Laurie Rubin was born blind in California. She has never seen the blues and greens of the ocean, or the yellows and oranges of a sunset. From an early age, her parents drove her to the most beautiful places—Yosemite and Santa Barbara, Lake Tahoe and the red woods—so she could experience beauty with all of her senses. Her music teacher had her hold and play each of the instruments in the orchestra, so that she could learn to recognize their feel and sound. She started voice lessons when she was about ten and before long decided she wanted to sing opera. The interesting question she says she is most often asked is “Do you dream in color?”[1] In our passage for today, Jesus encounters a man born blind, and the question on everyone’s mind is “…who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” It’s the wrong question for three reasons.
First, the blame game wastes energy. A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes that he is lost.... He reduces altitude and spots a woman down below. He lowers his balloon further, and shouts: “Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?”
The woman says: “Yes, you are in a hot air balloon, hovering 30 feet above the ground in this field”
“You must work in Engineering,” says the balloonist.
“I do”, says the woman. “How did you know?”
“Well”, says the balloonist, “everything that you have told me is technically correct, but it’s of no use to me.”
The woman says, “You must work in management.”
“I do,” replies the balloonist, “but how did you know?”
“Well” says the man, “you don’t know where you are, or where you’re going, but you expect me to be able to help. You’re in the same position you were before we met, but now it’s my fault!” We can spend our time and energy trying to sort out who is right and who is wrong, where does that really get us? Let’s be clear: there’s a place for asking those questions so that we can learn from our own and others’ mistakes, but most often people use the blame game to take the attention off themselves. In our passage for today, the Pharisees are focused on how Jesus was breaking the Sabbath—it was a violation of Jewish law to work on the Sabbath, and both healing and making clay with spit were considered work. The real questions are not whose fault it is, but what does this mean, and what are we going to do about it?
Second, the blame game assumes that someone is at fault. Sometimes bad stuff just happens. Why can two people be in almost identical car accidents—one is killed and the other walks away? When a tornado tears through a neighborhood in Oklahoma, why is one home left standing and the rest of the block is destroyed? We can study auto safety. We can delve into home construction and materials. But at the end of the day, we may be asking a question we can never fully answer, because it may not be anybody’s fault. In the passage for today, the disciples want to know if the man is blind because of something he did or something his parents did. But who except God can know why something happens? The real questions are not whose fault it is, but what does this mean, and what are we going to do about it?
Third, the blame game shuts everyone down and locks us in to a negative cycle. Several years ago, a gentleman I’ll call Joe began coming to church where I was. On the one hand, he could be quite charming, warm and he would give you the shirt off his back if you had a need. On the other hand, he could be terribly judgmental. One day in Bible study, someone said something and Joe just went off about how bad things were, how bad some people were, and how God was going to punish people for what they had done. I looked around the circle and saw some people were shocked by what Joe had said, some people were hurt, and some people were angry. In judging others, Joe had locked himself into a cycle in which his hurt and resentment, was creating hurt and resentment in the people around him, which of course would make them more likely to treat him negatively, and to judge him in turn. Do you think that would make feel better or worse about the world and his life? When we blame someone, we put ourselves in a position to judge another person, and we often find what we really want—grace and joy and hope—escapes us. The real questions are not whose fault it is, but what does this mean, and what are we going to do about it?
At the heart of the blame game is the idea of sin. Sin is a word that makes us uncomfortable. People often use the word, “sin,” to communicate that someone has done something wrong or bad. By that definition, a “sinner” is someone who is just inherently bad. For Jesus, sin is not about what you do, it’s about a broken relationship with God. The blind man is not blind because of something he or his parents did…“he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” There’s no blaming, no wasted energy, no negative cycle. In fact, Jesus does something about this man’s need, and everything starts to change for this man. Can you imagine the wonder this man must have experienced as he saw his parents or grapes or a sunset, as he walked without a stick, or as he caught a ball for the first time? Can you imagine the look on his face? Jesus’ healing points to that wonder and joy! Jesus’ healing points to hope and purpose and fun! Jesus’ healing points to renewed relationships and wholeness inside and out. Jesus’ healing points to who God really is. The real sin in our story today is that the Pharisees cannot or will not see God at work and rejoice! They can’t or won’t make the connections between what they are seeing and the God who is at work in their midst in Jesus. Sin is what locks us up, what traps us in negative cycles, what keeps us from seeing God at work and rejoicing. And Jesus knows the way out.
I love Laurie Rubin’s story. I think about her parents who didn’t spend years in bitterness and reproach. They didn’t say, “She must get that from your side of the family.” Her folks saw in their daughter a bright and thoughtful person who could learn and know and be a blessing. Laurie attended Oberlin where she majored in music and sang the lead in Rosini’s opera on Cinderella. Laurie went on to get her master’s in music from Yale and has won awards for her operatic mezzo soprano. She has been water skiing and even has her own line of jewelry! When asked, “Do you dream in color?” Laurie responds, “I dream what I experience.”[2] In Laurie’s life, God has revealed his works in surprising, almost miraculous ways. I look at her life and I am so humbled. Are you? How often do we blame or judge others, wasting our time and energy on rants that get us nowhere or lock us into darkness? Like the man who was born blind, we all have our issues—disabilities of the body or mind or experience—but because of them, when God does something great in us, God’s fingerprints will be even clearer to those who see it. Perhaps that is part of how Jesus can give us new eyes today, so that we can see the joy and grace and hope around us. Maybe instead of asking the wrong questions and finding fault, we can look to Jesus and find the source of all the good in our lives. Like the man born blind, may we fall at Jesus’ feet and say, “Lord, I believe” and worship the only one who can help us see with new eyes how God wants to work. May others experience through us the grace and warmth of the amazing Jesus we are coming to know. Maybe then we can all dream in the colors of grace.
[1]I heard Laurie Rubin interviewed by Diane Rehm, October 22, 2012. Laurie Rubin’s book, Do You Dream in Color? Insights from a Girl Without Sight, is available from most book distributors. You can listen to the interview at http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-10-22/laurie-rubin-do-you-dream-color-insights-girl-without-sight.
[2]From Laurie Rubin’s poem, “Do You Dream in Color?” Printed in the show notes of the podcast at http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-10-22/laurie-rubin-do-you-dream-color-insights-girl-without-sight.