Catch a glimpse

A church had invited a famous preacher, who led healing prayers. During the service many people came up for prayers for various ailments. A young man in his 20’s came up and asked for prayer. The preacher said, “What do you want prayer for son?” “Pastor, I need prayer for my hearing.”  So the preacher laid hands on both the young man’s ears and prayed up a storm.  After a few minutes he stopped, and looked at the young man and said softly, “Son, how’s your hearing now?”  “I don’t know preacher, my hearing isn’t till Tuesday.”

Communication is not an exact science!  And in this Sunday’s Gospel reading there is lots of miscommunication.  What happened? How did it happen? Did it really happen? What about healing on the Sabbath?

The Episcopal Church, (and many others), read the story in the 9^th Chapter of John’s Gospel where Jesus heals a man born blind.

And it is a funny healing story. A man is dramatically healed, but since he was blind, he can’t identify the man that healed him. He acts more like a stand up comic than anyone else in the Gospels.

But in today’s story, the religious good people get mad at Jesus for doing something good. And the man born blind stands up for Jesus and becomes his follower.

And that is the real punch line. We are all blind. But if we admit we are blind, and stop pretending we can see, we just might catch a glimpse of God.