Ephesians 5:8-14

What are you? I know I could say I am human. I am a father. I am a husband. I am a pastor. I am a Christian.

All those things may be true but the Bible says you are light. Not that you should shine the light or you will become light but you are light. This is in contrast to what you once were. You once were darkness! But now in Christ you are light!

We were all once lost in sin. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But Jesus died for our sins. Out of love Jesus gave his life as a sacrifice to pay the debt of our sin. We are forgiven and blessed with the holy living Sprit of God living in us. And as a result we are light!

OK, you are light. So what does that mean? Paul anticipated that question and he said, "for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth." If light is goodness righteousness and truth then to be light we need to know what "goodness, righteousness and truth" are. That is why the very next thing he says is "find out what pleases the Lord"

What is it that pleases the Lord? Jesus said the greatest command is the love the Lord your God with all you heart mind soul and strength and your neighbor as yourself. But who is our neighbor and how do we love them? And how do we love God with our whole being?

Sisters and brothers that is why reading the Bible is so important. Did you know that white light is actually all the colors of light mixed together? When I was a kid a played around with mixing paints red and blue made purple and blue and yellow made green. And if you mix all the colors of paint you get black. But it is just the opposite with light. We have too many Christians who do not have the full spectrum in their light. And as a result they are not shining all the light they can. Now there are times when we need to shine one color of light to make something visible, but we need to have all the other colors at our disposal too. Too many Christmas only know part of their Bible: a few familiar stories and that is it. They have this broad spectrum of light and they are only using a small portion of its color. Read your bible. Study it. Get together with other Christians and delve into it. Then you will have the full spectrum to work with.

Of course knowing your Bible is only part of it. By reading the Bible you can know about God. But you also need to know God not just about God. To be the light you have to know the light. That is where prayer and worship comes in. To find out what pleases God we need to learn about God but we also need to know God.

How can we be light? Paul wrote, "Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them." Light dispels darkness. In fact darkness is the absence of light. So being light means that darkness is pushed back.

If we are truly light, then we will not be involved in darkness. That means we will not act hatefully toward our neighbor. It means we will not participate in actions that hurt others.

Instead we will shine a light in the darkness of hatred and selfishness in your world. We will shine light on ignorance and bring truth. We will shine light on hatred and bring love. We will shine light on prejudice and bring brother and sisterhood. We will expose darkness and bring light.

You are light! You are not one of those first generation CFL's that is always too dim. Don't be a dim bulb. Don't be a burned out bulb either.

But there is a lot you can be. You can be a spot light that has an intensity that throws details into contrast for others to see the truth. You can be a flood light that fills people's lives with the light of God and bring then hope and joy and peace. You can be a security light that provides light in the dark times of people's days. You can be a search light that seeks out the lost and fallen. You can be signal light that communicates important truths to others. You can be laser show that creates beauty and art.

But whatever light of light you are remember that you ARE light!

John 9

"As he walked along, Jesus saw a man blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?'"(John 9:1-2) First of all, we need to forgive the disciples. Their question may seem very offensive to us modern people, but they didn't know any better. They were merely reiterating what they had been taught when they were growing up.

Most Jews in Jesus' day believed that all sickness and injury was the result of sin. The obvious problem with this understanding is that it didn't account the sickness and suffering of the innocent. Especially those who where born disabled or sick. What did they do to deserve this punishment? So to make their understanding fit reality they decided that birth defects were the result of the parent's sin, or it was the result of some sin committed by the disabled person in the womb.

First, we have to admit that there are a few situations in which this understanding fits. If a mother takes drugs or drinks during pregnancy then her sin may cause birth defects. But it is painfully clear that most illness or birth defects are not the result of sin. It would be downright cruel for God to make an infant blind because of some infraction by the parents. And the idea that an unborn baby can sin is obviously contrived and ridiculous.

Jesus' response to this question is one that every disabled person and every able person needs to hear. Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him."(John 9:3) Then Jesus spit on the ground and made some mud from the dust of the earth and the water from his mouth. Next he took this mud and covered the man's eyes with it. And the told the man to go to the pool and wash his eyes out. When the man had done that he could see for the first time in his life.

Now when you first read that, did you wonder why Jesus put spit in the man's eyes? In essence that is what he did. The symbolic nature of that act would have been apparent to any Jewish believer in Christ. In the beginning the Father has taken the dust of the earth and with the breath of his mouth breathed life into the first human. In the same way the Son took the dust of the earth and repeated this act of God to bring sight to a blind man. It is also significant that the pool he washed in was named "Sent". After all Jesus had been "sent" to bring recovery of sight to the blind.

Remember: Jesus had said that the man was blind so that God might be made manifest. Jesus was God in the flesh, and there he was reenacting one of God's greatest acts: creation. That man's blindness was an opportunity for Jesus to reveal who he was. Jesus was not merely some wonder-worker who went around holding tent meetings. He was God's only begotten Son with the power of creation at his command.

But the Pharisees couldn't see it. They were blinded by their own petty little concerns. Instead of praising God for giving sight to the blind, they complained about the Sabbath being broken. Instead of asking themselves if this healer might be the messiah, they bickered over whether he was even Godly or not. Most of what follows is them calling witnesses to try to see the truth. In the end they threw the man who was healed of blindness out because he was "born in sin."

