23rd Sunday after Pentecost
October 28, 2018
Mark 10:46-52
I’m
going to assume none of you were the holder of the Mega Millions winning ticket
that was bought in South Carolina. Unless, that is, we find a check in the
offering for $150 million, ten percent of the winnings, because that’s the
first thing you would do with it, right? Whether you’ve ever played the lottery
or not, chances are good you’ve thought about what would you do with a million
dollars. The Barenaked Ladies, a Canadian rock band, even sang a whole song
about it: they’d buy a house, they buy a nice chesterfield or an ottoman for
your house, they’d buy you some art, a Picasso or a Garfunkel, and they’d buy
your love.[1]
Well, instead of money, what if it’s Jesus asking you, open-ended, “What do you
want me to do for you?” This is the question he asked James and John last week
and it’s the same question he asks Bartimaeus in Gospel’s reading. What do you
want me to do for you?
James,
John, and Bartimaeus all have their answers ready for Jesus. They know what
they want, and their answers are very different. The two disciples who have
been traveling everywhere with Jesus want positions of power. The blind beggar
on the side of the road wants to see again. It’s an interesting contrast, isn’t
it? Bartimaeus is physically blind, yet it seems as if James and John were
spiritually blind. They couldn’t see what Jesus was telling them and showing
them while Bartimaeus could see enough to be able to say, “Jesus, Son of David,
have mercy on me!” Jesus, at the end, tells him, “Go, your faith has made you
well.” Where was James’ and John’s faith? They were seeking ambition and public
recognition; Bartimaeus just wanted to be able to use his eyes again. James and
John were trying to avoid suffering; Bartimaeus had been suffering for a long
time, and his request was “forged out of loss, exclusion and helplessness.”[2]
The disciples had been traveling with Jesus and listening to his teaching and
witnessing his miracles; they should have had more faith. Bartimaeus only knew
of Jesus’ reputation and out of darkness and doubt, asked in faith for healing.
James and John were trying to make an exclusive claim to Jesus. Bartimaeus knew
he had no such claim but also knew that this man, Jesus of Nazareth, could heal
him. The disciples answer was not one that came out of faith, but out of fear.
Bartimaeus pushed his fear to the side, and asked out of faith. It’s an
interesting comparison, isn’t it? You’d have thought the disciples’ faith was
stronger, but there are so many strangers who come up to Jesus with a request
for healing, and Jesus says, “Go, your faith has made you well.” It’s a little
convicting for those of us in the church as well. On the one hand you’d think
those of us who have been going to church for decades ought to have stronger
faith than someone who has never met Jesus before. On the other hand, there’s
that old saying about the church, that we are not a sanctuary for saints but we
are a hospital for sinners. That’s part of why we’re here, because our faith
needs encouraging, reminding, building up, strengthening, affirming. Yes, this
is what we believe, come hell or high water, Jesus is the one who saves, the
one who heals.
In
addition to having his answer ready for Jesus, Bartimaeus is also ready to
immediately follow Jesus. When Jesus calls him, he throws his cloak aside,
jumps to his feet, and comes to Jesus. Bartimaeus has been waiting for this
moment for his whole life and when it comes, he’s ready. He tosses his cloak to
the side, he knows what he has to let go of in order to follow Jesus. He’s got
to release this symbol of his old life in order to begin his new life with
Jesus. This burden that’s been weighing you down has to get left behind to
follow Jesus. You have to make room for Jesus in your life, and not just
between your second and third rib, or giving Jesus your clogged coronary artery
but you’re going to hold to the good ones. This is more like the room you save
for dessert, when you’ve had a great meal and you know there’s a scrumptious
dessert coming and you don’t want to be too full to eat it, you save a special
place. Bartimaeus throws aside his cloak and jumps to his feet. He’s ready. And
when Jesus says, “Go, your faith has healed you,” immediately Bartimaeus receives his sight and follows Jesus along
the road. Remember, Jesus is still on the way to Jerusalem. Here in Jericho,
he’s about 15 miles away. Jesus is still on the move. Two weeks ago we read
about the rich young man and talked about hold-outs. When you travel with
Jesus, you don’t always know where you’re going to sleep at night or where your
next meal is going to come from. The rich young man couldn’t let go of his
hold-outs to follow Jesus. Bartimaeus doesn’t just get rid of his, he tosses
them aside. They were part of his old life, but now he’s following Jesus. He’s
all in.
