“What do you want me to do FOR YOU?”

Mark 10:46-52 (NRSV)

46 They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” 50 So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher,[a] let me see again.” 52 Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

October 22, 2015

Lectionary 30, Year B (October 25, 2015)

Since yesterday was "Back to the Future Day," I thought it only fitting to go back in time, so I hope you will indulge me.  It is April Fool’s Day, 1996.  Giessen, Germany, about a half hour northeast of Frankfurt.  I had been officially pregnant for exactly 292 days, and it was finally my daughter’s due date.  So far this day had lived up to its name.  It had been raining, the car was in the shop,  so I took a bus to my midwife’s, since I thought my water had broken.  She checked it out, shook her head and sent me back home  — on yet another bumpy, painful bus ride (complete with Volksmusik, which needs to be experienced in order to be understood.  It's a little bit like a blend of German folk music and American country) back to our little village.

The day dragged on, and I spent much of it sitting on the porcelain throne, not daring to move from this place because every second felt like something was about to happen, only it never did.  I felt like this oversize water balloon with a slow leak.  It was a vague but increasingly real discomfort that left me stuck.  Already, but not yet.

My mother was visiting us at the time, in hopes of sharing this blessed event.  I called her over and told her that I couldn’t go on this way, it must be time to maybe do something.  She convinced me it was high time I call the midwife again, and that’s all I needed to hear.  In my magical way of thinking, calling the midwife might be the answer to my problems, at least the uncertianty.  

My mother dialed (yes, dialed!) the phone and talked to her first.  In a tone about as decisive as mine (the apple fell not far from the tree), she pleads, “Frau Heidorn, we don’t know what to do.”

Already I’m shaking my head, knowing what she’s going to say.

“What do you mean ‘we’ don’t know what to do?’” Let me talk to the Mother,”

(yeah right) So I get on the phone.  The words crackled on the other end of the receiver (yes, “receiver!”) because in those days I was still tethered to a landline.

“Frau Thomas, what do you want me to do for you?”

Not exactly the most comforting words a woman in labor wants to hear.  I wanted her to tell me what to do, to bail me out of my discomfort!  At first her words irked me, but then I understood. It really put matters into my OWN hands, and in a strange way empowered me, because I had to be the one to decide whether or not ir was time to go to the hospital.  She said, “Call me again when you’re ready.”  She didn’t want to take that power away from me. I ended up having no choice but to run with it and trust my own ability to make decisions, and ended up having a drug-free birth with no complications.  

Even if we don’t realize it at the time, this kind of empowerment can be a gift that leads to wholeness and healing.  Please pray with me.

Loving God, we thank You for your presence here with us.  We thank you for your power in both the stillness and the storm.  Thank you for loving us enough to call us, and trusting us enough to let us act so that we in turn can cast all our cares upon you.  May your Spirit speak to and through us now.  In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

• “They came to Jericho.”  Jericho, that city located near the Jordan River in the West Bank, as volatile a city now as it was in the time of Jesus and before.  It’s a disputed fact, but Jericho may well be the oldest continuously occupied city in the world.  The springs in and around the city attracted human habitation dating as far back as 11,000 years. It was the city which Joshua and his army circled for seven days, until they blew their trumpets and, as the song says, the walls came tumbling down.  Even the city they are coming from holds implications for what we’re going to talk about today. 

Jesus is traveling with his disciples and a large entourage.  And then he encounters Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, the blind man.  Wait a minute.  Didn’t Jesus just heal a blind man a couple of chapters earlier?  How is this different?

• The blind man back in Mark 8 is pretty passive, but Bartimaeus is not.  He takes the initiative and makes himself known.   In a literal “shout-out:’ “Jesus. Son of David, have mercy on me!”  we notice that perhaps Bart is not as blind as we make him out to be.  Could it be that here in this story, he functions as the one who truly “sees” Jesus for who he is and what He is capable of doing?  

I don’t  know about you, but if you heard Dr. Wiseman in Chapel yesterday, you may have learned a thing or two about countercultural shouting.  (song?) According to this text, there were many folks around trying to shush Bartimaeus — and for a number of reasons.  It was a pretty monumental thing to refer to Jesus as the Son of David, implying that he was in the royal line of the great kings of Israel.  In fact, this is the very first time in the Bible in real time, if you will, that Jesus is actually  referred to as the Son of David.  Many in that crowd must have feared a major scandal.

• Monumental, countercultural, and dangerous.  They are probably embarrassed by this motely, blind dude, and trying to protect Jesus as well. Remember, he hadn’t yet made that triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  That happens right after this, in the next chapter.  And so they did more than shush him.  The Greek uses the word epitimao, which means “rebuke,”  the same verb Jesus used to cast out demons. So it was probably more like “Shut up!”  

