Genesis 2: 15-17, 3:1-7 Psalm 32
Romans 5: 12-19
Matthew 4: 1-11

If you have an email address, and especially if you have a web site with your email address on it, you might be familiar with a scheme called the “Nigerian Scam”. For those of you who have not been so honoured, a Nigerian Scam email is one in which the sender requests your cooperation in a matter of the utmost confidentiality. The writer has come into possession of some money from the estate of some wealthy person who was murdered or otherwise died. The problem is that the writer of the email can’t access the estate without your help. If you will just give them your banking information the writer will transfer all the money to your bank account so that it can be taken out of the country. For your services you will be permitted to keep several million dollars. It is usually emphasized that it is very important that this arrangement be kept strictly confidential. Keep in mind that the writer sounds genuine, and his or her situation, usually heart wrenching. Wouldn’t you help out a person in need. Surely the wife of the cousin of the President of the Bank of Nigeria wouldn’t lie!

The advice of the RCMP is: DON’T; not unless you want your bank account to be drained, or unless you want to be asked for ever increasing sums of money to show your “good faith and trustworthiness”. Many usually astute and reasonable people fall for such scams every year. It’s so tempting, to receive such a large amount of money for doing a good deed; so tempting to receive so much money for so little effort; you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your own home. But, the best advice is, as always: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”.

It was so tempting. That phrase should go down in the annals of ‘famous last words’. It was so tempting to have that second helping. It was so tempting to buy all that stuff on the tv ads; they looked so good. It just seemed that I simply couldn’t do without them. Or even, it was so tempting to have that affair, or to rob that bank or to file a false tax return. It was so tempting to tell my parents that little lie about where I was last night. It was so tempting to try that drug, everyone else was doing it. It was so tempting ......”

We usually think of temptation as a ‘desire or urge to do something usually considered wrong, or forbidden’. Yet, the temptation of Jesus calls us to take a much broader view of temptation.

Since the beginning of the biblical story human beings have been tempted, yet as the story of “the Garden of Eden” teaches us the ‘devil made me do it’ is no excuse. It should hardly surprise us to find that the New Testament deals with the issue of temptation as well. Yet, many people find the story of Jesus’ temptation to be surprising, or even disturbing. We have picked up the idea that Jesus was so perfect that he wasn’t even tempted to do anything wrong. We are especially disturbed by the fact that this temptation takes place just after he has been affirmed in his call and baptized in the Jordan. Surely that affirmation of his identity and God’s approval would have held him for a few months!

Yet, I feel that it is very fitting for this to happen immediately after his baptism and divine affirmation. Jesus knew who he was and what his mission was, but he had to decide HOW he was going to carry out that mission. If he was going to undertake a ministry of proclaiming the ‘good news’ he had to make sure that he and God were on the same page, as it were. So it was fitting that he went off to the wilderness and wrestled with his options, some of which were clearly against God’s vision for Jesus’ ministry. In fact, Jesus model of spending time alone, to sort out his options, or to commune with God, apart from the hectic pace of life, is a good model for us to consider.

When Candidates for Ministry in the United Church, and many denominations, are preparing for ministry we have a period of formation, usually running parallel with our formal education, in which we participate in various ministry settings, under supervision, in which we begin to formulate our personal pastoral identity. We learn about ministry and we learn about ourselves, strengths, weaknesses, and so on. We make some determinations about how we will carry out our ministry with integrity, compassion and faithfulness.

I am a big fan of er! an NBC ‘doctor show’ On this show, which is a bit of a soap opera, various med students learn how to apply their medical knowledge, in the real life of a busy Chicago emergency room. They have a great deal of book learning and know how things should be done, yet the real life stories of their real live patients need to be taken into consideration as they balance their learning with their job of treating the whole patient. It is tempting to simply take out pen and paper and write a prescription. A doctor can learn all about drug addiction in the classroom but when faced with the issue of balancing the long term needs of one patient with a waiting room full of sick and injured people, the issues become very clouded. The doctors make mistakes and have intense disagreements about what is appropriate in a given situation.

You see, Jesus’ temptations were not necessarily to do ‘bad things’ but rather, to use (or misuse) his power for good ends. Each of the temptations related directly, or indirectly, to Jesus mission and ministry.

