I AM SIN - how I love John 9!

 I, AM SIN – and how I love to hear this story read in church to the faithful. I am disappointed however that the pastor chose to read only the first 7 verses and not all 41. You missed the most alluring portion where my best captivation techniques would have wound around you and trapped you into my web. Oh, the opportunity to spread sin was squandered. This Gospel is one of my most brilliant moments, it is an Oscar winning lifetime achievement award in the making.  Every time the story is heard, I grow a little prouder, I settle in stronger, and my insidious seeds spread.

The story starts asking, ‘who sinned?’ – the blind man or his parents, for surely being born blind was someone’s fault.  The truth is I can’t take recognition for that, it wasn’t me. Being born blind has nothing to do with sin. I like this story because at the asking of the question the story could have ended … I could have been struck in the face and turned away to sell my wares somewhere else… but in my favour, the question lingers and takes on a life of its own; a life imprinted with me, Sin, who has the speed of wildfire.

The continuation of the story illustrates my brilliance. When people get in a tizzy that is a sign I am involved; that is me SIN is at work. When people point fingers and start laying blame; that is me SIN at work. You hear about it in the story: the disciples judge, assuming because someone is not like them, or someone’s body was created differently that something is wrong with them – now that was a thought, a seed worth planting; adding blame onto the parents was a bonus. It didn’t start with the disciples, they were a group in a long line of generations of people who judged by appearance – look at Samuel choosing whom to anoint as king; who picks the littlest, the less physically strong, the quieter one? You see Sin, ME, seeped into the human brain with a thought. One thought and it went viral before going viral was a thing.

 

Murder, stealing, cheating, adultery – the way my older self as described in the 10 Commandments; are like flashcards, easy sins so to speak. They are not where I excel. Sure, those sins happen and fall under prescribed laws, you either killed or you didn’t, stole or you didn’t, but that is not how I have made a name for myself, or how I have become powerful.

 

In the story, rousing people into a tizzy through a thought is one thing, having a thought stick and replicate through a crowd, through a religion, through political systems, across boundaries and through time – that is work well done!

 

This story makes me laugh. I feel chuffed. Religious leaders, the elite, are getting in each others faces, arguing, thinking they are defining sin, controlling sin, having the power to say who can be freed from sin ---- and the true Sin -my part in the story- goes unnoticed; I keep at work, and I revel in the chaos that was created by one thought that stuck.

The people in the story were so busy mired in Sin, wrapped in my magnetic personality, there was no rejoicing in the work of God, in freedom, in the ability for the man to experience the world in a different way; there was no wonder at Jesus power, awe as in ‘how can this be?’,  and no community rallying around the man to assist him in navigating for the first time this sense of sight. Thank heavens there was no animated conversation about the benefits and gift of a change in perspective, in engaging in a dynamically altered world view, of hope-filled visions of living as new creation.  Nope I squashed any hope, any thoughts, of that! And Sin once again reigned supreme.

 

I appreciate the Gospel writer, that he included this story – good thought John- you have increased me a 1000-fold. Every time this story is read preachers and teachers and listeners get caught in the exercise of defining sin, pointing fingers, busying themselves in a conversation that has superficial meaning. Few dare to open internal eyes and turn their attention to focus on one’s own relationship to sin, self, God, creation, and others; and what freedom might come in a change of perspective and engaging in a dynamically altered world view.

I am relieved that over generations enough smoke has been fanned and accumulated in my wake, to obscure focus, freedom, and living as new hope-filled creation. But there are those few who dissipate the screen and see through the smoke; they always worry me. What if their one thought sticks and transforms the world view, the view over which I currently control and have power?

Those people with that one dangerous thought; they are potentially my undoing --- I’ll tell you, I didn’t care so much for the early church fathers– luckily no one took much notice. They pegged me down and stated exactly how to wither my essence, shrinking my ability to trickle timidity and ooze obscurity into people’s living, thus, polluting populations into perfunctory living. The dangerous thoughts of the church fathers planted seeds to styme my rule, which had and has a seemingly unending mastery of permeating the whole world with Sin. In their writings they made a distinction between a passing sinful thought and committing a sin. They knew my characteristic style of imputing a thought. They knew that I cast lots of thoughts – praying, yes, me praying, for the thoughts to linger and captivate, praying that the thoughts would develop and gain attention. The early Christian writers stated that my trick was casting thoughts – it was not the thought that was sin but the lingering and sticking around and thinking about it – that is when Sin was committed.

Their solution – I probably shouldn’t tell you this, --- ahh, but, few listened to the church father’s, so I will take a risk that you will forget this little conversation when I am done speaking --- the father’s suggested that at the moment of a sinful thought, say a prayer, and let the thought go; in and out, gone.  Those who mediate (also humans I am not so fond of) are good at this too, in fact they are practiced at noting a thought and letting the thought go.

 

Rabbi who sinned, this man or his parents – Jesus was making a point, and the Gospel writer had a thought and went with it, but every time the story is told people go back to arguing about sin and getting in a tizzy. Few stop at the thought: Rabbi, who sinned. No one stops to pray, ‘forgive me I have.’ And with the next half of the phrase, another prayer, ‘thank you for this man and for his parents who are a family.’ Or whatever the prayer might be – remember I’m Sin, I don’t practice that kind of selfless praying. Theologian Paul Evdokimov talks about people being liturgical beings, where a person becomes prayer incarnate – where each thought I cast into a heart or a mind, the person’s response and reaction, is a prayer – stopping me in my tracks, slapping me in the face, turning me around and withering my power.  

 

I have worked ceaselessly from the time of Adam and Eve. I am impressive because I have manipulated people to act on the irresistible urge to focus on the least important, to be seduced by false truths and worthless thoughts, lured into overreacting to meaningless words designed to occupy and frustrate minds that are dangerous when allowed the freedom to see differently.  

 

I AM SIN and I am currently writing my acceptance speech for next year’s Oscars and life-time achievement award. I am planting that thought – time will tell whether the thought lingers and grows whether this community gets into a tizzy, ‘who sinned?’

 

…… Suzy, the puppet who is a formidable prayer in the community, pops up and prays…

 

Pardon me God, I interrupt Sin. Let me not linger on deceptive thought. Sin has no power here. Turn our hearts and minds to focus on you. In us plant thoughts to change our perspective, to engage living a dynamically altered world view, one of hope-filled visions of living as new creation. Amen.