Bethlehem Lutheran Church

1 Samuel 16:1-13 John 9:1-25

There was an amusing story that first appeared in the CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR. It was about a young woman in New York who had been seeing a great deal of a young man. One day he called to say he had something special on his mind. He would pick her up in his car, a memorable 1956 Belair Convertible, and they would drive to the country for a picnic. They drove to Long Island. The young man seemed preoccupied. They drove along in silence. Then they headed back to New York. Back in the city, the young man broke his silence. He spoke solemnly of the great and significant event that was about to occur. Central Park, he said, would be the appropriate place for it to happen. They drove through the park on that beautiful spring day; the young woman's expectations soared.

Finally the young man announced that the great moment was at hand. He slowed the car down, headed for a shady enclave. This was it, he said, the big moment had arrived. He was sure that she would feel the same excitement as himself. The car, in short, had at that carefully timed juncture, reached the 100,000 mile mark. The figures on the speedometer were turning slowly over as the car came to a halt.

"Everything is back to zero," said the young man, caught up in the rapture of the moment. "Yes," said the young woman to herself, "Everything is back to zero."

Ah, we see things from our own point of view, don't we? The young man hadn't done anything wrong, really-he was just lost in his own world-perhaps a little self-absorbed... And the young woman (not unnaturally, in my opinion) was looking at the situation from a completely different point of view--that she and he would end the day engaged...

Most often, our expectations define our reality for us. In fact, they so shape it that we're often unable (or at least unwilling) to consider whatever it is we're seeing from another point of view. And that is not in the least unreasonable, because the very reason those expectations exist is because they have been reinforced repeatedly, often since we were little children, or in the bulk of the life lessons we have been taught, or learned...But it does mean that when something happens that challenges those expectations, it can be very difficult to make sense of it. It can challenge us to our very core... We can quickly learn that our reality isn't quite so real... And as we shall see, as difficult and painful that might be, it isn't a terrible thing to learn!

One of the things I like so much about the Bible is that we see again and again that the people in it are so similar to us- of course there are cultural and language differences, and it is important that we recognize and understand them, as best we can, but the people are people, and we see common assumptions and expectations that we can relate to! And we also can be reminded that those expectations can cause difficulty-raise questions for us in our relationship with God-just like they did for the people in Bible times!

The story of Samuel, Saul and David is one of the epic stories of the Hebrew Scriptures. I invite you to read it--from 1 Samuel 13 through 2 Samuel 2... It is violent, it has moments of heroism and moments of great weakness in short, it is a very human story...And in our first reading today, we see David introduced into the story. If we are working with the normal expectations of how kings are chosen, this story is all wrong! First, Israel has a king-Saul-but God has rejected him, and God has also rejected his whole family, which makes little sense, given that Saul has a very able, charismatic and noble son, Jonathan, who becomes David's best friend...

God sends the prophet Samuel (who, by the way, is unhappy with God's decision about Saul- see verse 1... Notice that he still obeys!) to anoint a new king from one of Jesse's sons. We don't know why Jesse's family is chosen. But it is, and then we would expect that his eldest son would be the choice, but God says "NO," not only to him, but also to the rest of the brothers and then finally, the youngest son, David, with no claims for inheritance, who is working as a shepherd is the one God chooses!

Go figure-but this is how God works repeatedly-those with the least power, the least claim are raised up to serve, to be powerfully used by God, again and again! Jacob is a liar and cheat, and yet God uses him to continue his promise made to Abraham... It is the youngest of his sons-sold into slavery by his older brothers that God uses to save the children of Israel from starvation. Moses is a runaway murderer, but God calls him to free the children of Israel from bondage... Or God uses a shepherd named Amos to pronounce judgment on Israel for unfaithfulness- and Jeremiah is a teenager when called to do the same for Judah.

And yet how quickly the people of the Bible (and you and I) forget and look to the powerful, the wealthy, and the healthy as those blessed by God...So we really shouldn't be all that surprised by the reaction of the people of Jesus (born of Mary, another nobody, in the world's eyes!) to his ministry of teaching, preaching and healing! And we should pay close attention to our own expectations about Jesus, too!

Our Gospel reading from John 9 is one expectation, one assumption after another blown up by Jesus!

First, his disciples ask him "who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind..." This was a perfectly common assumption in those days, and not unknown in ours-if you have some affliction, there must be some sin lurking somewhere...