Brian Stoffregen, minister of Faith Lutheran Church in Marysville, California who writes lectionary materials for clergy puts it this way: “The way (the devil) seeks to change our wills is by lying, by stretching the truth. Generally, (we are enticed) not to do great evil acts, but to good things for the wrong reasons. It could be argued that none of Jesus' temptations were to do anything grossly evil, but to do good things for the wrong reasons or at the wrong time.

“What's wrong with turning stones into bread (if one can do it) to feed the hungry? Later, Jesus will turn a couple fish and five loaves of bread into a feast for 5000.

“What's wrong with believing scriptures so strongly that he trusts the angels to protect him? Later, Jesus will walk on water, perhaps slightly less difficult than floating on air.

“What's wrong with the King of kings and Lord of lords assuming control over the kingdoms of the world? Isn't that what we are expecting at the (second coming)?”

(Pause)

What’s wrong is that in each temptation the focus or the desire was wrong. The temptation to achieve good ends by dubious means needs to be resisted. The Gospels tell us that Jesus did resist. In this resisting his story becomes a trustworthy model for our own living.

Do we use our power, our wealth, or knowledge, the fact that we live in a prosperous and developed country, to satisfy or own needs, OR do we rely on God’s grace. Do we use these advantages and powers for ourselves or for others. When we use them for others d we do it out of a desire to follow our faith or to point to our own goodness?

The catchword in education these days seems to be ‘outcomes’. Learnign is a desired outcome. Getting good marks is a desired outcome and is usually seen as a sign of the leaning outcome. . It is particularly desirable that this outcome is truly reflective of the knowledge that one has attained. Therefore cheating is forbidden.

Every so often in school the word went around that so and so had the answers to the upcoming exam, or at least the questions, so that we would know exactly what to study and therefore obtain a high mark. Now that sounds like a good thing - particularly to a teenager- a high mark, but the means are not permitted. I recall one day in Grade 8 or 9 when a boy in my class wrote all the answers to any possible test questions for a geography test inside his denim jacket. My last memory of the episode was the jacket sitting on the vice principal’s desk in his office across from our classroom. I was probably not as virtuous as I would like to think I was - I may just have been afraid of getting caught.

It’s not as simple as knowing what is right and wrong; its about wanting to do what is right. I know I should eat more vegetables, but until I want to, I likely wont. I know I could do such and such, but until I want to, it will probably be left undone.

In essence its about conversion. It’s about taking on the mind of Christ; seeking the will of God first and foremost and then applying faith and scripture and reason to the problems that come to us. Its about seeking the will of God in such a way that we become clear about our motives for our actions and the implications of them . What do our actions really say about our faith and our relationship with God.

Our lenten journey lies before us once again, and led by this Jesus of Nazareth who was tempted, but resisted, we can follow and struggle with our own dilemmas, sure and certain that we follow the call of a God who names us as a ‘beloved child’ and surrounds us with grace so that we can be more and more the people we were created to be. Let us come to the Table and then let us go into the world in faith, hope, love and trust.

Amen.

Genesis 12: 1-4a
Psalm 121
Romans 4: 1-5, 13-17
John 3: 1-17

Never Too Old !

The NHL season appears to be completely lost, or is it? When I first wrote that line it was, but then Saturday came and another meeting was scheduled. By now the news may be different! Many “Hockey Night in Canada” fans have had to find something else to do and a new tv tradition has been spawned, “Movie Night in Canada” with the same host as the show that has held that time slot for as long as any of us can remember. Die hard fans are suffering from hockey withdrawal while those individuals and businesses who earn their living from ‘all things hockey’ are laying off staff and going to the bank for loans to see them through this lean time.

There are some though who are affected in a very different way; they were hoping to put on a NHL team jersey for the first time this year and live their dream of playing in the NHL. They have earned the right to join the ranks of the 600 best players in the world, the cream of the crop, the ones who worked hard, played superbly in the right years, avoided injury, and won the right to don one of the 20 coveted new jerseys up for grabs in any one year.

Almost every 5 year old who picks up a hockey stick, hopes for a career in the NHL, but by the time they are in their teens, they are much more realistic about their skill level and their chances of playing pro hockey, let alone, in the NHL. Only the best get drafted and only the best of those make it to NHL ice.

However, if God were in charge of the NHL he’d probably choose someone who could barely skate, or someone who was 65 and had arthritis and poor hand-eye coordination. You see, for Abram to be called, when he was, an age we would consider a senior, senior citizen, could be likened to a senior citizen in poor health being asked to play in a league full of people in their 20's and 30's!

