Jenny Castro is communications associate and coordinator of the Women in Leadership Project for Mennonite Church USA.

Scriptures: 1 Samuel 16:1-13, John 9:1-41, Ephesians 5:8-14

Samuel was sent by God to anoint a new king for Israel. God sent him to Bethlehem to the family of Jesse. And one by one Jesse presented each of his strong, capable sons before Samuel. Samuel was listening for God’s okay. When Eliab was presented to him Samuel thought, “I need not look further.” But God said, “No.”

The same thing happened with Abinadab and Shammah and on down the line until seven of Jesse’s sons had been presented before Samuel. I imagine that from Samuel’s perspective each of the men Jesse brought before him could fit the image he had in his mind of a King of Israel. But God explained to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature. … for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

And that day, after being presented with seven great options, Samuel asked Jesse if he might perhaps have another son. “Are all your sons here?” he asked.

And it was then that Jesse sent for his youngest son, David the shepherd. And when David arrived God said, “This is the one.” David, the son Jesse hadn’t even considered presenting (he left him out with the sheep) was God’s choice.

Samuel, Jesse and perhaps even David’s brothers had pictured in their minds what an ideal leader might look like. We all do, don’t we?

I invite you to think about an ideal leader. Call to mind a person who has embodied good leadership. Picture this person in your mind. Pause to actually picture this person before you read on.

Now I invite you to answer these questions:

• Why is this person a good leader?
• What are the qualities you admire in their leadership?
• What is this person’s gender?
• What is the color of this person’s skin?

I think the answers to these questions are telling. Whether we like it or not, they reveal our biases and our preconceived ideas about who is or who is not a leader. Does your ideal leader dress a certain way? Express themselves in a preferred manner? Was your ideal leader a white male? Ethnically Mennonite? I’m not saying any of these characteristics make bad leaders. I am saying that our ideals reveal our biases. We tend to identify and idealize that which we know and understand: those we are most comfortable with, those who look like us, communicate like us and live like us.

The Pharisees in the passage from John couldn’t believe that Jesus could be from God despite the blind man’s miraculous healing. Because in healing the man on the Sabbath, Jesus acted outside of their cultural norms: what they were accustomed to, what they understood and the way they lived.

Because of their cultural blinders they couldn’t recognize the Messiah for what he was.

For too long white privilege has limited the vision of individuals, congregations and leaders across Mennonite Church USA. You haven’t seen the gifts of your sisters and brothers of color within the church. You haven’t recognized the ways in which your blindness has oppressed, hurt, held back and excluded people of color who have chosen to walk this journey of faith together with you. And we are growing impatient with your blindness.

“Sleeper, awake!
    Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.” Ephesians 5:14b

We know our value. We do not need your approval or token compliments. We need you to recognize your power and privilege within the context of our current social and political realities. We need collaborators in the struggle for justice in a very broken world. This is not a time to sit in comfort and ignorance.

This is a time to be vigilant: to question all that you think you know, to be open to a new vision and a new ideal.

I believe in the power of the Spirit of God to inspire action and transform our preconceived notions.

God, we pray in this Lenten season that we may all be open to your Spirit. May the blind see. May we be moved to act. Give us new eyes and new ideals. Raise us from the dead, so that Christ might shine on us. Amen.