Lent Day 12… A Summons To A Different Way Of Life

From Walter Brueggemann (Devotions For Lent: A Way Other Than Our Own):

One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see. —John 9.25

The confrontation between the authorities and the man who can now see is a dramatic one. It is a contrast between old established truth that keeps everything under control and assures certain entitlements, and on the other hand new inexplicable possibility by Jesus and eventually his people.

So imagine us as participants in this great drama. Standing before Jesus is the one with new life who worships him and the defenders of old truth who refuse him. They each and all must decide about Jesus. It turns out that seeing is to accept Jesus and blindness is to refuse him.

And now we stand before the new chance of gospel possibility and old managed truth. Old managed truth, like the rule on the Sabbath, takes many forms. It can be the old world of privilege and power and control. It can be the old truth of settled church orthodoxy. It can be the old mantras of market ideology that reduce life to owning and having and eating. It can be the old paralysis of privilege according to race, class, gender. It can be an old image given you by your mother or your father that has kept you from the freedom and joy of God’s love.

And over against all of that old managed truth is this man who testified to new bodily possibility because Jesus has moved him into a new life that he did not even expect for himself.

Jesus is an invitation and a chance and a summons to a different way of life. And we are always deciding.

And we worship and give thanks and obey and bear witness. We say, I am the one who was blind. I have no explanation, but I received my sight. We see more… the one who gives sight. And then we follow…

This does not make the old authorities happy; but it is the truth of our lives.

Prayer: You are the God who unleashes well-being into the world. May we see; may we love; may we follow. Amen.