Your Faith Makes You Well

Mark 10: 17-22, 46-52

 

 

          A couple years ago, I underwent cataract surgery on both eyes. I had dense cataracts lying directly between my lenses and my field of vision. The results were several. Colors became much more dull, though I didn’t really know it because it happened over a long period of time. I also could not see very well. I kept hitting curbs when I was parking or gliding out of my lane on the road. I finally began putting two and two together one day at the beach. Cindy was standing in front of me with direct sun behind her. I looked at her and saw nothing. It was as though she had disappeared. That was the first time that I truly realized that my vision was impaired.

          Soon after we returned home, I made an appointment with the eye doctor. I was diagnosed with cataracts. The doctor scheduled surgery as soon as available because my vision was so poor. When I looked into the light, it blinded me. I really didn’t have sufficient vision with which to make judgments based upon my sight.

          The tenth chapter of Mark contains a number of stories. Jesus talks about divorce. He talks about the importance of children and how their simple trust and belief can be instructive to all who would follow him. He talks for the third time about the Passion that he knows awaits him in Jerusalem. There are other stories in Chapter 10, but today, I want us to focus on two of those stories. Both are about men who met Jesus, one a rich young man who ran up to him at the beginning of the journey and the other a blind beggar named Bartimaeus who met Jesus in Jericho just as they were beginning the last leg of the journey.

          The young man runs up to Jesus. He is all excited. He kneels before the Master and he asks: Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Many would say he already has. He has money. He has position. He has social status. He has it made. And he is a good guy. He wants to follow Jesus. He has kept all the commandments. He is a good Jewish son. Jesus looked at him and said: Well, you only need one more thing. Go sell all you have and give it to the poor. Then you will have treasure in heaven and you can come and follow me. 

          Only one more thing. What is the thing? Sell all you have and give it to the poor. What Jesus was saying was that this young man already had a god. It was the god of wealth and power and earthly possessions. Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said you lack only one thing. But the one thing was not surrendering his independence and that was a bridge too far. The poor boy failed. He looked at Jesus and he looked at his stuff. And the stuff won. Jesus loved him and even that was not enough. He looked right into the light and it blinded him. The rich young man had cataracts impairing the vision of his soul.

          The rich young ruler ran up to Jesus at the beginning of his journey thinking to join up, but stayed home. The bookend to this story of vision, or the lack of it, happens near the end of the journey, as Jesus is leaving Jericho with his disciples, when another man approaches Jesus. That is, he approaches as much as he is able. His name is Bartimaeus and he is sitting by the side of the road. He is blind.

          Jericho was the last stop before Jerusalem.  The Jericho to which Mark refers is probably the new Jericho built by Herod. It was off the old pilgrimage path where the old Jericho, now no longer populated, had stood. So Jesus goes off road, so to speak, to make a stop in Herodian Jericho. From Jericho, they would make the final ascent from the Jordan valley to the city of Jerusalem. It is a steep climb of some 3400 feet over a distance of about 15 miles. Pilgrims today say it takes about eight hours of steady walking to make the trek. 

          Bartimaeus is just as excited as the young man who ran up. He cries out for mercy from Jesus, whom he calls Son of David. This is a messianic greeting. In other words, he looks upon Jesus as the awaited for Messiah. The more people tried to shush him, the louder Bartimaeus got.   Jesus stopped and said to call him. They did and Bartimaeus did the same thing the rich young man had done. Mark tells us the he sprang up and came to Jesus.  

          Jesus says something to Bartimaeus that we would all like to hear. He says: “What do you want me to do for you?” Bartimaeus didn’t have to be asked twice. “Let me recover my sight”, he said. “Go your way,” said Jesus, “your faith has made you well.”

          After my surgery, the light really did come on. Colors were vivid again, to the point of looking remarkable. Centerlines and curbs were also vivid. I could drive again without scaring everyone. And when I looked into the light, I was no longer blinded. Now I can see like never before. I can only compare it to when I was a child. I saw well then too. It was sort of like that passage in Mark 10 where Jesus tells his disciples to receive the kingdom of God like a child. My vision in my eyes was clear again. But Jesus was not talking about the eyes of the head. He was talking about the eyes of the heart.

          What do you want me to do for you, asks Jesus. Really he asked the same question to both the rich young man and to Bartimaeus. The words were different but the question was the same. What do you want of me? It caught the rich man off guard. He had a mansion and a four car garage. He had a BMW. He belonged to the country club. Jesus had sandals and a robe and he went everywhere on foot. When the rich man asked how to get to heaven, he was looking for an item on a menu. Not so with Bartimaeus. When Jesus asked him, he knew. He wanted to see. He knew Jesus had the keys to his sight. He believed. He believed not only that Jesus could heal him. He believed that Jesus could HEAL him. Know what I mean? Bartimaeus did not suffer from the disease of too much birthday. He knew what was important and he kept his focus. After Jesus healed his sight, Bartimaeus followed him on his way. Jesus adds one more pilgrim to the ranks of discipleship.

