Sunday March 15th, 2026 Worship

In just a few weeks, the Lutherans of the Northwest Washington Synod and the Episcopalians from the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia will gather for Chrism Mass. This is a joint worship service that happens every year on the Tuesday of Holy Week. It is a beautiful service in which the ordination vows of clergy are renewed, we actually get to attend worship instead of lead it, and there is a blessing of the oil that will be distributed to the different congregations for anointings during the year. Some of it will be used at baptisms, more of it will be used as we do the commendation of the dying, or as part of prayers before a medical procedure. Some of it is scented, other containers are left unscented, but Emily can always tell when I use it at work if it is the scented kind because I still smell like it when I get home.
While we don’t use oil very often in the church anymore, we do have this rich history that extends back to before King David. When we hear in the Psalm “You anoint my head with oil” (Psalm 23: 5b), this was a literal anointing. When someone was selected for a position of leadership by God, as David our Psalmist was, the decision surrounding who was chosen was marked by pouring oil over their head, like we see in the 1 Samuel reading today. It even comes up in our Gospel reading for today too because “Messiah” literally means “Anointed One.” To be the “Anointed One” meant that God had chosen you and ordained you for that role; it’s why so many of the ancient kings claimed that title too, as justification for their right to rule over the people. It’s just one of the ways Jesus’ identity, not just his actions, was a threat to those in political power.
And, I can’t help but think about what this means for us today, when at baptisms, we anoint the newly baptized person’s head with oil and as we make the promise, “…child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.” Our understanding of anointing may have changed from the days of Samuel and David, in that we do not all have to be prophets or rulers, but our anointings today are still a collective witness to the ways that we have been chosen by God, set apart with the various gifts and skills we have, to go out into the world in pursuit of our callings. How amazing is it that this is a promise made to all of us, not just a few of us?!
Because the reality that we see today in both the 1 Samuel and Gospel readings is that God calls imperfect and unlikely people, just as we are! In the story of David, you have the 8th youngest son of Jesse, who isn’t even invited in from the fields before Samuel until all of his brothers have been dismissed as not the one God had chosen (1 Samuel 16: 6-13). Meanwhile, in the Gospel, you have this man who was born blind, whose name is not once mentioned and whose neighbors didn’t recognize him after his healing because they are so used to seeing him only as the blind beggar on the corner (John 9: 8-10), who is testifying to his trust in Jesus before the religious leaders.
The people literally passed by him every day and still they did not recognize him because they had already dismissed him as one who was too far gone in sin or who had nothing to offer them because of his disability. And here he now is, teaching the Pharisees about his understanding of who Jesus is and what God is up to in the world! Because he had already been somewhat excluded from his community, he is able to make his testimony with confidence, not fearful of being cast out of the synagogue like those around him, including his parents (John 9: 18-23). His witness isn’t done for anyone’s approval, he’s not looking to be included in this group that had previously excluded him and still won’t listen to him, but he is giving his faithful and honest testimony to what has happened to him, as he feels called to do after his healing. After all, he could have just said something to appease the Pharisees.
I love the rebuke of Samuel today when he thinks Eliab, Jesse’s first born must surely be the one God chooses; “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart’” (1 Samuel 16: 7). There are so many people that we walk by on the street every day that we do not see; either by choice or because we are preoccupied with our own thoughts or devices, myself included. Who we have dismissed because they do not look the part or do not have the background or the education we think they should, God continues to call despite our own attempts to shut our ears, if only we can dare to listen. But our lack of attention doesn’t negate their calling or belovedness. No one is outside of God’s love, including those we have decided cannot or should not be a part of us.
That is the beautiful promise about the way our understanding of anointing has changed. It is no longer something that is done to give one person special privileges and powers over and against other people, but it is something that marks our chosenness and belovedness in the eyes of God. It is something that is spread out amongst the community so that we are all able to lead and care for one another in different ways, for the well-being of all people. It is for everyone, including those we look down upon or dismiss as being unworthy because of how they look or their abilities because God isn’t judging us by our outward appearance, but is instead scolding us for that being the means by which we measure someone’s dignity and worth.
If we continue to only determine someone’s worth based on human standards, it is an affront the God given gifts and skills that are afforded to each of us. It ignores the reality that all people are created in the image of God, and, in doing so, narrows our understanding of who God is too, until God happens to look just like us. Our religious history would have been completely different if God judged us by human standards. David would never have been king, dismissed as too young or too small, not even worthy of being brought in from the field. The man born blind would have continued to sit begging on the side of the road, dismissed and ignored by all those around him, seen as a symbol of his sin and deserving of being turned aside for the sake of the wider community. Jesus probably wouldn’t have been born to a poor, young, unmarried woman. From the story last week, the message of Living Water for all people wouldn’t have spread into the Samaritan community, and if it did happen to do so, it surely wouldn’t have been through a woman who had already had five husbands.
Sometimes, the world will try to make judgments about us and cast us aside as not being worthy of whatever it is we are striving for. But, at other times, we are the ones who determine that we aren’t old enough, young enough, strong enough, or smart enough to do what we feel we have been called to do. The world already tries to write people off so much, we do not need to keep doing that to ourselves too. I’m not advocating that we stray into arrogance, but that we recognize the ways that God has created us in God’s image and given us gifts and skills to help move the world toward God’s vision of the flourishing of all creation. We have been called for such a time as this! We have been anointed, chosen by God as uniquely ourselves, exactly as we are, to show up for the life of the world. We may not feel worthy of that calling, wondering if God made a mistake, but God did not make a mistake in your creation! May we live as if we believe that to be so, as we open our eyes to anointings that have occurred all around us, even in the most unlikely places.