I ONCE WAS BLIND

Cheri’s sister Cindy and I both got glasses at about the same age. I got mine about Kindergarten and she got hers in the First Grade. Cindy experienced an amazing revelation, she saw leaves on the trees for the first time in a long time. She began to experience new details in a very wonderful, complex creation. I get that every morning as I stumble and fumble to find the glasses I just knocked onto the floor when the alarm jolts me awake in the dark. Mind you, you could put a spotlight in the room, and until those glasses are on my face, I can’t see any details.


Cheri has a spiritual director, Sister Breta Gorman. Cheri has been seeing Sister Breta longer than she has known me. She is the one who keeps Cheri centered, and on track, with monthly counseling and occasional retreats at Our Lady of the Pines Retreat Center in Fremont. It’s a beautiful facility, surrounded by woods. One time, when Cheri was particularly all over the place (say it ain’t so, my wife bouncing off of walls), Breta told her to go out and “pray the leaves”. Cheri’s reaction, which was my reaction, and probably yours too, was “pray the leaves? What in the world does that mean?”.

Breta responded, go out and take a walk. See the leaves. See how many versions of green you can see. See what details you can see in the leaves. Cheri did and felt awe and the presence of God.. She had an experience of God’s love and perspective on her place in the world. It was exactly what Cheri needed to do to see the real picture.

Spirituality is SEEING. It is seeing what we and others can not see. It is seeing that connection between us and God. Human beings across cultures, and throughout time, have always sought this connection. That’s where religions come from. An attempt to make this spiritual connection.

Now, imagine the phrase “seeing what we can not see” in the context of a story about a blind man being given the gift of sight. In our worship celebration today, we told such a story out of the Gospel of Mark (Chapter 8: 22-26 for those following along with the “home game”). Now, for those who have not had the chance to read this part of the Bible, let me give you some context. Tension is starting to build around Jesus. The Pharisees, the religious right of his time, want signs. As Mark puts it “Jesus sighs deeply in his spirit. Why does this generation want signs?”. He is getting somewhat distressed by the whole thing and he goes around to the other side of a lake to get a break.

But there, right away, are the Disciples, worried about what are they going to eat. He just feed 4,000 people with food scraps, but they’re getting worked up again. Jesus gets impatient with them. He says “Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and fail to see? Do you have ears and not hear? And do you not remember?”. Poor Jesus, he knows his time with them is getting short and they are not getting it. The Disciples are people who hold in awe now, but back then in the story, they don’t come off as really, particularly bright.

So, enter today’s story. Jesus arrives at the village of Bethsaida. Some people brought a sightless man and begged Jesus to give him a healing touch. To say the human side of Jesus has had it, is an understatement and there are more folks wanting his help. He led them out of the village, put spit in the man’s eyes, laid hands on him and asked “Do you see anything?”. The result? He looked up and says “I see men. They look like walking trees.” Not a perfect 20-20 result on the first try. So, Jesus tries again, and the man looks hard and he has recovered perfect sight. He saw everything bright and in 20-20 focus. Jesus sent him straight home telling him “Don’t enter the Village” ( I don’t like that last line, by the way, but I’m sure Jesus was not referring to us).

Our friend Karyn had a blindspot going recently. Not a visual problem, but a blind spot in thinking. Karyn is a gift preacher, but she is an even more gifted teacher of preaching. Karyn did her doctoral thesis on churches like the Village and is one of Cheri’s advisors on preaching. When Cheri needs a fine tune, a little guidance on tough subject, whatever, Karyn is there. Karyn got her first seminary teaching job in the last year at a seminary in North Carolina.

She and her family had moved there from suburban New Jersey, just outside of New York City. She had left a wonderful church that let her do wonderful, edgy stuff, and moved to Carolina. Karyn was a huge hit with her students. They loved her as a teacher. The faculty too, saw a gifted colleague. But the administration, not so much there. Karyn was told she was getting cut loose due to budget concerns. Never mind enrollment and tuition income being up. Never mind that the rest of the faculty was being given a raise, they tried to reject in favor of keeping Karyn. But the die was cast with the administration.

So, Karyn and her family were going to need to move. She has feelers out for other teaching jobs. Despite being a woman (a tough sell at some seminaries) and one of those radical, outreach folks (a tough sell at others), she has good leads. She even has a viable Plan B, an appointment at a church in Kansas. But anyway you look at, except Karyn’s at the moment, she needs to start the process of selling her house. But she was still not sure.

She needed Cheri to say “YES, put the house on the market NOW” to get her to see she needed to act. So, she started the process. And, right there and then, God sent Karyn a message. Her neighbor contacted her before she could even contact a realtor. The neighbor’s kids want to move there and they want Karyn’s home. Without the costs of a realtor (no offense to my friends who are relators who earn their commissions), without muss, without fuss, a buyer. A buyer who was even willing to let them rent the house back until the time to move. But Karyn had a problem.

She didn’t want to let go of a house, without knowing where the next place would be. The thing is, there is a very good chance the next place is set. A seminary is probably going to hire Karyn in the next few weeks. But, regardless, Karyn needed to move. Understand, Karyn is one of the most deeply spiritual people we know. She is filled with the spirit, it literally took Cheri saying “Karyn, GOD has told me to tell you to sell the house, it’s written in the clouds in the sky in Toledo” to get her moving. We’ll make sure you know when Karyn gets the job nailed down, but the house is done.

Where is your spiritual blind spot? What is keeping you from seeing what God wants to show you? Where are you stuck? We all have them. It might be something you need to let go of - some old habit, some way of thinking, an old hurt, a grudge, a relationship that is not healthy. Maybe it’s something you need to work on, but you just keep putting it off. It could be an addiction. Or maybe you are just feeling lost and you need to reach out to someone, a friend, a counselor, a mentor, a spiritual guide or just a real, live person in your life. We all need help. God is always willing to listen, but God also uses real live people to help us.

What is the blind spot God wants to take away from you, so that you can see God’s vision for your life? Just take a moment to just sit there and listen and watch for it. In worship, much to the chagrin of the church’s legal department (we don’t real have one, but the lawyers were sitting together and we grimaced in a lawyer like fashion and who had just experienced a twenty four period with one trip and fall with head strike on a wall, and another head hitting a TV screen) we did a little exercise. Cheri had people put blindfolds on and take a walk with a partner. People were then led, at the end, to one of the TV’s, where the message “Open your eyes and see the wonderful vision God has for you” awaited. So try it now (without the blindfold walk). Take a minute, close your eyes, settle your mind, quiet your heart. Now, open your eyes and see the wonderful vision, things, plans, paths that God has for you. You’ll be amazed at the joys to come (sorry, they’ll still be pains, sorrows, fears too, the Christian life is not a destination, it is a journey).