March 26, 2017 - Fourth Sunday in Lent - What We Deeply Believe and What We Deeply Belove

Today's Gospel Lesson, together with the last two Sunday's gospel readings, have moved from questioning how we can know God (Nicodemus) to being transformed by inner knowledge (Woman at the Well), to today's lesson where Jesus is first heard and then seen by the blind man after the miracle. The reactions in John's gospel to this miraculous healing help us focus on how personal experiences of God are communicated among individuals.

In the today's First Reading is Samuel 16:7 - But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart."

This verse captures one dimension of the difficulty encountered in the Gospel Lesson. Whatever we communicate about God publicly, we rely on outward appearance as a touchstone or point of reference. God's presence and attributes are not truly recognized through direct sensual evidence, even in our own hearts. We discover them through faith. The questions then become:

• How do we communicate about God and our faith to others?  
• Does the world we live contain all the vocabulary that can used to share our God experiences?

John 9:1-41, read by Suzi, Craig and Pastor Michelle, dramatizes how frustrating conversations or arguments can be when God's interventions in the world are discussed.

After this miracle many "neighbors", and then the Pharisees, do not accept what happened. Pastor Michelle highlighted how difficult it is for people to see one another given the prejudices and biases contained within us. Seeing each other through these prisms of prejudice is a major problem we all face.

Another obstacle is the difficulty of accepting anything that falls outside or challenges our inherent confirmation bias. When something disturbs how we assume life works, our first impulse is to reject it.

This story's details are beautiful challenges to practical assumptions. Jesus covers the blind man's eyes with what  "common sense" would have us avoid. Why is mud - a base component of the everyday world - used by Jesus? Mud (particularly made from spit) is counter-intuitive as a practical cure to blindness. Yet when the mud is washed away, at the command of Jesus, the blind man sees for the first time. In other words, as the "world" covering his eyes is washed away, he is able to see his savior.

Consider this quote:

"Our world, so we see and hear on all sides, is drowning in materialism, commercialism, consumerism. But the problem is not really there. What we ordinarily speak of as materialism is a result, not a cause. The root of materialism is a poverty of ideas about the inner and the outer world. Less and less does our contemporary culture have, or even seek, commerce with great ideas, and it is that lack that is weakening the human spirit. This is the essence of materialism. Materialism is a disease of the mind starved for ideas."

— Jacob Needleman, "American Soul: Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Founders" (2002)

The Second Reading - Ephesians 5:14 "for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, "Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." suggests there is another invitation or way to approach Jesus and not succumb to this disease of the mind. Christ can shine on us, in us, and through us.

I felt this shining on us, in us, and through us was present in two musical highlights of today's worship. The first was the congregation singing Amazing Grace. There was a purity and simplicity in how Matt played the piano and the congregation sang this hymn that was centering and humbling. 

The other extraordinary moment was Vaune, Kim and Annie singing Jennifer Knapp's Peace during the Offertory.

This blog is essentially about worship and what is gained from gathering each Sunday to explore the richness of our inner and outer worlds around us. God is the elusive mystery we try to express in word and sacrament when we gather. In communicating through word our tools are metaphors, analogies, arguments, and figures of speech to convey our ever changing inner perceptions and our outer realities. These expressions can become a glory or agony, depending on their success or failure.

There is another way to experience the mystery that haunts us besides word and the sacrament. What the trio offered in Peace exemplifies that other way. Language is rarely able to completely convey and connect what is in our hearts except, perhaps, in poetry. Music and poetry often rise above what is being conveyed and can embody this connection instead.

During this trio's offering I shivered. The prickle at the back of my neck alerted me to what was established between something associated inside me, and with the trio's offering, and also the author's composition. This was even stronger than when I later heard Jennifer Knapp's original recording.

Since the first time I heard Annie, Vaune and Kim; every appearance they have given has been a revelation. Over the years I have experienced their history as an audience member, a musical supporter, and as a fellow musical contributor with them.

What connected with me went beyond what they presented in their three minutes during Offertory. I have missed hearing their unique harmonies for a long time now.  To hear them practicing Neil Young's Old Man before the service I found deep, personal significance. As a Creator member, as a folk music follower, as a Neil Young fan, and as a music aficionado the music resonated with community meanings as well.

Through the years the trio's music has invited my attention to new, important artists. Through them I began to listen to the Wailin' Jennys (who, incidentally, did a beautiful cover of Old Man). Today they introduced me to Jennifer Knapp's compositions. There are intersections, identities and powerful connections made when such interests and passions are shared. 

I doubt they made their selection of this song primarily to support the sermon or the readings, and yet Peace did support today's sermon and readings. The lines "That I might hear a simple word" and "All tempests He will bind with a mighty word" was relevant to the gospel's story. The blind man first heard and then followed Jesus' word before he saw Jesus. Although it must have been coincidental, the lines in the verse "And when my enemies draw near / I pray that they will find / That I'm protected and secure" strongly echoed the sentiment in Psalm 23 which was read responsively by Suzi and the congregation in today's Psalmody.

Compared to the Jennifer Knapp's original hearing three voices sing rather than one during worship affirmed something about being gathered in community. Three voices singing in the first person moved from a singular individual experience to shared experiences that blended into an overall community experience. Another inspiration for me was the importance each of the women gave to the intricate blend of their voices and guitars. Not one of the three wanted to overpower the other's voices.

For practical reasons the trio's selection was not included in the worship bulletin which resulted in more hidden blessings. The first blessing was a revelation of the ephemeral nature that can be inherent in charged moments. The next blessing was a lack of expectations for the congregation. The omission essentially created a secret place to hide and pray, just like the song's lyrics describe. Those listening experienced the performance as simply as it was offered.

Peace's inspirations dramatized one of Pastor Michelle's key observations of the Gospel. She quoted Sonnet, one of Creator's eighth-graders, on “intersectionality,” To quote the sermon on this:

Sonnet gave examples of how intersectionality applies to her own identity:  She’s female.  She’s black.  She’s of African descent. She’s a teenager. She’s a musician.  She’s an athlete….  And because I’ve gotten to know her a bit, I’ll add a couple more pieces:  She’s an American by birth.  She’s a Christian.  She lives in the suburbs of Portland.  And she comes from a loving family….  As I reflected on this, it occurred to me that even though Sonnet and I seem very different on the surface, we have some important areas where our lives intersect:  We’re both female.  We’re both Christian.   We’re both Americans by birth.  We both live in the Portland area.  We both come from loving families.  Like Sonnet, I also enjoy making music, and although I’m not super athletic, I do like sports….  So, you see, even though we look very different, Sonnet and I have some important things in common….

These God connections are intersectionality moments that provide opportunities to grow into community experiences while simultaneously remaining signposts along personal faith journeys.

In the Jacob Needleman quote above, he identified with integrity and insight a moment we are currently witnessing in our contemporary culture. This entire worship acted as a balm to our diseased minds starved for ideas. In the Age of the Spirit, that Phyllis Tickle among others wrote about extensively, intersectionality allows  more ephemeral and deeper connections to God as we live into our future.

Today's balm was an opportunity for Creator to deepen what we believe and what we belove.