Jesus stops and stands still.  “Call him,” he says.  He doesn’t single out Bartimaeus, but calls on the disciples to bring him over.  (God doesn’t call the equipped, but equips the called).  What follows is a sort of commotion as he throws off his mantle and comes to Jesus, actively insistently, empowered. 

Everyone is waiting for Jesus to zap Bartimaeus to witness yet another amazing miracle, but what happens?

• Jesus’ words are very specific.  His answer here really jumped out at me from this passage, so I walked around for a while trying to remember it, and I’d always mistakenly paraphrase it to myself as “What do you want me to do?”  

But that’s the human version.  It’s a phrase we hear a thousand times per day — at least I do (with four kids , whenever I try to get any one of them to do anything!).  We often say it in frustration, in desperation — its subtext being the equivalent of shrugging one’s shoulders, or basically giving up, saying “I can’t, that’s all I’ve got.  What can I do?”

What Jesus says is different. He adds just two words, and asks,  “What can I do FOR YOU?” 

• Now, I’m pretty sure Jesus would have healed Bartimaeus even if he didn’t respond to his question, but here he puts the ball into Bartimaeus’ court, and he replies, “Teacher, let me receive my sight.” And IMMEDIATELY he received his sight and followed him on the way.

FOR YOU.  That’s huge.  It not only sums up the Gospel message, the Good News that Christ gave His very life in order to save us from the even-Steven game of sin and sacrifice.  God loved us enough to send His only Son to atone for us — bring us back, restoring us to live as one with the Creator ’s purpose and Promise, through Jesus Christ.

• Jesus Christ, our great High Priest — our second reading, from Hebrews  — “the former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office; but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever…the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.”  Jesus did it once for all.  

For you.  For me.  For that homeless family in Love Park last weekend, whose 2-year old was found wandering around in the middle of the night.  For that person you might see across the street and don’t even know.  But we are all still growing, and we can all echo that first blind man’s words from Matthew 8, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word, and I shall be healed.” 

• My friends, God IS faithful, and does so much more than help those who help themselves.  God is in the transformation business!  We move from being conformed (which can include being curved into ourselves) to being transformed, as we read in Romans.  And that transformation leads us to reformation as individuals as well as the entire body of Christ. God’s Holy Spirit helps us come to Christ so that all of the Healer’s abundance can come to us.  That’s how our weeping turns into joy, as the Psalmist tells us this week.

It’s in moments like these that the Holy Spirit grabs hold of us. God knows precisely how each and every one of us is wired, and at the Spirit’s prompting, we may feel like crying, we may feel a warmth, we may feel the wind knocked out of us…but whatever it is, the Spirit calls us out of those everyday ordinary moments to stop, stand still, and in that stillness we are called to act, using the very words that Jesus said to blind Bart.  

• Stop, stand still, ask, and go.  “ GO, for your faith has healed you.”  In asking this question, Jesus gave Bartimaeus permission to excercise the faith that led to his healing, and Jesus question now becomes our own:   —  “What do you want me to do FOR YOU?” AMEN.

GOSPEL SUMMARY

GOSPEL SUMMARY - Lisa Helmel Thomas


Several weeks ago on Facebook, one of my childhood friends posted the following statement: "I'm thinking of becoming a Catholic."  In her case,  this is a somewhat loaded statement that requires further explanation.

Chloe (not her real name) grew up with me in an Assemblies of God church, a very conservative denomination much like those we find in the news today, protesting contemporary human rights issues "in the name of God."  Therefore, her post was borne of a sense of frustration over how her faith was being represented in the media.  Chloe, now having moderate to liberal political views, no longer wanted to be associated with this particular point of view, and felt that her answer to this was to "convert" to Catholicism.

I had no qualms about her decision, but in an effort to inform her of other options, decided to tell her a little bit about my journey as a Lutheran.  While I was baptized in a German Lutheran church at the age of six months, my mother had discovered the Assemblies of God church down the street not long after, and my two siblings and I were raised there for the next twenty years or so.  It was not until after I completed my graduate work and began a career as a church musician that I would "rediscover" Lutheranism and learn to cherish the Gospel in a different way from how I was raised.