Whenever an employer is hiring that employer decides on a job description and then advertises for someone with the skills necessary to complete the tasks required. People without the necessary skills need not apply. As the story in Genesis goes, God decided that he was going to need a group of people to be a ‘light’ to the other nations, a people who would have a particular place to call home. This people would show with their lives as a community of faith, what God’s intention for creation really was.

Now, in order to fulfill a task such as this, it would make sense to choose a strapping early to middle aged man with a number of sons and many grandchildren. We we are told, however, that’s not what God did! God chose someone who had planted his tent firmly in Haran. And to make matters even more unbelievable, he chose an elderly couple with no children. Remember that part of God’s plan was to create a ‘great nation’.

The more you look at it though, the more strange God’s choice becomes. In that day and age, people were much more attached to the land and to the family group, than even the most die hard Maritimers are. God called to Abram and asked him to leave everything and everyone behind and follow what many would consider a ‘pipe dream’. He was to leave everything and everyone he knew to follow the call of the One he would come to know as the Creator of the World, as the one who would eventually name them as his own. Yet that was in the future. We don’t know what kind of religion Abram followed before this, but what we do know is that following this call would change the rest of his life.

God’s call of Abram was one of pure grace: though Abram appears to have been a wealthy man, he did not have the one thing that really counted: children. Given the nature of the promise, he knew that apart from God’s grace he would not be able to do anything to fulfil the promises. He and his wife Sari had to step forward in faith, even before the promises became real, and live as if they were real.

To make matters a lot more complicated the time between God’s call and Abraham and Sarah having a child of their own, was many more years. Abraham did not always act with faith, but over time Abraham learned to trust in this God’s seemingly outlandish promises. Throughout the history of the Hebrew people his life of faithfulness was seen as a model for all of his descendants. The God who came to Abram eventually became known as the God who was Creator, the God of Abraham, his son Isaac and his son Jacob, and then the God revealed in Jesus of Nazareth.

Abram had to learn to look at things in a new way, and to ‘think outside the box’ as the modern expression goes. He had to act in faith, trusting in God without having unequivocal proof of what was being promised. Nicodemus needed to learn the same lesson. While he comes to Jesus by night, perhaps out of a fear of being seen, he seems to be genuinely interested in Jesus and his message. Yet, he has difficulty broadening his horizons, and looking at life in new ways.

A lot of the meaning in the Nicodemus story centres around his misunderstanding of Jesus’ call to a new birth. Jesus talks about a new life, and Nicodemus immediately jumps to the conclusion that Jesus is speaking of a literal re-birth, which is impossible, even for an infant, let alone an adult. Jesus is amazed that a teacher of Israel would not know what he was talking about; for he knew that their traditions already held the truth of which he was speaking. He wanted Nicodemus to cast off the layers of tradition that had built up over the years and go back to the beginning, as it were; to be reborn, but Nicodemus couldn’t get his mind around the metaphor.

Jesus knew that the faith of Abraham was one of grace and trust and the faith he was talking about was one of grace and trust. It was a faith that resulted in action, but that it was not the action itself that brought one into true relationship with God, but the faith. The early church struggled with the issues of grace and works. Based on the teachings of Jesus and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the early church taught that salvation was by grace and not by works. This created a dilemma for the church as they looked at the stories of their forefathers in the faith. Paul looked at the scriptures and saw that Abraham was first and foremost a person of faith: his faith and trust in God preceded his action, therefore he was saved, or justified by his faith.

The founder of the Methodist movement, John Wesley, wrote in his journal: "Among the many difficulties of our early ministry, my brother Charles often said, 'If the Lord would give me wings, I'd fly.' I used to answer, 'If God bids me fly, I will trust Him for the wings.’” From one of the preaching lists to which I subscribe That’s what Abraham was called to do, to journey, to believe, BEFORE he had the land, before he had the son, before he had any ‘proof’. He had to live as if the promise were already true in order for it to become true. He had to look at his own journey and the journey of his nation in a completely new way.

I was at the 4H A mostly rural organization for young people public speaking for a little while yesterday but I have attended some or all of the event each year. Last year I was one of the judges. All of the speakers who participated last year had improved in the last 12 months. I am sure that each one of them was nervous, and those who were there for the first time were the most nervous of all, but they dit not overcome their fear and nervousness by staying out of the event, but by jumping in and participating. I remember well my first attempt at public speaking. I can remember where it was and what I wore and how nervous I was and how badly I did, but I took part and the next year, I assume, I was a little more confident, a little better at it.

