Sermon for the
Fourth Sunday in Lent
March 2, 2008
1 Samuel 16:1–13
Psalm 23
Ephesians 5:8–14
John 9:1–41
Year A
I.N.I. (In the name of Jesus)
I get nervous when I go to the eye doctor, more so than any other doctor’s visit. I have required corrective lenses to see correctly since I was ten years old, and for a string of many years, every time I went for an eye exam, the very first chart to look at was fuzzy. Even now, when I look through the apparatus that simulates glasses, and lens after lens is applied, I grow nervouser and nervouser when attempting to answer the question, “is this better, or this? Now, better, or worse?” What a relief when the final lens is dropped! What vivid sight there is when the new prescription is filled! Details not noticed before stand out. It’s like I’ve gotten a whole new pair of eyes.
Part of the call to live a baptismal life is to see with new eyes. With the eyes that Christ gives us to see, when we look at another person, we do not see their blemishes, their faults, or pigeon hole them based on any number of categories. When we look, with the eyes of Christ, we see all the way through to the heart. Rather than dismiss someone because they do not look the part, cannot possibly be a part of the group, instead we see that they have something to offer. Everyone has gifts. Everyone can live in God’s light.
Sometimes I wish you could see some of the things I’ve seen.
1. Preschool families from our Chapel School are delighted that their children are here. Children make the building come alive during the week. People from the neighborhood surrounding the church identify Christ the King as a significant influence on their children and families because of our early childhood ministry.
2. Last January, Middle and High school youth explored what it means to let go of their time and their inhibitions when they attended a recent youth events called Quake and Zone. They become inspired to allow their faith in Christ to influence their everyday life. They acknowledge quickly that the world’s poorest communities face many needs, and at Zone high school youth participated willingly in creating 876 health kits to be sent where Lutheran World Relief has partners.
3. One of our neighbors on Lutheran Drive, whom I have never met, regularly maintains the sidewalk down to Broad Street with his snow blower and shovel, even clearing gunk from our parking lot entryway.
4. Someone from Christ the King takes note of those for whom we pray. She offers support and prayer on behalf of the congregation by sending greeting cards to those who are sick, who are in grief, or have experienced new birth. I spoke on the phone with my father after his recent surgery, and he told me that he cried when he received this card expressing prayers for his healing from this congregation.
Sometimes I wish you could see some of the things I’ve seen.
In a book that our Mutual Ministry Committee has been reading, called Pastor and People: Making Mutual Ministry Work, the varied role of the pastor is described. Roles with which you may be familiar are reviewed, like preacher, teacher, priest, and administrator. But less commonly named roles are also offered, like Keeper of the Story, Activities Director, and one of my favorites, Cheerleader. The role of cheerleader is described in this way:
The job of the pastor is not always to be the quarterback (doing the job) or even the coach (calling the shots) but it is to be interested and involved, sometimes from the sidelines…. The pastor is expected to be a voice of confidence, clarity, optimism, and hope within the congregation. (Pastor and People: Making Mutual Ministry Work Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, © 2003, p 34)
This isn’t always easy.
In the story about David today, the prophet Samuel has been doing a slow burn. Samuel wasn’t really keen on kingship for the tenuous nation of Israel, but the current king Saul at one time had a lot of promise. Now, Saul’s monarchy was in trouble. Saul was not securing Israel’s borders very capably. Worse for Samuel, Saul was not keeping with the worship traditions that would model for the people their connection with God. So Samuel was throwing a pity party, and could not continue in his role as cheerleader.
God had to light a fire under Samuel, to let Samuel know that God saw things differently. God had already sized up a king to take over for Saul. Using the ruse of offering a sacrifice, Samuel gained access to Bethlehem. God had Jesse’s family in mind to take over the monarchy. The patriarch Jesse was invited to the sacrifice. Samuel saw the oldest son, Eliab, and thought “this must be the one.” God saw differently, and corrected Samuel’s vision. Then came Abinidab. Nope, not him. Then Shammah. Not him either. All the sons came by, even the seventh (you know seven, don’t you?, the number seven meaning perfection, wholeness, completion), and still no dice. How is it that the little guy, number eight, staying in the fields with the sheep, was the one? I wish we could see with God’s eyes! As the story goes, David actually wasn’t too shabby, and from God’s eyes to God’s Spirit, David emerges as uniquely gifted to take the mantle of leadership. But for Samuel, famous first prophet of Israel, it took some convincing.
In the gospel story, for the community around the man previously blind, it took come convincing that this man did indeed gain his sight. For the religious leaders of the community where the man previously blind, it took some convincing that God’s power through Jesus despite performing the feat on the Sabbath.
For the spiritual heirs of Samuel, for present-day communities like those from John’s gospel that quickly judge and dismiss what they think they see, it takes some convincing that God’s light continues to burn brightly, in youth, in children, in those they might least expect to see with new eyes.
God saw David in the fields when Samuel saw seven sons and no more.
Jesus saw the opportunity for God’s light to shine on one man and his community when so many were stuck on old, outdated ways of seeing. The blind man saw clearly. It was the others whose vision was fuzzy.
The final scene with the man born blind and Jesus is yet another story of conversion. The man knows something stupendous has happened to him yet he does not yet have the tools with which to articulate his experience other than what he has already said to the naysayers (“he opened my eyes”). When he speaks with Jesus, however, there is this deepening mutual sharing of truth that models for us how our experience of healing, wholeness, and awareness of new life given to us can be framed (“Lord, I believe”).
God is ready to help us see with new eyes. The gift of insight, of walking in the light, is still offered despite and sometimes in the midst of our own struggle to grasp the gift. Jesus himself comes to our place of darkness, descending the depths of despair and agony. Jesus becomes buried in the place where we figure light can never shine. For us and others who end up in the dark, Jesus takes our place in the tomb. God raises up those in utter darkness to see the light of life, so that our baptismal experience in life can break out and shine for others. By our encounter with Christ, by our own living and walking in the light, by our continual turning from blindness to insight, we help others to see, really see.
I.N.I.
The Rev. Timothy J. Keyl, Pastor
Christ the King Lutheran Church
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