The Lord’s Anointed

1 Samuel 16: 1-13; John 9: 1-41

3-2-08; FPC

 

          Samuel has been sent by the Lord on a dangerous mission: to select a king for Israel even as the powerful Saul is still on the throne.  As Samuel approaches the gates of Bethlehem, the elders of the city are trembling; they know that Samuel brings with him a political powder keg that, they fear, will explode in their faces, during their administration as leaders of the city. They are not out for trouble; but, with Samuel’s arrival, they fear they soon will find themselves in the middle of big trouble.   

          I suspect their knees are still trembling as seven of Jesse’s boys get in line and are ready to parade before Samuel.  First Eliab comes across the stage.  Presumably, he is the most likely candidate to become Israel’s next king. After all, he is the oldest and, therefore, the wisest of Jesse’s boys.  Eliab is the choice.  No need to look further.

          “Don’t be fooled”, God tells Samuel, “by outward appearances.  Don’t be taken in by slick campaign slogans or carefully worded platform speeches”.  “The Lord does not see as you see.”  

          Then Abinadad comes and then Shammah.  Finally, seven of Jesse’s boys have paraded in front of Samuel.  None of them is the Lord’s anointed.  Finally, Samuel asks: “Jesse, are these all the sons you have?”  “Well, uh, no, there’s David.  He’s the youngest.  We left him tending the sheep.”  “Bring him here!” “But, he’s the youn…” “Bring him here!”

          David, the eighth son, is outside the completed number seven.  He is a shepherd; shepherding is not a very prestigious or glamorous line of work; David, an outsider, one on the margins of his own family and of his own hometown, is non-credentialed and non- qualified to be King. 

          Nonetheless, when David appears, the Lord instructs Samuel: “Rise and anoint him, for this is the one!”

          This is the unexpected one who will sit on Israel’s throne.  This ‘little’ person is the one who will win a battle with a Philistine giant.  This “nobody” tending sheep on an obscure hillside will be known, far and wide, as Israel’s great Shepherd King.   This is the one who prefigures another king of Israel, the one who will call himself “the Good Shepherd”, the one also in Jesse’s lineage, the one born in Bethlehem, that city of David, of whom God will say, “This is the one; this is my beloved Son who will redeem the world.”

Jesus, like David, will be an unexpected King.  His kingdom will challenge the established order; he will usher in an unexpected kingdom where the first are last and the last are first; a kingdom where people on the margins of the world are embraced; a kingdom in which he sees not as others in the world see.[1]      

          At the beginning of today’s gospel reading, we encounter a man who cannot see; He has been blind since birth and is ignored and unseen by others in the world.  But Jesus, the Good Shepherd, sees him.  Jesus grants that man the vision he surely desires. Not only does the man now see with his eyes.  He sees also with his heart, which is to say he becomes a person of faith.  “Do you believe in the Son of Man,” Jesus asks.  The man responds, “Lord, I believe.”   

          We, like the man in the story, have been given the gift of faith, which is the ability to see Jesus as Savior and Lord.  Our ongoing calling in life is to strengthen our vision, to always strive, not only to have the mind of Christ, but to see as Jesus sees.

          Jesus sees opposite the way the world sees.  The world views greatness as power and wealth.  But Jesus sees great ones as those who are least of all and servants of all.  The world sees success as height on the corporate ladder or as fame and popularity; but Jesus sees success in terms of service and sacrifice.   

In the story, people are out to find fault.  “Who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?”  But Jesus, whose kingdom is not of this world, is not interested in placing blame.  He is more interested in seeing what God might do in that man’s life. In Jesus’ unexpected and countercultural kingdom, the view of things is different-instead of passing judgment, forgiveness rules the day; instead of resentment, there is understanding and forbearance; instead of fault finding, there is a desire to see where God is at work. 

The talented preacher and teacher, Barbara Brown Taylor, remembers, as a child, standing on her head in the back yard. She says if she could maintain her balance long enough, the grass hung like fringe and the blue lawn stretched out forever.  “I could tap dance on the sky while birds and clouds passed beneath my feet,” she says.[2]  From that position, she saw things differently from the rest of the world. 

Our calling is to assume a different position than the world assumes, to stand on our heads and, see possibilities where the world sees none, to see peace, where wars rage, to see forgiveness when the world cries out revenge. 

In her book Family Faith Stories, author Ann Weems describes an incident in which her mother must have been standing on her head, or at least living in a kingdom not of this world:    

 

It was a family treasure, Ann Weems writes,

that vase,    

that golden vase,

the vase, that had belonged to my

Great-grandmother,

to my grandmother and now to my mother…

And the vase sat on the mantel

out of reach of little fingers. 

However, I managed to reach it;

I climbed to reach it;

I broke it,

the family treasure. 

Golden pieces of once a family treasure

valueless

that moments before was priceless.

And I began to cry,

then louder, in sobs that brought

my mother running. 

I could hardly get it out:

“I broke the vase…the treasure.” 

And then my mother gave to me a gift:

A look of relief over her face and the words

“Oh, I thought you’d been hurt!” 

And then she hugged to her the one who had

just moments before

broken the family treasure. 

She gave to me a gift: 

She made it very clear that

I was the family treasure. 

I was what was priceless

and of great value. 

She also made it very clear

where her heart was.[3]

          The Lord looks upon us, as he did David, and says “This is the One”. You and I are the ones anointed, baptized for service, baptized to see, not as the world sees, but as Jesus sees.  When we see through the eyes of Christ, the world will see where our hearts are. 

          All praise and thanks be to God!  Amen.

 

 

         

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