This Epiphany Season (January 6-February 17), we are following the ministry of Jesus as told in the Gospel of John, alongside our Church School curriculum.
As I studied this week’s scripture passage, in which Jesus miraculously gives physical sight to a man who was born blind, I’m struck by how fixated the other people in the story (the disciples, the Pharisees, the man’s neighbors, etc.) are on why he was blind in the first place, how the miracle was performed, and who performed it. Jesus offers some firm redirection from that first question at the top of the story, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. In order that the works of God might be revealed, we must work the works of the One who sent me.”
But the rest of the cast still is hung up on every aspect of the miracle except its impact. The newly-sighted man throws up his hands in exasperation saying, “listen, all I know is that I was blind, and now I see!”
Have you ever had such a radical shift in perspective that you feel like you’ll never look at the world (or a situation, or person, etc…) the same way again? Something that feels monumental, or important, and you’re trying to bring people along and explain it and at some point you wonder if they’re being intentionally obtuse? Or maybe you don’t fully understand exactly how or why this shift took place, either, but the point isn’t the how or the why, it’s the new perspective itself that matters, and what it means for your life moving forward (and what it could mean for their lives, too).
Join us on Sunday at 11am in the sanctuary or online to pray, sing, learn, and ponder miracles together, “in order that the works of God might be revealed.”
In faith,
Amy
P.S Lent is about to begin! Join us on Wednesday night, February 18th at 7pm in the sanctuary and online for our Ash Wednesday worship service, where we’ll remember that the Good News is that all are invited!
Image credit: “Jesus Heals the Blind Man” by Ann Lukesh