I’m sure Abraham felt nervous and unsure of himself many times, as have all people of faith since.

Part of the journey of Lent is fixing our sights on the promises of God and then going forward to live them into being. We must remember that we do so because of grace, not because of our ability or our brains, or merit, but we go forward in faithfulness because we believe in the God who has called us. This is the same God who called the world into being, who called Abram, who called and named Jesus of Nazareth as his beloved Son and who calls each one of us.

We are called, not to success or to risk failure, but to a life of faithfulness. So let us follow that call as Abram did, as countless of others have done since and as we are promised the grace to be able to do knowing that our God goes with us every step of the way.

Amen.

Exodus 17: 1-7
Psalm 95
Romans 5: 1-11
John 4: 5-30, 39-42

As most of you know I share my home with a large, black, feline. Like many cats she loves attention, WHEN she wants attention; when she doesn’t, you’ll know, very quickly, to back off! She loves a drink of water and if her water dish is empty, or not to her liking, I’ll find her sitting on the counter in the bathroom lapping at the water that drips from the tap, or she meows plaintifly until I figure out what is wrong. All living beings need water and we can live longer without food than we can without water. Outdoor enthusiasts and athletes know the importance of proper hydration and you’ll see water bottles at many more meetings than you used to and, in church, not only on the pulpit, but also in the choir loft!

The biblical stories mention water over and over again. The account from the book of exodus tells us of just one of the events that focuses on water when the people of Israel were wandering around in the wilderness. Their need for water was very real but water is often used in a metaphorical sense. The people not only need real, water, good old H20, but also the spiritual water that could only come from trusting in the God of their ancestors, the God who had led them out of Egypt.

That double meaning of the word “water” is crucial to our understanding of the story I read a few moments ago from the John’s gospel. Today’s gospel was obviously written by a master story teller. John has crafted the account in such a way as to bring us into the middle of it as if we were there, or as if we were one of its participants.

John, like all of the gospel writers is not just telling us ‘what happened’, as if he were a disinterested bystander reporting something he has seen and would forget the next day. John was writing to convey his understanding of the Good News of Jesus of Nazareth. So, as in any really good story, there are few, if any, irrelevant details. So we have to pay attention to the characters, how they are described, how they present themselves, what is said and what action takes place.

Another thing we need to pay attention to is what kinds of stories are grouped together. Chapter 3 of John’s gospel begins with the story we read last week: the story of Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus. He is a male member of the religious establishment, from the elite of the day. He would have been articulate, well off and well educated. He would have been regarded as an example of success and faithfulness. Yet, in the course of the story, we find out that he found it very difficult to be open to the new ways of Jesus of Nazareth.

By contrast, today’s reading tells of a meeting between Jesus and a woman who was a foreigner and of a questionable reputation, but she was the one who was able and willing to enter into meaningful and life changing dialogue with Jesus.

Let’s look a little more closely at this familiar story. I’m quite sure I have known this story since childhood but it was not until much later that I realized that the encounter itself was one which turned the expectations of society on its head and asked the readers to embrace the radical newness of the gospel.

You may ask, “What is unusual about Jesus talking to a woman and asking her for a drink? It was hot? She had a bucket? He did not. But there ARE several things wrong with this picture.

First: the woman is at the well in the daytime, by herself. We wonder whether or not she has any friends to accompany her? We know that no respectable woman would go out alone.

Second: Everyone would know how many husbands she had and the marital status of her current relationship. Whether or not they all died or she was divorced by all of those mem is an intriguing question, but we have no basis for answering it, only reasons to speculate. What seems clear, is that her reputation suffered because of it.

Third: While Jesus passed the test of being a prophet, in that he was able to see into people’s hearts to determine their secret sins or inherent goodness, Jesus did not call God’s wrath down upon her for her situation, but extended a hand of love and complete acceptance:

Fourth: as she herself notes. a Jewish man would not speak, in public, to a woman who was not a relative and most especially, a rabbi would not talk to an unaccompanied woman.

Fifth: A Jewish man would not talk to a Samaritan woman,

Sixth: in a country such as Samaria, with all of the heat, no one did anything they didn’t have to, at noon-time. Perhaps she was desperate to avoid confrontation or the snickers of the crowd.

