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Sermon for
Proper 22 - Trinity 19 - Evening 2.10.2016
Nehemiah
5.1-13
John 9.
"I can see clearly now
the rain has gone; I can see all obstacles in my way.
Gone are the stormy clouds that had me down ; it's gonna be a
bright, bright, sunshiny day."
[Well after the rainy day we
had yesterday, I was relieved to see a bit more of the sunshine
today!]
This July when I went for my
two-yearly checkup at the optician I had some unwelcome news
- but news that was not totally unexpected. On the good side,
my overall eyesight has not deteriorated significantly in the
past couple of years - so I got away without having to buy new
frames.... But the downside was that the optician told me he
could see just the faintest beginnings of cataracts in my eyes.
As he said, "don't worry, they may never get to the stage
when we would want to do anything about them!" Which kind
of made me feel better, but also made me reflect that - having
now passed the age of sixty, I can expect this sort of thing
more often... and that the end of my life may come before the
cataracts have 'ripened' enough for them to be operated on! Cheery
thought!!!
Restoring the sight of those
who are blind is wonderful work - and if you have ever seen films
of the work done by charities like "Sight-savers" around
the world, you will have an inkling of what I mean. Jesus claimed
that one of the key signs he was the Messiah - one of the main
works he had come to do - was that the blind could see. The Christ
comes to bring perception and revelation to those that are inly
blind as well as those who are physically visually impaired.
When someone remains stubbornly
set on a certain course of action that others think is misguided
or likely to end in tears, we often speak about someone having
a 'blind spot'. As my mother grew older she fell victim to macular
degeneration; a dreadful condition as some of you will know,
where the centre of the eye gradually loses the cells that help
us define detail. She never lost her sight completely, but in
a way that was worse. She could still see things at the edge
of her vision, but was unable to bring anything into sharp focus.
As she would say to me "It's like walking around in a permanent
fog - I can see the shoes you are wearing dear - but I cannot
distinguish the features on your face!"
I wonder how many of us are
walking around in a semi-permanent state of spiritual fog? Unable
to discern the detail of God's will for our lives or to understand
the part we might play in his kingdom? This was the kind of blindness
that Jesus wanted to address - just as much as the physical sort
afflicting the man he healed in our reading this evening.
It is the spiritual blindness
affecting the rich nobles in Nehemiah's story too. The people
have been brought back from generations of exile. They are back
on their ancestral lands - the land given to them by God if the
stories of Genesis and Exodus are to be believed. But - as ever
in human history - where there is a profit to be turned and money
to be made, people's principles seem to disappear pretty fast.
The people may have come home, but that does not guarantee them
good weather or good harvests. The crops have failed and in a
subsistence farming community, that is devastating news. It means
hunger - real hunger; starvation and even death for the weak
and vulnerable - which usually means the very young and the very
old and the very poor. So many are mortgaging their birthright
- the land they occupy, for the sake of full stomachs through
the winter months. Perfect conditions for other to exploit and
profiteer.
Nehemiah condemns their ethics
(or lack of them) and apparently persuades the courtiers that
in order to find favour with God they should cancel the debts
of their own countrymen and allow them to return to their lands,
grow strong and willing to fight for the existence of little
Israel amid all the great nations surrounding them. And in particular
they are to stop charging interest on any moneys loaned to them!
Maybe what we are all being
encouraged to do this night is to think hard about our existing
blind-spots. Where are we guilty of behaviour that only serves
to keep others permanently in poverty?
One other discovery that seems
to be in the text... When eyes are open, it means greater glory
given to God. And that seems to be a wholly worthwhile thing
to aim at.
So do you want to live as a
disciple of Jesus?
Open your eyes and work for
the injustices you see around you, or would you rather remain
with your eyes tightly shut, refusing to acknowledge the light
of mercy; refusing to accept that every small act of kindness,
taken together, can add up to a whole lorry-load of goodies to
make this world a better place.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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