Karma? I'll Take Grace :: John 9

To use the words of Joan Jett, I love rock ’n’ roll, even if I can’t find dimes, let alone a jukebox. Every now and then I want to cue up the rock band U2. They offer something more than screaming guitars. You can definitely hear the influence of their Christian upbringing in the lyrics of many of their songs. 

On album after album, Bono sings of things we can all identify with. 

One man come in the name of love // One man come and go

One man come, he to justify // One man to overthrow

You broke the bonds and you // Loosed the chains

Carried the cross // Of my shame

Gloria ... in te domine // Gloria ... exultate 

Gloria ... Gloria // Oh Lord, loosen my lips

Like the band’s anthems, Bono is larger than life. He’s well known for his humanitarian work, especially fighting AIDS in Africa. Normally, I’m a little cynical about such things, but I have to say, he’s starting to grow on me.

Asked about what drives him, what makes him tick, Bono answered, It’s a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but 

THE THING THAT KEEPS ME ON MY KNEES IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KARMA AND GRACE.

It’s no small thing to take on karma. John Lennon sang about instant karma. Warren Zevon warned of bad karma. Even Journey, before lead singer Steve Perry took over and launched them into fame, sang of karma. 

But what is this karma they speak of? Karma is the idea that what goes around comes around, that there’s a kind of justice that drives the inner workings of the universe. 

A few years ago, y’all might remember the viral video of a guy who crashed his truck on Interstate 41 in Kansas City. He had become frustrated with a woman in front of him. When he finally passed her, he triumphantly displayed his middle finger to her. And just after that, he lost control, spun out, spun out into a ditch, and was ultimately arrested. 

That, they say, is karma. He supposedly got what was coming to him.

On the flip side, there’s the popular pay-it-forward movement. There are folks who think it’s especially virtuous to pick up someone’s tab at a restaurant. Supposedly, it’s good karma and it sets the motions of the universe in your favor.

We even see this thinking in the Bible. In our gospel reading from John 9, it just so happened that Jesus was walking along when he came across a man born blind. And the disciples asked the karma question, Who sinned? This man or his parents?

We love this question, don’t we? This is the kind of question we ask when we are trying to make sense of the world. A woman has cancer? Well, we say, she must have smoked all his life. Liver problems? Well, he drank too much. Heart attack? Couch potato. Car accident? Flagging down the driver you just passed. 

Yeah, I would never do that, we are pleased to say. 

So, why was the man born blind? Was it because of his sin? Or perhaps the sin of his parents?

I know what I’d say. And it wouldn’t be to give the karma answer. 

I’d say that one common sin infects us all. Sure ... manifest sins have manifest  consequences. Death is going to get each and every one of us, no matter how well we live ... no matter how righteous we think we may be. We’ve all sinned and all creation suffers. As Paul tells us in Romans chapter 8, the world is broken. The whole creation has been groaning under the weight of sin.

And that’s true. 

But Jesus doesn’t offer such an answer any of us would have thought of. Instead, he says, It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him (v 3).

Talk about mind-blowing. Sin, in all its negativity, has actually set in motion a chain of events that ends not with disaster, but with mysterious blessing. 

Is that possible? And, do we really want to gloat? To take pleasure in someone getting his comeuppance? If karma was finally going to be my judge, the prophet Bono said, then I’d be in deep ______ ” 

Then Bono added, I’m holding out for grace; I’m holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don’t have to depend on my own religiosity.”

It was never God’s plan that man fall into sin. It was never God’s plan that man would suffer from illness and death. It was never God’s plan that men would be born blind or deaf, or persecute each other. 

God made man to be in perfect communion with him. God made man to nurture him, to love him, to walk with him, to share with him, to live forever in peace and prosperity. 

And yet ... in the mystery of his grace ... in the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, our Lord took a fallen situation and not only restored it, but made it better than it ever was. By the mystery of the incarnation and the glory of the cross, we have come to see God as we never could before: face-to-face, in full and sacrificial love. A paradise better than Eden awaits us. By the mystery of God’s love for us in Lord Christ Jesus, he has opened our eyes that were once blind, and opened our ears which once could not hear. He has opened them to the light of Christ and the harmony of the Gospel. 

We have experienced a love that has been tested, a love that has been challenged, a love that goes beyond a mutually beneficial relationship. And having been forgiven much, what can we do but fall to our knees?

Yes, God loves the angels. But the angels are good. And it’s easy to love those who love you in return. Even the pagans do this. But we have received a greater love. We are seeing a more beautiful grace. He has taken us creatures and turned us into children. 

And no, the world still hasn’t found what its looking for; for the world in its worldliness is blind; the world looks at the font, and they don’t think it’s worth a bucket of spit. But we, whose eyes have been opened, see a crystal fountain, a river of life flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb who has been slain.

Bono’s right. It’s a miracle that the God of the universe is seeking out the company of folks like us. But that’s what he’s done. 

What happened to the man born blind? Well, we know he became an outcast. His own parents distanced themselves from him, and the community ostracized him. But our Lord Jesus then went the extra mile and sought him out. Our Lord took friendship and mercy and turned it into full communion.

So, yeah, karma sounds cool. 

But on this one, I’d rather have grace. 

We’ll never be rock stars, but we can join together another band and sing together the song of the Lamb, the song of love unknown.