March 6, 2005 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
Exodus 17:3-7 + Romans 5:1-2,5-8 + John 4:5-42
The promised land, the holy ground is at hand, but Jesse and Samuel in the Old Testament cannot see it. They do not at first “see as God sees.” When they do everything is different.
The youngest, the least one, the one no one would have thought of,
David, is chosen, anointed, and then leads Israel to become a great nation enjoying God’s presence, God’s gifts, and God’s protection.
He unites the tribes, suppresses the enemy, initiates a reign of justice, builds a new city of peace and brings the covenant to its temple. His anointing ages later in history gives identity to the one who is to come: “The Anointed of God”, who also comes from Bethlehem.
The holy ground can still be seen, but it takes a blind man to lead us. because that blind man sees as God sees. He does not look at appearances. He does not see what looks good, what is in style,
what will make him look cool, or appear to have good expensive taste. In the meantime, those who think they can see, who judge by appearances, who need to look good in order to feel good know nothing of being good or of being in the presence of goodness.
At Lent’s center – midway through these forty days, we came face to face with images of baptism because that is what lies ahead for us. A discussion on sin misses the point. It is a tactic of diversion – talking about HIS sin keeps them from their own. Those people who confront the man who can see will not look at their own sin.
They are too concerned and too busy about his sin or the sins of his parents. So, they fail to discover the divine presence in their midst and the holy ground upon which they stand. No miracles for them.
Our Lenten Journey with David leading will make us a great nation-a holy people. Even though we may not look like it sometimes, and even though some may think us unworthy, or we may feel inadequate to the task and anything but holy,
that is what we are called to be by the God who made us his own and will not rest until we are home again in His presence in His paradise in obedient to His Love and His Will.
David was anointed; the Blind Man was anointed and washed in the pool by the command of Jesus. We too are anointed people who have washed in the pool of Baptism. We are soon to lead others along the same path
and rejoice with them in the presence of our God in this Holy Place where we hear his word and speak to him in gratitude and love. The dust of our beginnings becomes the mud of our anointing and the darkness of sin gives way to the dawn of salvation.
These are the mysteries we are about to celebrate in two weeks
during the week we call holy because of God’s action and our response. The nights of Triduum are not nights to stay home.
As long as there is one empty seat in this church on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, or at the Vigil, this church is empty, and ingratitude and indifference have had their way among us. To take Holy Communion week after week; to bring our children with excitement and joy to their First Communion and stay home on the night of Communion’s Institution is a shame. To make the sign of the cross day after day and stay home on the night when that cross is venerated and its story proclaimed is a curious display of inconsistent values. To be too busy or claim it’s too long to keep Vigil on Saturday is to side with sleeping apostles who can’t keep company with Jesus as he suffers, dies, and rises for us all.
Next week it is Ezekiel whose prophesy describes us, whose vision sees us made new because of how we have lived in faith these forty days. It is a new spirit that we seek, a new that we are given, a new life that is promised. Our hope this season is that with the light of Christ and his Spirit, we shall see as God sees, and been seen by God as David seen, called, anointed, and blessed.