Book covers and Blinders

1 Sm 16:1-13 - Ps 89:20, 21-22, 27-28 - Mk 2:23-28

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Consider Saul. Appointed by God at the request of the Hebrews. A request that God warned the Hebrews about. God picked Saul knowing he would be the kind of king he prophisized. Is this an example of self fulfilling prophesy? What would have become of Saul had he not been anointed by Samuel? Does God raise up a king just to prove a point? Granted Saul had remarkable features but would he have been happier as a farmer? Does God pick us so that we play to our weaknesses?

One might say that Saul could have chosen better, but yet God knew he would not. Therefore God must have known that the Hebrews would act as they did. Today God chooses David, is he again setting up a simple man for a fall. True David accomplished great things, but did God not know when he chose David that he would ultimately betray Uriah?

The answer is of course He knew. He did not compel these events, but he knew how they would turn out, and conversely knowing all, he knew what would happen if those men had not been where He called them to be. No one can guess what David would be without Saul, where the Hebrews would be without David. It goes back to Job's moment of despair when he asks God why and God replies where were you when I founded the earth?

It makes the harshest kind of sense. God understands all time and space in a single instant, and applies himself throughout time in an instant as if Michelangelo could have painted all his works in a single brush stroke. WE unfold history minute to minute, but to God it has happened, will happen and is happening now. We can but judge the temporal fact of the lives of these men through our own narrow perception. The will of God cannot be denied, it matters not whether the world believes or disbelieves it still unfolds as the painter paints. Will it be a work that brings Him joy or pain, is what we determine.

You may think that I overstate our place in the world, but if God did not desire us then the universe makes little sense. Christ says as much today the Sabbath was created for man not man for the Sabbath... Think of the implications of that single statement. The "holy day" whatever or however you imagine it was a gift by God for us. Not as a steadfast rule that the pious could break over the heads of the unworthy for that holy day is not controlled by man. It is a celebration that once seen one cannot help but join. Our understanding of it in this life is like a man participating in a feast by satellite. We get but only the palest meager understanding of what the Sabbath is. All of our law and tradition at this moment in history amounts to so many leaves in a breeze. What we understand today will be swept away in time by revelation by God, as it has been and continues to be. The apolstles standing with Christ were closer to the Sabbath then any man or woman before or since.

The lesson of today is one of humility. We cannot judge God. God could tell Samuel who he would pick and what that person would do, but Samuel standing there looking at David had no idea what this simple Shepard would become. Just as a meek woman from Nazareth had no idea what the path of her son would be. Are we going to be like the pharisees and presume the wisdom of God or like Mary whose humble acceptance of God's will despite the slander she knew she would incur in her day and the suspicion with which she is treated even now. I say to you if God is pleased with this existence he has created, then truly it was Mary who put the smile on his face. Not us weak, foolish and presumptuous fools, driven by this world of substance, who think in our hearts we can understand God, and of this I am no less guilty. In fact, I would wager a guess that few could achieve the levels of arrogance I have built up around myself over the years.