A dear Iowa friend of mine
passed away a few weeks ago. One of my
favorite memories of Jack has him kneeling at the church’s altar rail flanked
by his children and grandchildren. They
take up the entire rail and for this reason, although not wealthy by a monetary
standard, Jack was perhaps the richest man I have ever known. I met him soon after I accepted a call to
serve as the rector of St. John’s Church in Keokuk. He was an immensely likable fellow; tall,
with a warm smile and laugh I wished my own grandfather had possessed. Jack was positive, even-tempered, and
soft-spoken without being quiet or withdrawn.
Retired before we met, he spent most of his working career managing a
local grocery store. After I arrived,
Jack began to spend more time at the church.
He tinkered with broken things, kept the lawn mowers in good repair, and
coaxed to life the ancient boiler every time the outside temperature dropped.
The parish’s custom was to have
the rector appoint a Senior Warden while the Vestry elected a Junior Warden
(some churches still do this and refer to them as the “Rector’s Warden” and the
“Peoples’ Warden”). Typically, the
priest asked one of the local bank presidents (all of whom were members of the
congregation), to be the Senior Warden. One
of these bankers, Ed, filled the office during the interim period through the
first year of my service. One day he
came to me to let me know the time had come for him to step down. Ed told me I needed to think about appointing
a new Senior Warden and asked if I had anyone in mind.
Now, as I said, the local
tradition had several prominent members rotating through various parish leadership
positions on a regular basis. They were
all good folks who were dedicated to the betterment of the town as well as the
parish. The only problem was none really
wanted the job. Would they do it if
asked? Yes. But was it their ministry or calling? Not at that time. I sat through more than one conversation
where these gentlemen negotiated who would have to do what at the church over
the course of the next few years. “I
just got off the Vestry.” “It’s not my
turn.” “I am already on community boards
X, Y, and Z so I don’t have the time.” I
had the impression the church’s officers were “selected” by who lost a card
game at the local country club. I longed
to have a Senior Warden who would be enthusiastic about the job; who would see
the work as a calling, not a duty; as a ministry, not an obligation.
So when Ed asked me if I had
anyone in mind, I said yes… Jack. I can
still see the look on Ed’s face. It was
a mixture of shock and support; the kind of look indicating the notion of Jack
as Senior Warden had never occurred to him, but it might just work out. Well, Jack accepted my call and – guess what
– it worked out beautifully! He provided
an example of leadership that was just what the parish needed at the time. He was enthusiastic and willing to roll up
his sleeves and get to work. And whereas
the bankers always had to negotiate with one another as competitors as well as
parishioners, everyone thought of Jack as a friend. After three years of service, the one and
only downside to having Jack as Senior Warden was no one felt capable of
filling his shoes!
I all my years of ordained
ministry, asking Jack to be Senior Warden is one of the ten best things I have
ever done, and I am still working on the other nine! I saw something in him previous clergy had
not been able to discern; perhaps because their notion of leadership was too
small or too conditioned by the limitations of the local setting. To pick up on the language of today’s
Scripture readings, we might say they were blind.
Consider the reading from the
Old Testament. God appoints Samuel to
anoint a new king. Now, God knows Samuel
is going to need a lot of assistance if he is going to get this task
right. So God tells the prophet what
city to look in – Bethlehem. And God
even tells him which family to check out – the house of Jesse. But, even with all this guidance, Samuel
almost goofs it up. He wants to choose
the oldest, who is tall and dashing. But
God says no, don’t judge by outward appearances, rather, look at what is on the
inside; look at the heart. By focusing
on conventional methods to gauge a person’s potential, Samuel exemplifies what
it means to be spiritually blind.
Jesus confronts several layers
of blindness in today’s gospel reading.
The first is physical. A man blind
from birth comes to him to be healed. As
the story unfolds we learn something truly remarkable: of all the
manifestations of blindness, physical blindness is the easiest to cure. A little dirt, a little spit, a quick wash of
the face and, waala… sight!
The rest of the story deals
with the more difficult aspects of blindness:
§ The inability to see God at
work in the story of the blind man (“perhaps he was never blind in the first
place”).
§ The inability to see Jesus as
being the One sent from God.
If the restoration of physical
sight is the main objective, the story should have ended after only a few short
verses. The more pernicious and
persistent blindness is the inability to see how God is present in one’s life
and the inability to recognize what God seeks to do though a person.
We have all had the experience
of underestimating or undervaluing the gifts of another. We have all been like Ed when first presented
with the possibility Jack can fit the bill.
Ed was spiritually blind; unable to see what God saw in Jack, just as
Samuel was blind to what God saw in David.
But here is a twist to Jack’s
story. Ed was not the only person blind
to Jack’s potential. The other person
blind to what God could do in and through Jack was… Jack! When presented with the opportunity to be
Senior Warden, Jack hemmed and hawed; not like the bankers who did not want
another responsibility, but because he did not see himself as capable or
qualified to hold the office. After much
“encouragement” (my spiritual word of “arm-twisting”), Jack said to me, “Well,
if you think I can do the job, I’ll accept on one condition – if you ever find
that I am not doing a good job, you have to let me know so I can step
down.” “Deal,” I said, confident I would
not have to follow through on the promise.
Do you ever underestimate
yourself? Are you spiritually blind to
what God is doing in you? Are you able
to see what God is doing through you?
Allow me to point out two
truths from today’s readings. One you
probably saw, the other you probably didn’t.
Jesus says to the blind man, “I am the light of the world.” Jesus is the one who delivers us from
darkness to light; from blindness to sight.
He is the one who leads us and guides us; who illumines our minds and
stirs our imaginations. This, I trust,
you have heard before. Here is what you
may have missed. It comes from Paul’s
letter to the church in Ephesus. “Once,”
he writes, “you were in darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as
children of the light.” Did you catch
that? Jesus says, “I am the light of the
world.” Paul writes to the faithful,
“When you are in Jesus you are light.”
What more needs to be said
about the incredible potential abiding within each one of us as we abide in
Jesus? And yet, how many of us are like
Ed – unable to see the potential in another?
And how many of us are like Jack – unable to sense or see our own
potential?
The story of Ed and Jack is
just one of dozens from parish life I could point to as being a healing of
blindness. Ed, to his credit, soon came
to appreciate what Jack could do for the church. He became one of Jack’s biggest supporters
and most vocal cheerleaders. Jack, in
his own, humble way, grew in confidence and in the esteem of the
congregation. He came to see himself as
a leader with much to offer. And, to be
honest, even though I saw potential in Jack, I never guessed how gifted he
turned out to be. I saw for myself how
someone who is right on the inside can be empowered to serve God and God’s
people.
Jack’s story, like that of the
blind man and the boy David, hints at the potential of each and every person in
our faith community and in our lives. It
reminds us to look at one another with new eyes; eyes that somehow try to take
in what God is doing in our midst through our work and ministry to one
another. And it reminds us to look at
ourselves in a new way too. Every person
who is in Christ, young or old, rich or poor, educated or untrained, is light
and is called by God, equipped by God, and commission by God to do great
things.
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