Seventh, as John tells us, Jewish person would not use the same drinking vessel as a Samaritan; they didn’t know about germs back them, but it was an issue of ritual purity.

However, as we have discovered before, Jesus did not pay much attention to what ‘was expected’ and to what was usually considered ‘acceptable behaviour’. And it is in this flouting of the ‘expected’ behaviour that the newness and freshness of the gospel lies; it is in this that the living water is found. In the end, this encounter tells us a great deal about the gospel, about where the gospel meets us and where the church needs to be in order to be following in the footsteps of Jesus.

Not only does this story show that the good news of God in Jesus is one which crosses all artificial barriers erected by people to protect social conventions and to reinforce prejudices, but this passage also shows that the good news crosses the barriers erected within the human consciousness as a result of these conventions and prejudices. Jesus himself encountered prejudice when he was calling his disciples. In the first chapter of John, as Jesus is calling his disciples, one of the prospective disciples initially dismisses him by saying, “Can anything good come from Nazareth.”

That disciples was to learn what it was that could indeed come from Nazareth and how this man from Nazareth could change lives utterly and completely. This man gave new life. This man brought fresh air to traditions that had become buried beneath stale conventions and which had ceased to serve the expression of the faith of the people. This man brought these traditions back to life and, in his presence, it was as if fresh air was blowing through a house long shut up or flowing from a river that had dried up long before. Fresh air, new life and living water had come to all of the people.

Most of all, I think, this man brought acceptance and God’s love. And with the acceptance and God’s love, ironically, comes the power to change and grow in that love. On her own the woman was going nowhere, but with Jesus’ love and acceptance, her soul was refreshed and she becomes a disciple of the good news. This good news is not just something she has heard, but something she knows.

Many of us harbour secret hurts, or not so secret ones. Some of us have things which haunt us, which we would like to take back. Many of us are leading lives which are fine, except that there is a sense that there is something missing. Some people look for love and meaning in relationships and go from one to another in a search for completeness and the ‘perfect mate’. Some look for fulfilment through abuse of drugs or alcohol. Many more go through life, living for the weekend, so that we can sleep in, party and forget about our cares and our disappointments. Some just want to put in the day and have a good night’s sleep. Most, particularly parents whose children take them through many phases, can resonate with those feelings at one time or another. The gospel presents the living water as the alternative, the meaning giver, the great source of true life. We are challenged by Jesus’ actions once again to open our hearts to God’s great love for us and to accept this living water. We are also challenged to model this love and acceptance to others. We are challenged to live it our in our personal lives and in our life as a community of faith and to live it out beyond our community of faith. Living in community is difficult. Communities can be life giving but they take a lot of work. We have people in our own communities who have hurt us or a loved one, or people who have been hurt by us or by our loved one. And there are always two sides to every story. We are called to take the love of God in Christ to heart and then reach out in that love to those most in need of it.

There is a story that comes out of the Nevada desert in the 1930's. A traveller whose horse became spooked is wandering alone in the desert and he knows that he is about to die if he does not find water. He comes upon an old homestead and discovers an old pump that offers the only hope of drinking water, of life, of renewal. Attached to the pump is a baking powder can, wired to the handle, and inside it is a letter folded and stored against the elements, still legible:

"The pump is all right as of June 1932. I put a new sucker washer into it and it ought to last five years. But the washer dries out and the pump has got to be primed. Under the white rock I buried a bottle of water, out of the sun and cork end up. There's enough water in it to prime the pump, but not if you drink some first. Pour out about one fourth and let it soak to wet the leather. Then pour in the rest medium fast and pump like crazy. You'll get water. Have faith. When you get watered up, fill the bottle and put it back like you found it for the next feller. (signed) Desert Pete. PS Don't go drinking up the water first. Prime the pump with it and you'll get all you can hold." (From sermon by Fred Kane, PRCL-L listserve, posted 2/22/05)

Following in the way of Jesus is not easy. Sometimes the pump needs a lot of priming, and requires faith and daring. It requires an audacious belief that God is indeed with us. It requires that we expend some of that living water that we thought was intended just for us, to show love to others. It’s a risk, but it’s well worth it.

I recall a cartoon that I saw a few years ago. The mom is walking along with her four children. A passerby says: “how do you divide your love among so many ?”

