Sermon: Sons and Parents

The Mount of Beatitudes in Galilee is a popular place for groups to celebrate Holy Communion and nearly thirty years ago I was in a group doing just that. Suddenly there was shouting and everyone looked up from their services around the hilltop to see a diminutive nun waving a broomstick chasing a woman away from the church, screaming at her as she went. The woman's fault was that she was wearing a sleeveless dress in a holy place. The leader of our group commented ironically, "The Lord looks on the outward appearance, not on the heart."

Today we have the story of the anointing of a young man who seems to have had the benefit of both heart and outward appearance. Earlier Samuel had anointed Saul as king but he had proved to have better looks than heart: the bible records that he was the most handsome young man in Israel and he was tall with it - very useful for a leader - but he was proving wayward in his devotion to God. But it seems Samuel hasn't learned the lesson so when it comes time to anoint another young man as king and Jesse's eldest son stands before him, Samuel is clearly still looking for height and good looks. And after seven sons don't produce any response from God, the search goes out for the youngest and when he appears the author of the book can't resist throwing in that he is ruddy and has beautiful eyes. There's an element of the search for Mr Universe in this search for the new king: if I'm allowed a pun from the pulpit, the eyes have it. Which, in passing, is in total contrast to the situation in the gospel where the story centres on someone whose eyes were sightless. But we'll come back to him later.

As an aside for the choristers, several of whom took part this week in the excellent Chorister School production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. Joseph was the nearly youngest son, David was the youngest son and there are other stories in the bible about youngest sons being called by God in a way that their older brothers were not. Have you noticed, as you listen to bible readings every day at Evensong how God sometimes works through younger people? Are you listening for what God might be saying to you about your life?

The Sunday School sometimes uses Godly Play materials which is an approach that works with the children's natural curiosity and imagination, so instead of telling the story the Sunday School helper sits on the floor with the children and together they build the story as the helper asks, "I wonder what it was like..." I'm going to try that with you although this pulpit rather gets in the way of us holding a conversation as would happen in Sunday School. But use your imaginations: imagine yourself as a child standing in front of someone in authority - the head at school perhaps - who surveys you in silence.

I wonder what it was like for Eliab to stand in front of the famous prophet Samuel waiting for him to say something.

I wonder what it was like for Jesse to see his eldest son standing there - pride? confidence?

But then I wonder what it was like for Jesse and his son to hear Samuel say, "no, not this one"? disappointment? personal affront? confusion? After all, the eldest son was in a privileged position in that culture.

And then the next, and the next, and the next down to the seventh. I wonder what he thought as he was called up, with his six older brothers all rejected.

And still "No. The Lord has not chosen any of these."

Everyone seems to be stumped, until in order to break the impasse Samuel asks the only remaining question, "Are all your sons here?" He apparently doesn't know the answer and Jesse clearly hadn't thought it worth mentioning David, let along bothering to send for him, since he was too young or insignificant to be included in the celebrations surrounding the sacrifice.

And this young boy turns out to be the answer to the conundrum. Because, unlike the nun with the broom and unlike most of us - think of the Oscar ceremony last week of which the BBC commented that it is arguable that the red carpet arrivals and what the stars are wearing have eclipsed the awards themselves - God looks not on the outward appearance but on the heart. There was obviously something about young David, self-tutored when watching sheep in the fields around Bethlehem, which caused God to say to him much later, "I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be prince over my people Israel." Choristers, take note: children can be called by God and how you live and pray now can shape your future life. But parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, also take note: the children in our lives may turn out to be called by God to great things, are we open to that possibility or, like Jesse, are we rather blinded by tradition about the future prospects of young people? I wonder what it would be like for each of us to be fully open to and praying for God's unexpected calling on us or on people we know. How will we help them grow into that vocation?

Set alongside this story of God's call of the young David, we have the story of the blind man healed by Jesus. This is one of the long narrative accounts John includes of Jesus' encounters with different people: Nicodemus, a leader of the Jewish people; the Samaritan woman at the well; a lame man who was healed; the five thousand who were fed, the woman caught in adultery, Lazarus who was raised from the dead. Incidentally John is careful to tell us something about the time of these encounters - at night, at mid-day, on the Sabbath, just before the Passover, early in the morning, after a three day delay. Today's story is just about the only significant encounter in the whole gospel where the time is not given to us, it happens as Jesus walked along. There is food for thought in that but not time to pursue it now.

Several of these encounters lead to miracles, of which there are seven in John's gospel and he calls them signs. They function as parables too since he doesn't include any parables: instead of hearing Jesus' teaching about the kingdom of God with their ears, John expects people to see the kingdom of God through Jesus' actions. So we have to see and hear this story both as a miracle and as a sign of the kingdom of God.

Alongside these seven signs, John embeds in his gospel seven "I Am" sayings of Jesus - for example, I am the light of the world, I am the way, the truth and the life - which apart from telling us something about him are also expressions of the divine name which Moses heard at the burning bush but is impossible to put into words, the attempt in Exodus being, "I am who I am." In this story, notice Jesus' response to the man's question after Jesus has asked if he believes in the Son of Man. The man asks, "Who is he, sir? tell me so that I may believe in him" and Jesus reply, "you have seen him and the one speaking to you is he" can be taken as an uncounted eighth allusion by Jesus to "I am".

And the man's response? "Lord, I believe" and he worshipped Jesus. That is the response that John has been working towards in his inclusion of this story in his gospel - just as Nicodemus eventually, at the end of the gospel, came to follow Jesus, and as the Samaritan woman's encounter with Jesus led the people she called from the city to believe that he was the Saviour of the world, so now the man understands the sign and worships Jesus as the Son of Man.

But before that happens there is the almost comic situation when his parents are called by the religious leaders to explain what is going on. Like the situation with Samuel and Jesse where things don't add up and perhaps in desperation Samuel asks Jesse "have you got any more children?", so now the situation is desperate and the parents are wheeled in to see if they can help. But they are at an impasse too: "This is our son, he was blind, he can see now but we don't know how it happened." I wonder what it was like for them when there was simply no explanation for what had happened to their son and they as parents couldn't protect him from the fury of the religious authorities. In fact, as the story unfolds, he can argue pretty well but his parents don't know that yet.

And that is where I'm going to leave this sermon, with no neat and tidy ends but more questions that Godly Play might lead us to ponder:

I wonder what it is like to be caught up in the ways of God when we don't understand what is going on?

I wonder what it has been like for you to sense that God is doing something in your life that breaks out beyond what your family or your friends expect of you?

And, on this Mothering Sunday when we've heard two stories where parents find their children being led by God into uncharted territory, I wonder what it is like for all of us - mothers or not - to nurture other people, particularly younger people, in the unexpected ways of God and to free them to respond to the call of God?

Perhaps your Lenten discipline this week can be to let your mind wander into the stories we are hearing week by week and lead you to wonder. Who knows what you will discover?