Message: The Day Eyes Opened / John 9:1-12

Today’s Canada is often called a secular society. In 2007, the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor published an important book called A Secular Age. In it, he explores how religion and faith have changed in the modern world, especially in North America and Europe.

Taylor describes secularity in three ways. First, religion is no longer at the centre of public life. In areas like government, law, and education, one religion is not expected to guide everyone. Second, fewer people go to worship services or belong to faith communities. Third, belief in God is optional. It is now just one choice among many ways people make sense of life.

Taylor focuses especially on this third point. A few hundred years ago in Western societies, it was hard to imagine someone who did not believe in God. Today, the situation is very different. Many people live without a religious identity or look for meaning outside of religious traditions. This reminds us that it is significant for us to understand those who do not share our faith.

So, what is atheism? Even among atheists, there are different perspectives. Some do not believe in God for intellectual reasons. They think the world can be explained through science and observation. Since God cannot be tested or measured, faith may seem unreasonable to them. Others struggle with belief because of their life experiences. When they face deep suffering or see injustice in the world, it can be hard to accept the idea of a good God. There are also those who reject faith because they believe religion diminishes life. To them, depending on God may seem less like wisdom and more like weakness, something that holds people back from freedom, strength, and a full embrace of life.

At the same time, there is a kind of atheism that can exist inside religion. People may speak about God, but in reality, they use God as a tool to get what they want. This type of atheism appears in the so-called prosperity gospel, where people care more about money and power than about God. God’s name is misused to justify material success. In seeking wealth and control, they harm the natural world God created and exploit neighbours who bear the image of God, all while claiming that God is on their side. The Bible calls this idolatry.

This kind of religious atheism can strengthen hostile atheism. Violence, injustice, discrimination, hatred, and oppression done in God’s name drive many people not only to leave faith but also to oppose religion. Some who strongly oppose religion today were once part of a faith community. Before they rejected God, they were wounded by distorted religion.

In times like this, it is not right to simply complain that society has become too secular. We need to ask deeper questions. Why do so many people no longer find faith meaningful? How have Christian traditions sometimes caused people to turn away from God? How can we help others see and experience God’s presence?

In this moment, today’s Gospel gives us a great insight. As Jesus walks with his disciples in Jerusalem, they encounter a man who has been blind from birth. The disciples ask Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Their question reveals how the disciples understood God and the world. They assumed that suffering must result from sin. For them, the world worked like a system of cause and effect. Good people are rewarded, and those who do wrong are punished. This kind of thinking can easily lead to judgment. People who suffer, those with disabilities, those who are poor, and those who struggle in life are often blamed for their situation.

But the Bible does not support such easy explanations. It teaches that suffering cannot always be traced to personal wrongdoing. One example is the story of Job. Job is righteous. He did nothing wrong, yet he suffers a great deal. His friends cannot accept this. They keep looking for some hidden sin to explain his pain. The story shows that their way of thinking is wrong. They are stuck in a narrow idea of cause and effect. The world is not a machine that runs on simple rules. God is not a distant watchmaker who created everything and then stepped away.

In the Bible, God’s righteousness is not a strict measuring stick to judge people. It is not mainly about punishment. God’s righteousness is about mercy. It is not about treating the strong and the weak exactly the same. It is about standing with the vulnerable and the marginalized. 

The disciples’ reaction, seeing the blind man as a sign of sin, is far from God’s righteousness. Jesus responds to them: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned.” With these words, Jesus invites them to move beyond their assumptions. He opens their hearts so they may glimpse God’s hope for the world.

God’s dream is a world where disability is never a reason for exclusion or shame. It is a world where people with different bodies live together with dignity. It is a world where every person is honoured as a child of God, created in God’s image.

Jesus spits on the ground, mixes the soil with his saliva, and places the mud on the man’s eyes. Then he tells him to wash in the Pool of Siloam, which lay in the southern part of the city. The pool was fed by water brought into Jerusalem through Hezekiah’s Tunnel, an ancient channel built in the 8th century BCE to carry water safely into the city.

This pool played an important role in the life of the city. Especially in times of war or disaster, it provided water for survival. It was also a place where pilgrims washed before going up to the temple. After a long journey, travellers would cleanse themselves there. It was a place of renewal for both body and spirit.

Once the man can see, the religious leaders confront him about the healing. They still believe that blindness must be connected to sin, and they cannot imagine that such a person could see again. They do not try to go beyond what they already know. They do not admit that they could be wrong. They remain trapped in a narrow framework. When the man explains the whole story, they scorn him: “You were born entirely in sin, and are you trying to teach us?” Then they focus on the fact that Jesus healed on the Sabbath, accusing him of being a sinner for breaking the Sabbath rules. 

Then Jesus says to them, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.” Jesus is not saying that physical blindness is a sin. The real issue is spiritual stubbornness, which keeps us from seeing God.

We live in a secular age, a time when people hold many different views of God. In this context, the central question is not secularity itself. It is whether we truly see God. Even inside the church, we may speak about God and still miss God. We may defend religion and still fail to love our neighbour. We may protect our habits and still resist the mercy of Christ.

To believe in God is to see the world differently. It is not to view life as a cold chain of causes and effects. Faith allows us to notice wonder, beauty, and mystery. It helps us recognize God’s care for every person. It opens our hearts to hope for a world where all creation rejoices together.

Jesus still opens eyes today. When that happens, we begin to love more deeply, because we see that God is love. We begin to trust more fully, because we notice God at work in every place and at every moment. And we begin to hope more boldly, because we experience God’s dream, and it becomes our dream as well.

Thanks Be to God. Amen.

Rev. Min Hwang