21 Pentecost Cycle B Proper 25 October 25, 2015
Job 42:1-6, 10-17 Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22)
Hebrews 7:23-28 Mark 10:46-52
Hebrews 7:23-28 Mark 10:46-52
In the Gospels one finds a single word which expresses something about our orientation towards the future. This is the adverb "again." It is a word which is used to qualify Time. The people presented to Jesus in the Gospel want to be "whole" again. They wanted to walk again. They wanted to live again. And Jesus even suggested to Nicodemus to be "born" again. The famous sufferer Job wanted restoration from his suffering but part of him being fortunate again meant that the second time around he had accrued all of the meanings of his suffering.
The blind man Bartimaeus had a request of Jesus, "I want to see again." Doing things again but in a significantly different way is what the Good News of the Gospel is about. The "again" in the Gospel may be the repetition of an ability in life, but it is the repetition with a completely different perspective.
Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different outcomes. There is nothing automatically progressive about doing things again. Repetition may simply be the reinforcement of a bad habit and another repetition only digs the rut deeper making it even harder to escape without some sort of intervention.
The Good News of the Gospel is to do things again but with the insights of rescue, salvation and new perspective.
Bartimaeus requested of Jesus to be able to see again. One could call the life of faith, a life of the progressive recovery from our naïve blindness. It could be the blindness caused by the overwhelming light of what we actually have to know to live well in this world. The Plenitude of this great world is so great that just as a baby with limited ability and limited perspective we have to grow into new and widening perspective to be able to progress in the art of living well.
One of the things which keeps us blinded is to get stuck in a very familiar way of seeing and doing things, even getting comfortable with having things on sort of "automatic" drive. This may work for us until a life situation jolts us into the realization that our learned responses are no longer adequate to the new challenges forced upon us by new circumstance. And suddenly we are blind; we no longer see our way within a crisis. And if we are honest, we cry out for help about our condition.
The disciples wanted to shush this desperate blind beggar on the road. "Be quiet and don't trouble Jesus. You're stuck in your condition and there's nothing that can be done." Sometimes our authorities in life want to keep us in our blindness. Sometimes authority rests upon keeping people in blindness.
Bartimaeus did not believe in a dead tradition. He believed in the tradition of King David who represented a time in the life of Israel when they were free and not in captivity. He saw and heard Jesus as one who was like David and so he believed that there was one who was within his own tradition who could help him do something again, to see again. And Jesus proved to be the one who allowed him to see again.
The Gospels are about how the early Christian Church presented the life of Jesus as one who allowed people to do things again, but not with the insanity of repeating old addictive patterns, but with the liberation of new insights giving power to change lives.
Seeing is a metaphor for understanding. The Christian life of following the Risen Christ is a process of seeing again and again; seeing with new perspectives so that we can make wise and faithful decisions relevant to the situations of our lives. When we can see again, we can walk again; we can choose different paths to go.
Let us be like the desperate Bartimaeus today; let us cry out to "see again." Let our eyes adjust better to the brightness of God and see the people and events of our lives with a new clarity which allows us new actions of faith and hope. Amen.
The blind man Bartimaeus had a request of Jesus, "I want to see again." Doing things again but in a significantly different way is what the Good News of the Gospel is about. The "again" in the Gospel may be the repetition of an ability in life, but it is the repetition with a completely different perspective.
Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different outcomes. There is nothing automatically progressive about doing things again. Repetition may simply be the reinforcement of a bad habit and another repetition only digs the rut deeper making it even harder to escape without some sort of intervention.
The Good News of the Gospel is to do things again but with the insights of rescue, salvation and new perspective.
Bartimaeus requested of Jesus to be able to see again. One could call the life of faith, a life of the progressive recovery from our naïve blindness. It could be the blindness caused by the overwhelming light of what we actually have to know to live well in this world. The Plenitude of this great world is so great that just as a baby with limited ability and limited perspective we have to grow into new and widening perspective to be able to progress in the art of living well.
One of the things which keeps us blinded is to get stuck in a very familiar way of seeing and doing things, even getting comfortable with having things on sort of "automatic" drive. This may work for us until a life situation jolts us into the realization that our learned responses are no longer adequate to the new challenges forced upon us by new circumstance. And suddenly we are blind; we no longer see our way within a crisis. And if we are honest, we cry out for help about our condition.
The disciples wanted to shush this desperate blind beggar on the road. "Be quiet and don't trouble Jesus. You're stuck in your condition and there's nothing that can be done." Sometimes our authorities in life want to keep us in our blindness. Sometimes authority rests upon keeping people in blindness.
Bartimaeus did not believe in a dead tradition. He believed in the tradition of King David who represented a time in the life of Israel when they were free and not in captivity. He saw and heard Jesus as one who was like David and so he believed that there was one who was within his own tradition who could help him do something again, to see again. And Jesus proved to be the one who allowed him to see again.
The Gospels are about how the early Christian Church presented the life of Jesus as one who allowed people to do things again, but not with the insanity of repeating old addictive patterns, but with the liberation of new insights giving power to change lives.
Seeing is a metaphor for understanding. The Christian life of following the Risen Christ is a process of seeing again and again; seeing with new perspectives so that we can make wise and faithful decisions relevant to the situations of our lives. When we can see again, we can walk again; we can choose different paths to go.
Let us be like the desperate Bartimaeus today; let us cry out to "see again." Let our eyes adjust better to the brightness of God and see the people and events of our lives with a new clarity which allows us new actions of faith and hope. Amen.
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