St. Ambrose’s father was a successful administrator within the Roman Empire and had groomed his son for worldly success. Ambrose followed the usual path of advancement: studying law in the city of Rome and then practicing law until he was noticed by someone in power. Ambrose was soon appointed governor of a Roman state in the north of Italy with its capital in the city of Milan. Ambrose was successful, he was comfortable, all was going according to the plan he had envisioned. That was until the bishop of Milan died in 373 and the people of Milan did something that no one, least of all Ambrose, expected. In the midst of selecting a new bishop the people demanded that Ambrose be consecrated. Ambrose couldn’t believe what he heard. While he was a Christian he wasn’t baptized, let alone a priest. He did not have any of the qualifications necessary for the office of bishop. And yet, the people insisted, they had a vision of the church that included Ambrose even if Ambrose did not share that vision. After his initial resistance Ambrose consented, was baptized, ordained and consecrated a bishop. Over the next 20 years of his episcopacy Ambrose was one of the most influential bishops and church leaders the West had ever known. He was a moving preacher, a wise theologian, a great teacher who led many through preparation for the waters of baptism, including St. Augustine. Ambrose also played a major role in the introduction of hymnody in the life of the church, writing numerous Latin hymns.¹ The life of Ambrose is a striking example of how common vision, common understandings would never have led to the life God had in store. An unbaptized lawyer never should have been made bishop. And yet Ambrose was made bishop, instead of following conventional wisdom the people of Milan followed the life-giving vision which God had given them; a vision which transformed Ambrose, the church, and the world.

God’s ability to see new life in unexpected places is woven throughout the experience of Ambrose, and countless other Christians in days past and present. In the same way God’s transformative, surprising vision is part and parcel of the story of the Bible. Time and again we hear within Holy Scripture the story of God seeing a new possibility, God seeing new life, God seeing hope in the midst of places where possibility, life and hope seem to have vanished long ago. Divine vision—God’s all together surprising and unexpected plan for individual human life, fills our lessons today.

Think for a moment of our lesson from 1^st Samuel. In this story we hear of how young David was anointed King by the prophet Samuel. Here God leads a rather confused and clueless Samuel step by step through a process of choosing the next King of Israel not based on wealth, not based on stature, but based on the vision of God. Instead of choosing the oldest son, God chose the youngest, the one that his father Jesse did not even deem worthy to present before the prophet Samuel. God’s vision is at the center of this reading. In the very first verse God speaks to Samuel saying, "I have provided for myself a king among Jesse’s sons" God’s words are in fact words of vision. The Hebrew word for "provide" in this case is Ra-a "I have seen", God has seen a new king, God has seen a new life for his confused and lost people. God has seen David who, while he was forgotten by his earthly father, will be a man after his heavenly father’s own heart, a man who seeks after God’s vision and not human vision.

God’s divine vision of David as the new king is a vision no one else shared at the time. Even the prophet Samuel when he arrives to look at Jesse’s sons is convinced that the first tall, handsome one that he sees is to be king. It is telling that when Samuel "sees" the first son he does not actually "see" as God has seen only a few verses ago, instead he merely "looks upon" him and does not perceive the truth—the Hebrew word for see is totally different. God responds to Samuel’s inability to see the truth by saying, "the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on outward appearances, but the Lord looks on the heart." For all of Samuel’s wisdom and knowledge he does not have the gift of divine sight, he is not able to see as God sees. All too often for the people of God, even for great prophets, "God’s future…does not always appear clear to human eyes."²  And yet God still helps humanity to see the future. God works through Samuel to provide a life-giving vision of the future which will transform the people of Israel and provide the greatest leader Israel ever knew—King David.

Divine vision also fills the story of Jesus and the man born blind. God sees in the midst of human brokenness and suffering a place for new life and hope and, as a result, the life of the man born blind is transformed. God’s divine vision involves healing and wholeness, new life and new hope. While the world perceives a man who is blind, Jesus sees a man who will see more clearly more perfectly than any of his peers, a man who will be the first to see Jesus for who he really is—God.

God’s divine vision is enacted through Jesus who not only restores sight but gives the ability to see just who it is who is healing him. Just like Samuel who was not able to perceive, to truly see, who he was looking at when he saw David, so too did all those around Jesus fail to perceive who Christ was. No one was able to perceive that in Christ they were encountering the Divine made Flesh. And yet, through Jesus’ touch, through Jesus’ imparting of divine vision on the man born blind Jesus enables him to see who it was who was healing him. As a result this man sees the Divine in Christ and he worships Jesus. This is the first and only instance in the Gospel of John where Jesus is worshipped just as God the Father is worshipped. God’s divine vision transformed this man, it challenged and surprised those around him, it brought new life to him.

God’s vision is not like ours. God’s vision sees beyond the limits which are placed upon our vision. In a man named Saul who was persecuting and killing Christians God saw St. Paul, a powerful and charismatic leader of the church who, in place of silencing the Gospel, would spread the message of Jesus to people throughout the Mediterranean. In a rich and well educated boy living in the midst of a time of moral decay in the church God saw a St. Francis, a man who would transform the church, challenge those in power and reject the wealth and prestige he was born into. In an ambitious young lawyer who desired worldly power, God saw one of the great bishops of the church and thus God raised up St. Ambrose. The basic fact is God’s vision, God’s understanding of humanity, is fuller than our narrow and myopic eyes can ever grasp. God’s vision is life-giving, it is transformative. It goes beyond what we can see, beyond what we can imagine.

In Lent we are called to catch sight of God’s vision for us. God does not only have a vision for kings long ago, for lawyers turned bishops, or for the physically blind. God also has a vision for us as individuals and as members of the church. God’s vision for us is life-giving, it is powerful, it is transformative, it goes beyond our wildest dreams, it challenges our preconceived notions, our prejudices, and our fears. As the Body of Christ united and held together in the very life of the Messiah of God, we are called to strive to see that divine vision for each other, for ourselves, and for this church. As the body of Christ we are called to remember that even though we may only be able to look upon and not fully comprehend God’s vision God is with us. Just as God walked with Samuel and showed him the way, just as God enabled the people of Milan to see in Ambrose what no one else could see in him, just as God in the person of Jesus restored sight to the blind and enabled the blind man to see more keenly than anyone else, so too does God seek to empower us to see with the divine vision. So too does God give us visions, visions of old rectories transformed into new youth centers, visions of offices transformed into places of prayer and meditation, visions of the church being given power and boldness in announcing the Gospel through word and deed to the whole world, visions of new life coming forth from the midst of hardship, fear, and decay.

My friends, it seems only too obvious to say that we live in the midst of a time in desperate need of God’s vision and not our own. At a time when 1 in 100 of every adult is imprisoned we need God’s vision for justice in our land. At a time when our local economy is causing so much fear and worry, we needs God vision which sees, in place of scarcity, radical abundance and incredible possibilities. In a time when pundits are claiming that Generation X and all those born after them will see their standard of living decrease, at a time when our future seems in doubt we need God’s vision which never doubts, which never fears but instead gives radical life to all those who might have the courage to open their eyes and see. May we all be enabled to seek God’s vision, to see new possibilities and to make them a reality through the power of Christ.

¹ F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3^rd Ed., St. Ambrose, New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, 49.

²  Bruce C. Birch, 1^st Samuel in The New Interpreters Bible, Vol. II, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998, 1097.