Sermon - The Rev. Dr. Paul Kolbet, Mar. 19th, 2023

Our Old Testament reading tells of an utterly pivotal moment in the life of ancient Israel. One thousand years before Jesus, ancient Israel needs a new king to replace the strong, tall, and handsome King Saul, who was still clinging to power. They were not good at how to replace a king because they had never done it before. For most of their history, unlike other peoples, they were ruled by no human king. Saul was their first monarch. So the great prophet Samuel goes to Bethlehem to anoint the next king of Israel. Jesse was the patriarch of a prominent family there. Samuel lines up each of the seven sons of and tries to decide. He starts with the first born of course, Eliab, and likes what he sees. So much so that he exclaims “Surely the Lord’s anointed is now before the Lord!” But how Samuel got this job in the first place is that he knew how to listen and he hears God say to him, “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” (Being the first born son is not what matters here. It is something else entirely).  

Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. Samuel 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 each seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, “The LORD has not chosen any of these.” (We are not even told the names of the last four). Samuel ran out of sons and must have wondered why God even sent him to Bethlehem. He turned to Jesse and said, “Are all your sons here?” And Jesse said, probably kind of embarrassed, “There remains the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep. We didn’t even invite him because he clearly isn’t king material.” So they sent for the youngest son, David. The moment David appeared, to everyone’s surprise, Samuel heard, “Rise and anoint him; for this is the one.” David, the youngest and most unlikely of the sons, became not just the second king of Israel, but the greatest king of all the kings of Israel. “The LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” The Bible tells it readers repeatedly that things are not always what they appear to be and the Bible is really consistent in its counsel not to place our trust always in the biggest, oldest, strongest, and richest. The Bible’s heroes rely on something else and that something else is something that we don’t always even see or think to consider.

You’ll see this same human dynamic in the long gospel story we just read together. We drop in on Jesus and his followers in the middle of an argument. There’s a man who was born blind at birth and they can’t determine who is to blame? The man probably did something wrong to deserve this, right? But since he was born this way, it is probably better to blame his parents, right? This story goes on and on, so much so that we don’t have time this morning to go through it all. But notice that in scene after scene, ignorance and confusion abound, people keep turning against each other about what they don’t know. In response to bad things, their reaction is, “Who is to blame?” Something good happens, the blind man’s sight is restored with spit and mud (applause, yes that is how they should have reacted). But these people are unable to celebrate with him because they are too invested in winning their arguments against each other. Talk about missing out on joy! They continue to cast blame at the formerly blind man and are threatened by Jesus. The formerly blind man tells them that they are the truly blind ones in need of healing. It is far from clear who thinks they can see, yet cannot see and who is thought not to be able to see, yet can see!

“Do not look on his appearance … for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” Since we mortals don’t possess the kind of vision God has, we are forced to make judgments, often ones that matter a great deal, based on constantly changing outward appearances. On some level we know we are not better at that than the ancient Israelites were as they overlooked David. We even have names for how we can convince ourselves that we can see when we cannot. To know just a few, researchers in any field warn against “confirmation bias” because of their own experience that once they have a theory, they only see what confirms their theory and they become blind to everything that contradicts it. They think they can see yet cannot. Most of us are familiar with what tends to be called “tunnel vision,” not the kind that has some basis biology, but the kind where under the pressure of circumstances, human beings no longer take in their whole experience, but narrow in only on a single set of facts, and sometimes make terrible decisions accordingly. They think they can see yet cannot. When faced with a distressing problem, it is really common that different members jump nearly immediately to arguing for their proposed solutions to make the problem go away. The conflict ratchets up as one solution clashes with another, and no one any longer spends the time necessary to understand what the problem was in the first place. They think they can see yet cannot. And we read in our scriptures, “Do not look on his appearance … for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”

So how does Jesus respond to all this? Notice that he does not take sides in the argument about, “Who is to blame?” He does not blame the man or his parents for the blindness. He does not even answer the “who is to blame” question. Instead, he asserts that this man was born “so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” What a different way of seeing things that is! The same could have been said of David, that overlooked youngest son, or about each one of us, born “so that God’s works might be revealed.” The key thing here is to understand how Jesus’ approach leads somewhere other than to blame and recrimination. It, instead, not only creates space for seeing, but also for healing, unity, wonder, and joy.

In these Biblical stories, but also in many others, our scriptures remind us frequently how people can get entrenched in their own point of view no matter how flawed and how that does not lead to anywhere good. But it also says just as clearly that there is a path forward. Notice our Psalm for today. It is by far the most requested Psalm when people find themselves at their lowest point, when people just feel horrible and have trouble seeing the way forward in their life. I’ve said this psalm more times than I can count in graveyards as people bury their loved ones. And they have found it to be profoundly comforting. I see the recognition on their faces when they name the shepherd who accompanies them even in the valley of the shadow of death, the shepherd who relieves their fears. It is not so much the poetic beauty of the words that is comforting, it’s the reminder of a truth that they already know when they need to know it. Because that shepherd has been there for them before, even if it was in the spit and the mud. They request the 23rd psalm to remind themselves to see it.

 Bad confusing things continue to happen in our world. We are surprised so frequently not because the universe keeps changing, but because of what we agreed upon to be true, just simply never was the truth. The Bible warns us all the time that those who think they can see likely cannot and those who we thought could not see, may be able to. There continue to be pundits who claim they can see, yet cannot. We continue to have to sift through outward appearances. Yes, it is natural then to spend time asking, “Who is to blame?” And that question may need to be asked. But listen to Jesus who is always right about what is best for you and don’t live there, lingering in the blame, negativity, and division. Find your way to the greater glory of God that you were born for and give yourself to this larger purpose. Even if it seems like you are walking through the valley of the shadow of death, there is a shepherd who leads you. And that shepherd exhorts us this morning, Take care not to “see as mortals see; who look only on the outward appearance,” but strive to see as the Lord sees.

Lord Jesus Christ, giver of sight to the blind, save us from presuming that we can see when we cannot, from only being interested in confirming our own theories and from every form of tunnel vision in the grand theater of the universe you made, and show us how, even with our limited vision, to revel in how you reveal your mighty works in us. Amen.