty much as I remembered it.  However, I was amazed to see that right across the street was an Anglican Church which I had no memory of being there. 

My first reaction was that perhaps it was built after we lived in town.  However, it is a lovely fieldstone building which was built in 1885.  So, it must have been there when I was frequenting the United Church which – I must say - is not nearly as lovely as the St. John’s Anglican Church in Ft. Qu’Appelle.  You have to wonder about all the things that don’t register in your consciousness that are all around you.  Now Lorna would put this down to my less than observant nature, which I must agree with, but I know that this is more than just being less than observant.  Perhaps there was a larger lesson for me that waited fifty years to register with me. 

Jesus was very aware of the importance of sight - both the physical ability to see and the symbolic or psychological importance of sight.  He healed many people of their physical blindness e.g. Blind Bartimaeus.  He also spent a great deal of precious time and energy trying to enable people to see the truth of who they were as children of God.  This is well summarized in the passage from Matthew 13:15   

For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

The disciples were great examples of people who should have been able to see i.e. understand what Jesus was showing them and telling them.  However, they often did not get it.  That gives me some comfort in my willfulness or blindness in not being the person God created me to be.  I know that there are many aspects of life – many of the realities of life that I am blind to – willfully or otherwise. This week, I invite you to see if you have eyes to see and ears to hear where God is calling you to go on your journey in your life. 

I give thanks for the wonderful medical staff at the Ivey Eye Institute in London Ontario who are literally giving eyes to see to so many people.