High-Minded Love IV

Beginning with today's reading, we start to deal with our faith related to difficult life issues. Eugenia Price wrote a book many years ago entitled No Easy Answers, which described her journey from the easy answers she was taught as a child to finding a faith that worked for her in the real challenges of life. The bestseller, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, by Rabbi Harold Kushner tells the story of his family's struggle through the loss of their teenage son to cancer (using the book of Job as a primary source). Sometimes people offer what they hope will be comfort by saying things like, "God needed your loved one more, so that's why He took her/him" or "Everything happens for a reason." Others will try to make sense of unfair things in life by saying, "There must have been some sin in your family that caused this" or "If you had more faith this situation wouldn't be so bad." Often these easy answers make the person who says them feel good, but leave the person who hears them confused and hurt. In the next couple of articles, we will see how Jesus took on some of the easy answers of his day. We will also continue through Paul's great letter of Philippians.

John 9:1-12

It is the disciples who bring the question to Jesus, "Teacher (Rabbi), who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Tex Sample, retired professor at St. Paul's School of Theology calls this kind of question "folk theology," things that people believe about God and life that are just accepted whether they are true to the Bible or not. "Everything happens for a reason", "God helps those who help themselves", and "Cleanliness is next to godliness", and God as "the man upstairs" are just some examples of folk theology in our own time. The main assumption behind the question by the disciples is that life is fair, so when tragedy hits there has to be a good reason for it. A secondary assumption is that if you are living a godly life, then God will protect you from the bad things that might otherwise come your way. Ever since we were kids, we wanted life to be fair and the child inside us still wants that. But alas, life is not fair, nor does our good behavior insulate us from tragedy and unfair treatment. Both those assumptions were part of the folk theology of Jesus' day.

Notice Jesus' response,

"Neither this man nor his parents sinned"..."but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life."

Does this mean that God gave him the condition of blindness or allowed it for his purposes? Now we're back at the issue of determinism I discussed in an earlier article. The truth is we are not told why the man was born blind. Genetics? Birth trauma? Something else entirely? And isn't it true that we often don't know why certain things happen? Can Christians deal with ambiguity and actually grow in faith when life doesn't make sense or is unfair or when we don't get the answers to our prayers that we desire? I dare say that helping people to develop a connection with God in these kinds of challenges is a huge gift we can offer the world around us. We help people cope and grow when life doesn't happen the way they wish. I don't believe Jesus was saying, "This man's blindness was part of God's plan." Jesus was saying, "This man's blindness is God's opportunity to work in his life."

In this case, God's work was to heal his blindness. But John 9 is more about the religious and spiritual blindness of other folks, particularly the Pharisees, than it is about the man's physical blindness. I must confess that I only rarely see immediate physical healings in response to prayer. But I see the work of God in nearly every instance, sometimes in a gradual physical healing but just as often as God does a major work in the hearts, minds and souls of people when the physical healings don't happen. Am I just excusing my own lack of faith or trying to explain things away? No, even faith healers claim immediate healings happen only a small percentage of the time. So is God not at work in those who are a part of that greater percentage? Not on your life or mine. As I shared earlier in the Romans 8 passage, "In everything God works for good."

Just a word about the methods used here. They were the ones that were used by the doctors of the day: believing that mud and saliva had healing properties. No doubt, the man may have had this done to him before without results. I am reminded here that God can and often does heal with the methods of the day. But this story also points to a greater healing that is both physical and spiritual. The man that is born blind is healed both inwardly and outwardly, but the Pharisees remain blind and are unable to admit it or "see" it. The disciples had their folk theology and the Pharisees had their limited and narrow faith perspective and both needed the gift of "sight" from Jesus. In what area of your life do you need sight?

Philippians 2:19-3:11

Loving the LORD with all our mind is not something we do in isolation. We need people to stimulate our growth (even to make us irritated and uncomfortable) and to encourage us in tough times. Paul is sending Epaphroditus, who comes to them having found the power of Christ through illness, ready to now encourage them in the tough times around them. We need examples of the power of God from time to time. Then he hopes to send Timothy to get the latest news, so that Paul can also be encouraged.

Loving the LORD intellectually also involves discerning when things are false and when the way things have been get in the way of things that could be. The Judaizers of Jesus' day wanted the new Gentile Christians to become Jews by undergoing circumcision. Paul has his own testimony that proved that being circumcised and being meticulously a follower of the Old Covenant law was insufficient. The "right" methods (what I'm used to), the "right music" (what I came to Christ with), even at times the "right beliefs" (what is familiar and doesn't stretch me too much), often get in the way of the most important thing, stated here so well by Paul in verses 7-8.

"But whatever was to my profit (i.e. what blessed me and gave me strength in the past), I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consdier everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."

What if the right methods are wrong for this day and time, the right music is more varied than we ever realized, and the right beliefs need tested that we might grow deeper and broader in our walk with Christ?

Not long ago, I was bowling and doing horribly. In frustration, I decided to bowl the second game with the opposite hand. The first time or two I nearly fell into the lanes, as a change of hands required a change in steps, balance and who knows what else. But eventually I made two spares and a strike (pitiful but different!). Then in the third game I went back to my normal hand and it felt entirely new and my score was much improved. Somehow we must learn to let go of the ways we have been comfortable and open up to the new ways of the Spirit. For the goal is not our comfort...it is knowing Christ, an adventure that never stops.