Global Christian Worship

When Jesus healed the man born blind - and causing all sorts of trouble with the religious leaders - he used spit and dirt to create a ‘sacrament of healing.’ That’s as “earthy” as you can get. God was incarnated in the world of the things of earth … including the actual earth.

Jan Richardson, a favorite writer and artist, offers a reflection on this passage at
http://paintedprayerbook.com/2017/03/25/lent-4-mysteries-of-the-mud/

Here are excerpts:

He could simply have touched him. Or spoken a single word. Instead, when Jesus encounters a man who has been blind since birth, he spits on the ground, turns the dirt to mud, and spreads the mud on the man’s eyes. Jesus tells him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam.

The man goes. Washes. And sees….

Throughout Jesus’ ministry we see him touching the world around him, turning to the things of earth to help us see the things of heaven.

This week’s gospel reading underscores it for us: Jesus is no sterile savior. He is not interested in remaining tidy and removed. With a beautiful and earthy economy of gestures, Jesus reveals himself as one who is willing to fully inhabit the messiness of our world and of our lives. He is ready to enter into the muck with us. He engages the muck as a place where holiness happens: where sludge becomes sacramental, and through grimy eyes we begin to behold the face of Love, beholding us right back….

Jan closes her meditation with a marvelous poem - read it in her blog post at
http://paintedprayerbook.com/2017/03/25/lent-4-mysteries-of-the-mud/

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Image: Christ Healing the Blind Man, by Robert Hodgell, linocut print, ca. 1960

Thanks to Fr. Philip Chircop for finding this marvelous image. Read the poem he wrote to go with the image at
http://www.philipchircop.com/post/158871959702/a-why-question-lingers-a-why-question-lingers

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My friend Fran Pratt published a wonderful ‘Litany for Blindness’ on her blog at
http://www.franpratt.com/litanies/2017/3/21/lent-4-year-a-litany-for-blindness

A Litany for Blindness, by Fran Pratt

This litany incorporates the New Testament readings from this week’s Lectionary passages: when Jesus heals a man born blind in John 9, and a section of Ephesians 5. I am particularly captivated by the image of Jesus smearing mud on the man’s face as part of the healing. I think there’s all kinds of goodness in that image if we look for it.

God, we understand that sometimes, before our eyes can see, they must get muddy.
The mud is a crucial step: Jesus working on us.
We can’t know sight until we’ve tried to see through mud. (1)
We must realize our blindness, and admit it.

The blindness itself isn’t our sin.
It’s pretending we can see when we can’t that is harmful.
It’s judging the mud of others to be worse than our own that sets us back.
It’s being dishonest about our blindness that displeases You. (2)

To all the ways we’ve been blind to our own true selves,
Open our eyes, Oh God.
To all the ways we’ve been blind to the suffering of others,
Open our eyes, Oh God.
To all the ways we’ve been blind to and complicit in our society’s brokenness,
Open our eyes, Oh God.
To all the ways we’ve been blind to the sacredness of human beings,
Open our eyes, Oh God.
To all the ways we’ve been blind to your invitation and calling in our lives,
Open our eyes, Oh God.
To all the ways we’ve been blind to the way of your kingdom coming, now and not-yet,
Open our eyes, Oh God.

We want to live as children of light. (3)
We want to learn what pleases You.  (4)
We want light shined on the deepest recesses of our beings,
So that all that is hidden may become visible. (5)

Amen.

1.John 9:11

2. John 9:41

3. Eph 5:8

4. Eph 5:10

5. Eph 5:13

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Here is a sweet ballad about the story, and our own need for healing from blindness.