Homily for: 4 Lent A, April 3, 2011

My sisters and brothers, God is full of surprises.

Our first lesson from the prophet Samuel begins a saga for us. The prophet is off about God’s work, blessing the next King of Israel. But, God has not chosen the usual suspects. The present king (Saul) has enjoyed God’s favor, but has lost it by disobeying the prophet Samuel’s instructions. God now orders Samuel to anoint a new king, a son of “Jesse.” The story goes into great length describing how God had not chosen any of the young men that Samuel or Jesse might have guessed. When Samuel does anoint David as the upcoming king, the “spirit of the Lord” fills the young man in a noticeable way. His brothers themselves are witnesses to the event. Saul will persecute David relentlessly but upon Saul’s death in battle, David unifies the northern and southern districts and ascends to the throne over all of Israel. The unexpected boy, is God’s chosen instrument.

In the letter to the Ephesians, the author has exhorted his readers to conduct themselves ethically as befits those who have adopted the way of Christ. Having “put away your former way of life” and being clothed with the new self in baptism, they are now to lead moral lives befitting members of a body in which the Holy Spirit dwells. An offence against a member is an offence against God. Using terminology one also finds in the Qumran scrolls and Matthew, the author contrasts unbelievers (who live in “darkness”and disobey God) with those who are in “light,” i.e., “in the Lord.” Evil deeds are never hidden from God.

The gospel story we just shared, about the man born blind, is one of John’s most rich and intricate stories. In ancient Judaism, illness and physical disability were often attributed to sin: in this case, either of the man (prenatally) or of “his parents.” Jesus dismisses the link between sin and illness. Rather, he says that this man’s impairment gives him opportunities to do the works of God. The Pharisees consider making mud on the Sabbath as breaking the Law so they question the man. They are divided among themselves: some clamming that Jesus cannot be from God (for he breaks the Law) and those who wonder how a sabbath-breaker can perform miracles (which only one approved by God can do). Finally they side against Jesus and the man he cured. The man boldly asserts the fact of the cure. Eventually, in frustration, he ridicules their expert opinion. Jesus must be “from God” for no one has ever before performed such a cure.

There are several themes in this gospel that I believe we need to take note of: 1, The man’s spiritual journey on the way to faith, takes him through three levels of awareness about Jesus: Jesus is a prophet, He is of God, the man worships Jesus. We all have phases to go through in our lives of faith, we grow and mature along the way.

2, Blindness. Spiritual sight or insight is not a given in our lives. It is something that some of us are better at than others. It is something that we all grow in as we invest more effort into our spiritual lives. Even the best of us can miss what God is doing and have the experience of being taken by surprise.

3, The self-righteous-know-it-all vs. the humble peasant. The peasant recognizes that God does not have to operate in the way we expect. Jesus broke the Sabbath law to heal a blind man. What might God do that takes us by surprise.

God’s ways are not our ways. They are above and beyond us. God can and usually does take us by surprise.

When I was a college sophomore, working towards a degree in electronics, with a job in the college lab and an active outdoors-man life style; the last thing I expected of God was to be called to ordained ministry. Yet we can all see who prevailed......

Let us not get to confident about what Jesus would or would not do.