I know a bishop in North India who was challenged as a leader after his sister and family were killed in an accident, "How can he lead when he is not blessed by God?" And don't you just love the idea that God punishes parents with a handicap or an illness for a child??? An all too common question when something like this happens is "what did we do wrong?" and Jesus gives the answer: "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," Jesus says. This is enormous! It is no one's fault. There is no blame or responsibility for some of the bad things that sometimes happen; we live in an imperfect world! And in this instance, the man is going to be used by God to show who Jesus is!

Next-notice that the man doesn't ask to be healed. There's no dialogue about his need for healing or anything like that- Jesus simply goes to work. And in a culture obsessed with ritual cleanliness, Jesus spits on the ground, makes a muddy paste and spreads it on the blind man's eyes, and tells him to go bathe in the pool of Siloam, and the man receives his sight! And the rest of the story is how the Pharisees- those good, religious people we talked about a few weeks ago (and I'm not being sarcastic) are so closed up by their assumptions of how God works that they cannot see Jesus as God among them...

It was the Sabbath, but you can't work on the Sabbath, therefore Jesus can't be doing God's work... Was this man actually the man who was born blind? Oh, he was, but still, he can't teach us because he was born in sin...and by the end of the chapter, the Pharisees have driven this man away from the temple! They turn cartwheels to avoid the challenge to their worldview-their reality-even though actual reality has contradicted them. They are the ones who are blind...

And Jesus' death then follows all too naturally, I fear: there are two choices when perceived reality is threatened. You can change, at great cost and tremendous difficulty, or you can remove the threat... So Jesus faces death on a Roman cross- the Romans perceived Jesus as a political threat-a challenge to the emperor, encouraged by those who saw him as a religious challenge and threat... (The fact of the matter is that very few people objected. I wonder if I would have...) Better to get rid of him once and for all... Dead is dead and gone. And so Jesus is nailed to that cross to die.

But once again, God shows us our assumptions are misplaced-our reality is not God's! Jesus is raised from the dead on the third day. Jesus shatters the boundaries of mortality. Jesus promises you and me that he will be with us through everything life and death can throw at us, that all the power and might of this world ultimately has no power over us- not even the power of death can conquer us- we belong to Jesus.

We live, if you will, in a new reality-one of life where there was death-one of hope in the face of a world which sometimes feels hopeless-one where God can use you and me to change our world-to work God's transforming love into lives of people-and see them-and you and me changed for the better!

The key for you and me is to remember the reality to which we have been called! To not fall into the mindset of a world which cries scarcity when there is abundance-a world which cries "be afraid- hide" when we know we are to "fear not, and to be out serving in Jesus' Name," a world which cries "take care of yourselves" when we know we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves..."

This sermon series is about prayer. I suppose you were wondering if I was ever going to get there, and now I will: When you pray, pray that God will show you his reality-God's limitless possibilities.

Pray for an openness to see how God is working around you, even-or especially-if it doesn't fit your pre-conceived notions of how you think God should be working... Ask God to help you not to project your feelings, but to be open to God at work- through whomever God might work... Pray especially for someone you can't imagine God working through.

Start your prayers with a moment of reflection of just who you are talking to: the creator of the Universe- the one who gave us Jesus-the one who can do more than we can ask or imagine, as Paul writes in Ephesians 3. Don't let that scare you, let it remind you that if you are not regularly surprised by how God is working then you have limited God, made him too small...It is hard for us to see God at work if we insist that God work according to our expectations. We wind up exactly like the Pharisees in our Gospel reading, blinded by our own expectations and reality... It is harder still for God to use us when we do...

I look out at you this morning, and I see a wonderful community of God's people. I know that some of you are struggling- with illness, with relationships, with jobs, and I am praying for you to see God working in you, through you and around you, in spite of the challenges you face. God's love is there for you, and can never be taken away...I know that for others of you, things are going quite well, indeed, and my prayer for you is that you see God at work in your lives, teaching you to trust and depend on his grace... My prayer for us all is that we keep our eyes open to see God at work, however much it might challenge the ways we think and act.

Let me close with a wonderful example: we have been invited into conversations with a congregation in the Phillips neighborhood- one in the process of re-inventing itself as a multi-racial, multi-cultural church. I am, frankly, surprised we were asked because we have not been particularly (if at all) successful at either...

But this is what it means to our being called to be open to how God is working, and it does fit perfectly with our vision to "connect people with God, each other, and their mission in the world," as we reach out to 20,000 new people by 2020... So we are taking some very tentative, beginning steps to see what it might mean for all of us. It will mean learning about and from people different than we. It will mean seeing God at work in new ways that will challenge what we think we know about being church. Turning our back on the opportunity would be closing our eyes to God in the world...

So I invite your prayers for this venture, for this congregation, and for each other. I assure you, you continue in mine, in Jesus' Name and for his sake! Amen.