This blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily readings along with a headline from world news
Stephen Lawrence’s killers found guilty 
Joshua 3:14-17
14 When the people set out from their tents to cross over the Jordan, the priests bearing the ark of the covenant were in front of the people. 15Now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest. So when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the edge of the water, 16the waters flowing from above stood still, rising up in a single heap far off at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, while those flowing towards the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea, were wholly cut off. Then the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17While all Israel were crossing over on dry ground, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, until the entire nation finished crossing over the Jordan.
River Jordan: chills the body but not the soul
The ancient legend becomes a parable of trust in God and in his covenant symbolised by the Ark. Those who trust in God’s holy presence and keep his covenant will be enabled to cross all dangers dry-shod. Of course, safe-crossing of the River Jordan has to be wholly re-interpreted in the Christian tradition which recognises that God does not protect even his faithful child from worldly danger and that death comes to all. The imagery of Jordan river and the promised land is transformed by the death and resurrection of Jesus. Just as well, perhaps, when we remember that miracles such as this one are recounted as preludes to the ethnic cleansing of Canaan, a holy narrative which still gives justification for illegal Israeli settlements today. The profound use of “Jordan River Crossing” in the Afro-American Christian tradition, where Jordan becomes a symbol of oppression as well as death, is creative theology which can be used by all Christian people. “River of Jordan is chilly and cold/ chills the body but not the soul..”
John 9:1-12,35-38
9As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ 3Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. 4We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ 6When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, 7saying to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. 8The neighbours and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, ‘Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’ 9Some were saying, ‘It is he.’ Others were saying, ‘No, but it is someone like him.’ He kept saying, ‘I am the man.’ 10But they kept asking him, ‘Then how were your eyes opened?’ 11He answered, ‘The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, “Go to Siloam and wash.” Then I went and washed and received my sight.’ 12They said to him, ‘Where is he?’ He said, ‘I do not know.’
35 Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’* 36He answered, ‘And who is he, sir?* Tell me, so that I may believe in him.’ 37Jesus said to him, ‘You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.’ 38He said, ‘Lord, I believe.’ And he worshipped him. 
Whatever event lies behind this story-there are similar accounts of Jesus healing blindness in the other gospels-in John’s hands it has become a dark ironic story about the meaning of blindness. God is glorified when a man’s physical blindness is healed but we already know that the healer is the “light of the world”, the one who rveals truth. The crowd is blind to the reality of what has happened and almost convinces itself it’s seeing a different man. The healed man also has to be enlightened by Jesus’ invitation to faith. But as the rest of the story shows, Jesus’ opponents, the religious leaders, “see” no glory of God in this healing but only a challenge to their power. Unless our eyes are opened by the light of God’s truth, we see only what we want to see. This requires self-examination and repentance by all religious leaders.
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