I've talked about the shift from a modern to a post-modern or a Christendom to a post-Christendom way of viewing the world before; so, I won't go into the details of that shift at the moment other than to think with you about the idea of seeing the world differently and seeing in general and what that has to do with belief.
One of the shifts that has been difficult for us baby-boomers and folk who are older is the shift from the scientific method of experiment and repeat, experiment and repeat until you get a repeatedly verifiable result to a different way of thinking about the world. In other words, the scientific method, which sums up the modern era very well, is "I'll believe it when I see it over and over and over." That's even a slogan, "I'll believe it when I see it." My undergraduate degree was a BSc in Zoology from UBC and that's the method I was trained in.
But the philosophers in our midst, who tell us that we are no longer in the modern era, tell us that this idea of believing what you see has changed. Those who grew up in the post-modern mind-set, people of my children's generation, now understand that we see what we believe. As much as the modern era emphasised science and knowledge and downplayed spirituality and mysticism, thankfully the post-modern era—a rather dry term—has reacquired the teaching of the mystics and tries to see the links between science and spirituality and the deep importance of what we believe and how this impacts the things we see in life.
As we have learned over and over, Jesus was ahead of his time. This long and wonderful story of the man born blind is really a story about seeing. It could easily be a story from our times and the conflict that arises when we forget that we really see what we believe. And Jesus taught also that what we believe must continue to expand and grow. If we stay stuck in our religious mindset in what we believe, we are as stuck as the Pharisees with whom Jesus disputed in the story from John's Gospel.
I think of the religious mindset of the middle ages, when the Roman Catholic Church controlled everything in the Western world—music, science, whether the earth was flat, astronomy and whether the sun rotates around the world or vice versa. Some people like Galileo caved into the Roman Catholic teaching of the day. But others like Da Vinci and Columbus refused to cave into religious convention and allowed their minds to expand and to allow their experience to influence their religious beliefs or how they see the world. Da Vinci was able to speak about anatomy and physical sciences. Columbus, a character of history with mixed views if ever there was one, knew that the world was not flat but round. Galileo really didn't believe in what the Roman Catholic Church taught, but he was kept under house arrest so that his views wouldn't get spread around. The Roman Catholic Church perpetuated the Pharisaic teaching that wouldn't allow seeing the world differently to influence their hold on power and control.
And what of the man born blind story from John's gospel? "Was it the man's parents who sinned," asked the disciples, stuck in the old view of "punishment is deserved." Jesus said, "Neither his parents nor he sinned." John then inserts his own interpretation into Jesus' words, but Jesus was clear that the difficult challenges of life aren't a punishment for our waywardness or our brokenness. How difficult it is to get away from that mindset; we are not the author of our misfortune. Stuff happens in life; we want to blame ourselves, and yes we have to be responsible for our actions, but things happen that produce great suffering that are not about fault. Stuff happens and we have to make sense of life without blaming ourselves.
And when the man born blind is examined by the Pharisees, some don't believe him. They want to see that their spiritual understandings are still valid and in place. So, they reject the man and they reject Jesus because of their beliefs, giving rise to Jesus' words at the end of the story, "those who see do not actually see and those who are told they do not see, do see." That's my translation of it. Jesus is saying that the Pharisees only choose to see what they see because of what they believe about the world and about God, but that the world is bigger than that. God is bigger than that. Religion and spirituality are bigger than that!
Last week at our annual meeting there was good conversation and energy around the purpose statement. But when it came to nominations and getting people to fill the vacancies of Council and committees, there was a noticeable quiet. It has been difficult for us in the United Church to shift from our modern way of thinking about the governing system of our churches. We still see them like a machine or we believe in the machinery of the way we've been doing things for 50 years. And thus we find it hard to see another way. Slowly our beliefs are changing. More quickly now that we know that the system is broken and needs a complete overhaul—we finally believe it and can see more clearly the way to be together in an entirely new way, a way that is life-giving and faith-filled.
I do think that this is the shift that is sweeping the world, this shift to not being cowed by power and authority, especially coercive power and totalitarian authority. Because we believe in the power of people, and we believe in the authority of the common good, we can see the endless possibility for love in our world, and the deeply felt yearning for freedom to express that love. We can see the connective energy of God's Spirit and the infectious desire for hope to be lived.
This is the new seeing which reflects our new believing in life, in mystery and in the wonder and awe of God's love and the love through which we can make the world a better place. And I say, "Let's see with the eyes of love and openness and hope and grace."
Amen.
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