She replies, “I don’t divide it, I multiply it.” Bill Keane, Family Circus, from my memory.

God’s love for us is not diminished because of a love for another person, or another group, regardless of what WE THINK of that person or group. God’s living water is never ending and does not diminish because someone else has taken a drink.

Let us drink of that water. Let us carry that living water to those most in need of it. Let us remember, first and foremost that it is not our work, but God’s. Amen!

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

I love watching the various versions of CSI TV show, short for “Crime Scene Investigation”. It has an original version, a New York Version and a Miami version. On each of these shows you’ll see one or more of the Crime Scene Investigators walking around a crime scene, with the lights out, or in the dark of night, with super bright flashlights or flashlights with coloured filters on them. Or they spray a crime scene with a substance that reacts with even minute quantities of blood and then they view it with a special light. When they see something that shouldn’t be there, or a hair or a fibre they pick it up with tweezers and put it in an envelope or other container so that it can be tested at the lab.

CSI’s are highly trained people. They need to know what they are looking at and what is missing or out of place and more importantly, what those inconsistencies mean.

If we are to believe the tv shows, it is on this kind of evidence that cases hinge. The missing tire iron, or the tire iron that does not fit any tire on the car, are all important things to notice, to see, and then once seen, to discern what they mean.

Sight is one of the five human senses and along with taste, touch, smell and hearing, helps us to gather information about the world around us. Over 50% of respondents to a poll on a Washington University web site, geared for school kids, responded that sight was the most valued of the five senses. Cant remember the URL

On Friday a colleague phoned me to see if I could help with a computer problem. I was sure that all he needed to do was to change a setting. I went to my computer and guided him through the process. Sometimes when I receive this kind of call, when I am not at my desk I just stay where I am guide them through the process because I have in my mind a picture of what the settings and options menus look like. I can ‘see’ what their computer screen should look like without actually having to follow along on mine Sometimes different versions of Windows take a little translation, but usually not too much.

1981 was declared the International Year of Disabled Persons. Alberta Songwriter Pat McKee’s song, “Look Beyond” was Canada’s official song. It called the listener to look beyond the disability to see the person; the woman, the child, the man. It spoke of the famous composer who composed great concertos while deaf, pointed to the president in a wheelchair who led a nation at war, and to a young man who captivated the heart of a country by running across it on one leg. If the world had rejected Beethoven, President Roosevelt and Terry Fox, we would have been much poorer for it.

In a sense, today’s passages from the book of Samuel and the John’s Gospel are about looking beyond what is obvious to what is not so obvious. They are about ignoring the voice of the crowd and listening for the voice of God.

The story of Samuel’s anointing of David is one of those stories I have known since I was a child but I didn’t learn the whole story till much later. You see, Samuel was literally taking his life in his own hands, for Saul was on the throne and even though Saul was the very first king of Israel, it would have been assumed that it was a lifetime job and be inherited by one of his own sons. Because of Saul’s sin though, God had a different plan. Samuel was called to g go to the home of a man named Jesse and anoint one of his sons as the future king. So all of the stuff about taking a calf to go and make a sacrifice was an elaborate plan to hide his act of treason, which is what it was! The laws about who is first in line to the throne were clear! Jesse’s family wasn’t on any list! The prophet Samuel was breaking the rules.

God’s assumption was that any king od Israel had to follow divine law and when Saul did not, he gave up his right to the throne. God’s rules were different! It was as simple as that. Samuel had a job to do and God called him to do it! However Samuel had some assumptions of his own that could have thwarted the plans of God. He seems to have assumed that ELDEST son of Jesse would be the one, and he looked like ‘King material’, but he was not. In fact Jesse thought his youngest so insignificant because of his age that he did not even call him in from his chores to attend the sacrifice. However, as the story goes, Samuel continued to be open to the guidance of God and when David finally showed up he knew that this boy was to be the future king of Israel. God’s continued guidance to Samuel was to look beyond physical appearance to the heart. In the end David had both a good heart and good looks!

It is perhaps the supreme irony that Saul was soon to invite this young man into his court to soothe his troubled spirits with mucic for David was known to be skilful at the lyre, a kind of harp. However, that is quite another story.

In the events told in today’s gospel lesson Jesus also broke the rules and his opponents were almost as formidable as King Saul. Now there were no rules against healing. There were no rules against making mud out of sand and saliva; as far as I know it was a common practice, even if it seems a somewhat distasteful to us!