          The symbolism in Luke 10 is inescapable. Two men want to find their way. Two men come running to Jesus. Two men ask for the keys to the kingdom. Only one knew what to do with those keys.

The one with vision cannot see and walks away in dejection. The one who is blind can see exactly what Jesus offers.  Two men look into the same light. One sees with his eyes, is blind to the truth and says no. The other sees with his heart, recovers his physical sight and commits himself to the road to the Cross.

          What do you want of me, asks Jesus. It’s all in how you see it. At the end of the day, these are stories of discipleship. Jesus extends his hand to us all. There are those who walk away and there are those who hold on. If you can see him through all the stuff of life, then you can be like Bartimaeus. You can spring up and come to Jesus. Your faith will make you well and you can follow him. Throw off the cataracts of this world and see Jesus loving you and calling you. Climb that spiritual road from Jericho to Jerusalem and follow him on the way, just like Bartimaeus did.  Your faith can make you well.

His Story

Joshua 23: 14-16, 24: 14-18

 

 

                    In the latter chapters of the book of Joshua, the great leader of the nation of Israel stands before the people. He has lived through forty years of wandering in the desert. He has picked up the mantle of leadership from Moses and carried it remarkably well. He has brought God’s people into the Promised Land. He is old. He is tired. He knows his time is near. He says to them: “And now, I am about to go the way of all the earth.” He is speaking of the end of his life, the end of his ministry, the completion of his baptism.

          In our opening passage today, Joshua talks about covenant. He reminds the people that God has not failed in any way to deliver everything he promised. He has kept his covenant. Everything has come to pass. No one has earned anything. God has provided everything.

          The whole of history can be traced in terms of covenant. God covenanted with Adam, with Noah, with Abraham, with David. Then, the prophet Jeremiah signaled a new covenant that was to come. We understand that new covenant now as Jesus, God incarnated as man; savior, God with us; Immanuel. All of history, if one looks at it from a Christian worldview, can be seen as God’s continuing covenant with his creation. History becomes---His story. Craig Bartholomew puts it this way: “What is the real story of which my life story is part? Is there a ‘real story’ that provides a framework of meaning for all peoples in all times and places, and therefore for my own life in the world?”

          Is there a real story? In this world of individualism, we are told that the world started with a big bang or any number of other theories as to how we find ourselves here. Textbooks concentrate on the scientific explanations, even if they fall well short of the mark. The world in which we live is a world of empiricism, of calculation, of logic. There is no room for the spiritual unless it can be logically explained.

          Is there a real story? Does your life story intersect with someone else’s?  Even if you say yes, aren’t you talking about your husband or children or parents or cousins? How can your story merge with some other story from someone who lived in another time, or in another place? Is there some framework of meaning for all peoples in all times and from all places? If you believe in God, if you believe in the Holy Scriptures as God’s story, then there is only one answer to questions like that, and it is YES. Yes, there is a real story, and it involves us all.

          We have talked about covenant, about how we can trace the story of God through covenant from the beginning of history, from the beginning of His story. When we trace those covenants through the Bible, we see God on a mission. The Bible is a story—a story of the mission of God to reveal Himself to his creation and to redeem it for himself.

          You know the history of this church better than I do. It was carved out of this ground by your ancestors: Campbells and Clarks and Johnsons and Sullivans and many more. The ground under our feet marks the footprint of a church that rose from an idea to a meeting place to several buildings on several sites, but always—always, existing to worship God and to continue to tell his story. About 55 years ago, this sanctuary was built on this location and it continues to serve.

          But what or whom does it serve? Why does Rocky Creek Presbyterian Church still exist? Because it serves God. It is part of God’s mission to reveal and redeem his people. Rocky Creek is just one of hundreds of thousands of connections to that mission of God that goes back to creation itself.

          The other day I walked next door to the fellowship hall to see if I could do something useful with the folks decorating for Homecoming. I didn’t get to do much, but while I was there, I noticed a few pictures and a lot of cards on the piano. On each card was a name. Each name was that of a minister who had labored for God here at Rocky Creek. I didn’t count the names, but they numbered about fifteen or so. Fifteen men and women, each of whom have worked for this congregation over more than a century. Does your life intersect with others? All I have to do is look at that piano and I know the answer. My life intersects with Ray Howe and Ladd Brearly and each man and woman represented by name on that piano. Does your life intersect with others? Look around. You are generations deep here, and the most common denominator among you as you sit in this sanctuary is not bloodlines or geography, but mission. God’s mission has been the call that brought you here to this place, and it brought your ancestors here as well.

          Yes, your life intersects with others. I stand here today on the shoulders of all those who came before me in this place, and they did likewise when they stood here. You do as well. We all come from someone and somewhere and go toward somewhere else. It’s not about family, as least not in the sense that we normally come to think of it. Here, in this place, we are reminded of story, the story that tells us of the identity and presence of God in our lives, in our past, in our present, in our future. That is the family that intersects each of us with one another. We need no name but Christian to see the family resemblance.

