Healed in the Mud

As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, ‘Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’ Some were saying, ‘It is he.’ Others were saying, ‘No, but it is someone like him.’ He kept saying, ‘I am the man.’ But they kept asking him, ‘Then how were your eyes opened?’ He answered, ‘The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, “Go to Siloam and wash.” Then I went and washed and received my sight.’ They said to him, ‘Where is he?’ He said, ‘I do not know.’ They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, ‘He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.’ Some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.’ But others said, ‘How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?’ And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man, ‘What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.’ He said, ‘He is a prophet.’ John 9:1-17

It's been raining and it's muddy everywhere. Red mud here in Oklahoma, deep brown in Massachusetts, and some places you can't see the mud for the water. Life is full of mud and mess everywhere we go. And it is this so common substance, the very earth we come from and return to, which Jesus used to heal the man born blind. Our sacred earth our mother earth, is healing and repairing us always, yet we do not choose to care about it. We wash it off as if it is an evil substance. Yet Jesus changed a man's life and his whole community and family with a little mud. Our Savior is one who is with us in the mess and the mud, willing healing and restoration for us all.

Precious Creator, mysterious and wonderful

you plant us on this holy and sacred earth

giving us all good things needed for life

and ask us to be caretaker of our earth and one another.

We refuse your love, and refuse the world's mess

even though that is where you dwell with us

we want simple, clean and pristine dwellings

that shield us from the truth of your presence here.

Help us today to be willing to get deep in the mud

let your love work in us so our eyes might be opened

to the desperate needs of our relatives and neighbors

so that we might be vessels of healing and light today. Amen.