This is how I responded to Chloe's post:

Chloe,  I can only speak for myself, but my discovery of the ELCA denomination was truly refreshing, especially after being raised the way we were.  I love the structure and the liturgy and I especially appreciate how they allow EVERYONE to come to the Lord's Table.  Similar to Catholicism, what sets Lutherans apart from most of the other Protestant denominations is their belief that the elements of Holy Communion literally become Christ's Body and Blood (I.e. not only symbols). It (not the Sermon as it was where we grew up), is the high point of their worship service.  I will not speak for Catholicism, but I have heard that they do no welcome everyone to the Table, though I'm not 100 percent sure.

As a Lutheran, the Gospel makes much more sense to me now in spite of all the "good Bible learning" we had while growing up.  The difference is that it enables me to put my faith to good use, truly knowing that we are 'saved' -- not by anything we do ourselves, but because God came down to us in the first place.  Therefore, we don't have to "decide" or earn Brownie points in order to get to heaven. It's already been done for us, as God's idea and plan!

This is really so amazing that we, in turn, as Gods creation, want to serve and follow God out of our gratitude and the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.  It then becomes not so much about getting to heaven as it is about responding to God's great love for us in the here and now, not waiting for glory or focusing on the future, where there is a sure and certain hope of the Resurrection  just as Jesus was raised back to life.

Yes, we have a choice - we are all both sinners and saints at the same time - but His grace compels us, not His wrath.  I hope this makes some kind of sense and might be of help,to you.

Our hymns are many, varied and great, and we do throw in some praise songs in there too depending on which church you go to.  Check it out. Sorry I'm so heavy and preachy  on you.  I guess it's my thing and I can't help it.  Take what works and leave the rest.  Best of luck wherever your path will lead you.  Love you!

A few days later, one of the members of our church's Praise Team seemed a bit disillusioned by some of the things he read in another Facebook group known as "I'm Fed Up with Bad Church Music" -- not exactly an uplifting group, and one hat can be rather daunting to lay musicians caught unawares,  The postings here are often fraught with snobbery and judgmental attitudes.  In my response to him, I was trying to explain music selection from a Lutheran's perspective on the Gospel:

My friend, you are great just as you are and God can use you!  There is no such thing as a perfect Christian OR a perfect musician.  We need to remember that ALL we have comes from God, and we're just giving back to Him what is actually His. If we end up having fun in the process, or feeling fulfilled during a really awesome jam session, then that is God blessing us and just an extension of His grace and free gifts.

Part of the reason why I love Luther(anism) is because of,the Latin phrase similar justus et peccator.  This means that we are  simultaneously sinners and saints. We are human, and praise God we were made that way.  God loves us.  In turn, we care -- and because we care, we serve.  Because we serve, we grow into a community of,faith, and our own faith grows as a result.  There is nothing you have to DO to become a "better" Christian.  The Holy Spirit will lead you toward wanting to "walk the talk."

Though both of my friends know Christ and had some familiarity with the Gospel, I was grateful to be able to share my perspective with them, not in an effort to correct or change them, but in the spirit of encouragement inspire them to to perhaps dig deeper in their faith.

As for me, I find connection to the Gospel in the simplest things of everyday life.
 The Gospel feeds me.  It brings miracles, large and small, seemingly out of nothing.

Lately, I have taken time to bake bread.  Especially now, when funds are scarce.  My husband was home all summer, which is an extremely rare occurrence. Usually we pack up the household and travel to wherever he happens to be contracted to perform.  For the past ten to fifteen years, this has generally  been summer opera  festivals, where the family comes along.  Now, because he is less employed, he becomes grumpy at times.  The smell of fresh bread seems to cheer him up, if only momentarily.  But it seems to translate into hope. it makes me feel, if just for a minute, that the stress and uncertainty  surrounding uncertain income, guilt that I am not doing enough to contribute, is lifting. I can always combine the simplest of ingredients, almost magically, into a dough that soon becomes a sumptuous loaf of bread.

Tonight, there happens to be a glorious sunset. I wonder how this happens, especially after a cloudy, rainy day.  But it does.  While it isn't a rainbow, its striated colors bring promise just the same -- a promise that tomorrow is on the heels of this closing day, with another chance to renew itself.

The Gospel feeds me and with it brings the hope of healing.  The Gospel feeds me and the healing brings faith.  Faith comes by hearing the Word, which is where doubt and fear intersect with hope and resurrection. The Cross.

The Holy Spirit, the very Essence of Love itself. creates and sustains life.  Through it, through love, God is able to create life and humanity.  God's Son, Jesus Christ, assumes the very Image of God in human form yet exists eternally and in essence through the Holy Spirit, Who continually reminds, renews, and rejuvenates us in our daily lives.

Thus, the Gospel produces a chain reaction that connects us to God our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.  Thanks be to God!