Always called to love. March 22, 2020 The Rev. David M. Stoddart

John 9:1-41

Why does there always have to be someone to blame? In recent memory, we have heard one prominent televangelist tell us that the devastating earthquake in Haiti was wrought by God because of that island’s “pact with the devil.”Another well-known Christian preacher proclaimed that Hurricane Katrina was God’s judgment on the sins of New Orleans. I was living in New York City back when the AIDS epidemic first struck with lethal ferocity and I heard too many Christians opine that God was punishing the gay community. And beyond the big public examples, I have listened to people in my office tell me that some disease or catastrophe in their life was God’s way of inflicting punishment on them. And such thinking is obviously not new. Some Old Testament writers espouse it, and, apparently, so do the disciples of Jesus. Meeting a man born blind, the first thing they have to say is, Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Who’s to blame? Clearly, God must be punishing someone.

It’s a terrible view of God and egregiously awful theology, so I am happy to note that Jesus will have none of it. During his ministry, he is literally surrounded by sick people, and he encounters suffering to a degree most of us never do: lepers, epileptics, demoniacs, maimed people, crippled people, blind people, deaf people, insane people. There are scenes in the Gospels that read like horror movies. But Jesus never once lays blame on anyone. He never says, “Oh, this disease is a result of your sin” or “God is punishing you by making you sick.” Every time he encounters a suffering person — every single time — he heals that person. 

So in the Gospel today, when his disciples try to play the blame game, Jesus quickly stops them. For him, this man’s blindness is an opportunity to love, a chance for God’s works to be revealed. Period. In a way, this might disappoint us. Jesus never explains why God allows disease and suffering. He never gives an answer to the vexing problem of natural evil. Clearly he thinks that it is either unimportant or simply beyond us. What he does make clear is that sickness is always and everywhere a way for God’s works to be revealed. And those who love God will embrace that.

So I have no idea why God allows pandemics, just as I have no idea why God permits suffering of any kind. What I do know, and what Jesus teaches, is that we are always called to love. In our current situation, that obviously means caring for people who are sick, supporting the work of doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers, and protecting our neighbors, especially the most vulnerable, from infection. I am heartened by all the people in our parish who are doing those very things, just as I am encouraged by all those practicing social distancing to help our society as a whole minimize the effects of this disease. In doing so, we are following Christ.

But there is more to it even than that. Caring for the weak and the hurting among us is not just a way to love like Jesus. Doing so is a primary, if not the primary way we will experience God in our lives. We might wish for mountaintop experiences and brilliant theophanies, but what Jesus teaches us and shows us is that the glory of God Almighty is chiefly revealed in simple acts of love and mercy. You want to feel close to God? Take care of someone who is ill. You want to experience the movement of the Holy Spirit? Be kind to someone who is hurting. You want to see the face of Christ? Look into the face of anyone who is sad or sick or dying. Nothing reveals the glory of God more than one frail and fallible human being helping another frail and fallible human being. I think I could spend the rest of my life meditating on that truth and not exhaust the wonder of it. And it’s that truth I commend to you today.