THE service on Mothering Sunday, March 15, was arranged by the worship group and led by Pam Murphy. Her theme was “What do we see?”

As we celebrate Mothering Sunday, we are reminded that mothers, parents, carers and helpers of all sorts do many things that go unseen and unnoticed and so in appreciation, children of whatever age will have been remembering their mums today or anyone who mothered them and helped them to grow and develop. Posies were distributed around the congregation.

Hilary led a reflection on the reading from John 9 where Jesus was walking with His disciples and saw a man blind from birth. People then thought deformities were the result of sin of the parents and the disciples asked how could a man sin before his birth and why would the blind person be accountable for his parents’ sins? Jesus said neither the man nor his parents had sinned but God sent Jesus to heal people in order to show the glory of God.

Jesus healed the man and he went home to tell everyone about it. At this stage he simply called Jesus “the man”.

Pharisees added rules and regulations to the Jewish law. Their rules about not doing things on the Sabbath meant that to do good and to heal someone on the Sabbath was breaking the law. The Pharisees asked the man who healed him. The man said “he is a prophet” – he was beginning to understand.

Pam said the Gospel reading built on the readings last week where Nicodemus didn’t see what Jesus was getting at with His teaching, but the Samaritan woman grasped it and embraced it. We heard how Jesus restored the sight of a blind man who could inwardly see Jesus for who He was, whereas sighted people didn’t believe and were not able to recognise Jesus for who He was. They were spiritually blind and could not find within themselves that they could believe in Him.

What can we perceive and understand from Jesus’ teaching that goes beyond our physical eyesight and our thoughts into the realms of our spiritual being? Pam led a responsive affirmation about seeing or perceiving Jesus.

We sang Amazing Grace which was written by John Newton who had been a slave trader. We are told that after he had a terrifying near-death experience during a storm he prayed for God’s mercy. After he survived, he became a Christian and ultimately an Anglican priest. The first verse says, “I once was lost but now am found, Was blind but now I see”.

Later in life, John Newton started to lose his physical sight and so the song perhaps took on another level of meaning. While his physical sight may have deteriorated, John Newton saw other things far more clearly. He knew the truth of God’s mercy, grace and love and how it can transform lives.

May our eyes be opened to receive the light of Christ.

Bronwyn Nott