1 Samuel 16:1-13
The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you.”
Samuel did what the Lord commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Do you come peaceably?” He said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is now before the Lord.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen any of these.” Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here.” He sent and brought him in.
Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; for this is the one.” Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.
John 9:1-41
As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He 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.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”
They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.”
The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.
Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him. Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”
Sermon by the Rev. Carole Horton-Howe
“Do not look on his appearance or the height of his stature for the Lord does not see as mortals see. They look on the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart. With these words Samuel is tasked entrusted with determining who will be successor to King Saul. Saul had ceased to walk in the ways of God and the Lord sent Samuel to a man named Jesse because one of Jesse's sons would, in fact, become the successor for Saul.
As Samuel arrives Jesse lines up his sons - seven of them - and they all begin to pass before Samuel. But one after another, strong though they may be, kingly looking though they may be, Samuel isn't getting any indication from the Lord that any one of them is THE one. It's not until the youngest one, an afterthought of a son who's off tending the sheep, appears that God makes God’s choice known. And what a puzzle that turns out to be: he doesn’t seem to be enough in any way. He has somehow managed to be invisible.
Choosing young David is a disruption to the natural order of things in the ancient world. We see it so many times in Holy Scripture but it's still a disruption to the order of things that we don’t expect. We do recognize that we humans tend to make decisions based on outward appearances.
I wonder how a child who has been bullied because he looks different than everyone else would hear that “the Lord looks at the heart.” Or perhaps someone who has been excluded because they are differently abled, I wonder how they might feel knowing that God sees us differently. But also knowing that down there in the trenches – they know that their peers may still see them as “less than” if they're even visible at all.
Now for a moment I want us to fast forward to our lesson from John's Gospel and a story of someone else who has been pushed to the margins, someone else who, for all intents and purposes is invisible. A man who was born blind. He has been the blind beggar in his community his whole life. And the assumption of everyone around him is that there must have been sin. We can safely assume that the disciples are not the first to ponder this. Likely there have been whispers and gossip since the day this young man was born – a certainty that there was a deep abyss of sin in this family that resulted in his blindness. The community’s debate was not if there was sin, only who was sinner. And there was no debate about his forever role in the community: he was the blind beggar. They are all comfortable with him in that role, in that forever place -- until Jesus came along.
Jesus it the disrupter of the accepted order of things in the name of God, in the name of Love. Jesus, the son of a mighty and loving God, in giving this man his sight demonstrates something that might be a little frightening for the people. Jesus shows them that this man that everyone supposes is the culmination of his or his family’s sin is worthy of God's favor, that he’s worthy enough to be given his sight, worthy enough to be given a brand new life script and a brand new life path.
When Jesus gives this man the gift of sight, he not only receives physical sight but spiritual sight. He begins to understand that God the Son has revealed the power of God for him and through him. He begins to understand he is no longer held captive by the limiting thoughts of himself, his family and others. He’s set free. But the community is left behind. They can’t fathom that God could really have been at work through this young man. And they drive him out of the community rather than celebrating the work that God has done.
The world seems to thrive on identifying what’s wrong with our neighbors, with labeling things, with challenging things that seem to be disordered rather than focusing on strengths and abilities.
The challenge for us is to see past the superficial. Just as the Lord spoke to Samuel and to see possibilities, to see God at work and to celebrate that. And that requires us to see the Divine in one another and ourselves rather than labels that we have used identity what is wrong, the labels used to limit. When we focus on seeing the Divine in one another, and also in ourselves, our whole world is the better for it. When we look past the superficial, we understand that this gospel story is about life without Jesus contrasted with life with Jesus. It is a story of before and after – the darkness, the confinement, the stuckness of life before an encounter with Jesus versus the lightness and freedom of life after an encounter with Jesus. The life that God wants for each of us.
This Lenten season provides us with a special invitation to see the divine light in all of God’s creation, to see as God sees and to embrace that light. The Pharisees and the young man’s family shut their eyes to the light in self-defense. That may be the intuitive thing to do. But this text encourages us to open our eyes wide. We will not be blinded by the light. We will be saved. Amen.