March 14th ,2010
Mud-luscious
Why am I writing about mud? Well the snow has melted away, leaving scars of mud all over the place -- where cars drove onto the lawn, leaving ruts...where the snowplows cut unintended ditches. In one of his poems, e.e.cummings wrote “in Just-spring when the world is mud-luscious....” And that describes the view for now. Soon, as the spring rains come, it will be, as he writes, “puddle-wonderful.” But for now, there is just the mud.
The man-born-blind who we meet in today’s gospel is also dealing with mud. After a theological debate of why the man is blind, Jesus sets out to show that he is light and he spits into the dirt, makes mud and rubs this into the man’s eyes. I’m sure the blind man did not consider this “mud-luscious” -- indeed, having mud smeared in his eyes uninvited was probably just the latest in a life-long string of indignities that he had to suffer as person blind from birth. But after his eyes are seared with mud -- that which would blind any sighted person -- he washes out the mud and he can see!
What to some might seem to be a cruel act, was actually a life-changing gift. Dare we pray for the same gift? While most of us are not dealing with physical blindness, in some ways we are blind. We just “don’t get it” (or so others tell us). We can’t see what others see. We don’t see what God sees. So if we’re brave and willing, we could ask God to give us new vision. I say “brave” because it might mean a mud-moment where God send someone into our lives to make us face the truth -- truth which isn’t always pleasant.
Yet in the end, it is the truth that will set us free. The “mud” God sends will result in a life-changing experience that will make us whole and healed and free. And isn’t that what the journey of Lent is about? We go through these days of Lent so that by Easter we are renewed. Our baptism is revived. Our commitment to be disciples of Jesus is invigorated.
