Though I'm moving on in "The Joy of Being Wrong," I'm not going far. The focus is still the story of the blind man in John's gospel and what it may say about resurrection and sin. In this story then we watch a revolution in the understanding of sin, a revolution that takes place around the person of Jesus but is actually worked out in the life of someone else. The structure of the story is the same as is to be found time and time again in John: that of an expulsion, or proto-lynching, one of the many that lead up the to the definitive expulsion of the crucifixion, which is also the definitive remedy for all human order based on expulsion. The revolution in the concept of sin consists in the following: at the beginning of the tale, sin was considered in terms of some sort of defect that excludes the one bearing the defect. At the end of the tale sin is considered as the act of exclusion; the real blindness is the blindness which is not only present in those who exclude, but actually grows and intensifies during the act of exclusion. What comes next from Alison is powerful so let me begin to simply comment on some stuff here. I find it important to take note of this 'revolution' in the concept of sin. That which was so commonly associated with sin - the result being blindness is just plain wrong. There is no sin here. There is no need to exclude. There is no brokenness that tears the community and causes division. There is blindness in need of healing. The devastation to the community is the expulsion. It is the judgment made against some by others. In that action, death begins to rule and that mark of death grows as time marches along. Blindness is still tied into the notion of sin, but the blindness is the kind of action that actively puts an end to the well-being of others. The blindness of the religious leaders will become more and more devastating as it goes on and on. The story of that 'fall' is painfully humorous. This makes me wonder about other 'sins' that are labeled worthy of exclusion. Is this the same kind of event active in churches that point at our members and insist on exclusion? Is it - for example - the exclusion of GLBT people by the new NALC the first step along their journey of the sin Alison seems too be noting here? In a conversation this week I was talking to a friend about how some of our one-time ELCA pastors who are not in the NALC seem to be moving more and more deeply into the abyss of exclusion. I don't know how to rescue them. Is it that we must keep including the excluded ones until those who exclude begin to see? Or will it simply intensify their need to exclude - to live within the realm of sin that will not welcome home all? Connection: How do we not fall into that grand abyss of exclusion? It is an easy road to hell - and it is a wide road. Could it be that we simply continue to face our own brokenness and our own need to judge and there - begin to heal all things? O God of life, heal us and make us wholly holy. Amen. |
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