SEEING WITH GOD’S EYES
1 Samuel 16:1-13
John 9:1-41
NUCC
Fourth Sunday in Lent
One Great Hour of Sharing
Girl Scout Sunday
One of the craft projects that many Girl Scouts learn is something made out of yarn in different colors wrapped in a rectangle. We call this creation a “God’s Eye.” I’m sure many of you have made them.
The “eye” is a symbol to the Huichol Indians of Mexico of the power to see and understand the unknown. Today in our scripture lessons we also encounter a “God’s Eye” so to speak ------- with the help of Samuel who anointed David and Jesus who healed a blind man.
Today we are challenged to see beyond the obvious and the ordinary. We are challenged to see beyond our doubts and our despair. We are challenged to trust in the God of David and in the one whom the Bible calls the Son of David ---- Jesus.
As I thought about these two Bible texts I also tried to keep my eyes open to the world and culture around me. This became increasingly difficult for me because Thursday night I came down with a rotten cold, and as my wife will tell you, no one can suffer from a cold like I can. I was kind of spacey and my watery cold eyes didn’t see very well.
The best thing I could do was lie on the couch and watch TV. On Wednesday night Karen and I customarily video tape “West Wing” and watch it after the mid-week Lenten service. As you may know this show is a fictional portrayal of life in the White House.
One of the last things I did on Wednesday before going home was to quickly check out the Bible lectionary readings for this Sunday. I was a bit behind the 8 ball because of our vacation up north last week. Of course the Old Testament reading was about Samuel, whom one theologian called “the Billy Graham of his day.” Samuel was in a pickle because God told him to anoint a new king when the old king, Saul, was still alive. Samuel was afraid, but he went anyway. As instructed he went to Jesse, who had many sons. Samuel approached each one, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ------ but God rejected each one because “the LORD does not see as mortals see: they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” Finally Jesse hesitatingly trotted out his youngest son, a mere boy named David. Of course, this is the one whom God had chosen as the next king.
“The LORD does not see as mortals see: they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” God sees us as we really are. God sees through the world and us. God takes us and uses us even if we are too young ----- or too old. (Witness the 80-year-old woman who was recently ordained as a Lutheran pastor.)
These kinds of thoughts were on my mind as I watched TV Wednesday. In this episode of West Wing, Toby, one of the president’s advisors, is stuck with the job of guiding a group of middle schoolers through the White House. They are there because of what their group has accomplished. Toby is ready to give them the perfunctory tour when one cheeky young fellow demands to talk about issues ----- specifically children’s issues, and especially voting rights for children. After some resistance Toby sits down with the group and has his eyes opened to the ability of these younger citizens. One of the arguments this young man gives for childhood suffrage is that the church accepts children as babies. In the end this young fellow is given the privilege of asking the president a question during a press conference ---- and Toby has gained new respect for “children.”
Thinking about the boy king David and about the cheeky young visitors to the White House ------ and about how both Samuel’s and Toby’s eyes were opened forces me to consider all the surprises God has for us. In the instances of Samuel and Toby I think about those we exclude because they are too young. But we also dismiss people who are too old, or of the wrong sex, sexual orientation, color, or culture. I am continually challenged to see with God’s eyes. It’s not always easy. Sometimes I have trouble figuring out if it is really God speaking and what God wants me to see.
But this isn’t all bad. Perhaps life is a struggle to see “with God’s eyes.” That takes me to more sermon research in front of the TV. Friday night was “Joan of Arcadia” night for the Mohrs of Hewett Street.
As you may know Joan of Arcadia is a take-off on Joan of Arc. God spoke to the French Joan of the middle ages and in this television show God speaks to the American Joan of the 21st century. Teenage Joan is never sure when she will see God because God appears once as a cute boy, another time as a garbage collector, and yet another as a little girl.
God always has a challenge for Joan and Joan always has trouble seeing what God is up to. But by now she has learned to trust God. God doesn’t take her by the hand and show her exactly what to do, but God pops up every once in a while to give her encouragement.
This Friday was no different. On this particular day Joan is falsely accused of egging the vice principal’s car and has to do community service. She has trouble seeing God’s purpose in all of the injustice she sees about her.
The show ends with an interaction between Joan and God, who is played by a man who could be mistaken for a bouncer. He comes to talk with her at her after-school job at a bookstore:
G-d: "Hey there Joanie."
Joan: "Still waiting…I don’t know why you had to put me through all of this…nothing added up, nothing happened..."
G-d: "Things happened..."
Joan: Where? When??? (With a sarcastic chuckle)
G-d: "Why are you doubting me?"
Joan: "Before when you would tell me what to do, maybe I’d screw up and stuff, but by the end I would see something."
G-d: "So you think you had no effect?"
Joan: "Yeah..." (With a duh… tone of voice)
G-d: "Ahhh... You remember Emily Dickinson?"
Joan: "Yeah, you can sing all of her poems to Yellow Rose of Texas" (as she breaks into a two line example)
G-d: "Huh...?" (As G-d looks at her with a hmm/huh kinda look, and then begins to read her the following Emily Dickinson poem)
Faith --is the
Supporting what We see
Unto the scene that We do not--
Too slender for the eye
It bears the Soul as bold
As it were rocked in Steel
With Arms of Steel at either side--
It joins --behind the Veil
To what, could We presume
The Bridge would cease to be
To Our far, vacillating Feet
A first Necessity.
Joan: "I don’t think that goes with yellow rose of
G-d: "Seeing the results of your actions is not important…only the actions are… like a recluse who wrote poems she never never published and here they are touching people 100 years later." (God hands her the book and Joan looks at the book, looks inwardly, pensive, questioning pressing against a desire to understand.)
Your work is out there Joanie; you just gotta have faith…
(God says tenderly and quietly, as he meets her eyes.)
Seeing with God’s eyes. That’s what Joan was finally able to do Friday night. She saw the faces of people whose lives she had made better:
A truant high school student who connected with the art teacher.
The teacher who had doubted her impact, but now could see a future.
The lessened loneliness of others.
In benign ways Joan had trusted in God enough to act in God’s way. She couldn’t always see the good or the end result. But this young, superficial teenage girl would join young immature David as one of God’s chosen people. Each was given the gift of seeing “with God’s eyes.” So may we.