          If you read on to the next chapter of Joshua, you will find Joshua’s farewell to his people. It is both a caution and a challenge.  To the end God’s man, Joshua tells his people to fear the Lord, to serve him in sincerity and faithfulness, to put away any other Gods. Then Joshua utters that famous line: “Choose this day whom you will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Not long after, Joshua died. It is a fitting tribute to this great leader but humble man that it was said that Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived him and had known all the work that the Lord did for Israel.

          In Joshua’s time, he served the Lord. He did it the best he could and his elders followed suit. It was a good time for God’s people. When we meet for Homecomings such as this, we are reminded that we too serve the Lord. This place is not just a watering hole for family reunions, though such events can serve the Lord very well. It’s not just a gathering place for the fraternity of Presbyterians, though that too can serve the Lord. It is, I think, a place for us to be refreshed, to be reminded that God is here and that God goes and comes with us to all the places and people of our lives; that it is His story that is the tie that binds us to one another over time and place.

          For a century and a half, Rocky Creek Presbyterian has existed in this area in some form or another. It has lasted that long because it served God. It will last much longer if it continues to do that. for it is not the mission of this church that excites us. It is, rather, the mission of God. We derive our mission as a congregation from that mission of our heavenly father. If we are informed by God’s Word, if we seek to validate that which we read in Scripture, then we will continue to be committed as God’s people. We are invited, indeed commanded, as surely as were God’s people by Joshua, to participate in God’s mission. We will continue to tell His Story. We will work for the redemption of not only our own souls, but for all of God’s creation.

          That’s a story worth telling the rest of our lives.

A Greater Task

James 3: 1, 2    Titus 2: 7, 8

 

 

          There’s an old country ballad written by Ed Bruce and made famous by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. It’s entitled “Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.” It’s not a bad comment on cowboys. It just acknowledges their itch to be out on the open range. But it does remind us that cowboys are made of different stuff, that being a cowboy is not for everybody.

          James, the writer of the book by the same name and the half-brother of Jesus, had the same idea about teachers, but for different reasons. Writing to the Jewish Christians outside Jerusalem, James says that being a teacher is not for everybody either. He says that not many of us should become teachers. Shades of Willie Nelson.

          Let’s stop here and look at this You Tube clip. It’s about pastors, but it could just as easily be about teachers. As you watch it, think about the teachers in your life, the public school teachers and the volunteer teachers right here in this church, that never know when to quit or what time it is.

     (youtube.com: mamas don’t let your sons grow up to be pastors)

          It’s funny, but it’s true, too. And pastors are teachers. They’re just a specialized form of teacher. Jesus was a teacher. Remember that when Jesus was directly addressed in the New Testament, two of every three times he was called Teacher.

          So James says that not many of us should become teachers, because it’s tough and---because it carries a different standard of care. James tells us that teachers will be judged with greater strictness than the rest of us. Why is that? Because teachers have special influence. Because teachers have special responsibilities. To whom much is given, much will be expected. What are those responsibilities that are so special? According to Paul in 2 Timothy (2:15), they rightly divide the word of truth. Teachers “should not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting…with gentleness.”  William Barclay puts it this way:

“It was the teacher’s awe-inspiring responsibility that he could put the stamp of his [or her] own faith and knowledge on those who were entering the Church for the first time.” Barclay was talking about teachers in the early church, but I ask you, what has changed? If anything, that responsibility has only grown over the centuries.

         The apostle Paul had plenty to say about teaching. Many of his thoughts are contained in the Pastoral Epistles; the two letters to Timothy and one to Titus, both men his protégés. In the second chapter of Titus [2: 7, 8], Paul urges them to be models of good works, and in their teaching to “show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.” Paul gives Titus a tall order. In addition to dignity and integrity and sound speech, he must first be a model of good works. Paul is saying to Titus that which we can all appreciate. In order to be an effective teacher, in order for his or her students to hear the message, it must first arrive in the way the teacher lives life. Teaching occurs first, and maybe foremost, not by what we say, but by who we are.

          What do our Christian teachers really do? Of course, they point out scripture. Of course they teach Bible stories. Of course they pray with their students. They do all these things and more. But what they do most of all is not talking about Christ to their students; it is showing Christ to them.

          It’s my great joy to recognize all the teachers we have here, teaching every age from toddlers to seniors. They are to be commended, congratulated, applauded and supported. But this is a cautionary tale as well as a congratulation. The job is immense, the rewards are usually not visible for some time, and it is a greater task than should not be undertaken without the constant help and guidance of the Holy Spirit. To do it haphazardly is to suffer judgment from God.

          Why would anyone teach, considering the time it takes, the potential liability for failure? Why? Perhaps it is because we love. We love what has been done for us and we want to pass it on. The greatest teacher of all once went up on a mountain and sat down. His disciples followed him and Matthew tells us that he opened his mouth and taught them. That teaching is called the Beatitudes, and one of the things he said was this:

 

               You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill

               cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put

               it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to

               all in the house. In the same way, let your light so shine

               before others, so that they may see your good works

               and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

 

          May it be God’s will for this gathering that each and every one of us, no matter what our position or station, shines our light, giving the glory of God to all who see that light. In that way, we can also teach. Let that be our greater task.