A sermon by Senior Minister John B. McCall, August 5, 2007
Ezekiel 18:1-9, 30-32
John 9:1-13
We who live in Maine year-round often feel like we’re managing a bed and breakfast during summer months. Last week my middle son Jeremiah and his wife were with us from Ohio. I was struck at the mannerisms and expressions that he and Ben share – presumably from me.
On Monday we’d barely had time to change the sheets and towels before my sister Judy and her husband arrived from Illinois. I observed again the characteristics that both she and I share – some from our mom and some from our dad. Their origins may go back to ancient times and have been passed from generation to generation. And again I was reminded as we talked of how differently siblings may experience family life as they were growing up, or how we make sense out of our stories looking back from decades later.
Each of us can point to those things we’ve inherited from our families. It may be our eyes or noses, our world-view, but also the particular blind-spots and neuroses they gave us. I’m reminded of the t-shirt that said “My mother was a travel agent for Guilt Trips.”
Old Testament theology suggests sin and righteousness are passed down from father and mother “even to the 7th generation.” That was captured in a familiar proverb that said “when the parents have eaten sour grapes, the children’s teeth are set on edge.” There’s a dark side to some family legacies: those who’ve been abused or neglected usually pass it on. Those who were orphaned or adopted may spend a life time sorting out the pieces.
But six hundred years before Jesus the prophet Ezekiel challenged that sense of determinism, that common belief that one generation’s sins dictated the fate of their descendents. Ezekiel preached to the Israelites that the deeds of their parents didn’t condemn them and their purity couldn’t save later generations. Rather, God creates each one of us and makes us responsible for ourselves.
God said, spoken through the prophet: “I’ll judge each of you according to the way you live. So turn around! Turn your backs on your rebellious living so that sin won’t drag you down. Clean house. No more rebellions, please. Get a new heart! Get a new spirit! Why would you choose to die, Israel? I take no pleasure in anyone’s death. Make a clean break! Live!”
Similarly, in the Gospel from John Jesus challenged the conventional wisdom as he walked by a man blind from birth. His disciples said: “we know this man’s blindness is punishment for some sin. But tell us this: was it his sin or his parents’ sin for which he’s being punished?” Jesus simply answered “That’s the wrong question. There’s no cause and effect here. The right question is what God can do.” He healed the man’s vision, and in the same act restored the vision of the disciples who weren’t able to see or understand what Jesus was really about.
What do you believe? Is your life determined by ancestry, by the sins or blessings of your parents? Many feel they’re locked into life and there’s no hope for change. We’re a product of our environment, programmed by our genes, condemned by old sins and errors. It often seems our freedom has been over-ruled by much larger forces that we can’t control.
But Jesus was emphatic: we can change because faith gives us freedom. Right here, right now, this very minute, we can break loose and start fresh. God’s grace creates miracles every day. No matter what’s happening in our lives a new chapter starts when we admit that we’re hungry, thirsty, lonely, or afraid. Then we can open our hearts and hear the call to new life.
Perhaps you saw the article about Phyllis Turner, an Australian woman who had quit school when she was 12 to go to work to help her mother and siblings when their father abandoned the family. For a long time she pushed aside her dream of finishing school. She raised her seven children and two step children and then took evening classes to get her high school diploma. She then pressed on and graduated from college, and this past week received her Masters degree in medical sciences at the age of 94. Now she’s contemplating whether to push ahead for her PhD!
Over the years I’ve been blessed to know many people who really have it all together: spiritually alive and emotionally mature, generous and kind, radiating a sense of love and joy, and whose very lives give witness and praise to God.
The odds are pretty high they weren’t always that way. More likely life used to be quite different. But then somewhere along the way there came a turning point: maybe facing an addiction or losing a loved one; maybe a crisis of health or meaning; a job loss or a child heading off to school.
Many times the inner voice says: “it’s no use; it’s too late; the die is cast and there’s nothing I can do.” Ezekiel said: “make a clean break and live!” Jesus said “this is an opportunity to see what God can do.”
When we listen carefully to each other we might hear how many of us have felt powerless and afraid, and that you’ve prayed desperately for God to change things. And you prayed and prayed and prayed and there wasn’t any thunderbolt and there wasn’t any miracle. But something shifted in your heart, more like a sailor who can’t change the wind but who figures out how to reset the sails. Now the breezes and the gusts no longer threaten to capsize you but rather push you toward the goal… the goal of life fulfilled and free-flowing. Once the heart is changed, the deeds will follow.
You may be destined to live your whole life with your father’s ears or your grandmother’s nose. But your heart and soul are God’s gift to you alone – here and now. “Make a clean break! Live!” Hear Ezekiel’s freeing word, and consider the miraculous healing account from the Gospel of John.
Jesus offers us new life — calling us to remember who we are because of the past, and who we can yet become because of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.