Sleeper awake!

Audio Version

1 Samuel 16:1-13 Psalm 23 Ephesians 5:8-14 John 9:1-41

Sanctify yourself; wash yourself clean; put on your finest clothing, shave your body, separate yourself from material and spiritual trappings; get your body and mind ready for the feast.

Samuel sanctified Jesse and his family and, so he thought, all his sons. Shine!

But David the youngest son of Jesse was not there; the Lord had seen him out in the field tending the flocks and knew him to be a king. “The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

David, the one with beautiful eyes, ruddy from the fields and handsome is anointed and the spirit of the Lord falls on him from that day forward.

David would write in the psalm; He leads me in right paths for his name sake.

This is true of us too. We are sanctified; we shine; washed by the water of the word of God’s love, lead by the spirit. David would fall; he becomes a man with blood on his hands, kills his friend to steal his wife, a lamb who was not his.

Like David we fall; by whatever degree we depart from the right paths and deny the name of God. We miss the target.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long, sings David.

How can this be? God saw David’s heart as he sees ours.

Paul teaches us, we are the light and the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.

Paul writes; Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.

Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord!

We fall but, wake up; it’s the morning! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you! Our God is the saviour from the beginning. In him is forgiveness. The darkness is overcome in Christ. Jesus says, “ As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Turn to him and be purified.

Yes, you may be laid low on your journey of growth in the faith.

Yes, you may find yourself on the wrong side of what is good, right and true; blinded by your foolish ways: because of your sin.

But can we humbly join with the blind man and speak to our own hearts and hear Jesus say over us, neither you nor your parents sinned; you were born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in you.

And this was true of the blind man who asked nothing. He just happened to be noticed by Jesus’ followers. The blind man was healed and then came to believe.

It’s not because of our birth or our inheritance that we have fallen, or that we are noticed. Are we brave enough to believe that in our falling and turning to Jesus to be purified, God’s work is revealed in us… a work in progress, a journey of glory into glory, of infancy into adulthood, saved by a compassionate God. Our mistakes form us as we pursue the heart of God but God sees us first.

Jesus forms us and draws us to himself, so that we might become like him, perfected in suffering, not because God intends that we suffer but God acts because we suffer. What is certain is from dust we were formed and to dust we will return. We were born and we die. Jesus takes the dust and spits on it forming what we need for our healing, a mess of mud, and we wash; we are sanctified. In our turning to Jesus from our striving, we can say, I was blind and now I see?

Jesus is Lord; he is the Son of Man, his is the light we become; the uncreated, begotten of the Father, bestows on the created the light that is life to become human as he is human: through our falling we grow into the image we have from the beginning.

Believe and worship him who says, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see and those who do see may become blind.” Jesus speaks this to the Elders, the Scribes and the High Priests; to the religious authorities, through his healing on the Sabbath. The gatekeepers who claim Moses as their Father, miss the Messiah, the anointed one they claim through their religion to see. Indeed they have the scriptures and claim to see. Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”

Pick yourself up, awake, humble yourself, become blind; the proud and the arrogant can’t see God. Humble yourself so that you might see. Do not let it be said you have rejected the light because of the light of your own righteousness.

And so children of light, beloved bearers of the image of God, shine forth your light, become like stars in the sky. Let’s share our ruddy complexion, beautiful eyes and winsome looks so that our Father in heaven might be glorified in us. People of God, a city on a hill cannot be hidden. Grace and peace be with you.