Do you "see" the irony. The Pharisees who may have had 20/20 vision can't see the truth. Jesus is the truth, in the flesh, and they were blind to it. But in the end the man born blind sees clearly. He can not only see Jesus, but he can see that Jesus is the Messiah.

This whole episode is really about spiritual blindness. The man's physical blindness becomes an opportunity for God to help people see spiritually. Not only where his physical eyes made to see but our spiritual eyes are made to see because of him. The reality of Spiritual blindness remained however. The Pharisees are proof of that. The man's physical blindness may not have been the result of sin, but the Pharisees' spiritual blindness and our spiritual blindness is the result of sin.

Do you "see" where all this leads? The man born blind is a model for us to learn from. Our adversities, our trials, our illnesses are not always punishment for sin. Occasionally they are. We need to be honest with ourselves when we bring trouble upon ourselves and confess those sins. I would argue that in the vast majority of cases our troubles are not the result of our sins. Rather these troubles are opportunities for God to be manifest, made known through us.

That is the way God works. God takes our disadvantages and turns them into advantages. God takes the negatives in our lives and turns them into positives. God takes our disabilities and turns them into opportunities. God takes our blindness and uses it to help us see thing much more important than sunsets.

Where would we be with out the testimonies of people like Joni Eareckson Tada. Her illness is not the result of sin, but God has made her a herald of righteousness. Where would we be without the inspired writings of St. Paul who had a thorn in the flesh. God took their disabilities and disadvantages and turned them into blessings for all who would see them.

The next time you see a man born blind, or a woman with no arms, or a boy with spinabifita, or a girl with Down's Syndrome: don't ask, "What did they do to deserve that?" If any human deserves punishment, we all do, because we have all sinned. Instead remember what Jesus said to his disciples; "It is not for sin but that God may be manifest." And look at that person as a person, and allow God to open your eyes to wonderful truths you have always been blind to.

The next time you come face to face with your own disability, your own pain, your own sickness: Don't ask yourself, "What did I do to deserve this?" Odds are you are not being punished. Just lift your deformities and ills to the one who came to bring sight to the blind. He may cure you, like he did the man born blind, or he may let you stay as you are, like Joni Eareckson Tada or St. Paul. But either way he will take your lack of abilities and lack of strength, and turn them into spiritual blessing for yourself and others.

Jesus came to bring sight to the blind. He still works miracles and makes the physically blind see. But he knows that often the state of our souls is more important than the condition of our bodies. So sometimes he leaves us in a physically disabled condition to give us a much greater Spiritual ability. Come to Christ with all your physical and spiritual pain and let him recreate you just as he recreated that blind man's eyes.

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It's all a matter of perspective. Sometimes you see something everyday and then one day you see it in a whole new way. We have all seen them before. Those little pictures of object that can be seen in two ways. Look at it one way it is a rabbit the other it is a woman. Or that fish that if you look at it right has "Jesus" written on it.

That is how it is with God. God sees things as they really are. God can see past the surface to the heart of a matter or a person. God can see the past and the future. And God's vision is not clouded by a limited human perspective or human psychology.

The problem is that our perspectives are limited. We can only see the past and the way we see it is based on what we were told about it - or not told about it. Our vision does not penetrate below the surface to the heart of matters or people. We often judge a book by its cover because that is all we can see. And when God tells us otherwise we say, "But this is how I see it" and we fail to follow God's directions.

In today's lessons we have a few example of this truth. In 1 Samuel, Samuel is called by God to anoint a new king for Israel. Samuel goes as directed to the family of Jesse and sees his oldest son. The oldest son is tall and strong and appears to be a good leader for the nation of Israel. But God says "No, it's not him. Look not at his appearance ... for the Lord does not see as mortals see."

To make a long story short seven of Jesse's sons were presented to Samuel. None of them were the ones that God had chosen. So finally Samuel asked, "Are you sure this is all your sons?" Jesse replied, "Well, there is little David, but he is keeping the sheep while the rest of us came here to worship." Finally, David was brought. He was a good looking boy. But he was just that: a boy!

Of course we know the kind of person David was. Later he went out and killed Goliath with just a sling and his faith. He grew up to be a great leader of Israel. In fact he was the greatest of the Kings. But no human could have seen that. If you or I had look at him and someone asked what do you see, we would have said, "I see a shepherd boy." But God looked at David and saw the future King of Israel. Ask God "What do you see in David" and He would say, "I see a heart dedicated to serving the Lord."

This problem of seeing only the surface is universal. Even Jesus' disciples had that problem. One day they came upon a blind man and what did they see? All they could see was the fact that he was blind. And that was colored by what they had been taught about blind people. They had been taught that blindness was a punishment from God. So their prejudice clouded their vision and they saw a man who had sinned or maybe it was just his parents who sinned, but either way that was all they saw.

Jesus, on the other hand, saw more. He saw a man of courage and strength. He saw a man of faith and integrity. So Jesus healed the disciples blindness by giving the blind man sight. Then it became apparent what Jesus saw.

