Jesus saw a man blind from his birth. And the disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" A characteristically human question. One of the first questions that always springs to mind: "Oh my, this is so sad, this is so tragic, this is so awful. You can't read the papers or watch the news and not wonder, who is doing the sinning, whose fault is it, who is to blame: terrorist bombings all over, ceasefires always broken, seemingly endless random violence, genocide in in Africa, drive-by shootings on American streets. Whose fault was it? Who is responsible for this sorry state of affairs? Who was wrong, who is to blame?" An ultimate question, and so often the immediate question. And Jesus bushes it aside. He will not answer it, evidently does not think the answer to any of that is important, or is even the real issue. The real answer, he suggests, lies not in the why, but in the wherefore, not in the how come, but in the so what now. Jesus answered them, "It is was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him." He calls us to move from the why to the so what. I don't mean that cynical so what - who cares? I mean that optimistic so what - so what do I do now, so what happens from now on, so what are the opportunities, how will the power of God be made manifest in this situation, and in me? He tells us to stop looking, wondering, asking, what was the cause of all of this? Whose fault was it? Who is to blame? Who can I point my finger at? Who's to blame for the mess we presently have - the mess in - fill in the blank with almost anything, health care, economic competitiveness, corporate downsizing, the fiscal health of social security, the propensity for unreasonable litigation, religious extremists. What went wrong, who is to blame, who failed, and why? Even in our own personal lives and not just the world around us - why the embittering hurt and pain and humiliation of a marriage on the rocks, a job unfairly lost, a life once filled with hope and promise that now seems mislaid and diverted. Why? What or who, caused it? I think our Lord does not say it is pointless to try to determine responsibility, useless to search for causes and underlying conditions. But what he does say is that all of that is not the last word, the final hope, the relevant thing. What is relevant is the power of God in Christ, made manifest in us. And all of that is curiosity, and none of that is salvation. Christians are not people of the regret-filled past, ours is not a wistful worried way, wondering how and why and where it all went wrong. Ours rather is the forward, faith-filled way: where do we go now, how do we now proceed? For Christians, we to begin instead with the here and now. Here we are, as we are, and here is the power of God. And the before no longer matters. Now and hereafter matters. Here is this hatred, here is this hurt, here is this conflict, here is this suspicion, now how will the power of God be made manifest in all of this. Jesus says that at some point we need to let go of the past, not as some silly denial to face the facts, but rather depriving the situation of its authority over us, as though the "why this happened" is the important question. He says it is not . What Jesus does saying is that healing and restoration and salvation does not lie in that direction, in that search to finally and definitively decide who is to blame, but rather, he says that healing and wholeness lies in the manifestation of the power of God in the midst of the wreckage and the continuing calamities. Figuring out why and who will never redeem any of that. The power of God manifest now and from now on is what will save us. What I think our Lord is proposing, in his answer to the disciples, is that often our search for blame and for the original offense and for the original offender can be a desperate dead end, literally. We are tempted to follow leads that lead nowhere. We think that if we can only figure out what happened, if we can only figure out who caused what, if we can only define the original sin, and locate the original sinners, then we will be satisfied, then we will start to make progress, then we will be helped. You will not, says Jesus, because that is not, should not be, cannot be, must not be, the main and final issue. The power of God made manifest now, and from now on. That is the main issue, the real issue. That is salvation. "Who sinned? This man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "It is was not that that this man sinned, no, or his parents, don’t blame them – it is only and always that the power of God might be made manifest in him" And in us.