1 Samuel 16: 1-13 Psalm 23
Ephesians 5: 8-14 John 9: 1-41
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
How many of you have ever looked at a Magic Eye image? You know – those images that look like a conglomeration of dots and nothingness, but if you look at them in just the right way, they end up being a picture of something wonderful….like a beautiful bird or scene from nature. That wonderful, incredible image was there all along, but unless you knew exactly how to find it with your eyes, it remains hidden to you.
Now can I just tell you I’ve never had a lot of luck with magic eye images. When my children were little, they had entire books of these images and they’d be sitting there marveling over the impressions as they came into focus and I would be the frustrated mom, unable to see anything other than, well, a conglomeration of dots and nothingness.
Today’s reading from 1 Samuel and the Gospel reading from John are both excellent examples of how God uses the unexpected person, the person who society really does not see, to do God’s work. These are the people who are hidden in the conglomeration of life’s dots and nothingness that is often what we value the most in society today.
In the reading from 1 Samuel, Samuel is sent to anoint the next king. Now Samuel was pretty unhappy with God as well as with this task that God was giving him to do. Samuel wanted Saul to be the next king, because in fact, Saul was in line to be the next king. But God has other plans, God has already rejected Saul as king. So Samuel heads to Bethlehem, as God commands, to visit the household of Jesse and his sons and anoint the next king.
First Samuel and Jesse come to the first son of Jesse, Eliab who is tall and would make a most striking king and God says “No. Not him” Then they call Abinadab, who is also rejected. Then Shammah and seven sons of Jesse and yet, the Lord does not wish for any of these to be king. To find the king, Jesse had to reluctantly call his youngest son in from the field where he was tending the sheep. Only then could Samuel anoint the next king, David.
It was unheard of that David would be king…..he was the youngest of Jesse’s sons. And the youngest child was never the one in line for such an honor. And we’ve already established that not only was David the youngest son, he wasn’t even in the right family….in the order of the day, Saul was supposed to be the next king. How can it be, then, that this youngest son from the wrong family is the one whom the Lord has chosen? If you were looking for the next king, it would surely not be this man that you would see as king.
A few weeks ago I was at Northwest Hospital to visit one of our parishioners who was to have surgery. As I walked into the lobby, I noticed a construction worker standing there, removing his neon yellow construction vest and hard hat, and carefully placing them aside. He sat down on the piano bench and I wondered if he was just looking for a handy spot to rest…or was he going to remove his shoes too? And instead he turned around on that bench, gently placed his fingers on the keys and began to play that piano with the stunning beauty of one who has truly been given the gift of music. The atmosphere in that lobby was transformed. Those who were hurrying to get somewhere, to see someone, or complete some task, slowed or stopped altogether to hear the music coming from this man’s hands. He did not have any sheet music, he did not hesitate or stumble, rather the music flowed out of him and into the lobby, finding its way into the hearts and days of those around him.
If you had asked us to find the pianist in the lobby, we might well have chosen the well dressed lady or the distinguished looking man. Maybe even a young protégé. But my eyes would have moved right over the middle aged construction worker with the dirty boots and the dusty brow.
The Gospel story from John’s Gospel…the looong reading from chapter 9, revolves around a man who had been blind from birth. The Pharisees are looking around, trying to determine who the sinner is, the blind man or his parents. First Jesus tells them that neither sinned, which would have been incomprehensible…someone must be to blame. Then Jesus heals the blind man, even though it was the Sabbath day and any kind of work on the Sabbath was forbidden.
For the entirety of the remainder of this story, there is no celebration of the healing of this man. No one says “Thanks be to God, our friend is healed!” Instead, there is simply a refusal to believe what has happened. The man’s neighbors think that he is not the man who was blind, but is someone else. And when he can’t produce Jesus for them, they certainly do not believe.
The Pharisees determined that Jesus could not have healed the blind man because: a) He did not observe the Sabbath, which made him b) a sinner.
When the Pharisees demand that the parents offer an explanation, the parents are too afraid of them to answer him at all. They are so caught up in their fear that they miss the chance to celebrate this thing that has happened to their son.
When he is brought for a second time to the Pharisees they still don’t believe him and they dismiss Jesus because only Moses is the true prophet.
How often, I wonder, do we miss the miraculous in life because we are so busy trying to offer some kind of explanation for everything, or because what has happened does not fit with our idea of what we thought should happen, or because it’s never happened that way before? How often do we miss the beautiful thing in life because our eyes have only been used to seeing the dots and conglomerations? How often are we looking for the next king or the next pianist and we never even stop to consider that it might be the young son from the wrong family or the construction worker or even the baby boy in the manger, born to the unwed mom.
What miracles are we missing today? Who is bringing us good news, perhaps of an encounter with Jesus and we think “Oh, this just cannot be so?”
On Friday the doorbell to this place rang. A man came in with a story…a long story….and ultimately I knew that his need was money. I felt very much like the Pharisees and the neighbors from the Gospel reading today, though. I had questions, I had concerns. Was he being truthful Was I being taken for a ride? Did I really believe him? And you know, it’s entirely possible (even though I could verify parts of his story) that any of the above was happening. But this was a man who had a need. This was a man who professed a faith in Christ that should have made me immediately accept him as my brother. But I was very busy looking at the dots and conglomerations and not at the brother. I could not find the beauty in the picture until I let go of all of my blindness and like the man in the story today, see because of Jesus.
Seeing can be a dangerous and frightening and unfamiliar thing when blindness is all we know. When we expect one thing and get another, our every instinct tells us that something is not right. But when we see through and because of Jesus….that is when we see the miracle. That is when we are able to make a bold profession of our own, when we can say “Lord I believe”.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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