Darkness and Light
Fourth Sunday in Lent Readings ps 23 Ephesians 5.8-14 John 9.1-41 “What did I do wrong, that I deserved this bad luck!” Do you ever find yourself saying, or maybe even just thinking, this? Or maybe saying to a friend, when they have some unexpected good fortune, or narrowly avoid some pitfall, “Somebody up there must like you!” It’s as old as the hills, isn’t it, the idea that, spiritually speaking, what goes around, comes around. That we get our just desserts, and it comes from the age-old view of God as the ultimate keeper and settler of scores. In this view of things, which Jesus thoroughly debunks in today’s reading from the Fourth Gospel, if somebody is struck by misfortune then it just shows God disapproves of them. And on the other side of the ledger, if we’re doing OK thank you very much, then it shows God approves of us. It’s wrong, of course. Not only does it lead to victim-blaming, it also provides a too easy self-justification for the comfortable, and the rich and the...