His biggest mistake was that he healed on the Sabbath. Notice how the story withholds that fact until the neighbours noticed the healing and the religious leaders found out about it. The religious leaders were upset. What could be wrong? It as a good deed. This man was healed of a disability? Surely it was a good thing.

Not to fast. Remember the ten commandments? Remember the one that says, “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. You have six days to do your work,” and so on and so forth................ These ten commandments were so important that over time a list of things that constituted work and that did not constitute work was developed. While some of the fine lines that were developed may seem like splitting hairs to us, they should not be quickly laughed at because they were a sincere and honest attempt to clarify how one could be a faithful member of the community.

We must always be careful when reading these controversy stories not to buy into what can be seen as anti Semitism in the story. While John refers to ‘the Jews’ in a seemingly derogatory fashion but we must remember that everyone in the gospel stories was Jewish, except for the Roman soldiers; the who was healed was Jewish, as were the scribes and pharisees, as were the individuals in the crowd, as was Jesus himself. We must always remember this!

Getting back to Sabbath laws; the Pharisees we encounter on this day were sticklers for these rules. Perhaps their dislike of this popular wandering preacher helped along their complaint and this was something they could hang their hats on!

Perhaps they reasoned that since the man had been blind since birth, one more day would not have hurt so Jesus should have followed the Sabbath laws and waited another day. The Sabbath laws had to be followed, it was as simple as that, and people looking for loopholes has to be reminded that God’s laws were not to be taken as a matter of convenience!

As the story unfolds, the people involved seemed to be divided into two camps: those who believed that true men of God did not break the Sabbath laws., and those who argued that someone who was not a man of God would not have been able to heal a man born blind.

However the question and answer session which ensues is quite detailed and would be funny, if it were not so tragic. It is clear, in the context of John’s gospel, that the story is told in such a way as to show how blind the religious leaders are to the truth of Jesus and how sighted those who believe are. The man’s parents are no help at all; John tells us that they do not want to risk the ire of the religious establishment, but I suspect that they were so overwhelmed with everything that had gone on that they didn’t know what to think.

Discerning the will of God in many situations is not as easy as we might first think. There are many situations in which the case is clear but many in which it is not. The Methodist tradition, a part of the United Church of Canada, developed a four cornered approach to doing discerning the will of God, often called the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. They cited the importance of the four aspects of scripture, tradition, reason and experience. Applying these four things to the situation in today’s gospel leaves us with the clear impression that the healing on the Sabbath was clearly the right thing for Jesus to have done.

Yet when we come to situations in our own life and our own world the ‘seeing’ is not as easy. Hindsight is most often ‘20-20' but we are called to live forward, not backwards. The United Church has been on the forefront of much social change since its beginning 80 years ago. What began as a necessity in the isolated communities of the Canadian West became a movement which enabled three smaller groups to pool their resources and work for the common cause of the gospel, despite major differences in theology and practice . Not without controversy, Church Union melded together three very different denominations and left individuals and congregations with a great degree of autonomy on local matters. The ordination of women was an issue with which the church struggled for many years before the Rev Lydia Gruchy was ordained in 1936. It was many years later that the church decided that ordained ministers could be both active ministers and mothers, while the issue of being ministers and fathers at the same time had never come up!

More recent controversies over ordination have shown that they church still holds diverse opinions on many issues.

However, I believe that the gospel and old testament lessons for today both give us guidance in these matters. We are not to take our ‘hard and fast rules’ whatever side of the fence we are on, and apply them without any reference to the work of the Holy Spirit or the will of God.

We are not given a book with ten million and one ‘what if’s’ that we must follow like robots; we are given the scriptures which tell of the lives of faithful people down through the years, we are given the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth who called us to look deeper and higher and wider and with more love than we might be prone to do; we are given the traditions of our church; we are given both human reason and personal and corporate experience and called to work with these things, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to determine what it is that God is calling us to see and do in the world today.

We need to be connected with the scriptures, and not just one or two verses that seem to specifically apply, but the broad scope of scripture, and prayerfully and in due reverence, considering our experience, our reason and the tradition of the church, come to our decisions about what God is calling us to do and who God is calling us to be in this time and place.

Our lenten journey continues as we seek God’s will for our own lives in an often confusing time and place. Let us continue to pray for God’s guidance as we seek to see and know God’s will.

Amen.