This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 31; Job 19:1-7,14-27 (per BCP) or Job 19:1-27; Acts 13:13-25; John 9:18-41
This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 10 (“The Second Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 55:6-11; BCP, p. 86); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 18 (“A Song to the Lamb,” Revelation 4:11; 5:9-10, 13, BCP, p. 93)
Job expects to “see” God. To this point, Job has been seeking a hearing so he can be vindicated. Not at all sure now that he will not die from his afflictions, he wants to make sure his words are written down or inscribed as a permanent record. Nonetheless, his faith rises to a height virtually unparalleled in the Old Testament. Even should he die, he believes that he will not just hear from, but that he will see God—just like Abraham did (Genesis 18), just like Moses did (Exodus 33,34), and just like Isaiah did (Isaiah 6). Resurrection! A familiar concept to Christians, who live on this side of the story of the cross. For you and me, the idea of resurrection, of seeing God face-to-face after death, is an idea we accept, even if we don’t fully understand it. Here, way ahead of Christ’s coming, Job expresses his astounding belief that it will really be Job the man—and not some disembodied spirit—who sees God. Three times in the first part of Job 19:27, Job uses the pronoun “I” to emphasize that it is the same Job who has lived on the earth: “whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.” Throughout this passage, Job stresses his “skin,” his “flesh,” and his “eyes” experiencing his seeing God on the far side of death. His belief in resurrection is at least latent, around the corner, or nascent in this passage.
God my Redeemer. Moreover, when Job sees God, he genuinely believes that God himself will be his Vindicator or Redeemer or Advocate. The words of the lovely aria from Handel’s Messiah, “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth,” are all the more lovely and poignant when we ponder the depths of despair out of which Job perceives God’s help for him. Verses 25-27 are like an extraordinary lightning strike from the future, when the one who is the Light of the World and the Resurrection and the Life will come “for us and for our salvation,” as the Creed puts it. There is here a flash of the same sort of confidence that Jesus says characterizes the astute reader of Scripture: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Matthew 22:32). Job’s insight is breathtaking. Gaze upon it! Bask in its light!
Light of the World. The man who is healed of his blindness in John Chapter 9 provides one of the best hymn phrases ever: “… was blind, but now I see” (John 9:25). In context, this line is a statement of the limits of this man’s knowledge. This truth is all he knows. His virtue is that he states the truth as far as he knows it. And he sticks to his guns. When his parents deflect their inquisitors who call the man back for a follow up interview, the man turns the interrogation on its head: “Do you also want to become his disciples?” That’s a question this story not so subtly puts to all of us: will we believe? Will we become his disciples?
At this point in the story, the man still doesn’t even know who it is who has given him his sight. But he’s already pointing people to the source of light—or at least exposing those who love the dark! Have you ever tried to talk to someone who… Just. Won’t. Listen…? They don’t want to understand what you are trying to say! You realize, finally, that you’ve said as much you possibly can: “end of discussion.” The formerly blind man understands this. All he knows is: “I once was blind, but now I see.” Even so, he’s become an apologist and evangelist. When Jesus does finally come and have the conversation in which he reveals himself as “the Son of Man”—“you have seen him and the one who is speaking with you is he” (John 9:37, emphasis added)—the man gives the best response possible: “Lord, I believe.” Now he really “sees.” John’s Gospel celebrates the moment when this man realizes the One who brings light to his physical eyes is truly the Light of the World: “And he worshiped him” (John 9:38). Amen.
Light to the nations. In today’s reading from Acts, Paul gives the introduction to his sermon at Pisidian Antioch about Jesus Christ. Paul lays down a compressed history of the way God had rescued his people from slavery, given them the land of Canaan, and provided judges and then kings Saul, whom he removed, and David, “a man after my heart, who will carry out all my wishes.” From David’s line has come “a Savior, Jesus, as he promised.” Paul explains that John the Baptist’s proclamation of a baptism for repentance was a preparation for Jesus’ coming.
Saturday’s reading will include some of the most pivotal moments in the book of Acts. Paul explains that the death of Jesus, wrongful though it was (Acts 13:27-28), had been in accordance with the Scriptures (Acts 13:29; e.g., Isaiah 50:6; 53; Psalm 22; and even today’s Psalm 31: “Into your hands I commend my spirit”). The linchpin of Paul’s sermon is the resurrection of Christ, which also fulfills Scripture’s promise of an eternal rule for David’s line. Moreover, Christ’s death and resurrection mean that Jesus does for us what the law could never do: bring forgiveness of sins (Acts 13:38-39).
Most of Paul’s Jewish listeners reject his message. However, “many Jews and devout converts to Judaism” do believe. The longer Paul stays in Pisidian Antioch, the more hardened Jewish resistance becomes, and the more receptive his Gentile audience becomes. As a result, Paul announces a shift in his own ministry: “we are now turning to the Gentiles” (Acts 13:46). Even this phenomenon, Paul declares, is a fulfillment of God’s promises in Scripture: “I will set you to be a light for the Gentiles, so that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth” (Acts 13:47, quoting Isaiah 49:6).
Here is the Light of the World at work. The overwhelming light of Christ’s first appearance to Saul/Paul had brought him temporary blindness (Acts 9:8-9). With his baptism, sight returns. (Acts 9:17-19). And then, through Paul, the Spirit’s work to illuminate the whole of Scripture as Christ’s story begins. Now, Paul is ready to fulfill Israel’s ministry to be a “light to the nations.” Praise be.
Be blessed this day,
Reggie Kidd+