The Pharisees had the formerly blind man questioned and tried to intimidate him and trick him. But he remained steadfast and honest. He bore witness to all that Jesus had healed him and given him his sight. The disciples saw only a blind man. Jesus saw a witness who only needed a testimony to give.

I am sure Jesus understood how the blind man felt. After all many people could not see Jesus for who he was. Some looked at Jesus and they saw someone who could be used to overthrow the Romans. Others looked at Jesus and saw only a wonder worker who could feed them. The Romans looked at Jesus and saw a troublemaker who looked nothing like a King. The Religious leaders looked at Jesus and saw a blasphemer.

And the situation is the same today. Some look at Jesus and they see a good moral teacher. Other look at him and they see a religious leader. Some look at him and they see a prophet of God. But what do you see?

And what do you see when you look at your fellow human beings? Do you see strangers, or children of God. Do you look at the surface or truly to see deep in. Perhaps instead of asking each other "What do you see?" We need to be asking God "What do you see?" Then God can open our eyes to the truth.

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1 Samuel 16:1-13

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I have sometimes wondered if the beholder needed glasses. Sometimes what one person sees as ugly, another thinks is beautiful. For instance, one young girl was ashamed by the appearance of her mother's arms. She thought they were ugly because they were badly scarred. Whenever a friend was coming over to visit she wanted her mother to wear a long sleeved blouse to cover the scars. Then one day the girl's grandmother told her how her mother had gotten those scars and her whole outlook on them changed. It seems that there was a fire in the house and her mother had been badly burned while rescuing her infant daughter. Suddenly those scarred arms became a beautiful symbol of her mother's love.

Too often we humans judge by the outward appearance of things. We go only by what we can see. One study done by psychologists found that appearance effected people's choices of candidates for office. Often times the outward appearance is insufficient evidence for making such choices. There is so much that cannot be seen with the eye.

But God, on the other hand, can see all. When God looks at a person, God sees not only their outward appearance but also their heart and soul. An outward appearance can hide a rotten heart and a dead soul. That is what Christ meant when he called the Pharisees whited sepulchers full of dead men's bones. The were well painted on the outside, But inside they were dead. In the same way an ugly exterior can hide inner beauty to you and me. The girl in the story I just told was fooled by her mothers scars. But in actuality there was a beautiful love under those scars. And God can see this. God can see the beauty that is hidden to us by the surface of a person. And God can also see the ugliness that our exteriors hide too.

Samuel made the mistake of being fooled by the exterior of Jesse's sons. Israel needed a new King because Saul had turned his back on God. So God told Samuel to go to Bethlehem and to anoint the son of Jesse that God chose. So Samuel did as he was told. When he got there the first of Jesse's sons to come out was Eliab. He was tall and hansom. Just put a crown on him and he would look like a king. Samuel thought, "Surely this is the one God has chosen." But God said, "Samuel, forget his good looks and his height. I don't see things the way people see them. They look at only the outward appearance but I look at the heart." So the next of Jesse's sons was presented and he was not the one. This went on until all the sons were presented and rejected.

Well almost all. There was one more. He was out keeping the sheep. So they brought him in. He was just a boy. He was a good looking boy, but he was just a boy. He looked like the shepherd he was, not the least bit like a king. God said, "He is the one, anoint him." The boy was David. Of "David and Goliath" fame. The great King, perhaps the greatest King of Israel.

You know most people would have chosen Eliab. He looked like a leader, like a King. And they would have rejected David, because he looked like a shepherd boy, and not the monarch of God's people. But Samuel had and advantage over most people. He was a follower of God. He listened to what God had to say, because he knew that God knew better than he did. So he listened and he anointed a shepherd boy to be the next King of Israel.

You know in this world people often judge by outward appearances. They judge by the beauty of their face, or their height, or the quality of their clothes. People often judge a person's ability to do a job based on the fact they they are in a wheelchair, or walk with a cane, not on the merit of their training and experience. Sometimes even by the color of their skin. People look and because someone is light or dark or yellow or red, They decided that person would be a good friend, a good co-worker, a good domestic servant. Or that person is a better athlete, or has better rhythm or is smarter, or is more ambitious. Sometimes we even let outward appearances influence our judgments of people's moral character. Some people would even refuse to eat with others because they are the wrong color, or their dress shows that they are too poor, or even too rich.

But God does not see as humans see. God sees the heart. God knows whether a person is righteous or unrighteous. The All Seeing One in heaven isn't influenced by the beauty of a face, or the height of ones stature, by one's disabilities, or even by the color of one's skin, or by the quality of one's clothes. God is influence only by the faith that lives in one's heart. It doesn't matter what you look like, you are welcome at Christ's table. Here all differences of nationality, ability, wealth and race are washed away by the cleansing blood of Christ.

Most people judge by outward appearance. But we are not most people. We are Christians. Like Samuel we are followers of the one true God who can see all. God sees through the outward appearances and sees the heart. We need to pray that the spirit would help us to do the same. Just as Christ invites all to his heavenly banquet, so all should be invited to this table.