The Do-Over

Eleven years ago, I got an inside, beside the scenes glimpse of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove California. The structure is mammoth; eight stories high, 10,000 panes of glass, nearly 3000 cushioned theatre seats, and a jumbo-tron larger than the MetroDome’s. I was wandering through the sanctuary, reading the names on the seats of those who had funded them, when I heard a voice coming over the sound system. “Our scripture reading for today is from Isaiah the 43^rd chapter.”

I looked up and saw Robert Anthony Scheuller, the son of the church’s founder, dressed in a black robe, standing in the pulpit. He began to read from his bible, and then stumbled on a word and said “Cut! Take two.” He was actually recording the scripture reading for Sunday. It turns out, young Dr. Scheuller is not actually present at the Crystal Cathedral on Sunday morning; he has his own church in San Juan Capistrano. So he tapes the scripture reading for the TV audience on Thursday. And if he makes a mistake, he gets a do-over, as many times as it takes until it’s perfect. And I left the Cathedral that day thinking “I wish I had a do-over every time I made a mistake in my job.” Truthfully, there are some sermons I’d like to preach again, differently. There are some board meetings I’d like to do over again. At home, there are some conversations with Marsha I’d like to erase and start over. Some home improvement projects that might go better the second time around. I know some parents who’d like a do-over in parenting that first child that came along when they were young and inexperienced. In short, if each of us had the capability of saying “Cut! Take two” with the mistakes of our lives, we’d all look a little better, a little more polished, and a whole lot more impressive.

So in the gospel lesson that I just read a moment ago, we hear of what seems to be a heavenly do-over. Jesus heals a blind man, but not entirely. He rubs spittle upon the man’s eyelids and prays a prayer, and then asks “Can you see anything?” The man answers “Well, sorta. I mean, I can see some folks, but they look like trees walking around.” “Cut! Take two.” And Jesus laid his hands upon the man again, prayed another prayer, and when the man opened his eyes this time, he could clearly see everything.

Now, there are three possible explanations to this seemingly botched healing service. The first, though unlikely, is that Jesus made a mistake. He didn’t pray hard enough, or he didn’t believe fully enough, or he didn’t care compassionately enough. But none of those descriptions match the Jesus I know.

The second explanation, a bit more plausible, is that, since the man had been blind for quite some time, there is a temporary disconnect between what the eye can see and what the brain can read. Over several hours, or perhaps several days, the man’s sight may have gradually improved.

But the third explanation – the theological explanation – is that Jesus intentionally gave the man partial sight at first. In the text just before the healing, Jesus is having a conversation with his disciples about bread. They’re hungry and somebody forgot the food basket at home. “Don’t you remember the time I turned a few loaves of bread into a feast for 5000?” Jesus asked them. “Did you forget? Or don’t you get it?” And they didn’t get it. In the verses immediately after this healing of the blind man, Jesus returns to the conversation with his disciples and he tests them: “Who do you say that I am?” They start guessing! “I don’t know, Moses, maybe? Elijah? Jeremiah?”

And right smack dab in the middle of these texts there is the healing of the blind man. The first effort provides some insight: “Can you see?” “Yes” the blind man says, “But it’s not clear.” So Jesus touches him again. It was a do-over, not just so the blind man could see him clearly, but so that the disciples could also see Jesus clearly.

Eventually, they did. After Easter; after Pentecost, the disciples finally realized all that Jesus was. Son of God, the Savior, calling them to change the world with love and grace. For awhile, the Church did that, but over time, the calling got blurred. Christians couldn’t clearly remember Jesus’ words; Christians couldn’t clearly see Christ’s vision. The Church needed to be touched again; a “do-over” if you will.

· Over1500 years, the church forgot about forgiveness, so in the 16^th century, God touched a man named Luther to bring clarity.

· The Apostle Paul would write there is no difference, male/female, Jew/Greek, slave/free. But we forgot, so 1900 years later God touch a man named Dr. King to bring clarity to race and gender inequality.

· In the Garden of Eden, God charged every human on the planet with the responsibility to care for this creation. Granted, there were only two people on the planet then, but nonetheless…thousands of years later, the responsibility became foggy, so God touched scientists and politicians and theologians and common folk with a wake up call of stewardship. It is essentially, a second chance, a dramatic reminder that God wasn’t kidding when he put his people in charge of the earth.

And this is where we find ourselves today; living in a garden that has become crowded, dirty, and depleting. Because we are no longer an agrarian society, we have lost the vision of caring for the soil. Because we are a global garden divided by many religions, races and ideologies, we have become less concerned about there being enough for all, and more concerned about there being enough for us. Because we are a generation who lives in the moment, we have lost sight of something our mothers taught; that we should leave our space cleaner than when we found it.

And the problem I see in this environmental reformation that I think God has initiated is that, if we don’t agree with the problem, we don’t think it’s our responsibility to help fix it. It’s not just the debate over global warming; it includes our dependence on fossil fuels, the destruction of rain forests, the pollution of our waterways and the poisoning of our air. Our environment is like Social Security: if it lasts through my lifetime, I needn’t be concerned about it.

This three-week experiment here at Our Savior’s comes to a close today. We’ve made decisions to limit our use of paper, and to eliminate our use of Styrofoam, and to increase our recycling in the building, and monitor our use of energy. But if we have not changed the hearts of our people, then we have not accomplished much. If this conservation effort is only a weekly inconvenience when we come to church, then we have failed. “Cut! Take two!” Jesus says. Let me agitate you until things become clear to you once again. You are in charge of the Garden. Is this how you care for the gift that I have given?”

I am reading a book by Henning Mankell, my favorite Swedish author, in which an aging man is reunited with his long-lost daughter. She sees herself as a change agent; a one woman army to help improve the lives of people in Sweden. Her father asks her if efforts are making any progress. “If there has been any change, it is hard for me to see. But even if no one sees change, I know what I did.”

What are you doing? What am I doing? Can you see clearly that God has called us to be caretakers of this Garden…or are we merely consumers passing through? Forgive us, Lord, for our blindness. Thanks be to God. Amen.