Yesterday as we gathered for our weekly chapel service at Transitions Homeless Shelter, I was nervous.
We usually follow the lectionary and the passage this week was from John 9:
9:1 As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth.
9:2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
9:3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.
I knew from the conversations and prayer requests I had heard each week that there were many people who were gathered who had heard these common refrains from religious leaders and people about their situations. “You need to get up and get going. Find some work, whatever it is and just do it.” “You’ve made some bad decisions and this is where those decisions landed you.” “You have to work. You can’t be lazy. You have to work hard for the blessings God has for you.”
As I read the gospel passage, I just asked one question, “How many of you have been told you are where you are because you have sinned, which is what the disciples are assuming about the blind man that Jesus encounters.” Hands went up around the room and heads nodded.
Before even hearing their stories, people assume they know why these gathered at the homeless shelter had ended up homeless. Many of the people they encountered were Christians, disciples, just like the disciples in this story, who were repeating beliefs about how someone ends up homeless and the connection to sin.
Jesus said to the disciples and to those gathered yesterday for chapel, “Neither this man (or you!) nor his parents have sinned.”
When we assume people have sinned and as a result have ended up homeless, we relieve ourselves of the responsibility of analyzing the vast privilege and racial inequality that exists in our society. A society that benefits certain kinds of people and delivers devastating blows to others. This is spiritual abuse. It is using religion to alleviate the role we play in continuing privilege. This is not the gospel.
When we assume that the only thing people who are homeless need is to be saved, we miss the opportunity to see the rich and real faith that exists in the hearts and souls of people who are homeless. This is spiritual abuse. When we assume people aren’t saved because they are homeless, we are defining and restricting Christianity to a certain race and socioeconomic status. This is not the gospel.
Maybe Jesus asks his disciples to welcome the stranger in, to clothe those who are naked, and to give food to those who are hungry because when we do, we get to know people instead of labels, and we begin to understand that we are the very ones who have caused the stranger to be excluded, people to be naked, and people to be hungry. Maybe Jesus asks us to do unto the least of these as we would do unto him because then we would uncover the spiritual abuse that blinds us to our responsibility to bring the kingdom of God here on earth.
And maybe the disciples in the gospel lesson are asking the very questions we should be asking out loud, so that Jesus can teach us how our beliefs need to be challenged and examined.