March 19, 2023.
Texts: 1 Samuel 16:1-13; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41.
Giovanni Schiaparelli, an Italian Astronomer and Director of the Brera Observatory in Milan Italy studied Mars. His early observations in 1877 were eagerly received. Noting areas of contrasting darkness and light, he used the terms “seas and continents” in describing them.
Schiaparelli named the separations between the contrasting areas canali, the Italian word for channels, which are typically natural formations. When Schiaparelli’s work was translated into English, the similar-sounding word canals was used. This caused people to think of the humanly engineered structures that join separated bodies of water.
Others studying Schiaparellli’s research theorized that there must be intelligent life on Mars. One of them, an American astronomer named Percival Lowell, spent a year mapping the canals of Mars. Between 1895 and 1915 Lowell published three books describing hundreds of canals and the intelligence necessary to construct them.
This all came to the attention of an English writer, H.G. Wells, who wrote a work of fiction in 1897 on the subject of intelligent Martians and their deadly invasion of Victorian England. The War of the Worlds was serialized in the newspaper. In 1938, the story was re-written as a radio play and broadcast by dramatist Orson Wells as if it was happening in New Jersey in real time. The result was widespread panic.
It took a long time to calm people down and convince them that the Martian invasion was not real. Yet the belief that there is life on Mars persisted. Some still think so now, even though no canals or signs of intelligent life have ever been found on Mars.
Mistranslations and misunderstandings happen. And sometimes it’s hard to un-know what we know. Especially when it has to do with the bible, and how we understand and apply its wisdom. Which is the case with our Scriptures from 1 Samuel, Ephesians and John’s gospel today.
The first of these misunderstandings to clear up is the description of David in 1 Samuel. After passing over seven of Jesse’s sons in search of the one who is God’s candidate to be Israel’s king, the prophet Samuel is presented with David, the eighth, and youngest son. He is hardly more than a boy, and as a shepherd has no particular qualities for kingship.
God’s choice of David as Israel’s king-elect seems entirely about his appearance, contrary to what the text said about the eldest brother Eliab. “Do not look on his appearance…for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Yet when David is presented, the narrator says of the boy, “Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The Lord said, “Rise, and anoint him; for this is the one.”
Did God contradict God’s own self? Or we have not fully understood what the narrator of this story in 1 Samuel was saying about David? It turns out to be a translation issue which when corrected, actually reinforces God’s priorities.
The Hebrew word that is translated “ruddy” describes a person whose skin has a healthy reddish cast. The description of David’s eyes as “beautiful” is a word that means bright. And the word for “handsome” means clear sighted.
David is full of life. His sight is straightforward, honest, trustworthy. God sees David’s heart. Proverbs 4:23-25 says, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you crooked speech, and put your devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze straight before you.”
So instead of being a description of David’s physical appearance, all these words in 1 Samuel add up to a spiritual evaluation. David measures up to the assessment Jesus later made in Matthew 6:22-23. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.”
Ephesians gives us another challenge in understanding. We are to live as children of the light. The evidence is that we produce the fruits of the light which are, “found in all that is good, and right, and true.” But how can we agree on what is good and right and true?
Consider what the text says in Greek: “…for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, discerning what is well-pleasing to the Lord.” Here, goodness means a personal quality rooted in kindliness. Righteousness is observing God’s justice rather than imposing our own. Truth means straightforwardness, without personal or hidden motives.
So the emphasis is not really about making moral deliberations about what is good and right and true in any situation. Instead these are the spiritual qualities and practices Jesus taught.
So what is asked of us is to act out of kindliness, holy and merciful justice, and simplicity of heart in all our dealings with one another.
The Gospel of John today about a man born blind, Jesus and his disciples, and some Pharisees, is long and detailed. It begins with a translation of the text that has gone unchallenged for too long. “His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind. Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned…” Jesus plainly told the disciples that sin is not inherited. Full stop.
The following words, “He was born blind” are not original to the text. They were added by a translator. Jesus went on to say, “So that God’s works might be revealed in him, we must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work.”
These words stand on their own. Jesus explains that it’s not that the man’s blindness was given by God for God’s purposes. God’s purpose is revealed in Jesus, God’s sign of love, holy and healing. The man’s new sight is also a sign of God’s light in the world. And Jesus’s work was not to be delayed because his remaining time was short.
Kindliness, justice, and heartfelt concern is Godly work and the sign Jesus brought. Some people cannot, or will not see it. The Pharisees, for example, who accused Jesus breaking a commandment by healing on the Sabbath. But the fruit of Jesus’s labor that day was clearly something profoundly good that could not be denied.
May our sight be as clear as David’s, and our fruits be Godly. May we live in the light of Christ that can never be extinguished. May God grant us goodness and mercy all the days of our lives.