Finally,
a word about what Bartimaeus asked for: sight, vision. He wants to see, he
wants some clarity and focus. There is a proverb that we know best in the King
James version, which says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”[3]
The version that’s in your pew says, “Where there is no revelation, people cast
off restraint.”[4] A
newer paraphrase says, “If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all
over themselves.”[5]
Are you getting the idea? When there’s no vision, and sight, and clarity about
what God’s doing and what God’s inviting us
to do, then we run wild, we stumble, we do as we please, and we often make a
mess, we often screw something up, not on purpose, but our good intentions
aren’t always enough. We need to know, we need to see God at work and God’s purpose for us. Otherwise, we perish.
We’re rudderless. We’re spinning in circles, or going off on detours or
shortcuts or just plain a different path than the one God intended for us.
Bartimaeus was a beggar on the side of the road. He wasn’t going anywhere. He
didn’t have a purpose, other than to get enough food to survive one more day.
And survival is all he was doing. But now with his sight, he can live. I know there are times and seasons
where survival is all you can do. Going through a major traumatic experience.
Life-changing events. Completely overwhelming situations. Where you’re just
trying to survive. Not even looking at tomorrow, because you’re not even sure
what the next hour is going to look
like. Churches go through times like that, too. But God willing, it’s only for
a season. And then you get to move on. Then you get to enter the next season
and that season is called life. You
get to live and not just survive.
Moreover, Jesus doesn’t just want any old life, he came that we might have abundant life.
So,
as a church, so that we’re not feeling rudderless, what is our vision as Lisbon
Church? First of all, one of our biggest strengths and one of our strongest values is community.
We are a community, a family community. I’ve been told by many of you that this
is a place where everyone is welcome and the people are friendly. So, our
vision as community is to be a healthy community, because while some families
put the “fun” in dysfunctional, we know we can healthy and fun. And our vision is to be a faithful community. We are a
faith community, after all, and we follow Jesus together. Our vision is to be a
healthy, faithful community where everyone is welcomed and included, where
everyone feels heard and where everyone participates in the life of our church
family.
Second,
our vision is to be a community where people of all ages grow in their faith.
You’re never too young or too old to grow closer to Jesus. This is that process
of sanctification, where we still bit by bit become more like Jesus, where God
still works on us. This is life after becoming a Christian. We don’t want to be
like James and John and start thinking it’s all about us or give in to fear. We
still need those reminders to be faithful, even when it’s the hard thing to do,
even when fear is whispering in our ear from all sides. We don’t want to become
a lukewarm follower of Jesus. So, we continue to grow in our faith through
bible study, worship, service, and fellowship. More than that, each of these
pieces has both a communal side and an individual side to them. We read the
bible at home and we read it together. We come together Sundays for worship,
and you may find yourself praising God for the beauty of nature or a plan
coming together or a piece of good news. We are involved in serving both
together and apart. And we spend time together and time alone with God.
Fellowship is a word we hardly hear outside the church, but none of the
synonyms quite fit. It’s not just friendship or companionship. It’s being
together on purpose. Hanging out together. Getting to know each other and
asking each other about those things that matter to each person. It’s being
Jesus to each other, showing Jesus to each other. That helps me grow in my
faith and you grow in yours. Our vision is for everyone to be growing closer to
Jesus.
Third,
we’re not just here for ourselves. We don’t stay in our houses and our church
buildings. Our vision is for our faith community to be active and involved in
our geographic community, on the local level on up to the global level. We do this through acts of service, gifts,
and prayer. We serve, give, and pray for our community. Remember, we witness
through our actions as much as, if not more than, our words. Look at how fickle
the crowd was around Bartimaeus. When he first started shouting for Jesus, the
crowd told him to shut up. Then once Jesus called him, they said, “You can be
happy now. He’s calling you.” Their words were not very supportive. “They tried
to silence Bartimaeus, but no one was going to take from him his one chance to
escape from his world of darkness, and he cried with such importunity that the
procession stopped, and he was brought to Jesus.”[6]
The crowd was going to ignore him, but he needed Jesus. Our world needs Jesus, as we saw again yesterday. Our country,
our state, our county, our village of Lisbon, needs Jesus. We need Jesus. And
he doesn’t stay boxed in by four walls. You can’t assume that people are
attracted to church and will come on their own. That model has changed, and
that’s okay. It means rather than the flow of people coming in, the flow goes
out. We go out from here each Sunday, ready to love and serve the world, just
as Jesus did. That’s our vision. That’s why we’re here. That’s the kind of
community we’re moving towards, the kind we want to become. Inviting, growing,
serving. That’s our vision. We’re no longer just surviving. We’re living again.
And we’re ready to live abundantly, just like Bartimaeus.
[1] “If
I Had $1000000,” first recorded in 1988
[2] Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol 4, p.
212
[3]
Proverbs 29:18
[4]
NIV
[5]
MSG
[6] The Gospel of Mark, William Barclay,
1956, p. 271