Mark
10:46-52
Today, I invite you to use your
imagination. Listen as I tell some stories, and put yourself into the story.
You
are a blind person, living in ancient Jericho, a few miles away from Jerusalem.
You used to be able to see, but an injury has taken away your eyesight. You can
imagine what the scene looks like because you remember it in your mind.
The
roads are dusty and noisy. There is a good well in town, and every traveler
stops to fill up their water jugs for the next leg of the journey. Local people
come by, too, to get their water. You recognize many of them by the sound of
their feet, and the sound of their voices. You know which people will toss a
few coins your way. You spread out your coat, to catch the coins and pull it
toward yourself to gather the coins in.
One
day, you hear that Jesus of Nazareth is coming to town. You have heard a lot
about him. He heals sick people. He gives sight to the blind. He cares for poor
people. You believe he is the Messiah who has been promised for so long. You
want what he has to offer – healing for your blindness!
When
you hear a crowd of people, you know Jesus is with them and you begin calling
to Jesus. You want Jesus to pay attention to you. Many people tell you to be
quiet. You get louder and louder; soon you are shouting. “Jesus, Son of David,
Messiah, have mercy on me!”
Jesus
speaks again and you get a fix on his location. You stand up so quickly the coins
on your coat go flying. You head straight for the sound of his voice and kneel
before him. Jesus speaks to you. “What do you want me to do for you?” “Rabbi, I
want to see again!”
Jesus
speaks miraculous words. “Because of your faith, open your eyes, and see.” You
open your eyes and realize that you are looking into Jesus’ beautiful face. You
know you must respond by taking up your coat and following him wherever he will
lead you. You have been blind, but now you see!
This story is obviously about physical healing – Blind Bartimaeus
is no longer blind. But it’s about much more when we consider the location of
this story in the Gospel of Mark. There are two healings of blind men that
serve as bookends for a number of stories about people who are blind in other
ways. This includes Peter, who calls Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God in one
breath, then scolds Jesus for having a death wish in the next. Many in the
crowd see Jesus as sent by God, while most of the leaders only see him as a
troublemaker, a false messiah.
… Today is the day on which we
celebrate the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. So, here’s another
story.
The
setting is Germany, about 500 years ago and your name is Martin. You are a
young Catholic priest. You have been reading the Scriptures, and noticing that
what you are reading does not match what the church is practicing. Everything
you have been reading tells you that God’s grace, God’s forgiveness is freely
given. You have been talking and writing about this, hoping the leaders in the
Church will take notice, but you have not had much success.
One
day, you hear about a man named Tetzel. He is aggressively selling forgiveness.
He promises that the Pope will declare that the time of your punishment after
death will be shorter if you buy his pieces of paper. It’s the last straw for
you. You know that forgiveness is not for sale; it is not up to the Pope to grant
it; it is freely given by God. You are angry at the lies he is telling and
selling, and hurt for the poor people who give their last coins to him. It is
such a scam!
You
take out a sheet of paper and sharpen your quill. Dipping the quill into the
ink, you begin to write. In 95 short sentences, you outline the ways in which
the selling of forgiveness is wrong, and against the will of God. In the
morning, you take your paper and nail it to the door of your church, with the
hope of helping the church see how wrong they have been. You are hoping they
will realize that they have been blind, but now they will see.
… We know that there were many people who believed what Luther had
to say, and many powerful leaders who tried to shut him up, and even tried to
kill him. But enough people listened and believed and acted, and Lutherans
today continue to have a unique voice in the community and in the world.
In the last story, I invite you to
listen to some portions of a longer dialogue I found on a website called Fresh
Expressions. http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/views/liturgy-voice
I lead a small
missional community in a small market town that is socially and economically
polarised. The aristocracy are often present in the parish church on Sunday
mornings, reading the lesson with cut-glass accents gleaned from an elite
education. On the other hand, a national survey showed our town to have very
low levels of literacy with many people barely able to read at all.
At our
ministry, we serve and journey with people who find themselves at the bottom of
the heap, and we are learning to walk slowly together towards Christ. We are
sure Christ would have spent time listening to the difficult stories of our
people. He would have used the language of their everyday lives to weave his
story into theirs, showing compassion to those who hung on to him to find hope
and healing.
We find many
of the traditional words of liturgy do not reflect our experience of life, or
of God. These are not our words; culturally they have not come out of our
hearts, our streets or our struggles, and so cannot easily come out of our
mouths.
For example, there
was a minister who was obviously well to do praying a prayer asking God to
ensure a fair re-distribution of wealth and the worlds’ resources, and to help
'us' to help the poor. We had five people with us at the service who were
desperately poor, several on their way to the local Foodbank after the service.
Responses
to this posting varied. Some wanted examples of new liturgies. Some protested
that the words of the liturgy are sacred and intended to include everyone. One
priest mentioned that he had tried to introduce “liturgical experiments” and he
had been forcibly retired by his bishop.
…
As we discuss today blindness and sightedness, we all need to remember that any
one of us can be blind, and any one of us can be sighted. It’s important that
we pay attention to what Jesus is saying to all people, in Scripture, and in
our lives today. It’s important to not assume WE are the ones who see, and all
others are blind. It comes down, of course, to how we see people. We see the
good in some people, and we are blind to the good in others. We see the God in
some people and we are blind to the God in others.
Please
pray with me. Gracious God, you give us eyes to see, but sometimes we are
blind. Help us to see what you would have us see. Amen
