The Man Born Blind

This week's Gospel text is a provocative one; it's another of a series of personal encounters with Jesus that we've heard throughout Lent: first Nicodemus, then the woman at the well, now the man born blind, and next week is Lazarus. In exploring how to unpack this in worship, I stumbled upon David Lose's suggestion over at Working Preacher. He suggests having some congregation members be blindfolded during the reading to help them capture the transformation that is integral to this story, since this is no metaphorical blindness being communicated by the gospel writer. I'd go even further. I'd have have every other or every third person who walks in the door receive the blindfold, and I'd encourage them to wear it from the moment they enter the narthex. Then I'd encourage the parishioners around them who do not have blindfolds to help them to a place in the pew and assist in navigating them through worship. Then at the moment that Jesus heals the blind man, the blindfolds may be removed. (Alternatively, you could leave them on the whole time, for a whole host of other reasons that I won't lay out for you here.) Maybe this isn't practical; it will certainly make at least some of the worshipers moderately to severely uncomfortable. But it accomplishes several things:

1. It turns an otherwise ordinary worship service into a multi-sensory experience. It's kinesthetic; it creates close interaction between worshipers in a profound way; it heightens awareness about just how much visual information we process in a typical worship service; etc.


2. It turns an otherwise ordinary gospel reading into something that can have implications for the service as a whole. In that way, it's an opportunity to explore the challenges and blessings of worship planning--how can we engage worshipers with these texts in multi-sensory ways?


3. It promotes awareness of the inherent accessibility problems in worshipping congregations. Are we really as "handicap accesssible" as we should or could be? Are our members well-trained enough to respond instinctively to the challenges of others in our midst?


4. It creates surprise and unexpectedness and forces people out of their comfort zones, something our congregations need from time to time.


5. It prevents worship from being a rote exercise by forcing active participation on the part of everyone--those with and without blindfolds must be engaged. Otherwise, 1/3 to 1/2 of the congregation (those with blindfolds) will feel very much alienated throughout the experience.


6. It's an opportunity to teach ushers that their role isn't merely to hand out bulletins, greet people, collect offerings, and dismiss people for communion. They are ministers of hospitality who must be constantly attentive to the worship needs of those in the pews.

I'm sure you can come up with more effects this might have. And it may even open up your thinking for other opportunities to try similar things with other readings as they come up throughout the year.

Would this be practical in your context? Are you willing to try it? What reactions might you anticipate? If you try it, please let me know how it went!