Lent 4A
March 30, 2014
1Samuel 16:1-13 * Psalm 23 * Ephesians 5:8-14 * John 9: 1-41
David M. McNair
In our culture and in many cultures around the world, the first day of April is designated April Fools’ Day, a day for shenanigans, tomfoolery and practical jokes on unsuspecting family members, friends, and co-workers. At some point along the way, most of us have played the part of an April Fool. I went on-line and read some of the best April Fool’s pranks of all time:
During an interview on BBC, on the morning of April 1, 1976, the British astronomer Patrick Moore announced that at 9:47 AM a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event was going to occur that listeners could experience in their very own homes. The [then] planet Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would counteract and lessen the Earth's own gravity. Moore told his listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment this planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange floating sensation. When 9:47 AM arrived, BBC began to receive hundreds of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One woman even reported that she and her eleven friends had risen from their chairs and floated around the room.
Procter & Gamble once rigged up an entire site and social media campaign promoting its new bacon-flavoured Scope mouthwash with the slogan: “for breath that sizzles.”
An April 1, 1992 broadcast of NPR Talk of the Nation revealed that Richard Nixon, in a surprise move, was running for President again. His new campaign slogan was, "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again." Accompanying this announcement were audio clips of Nixon delivering his candidacy speech. Listeners responded viscerally to the announcement, flooding the show with calls expressing shock and outrage. Only during the second half of the show was it announced that it was a practical joke.
I’m bringing this up to give you a couple days lead time so you can plan a real doozie of an April Fool, preferably not me. It seems somehow appropriate that at least one day a year should serve to remind us to not take ourselves too seriously. After all, so many people in our busy world assume the responsibilities and duties of work and family life with a relentless determination that seems to leave little room for humor or amusement. What better remedy than a day that dares to poke fun at our pretensions and self-importance?
Strangely enough, from what I can gather, no one is quite sure of the origin of April Fools’ Day, called All Fools’ Day in some places or, in Scotland, Hunt-the-Gowk Day, although theories abound. In the English-speaking world, the day and its silliness date back to at least as far back the fourteenth century because it is mentioned in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. But similar customs are found all over the world. April Fools’ Day has not yet made it onto the calendar of the church year, although, St. Paul unabashedly calls Christians “fools for Christ” – and we might just need one day a year set aside to help get a grip on what this means.
In fact, sheer foolishness in religious matters goes back at least as far as Old Testament times. Consider our first lesson today from First Samuel. The story recounts the history of kingship in ancient Israel. Yahweh (God) sends the prophet Samuel to anoint a new king – even though Saul is still very much alive and still on the throne. Samuel must surely have thought the Yahweh was joking, pulling a fast one on him. Maybe he checked his calendar to make sure it wasn’t April First. “How can I go?” he asks with trepidation. “If Saul gets wind of this, he’ll kill me!” But, alas, it turns out, God isn’t joking. And so off Samuel goes on this baffling search for a new king.
The story and its improbability – call it foolishness if you like – doesn’t end there. Samuel follows God’s instructions and goes to Bethlehem to anoint the one Yahweh has chosen to be the new king of Israel. When Samuel gets to the home of Jesse, seven of Jesse’s son’s are paraded in front of him (like a Male Beauty pageant) and inspected for kingship. Each of the seven sons is striking and strapping with a look that is convincingly “kingly” -- that Mitt Romney presidential look and profile. Any one of them looked to fit the bill as an excellent king for God’s people. Any one of them, that is, except for the youngest, David, whom their father does not even bother to bring before Samuel’s gaze. (He’s not even invited to the beauty pageant! His brothers are strutting themselves in the bathing suit competition and David’s out in the fields with the smelly ol’ sheep!) Too young, Jesse must have thought, too inexperienced and unschooled in the ways of the world, too much dirt under his fingernails. Yet, foolish and silly as it may seem, it is precisely David who is to be king. “Rise and anoint him,” says Yahweh without cracking a smile, “This is the one.” No fooling.
It seems our human judgment is all too often blind to the wisdom of God masquerading at times as human folly. Maybe we all need to become more mindful of the God’s “foolish” ways if we want to be truly wise.
That seems to be the lesson of today’s gospel account – the story of the man born blind and his healing. But his healing and the return of his sight is not the only wonder in the story. Almost as astonishing is the inability of the blind man’s neighbors and the Pharisees to recognize the hand of God at work in their very midst. Like some sort of Abbott and Costello “Who’s on First?, What’s on Second?” comedy routine, they dance round and round confusing what is obvious. They go over every possibility – making up more along the way. They visit neighbors and family. They consider each detail of the blind man’s history, symptoms, and healing. Perhaps he was not really blind to begin with, they speculate. Perhaps on the other hand he was “born entirely in sins.” Maybe the return of his sight had something to do with the composition of the mud in his eyes or the waters of Siloam in which he bathed. Guess again, guys!
They manage to confuse and refuse to see what is right before their eyes, the plain truth of God’s grace and goodness at work in the lives of God’s people – specifically in the life of this blind man who asks nothing of Jesus — but is freely given — one might even say foolishly given — his sight simply “so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” No questions asked. No demands made. No hidden agenda. Then, as now, it seems God loves to astonish us with God’s “silly” and extravagantly merciful ways.
Of course the tragedies and trials of our world are far from funny and silliness. Yet even in the midst of incredible human hardship and suffering, God never stops smiling upon us with “goodness and mercy which shall follow us all the days of our lives” – as Psalm 23 reminds us today. Whether “goodness and mercy” manifest in the buds turning red on the trees or the tiny green sprouts poking up out of the ground covered with snow in the gardens or in the small and unexpected miracles of heroism and rescue found in the aftermath of the mudslides this week in Washington State — God’s loving kindness remain as strong and certain as ever.
In some circles, the Fourth Sunday in Lent – today – is known as Laetare Sunday, a Latin liturgical term that means, “Be joyful” or “rejoice.” It’s also referred to as Mothering Sunday or Refreshment Sunday. It might seem odd that, in the middle of the season of Lent, when we have ventured into the wilderness with Jesus to confront that which tempts us and draws us away from God, we should be encouraged to somehow rejoice and be joyful. Yet the lesson is clear. For Christians, there is always time and reason to be glad. And to smile.
God has not lost God’s sense of the miraculous in human life. God has not lost a sense of humor. And neither should we. So let’s lighten up and loosen our grip. “Sleeper, awake!” thunders the author of Ephesians in our second reading today, no doubt jolting his hearers – and us – to shake off gloom and sloth and apathy. “Rise from the dead,” he demands, “and Christ will shine on you.”
And that, my sisters and brothers, is no joke. Amen.
Notes:
On 1 April 1957, the respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in. Many called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied, "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."