Today’s passage from John’s Gospel has everything to do with what people are willing and able to see God doing. Some people – it happened the most religious ones -- weren’t able to see God working because their theology and rules were getting in the way and blinding them, while the blind man clearly could see what God was up to even though he was thought to be under a cloud of sin. That was because he was open and receptive to God. The point of the story is that people, including us, should always be open-minded and receptive when it comes to God.

Stories in the Bible can have all sorts of levels of meaning for our lives under different circumstances, and this one is no exception. It points out that Jesus saw something impossible – a man whose living conditions were irreversible. He was blind from birth. Still Jesus felt compassion. He felt the irresistible urge to do something – to do something compassionate for someone whose condition was irreversible. What happened when Jesus’ irresistible compassion met irreversible human conditions? He did everything He could in faith to act compassionately and, as in this case; amazing, unimaginable things were accomplished. Faith plus compassion – that’s the recipe that works miracles.

Today we have a chance to hear about one of the hundreds of ways in which people’s compassion -- given courage through faith -- has helped innumerable people in conditions that might seem irreversible – all through the generous gifts that people like us have made to Episcopal Charities. One of the charities that our money supports is called Friends Way. And today we get a chance to hear what it’s been doing for kids traumatized by all sorts of different tragedies. Let me introduce Beth Watson Sousa to you to let you in on what it’s been doing.

Following our Lord Jesus Christ, among other things, means putting compassion into action with faith. That can work miracles – so that people can see God at work and grow in faith – as it happened when Jesus met that blind man in today’s Gospel reading.