Jeremiah 37:1-9 Psalm 126
Hebrews 7:23-28 Mark 10:46-52
Today, I would like to focus upon the Gospel of an Adverb? And what adverb is that you might ask? The adverb, again. And this comes from Bartimaeus, Son of Timaeus' request, "My teacher, let me see again." Bartimaeus, means son of Timaeus, so note how the writer or editor translates the Hebrew meaning of the name.
Let me see again. Again is an important adverb in life because it states the reality of time. Similar things happen in time over and over again. The sun rises again and sets again. Repetition is a fact of life. Repetition in liturgy and worship is called ritual. A ritual is the repeating of similar pattern or action or ceremony for the purpose of teaching and reinforcing identity within a community.
Again is a very important adverb in the New Testament. Why? Resurrection is about living again after we die. Receiving the Holy Spirit is about being born again after having had a first birth into the world.
Repentance is about the continual renewal of the mind to progress in spiritual and moral growth. Repentance is acting again in a different way because one has began to think again in a different and better way.
Bartimaeus wanted to see again, which means that he was not blind from birth but he had lost his sight. He mourned his impairment and loss of sight so much that he caused a public disturbance when Jesus the wonder worker was known to be passing nearby.
The Bartimaeus story is the Gospel story of the entire Jesus Movement. The followers of Jesus were those who could see life again in a different way because of an encounter with the Risen Christ through a spiritual awakening.
The word, "again" carries with it two different qualifications of our experience in time. It carries with it the meanings of sameness with the past, and difference with the past.
Again means that there is a sameness of the human characteristics of what we have done in the past with what we are doing now. But again, also means that every moment and occasion is new and different from the previous moments.
The question of the Jesus Movement and the question of repentance, is how are we different or same in comparison with what has gone before.
Addictions and bad habits represents the sameness with the past. If I drank too much alcohol yesterday, then today, I will continue to drink. So, the negative aspect of the word again, is the negative aspects of repetitions which can build up to become the bad character and bad habits of our lives.
The essence of a person is not to be an addict, a liar, or a sinner; but with the continual repetition of addictive behaviors, lying, and sinning, we can allow our originally blessed personhood to become reduced to our worst repetitive behaviors.
The Jesus Movement, complimented the repentance movement of John the Baptist, by the evidence of the higher power of the Holy Spirit to interdict spiritual blindness with new sight, to interdict addiction and bad habits with the power and freedom to make new and different choices. To receive power to begin to build new habits and character based upon repetitions of good behaviors.
Let us embrace the positive side of the adverb "again," today. Let us do things again, differently, progressing to surpass ourselves in excellence.
Many people do not come to the rituals of the church because they are bored by what they regard as vain repetitions. Many people need their rituals to be entertainment so that they are not bored. Some people think that they need drums and aspects of popular culture to make their church rituals relevant and interesting to them.
I believe to live the born again life, to see again in life, requires that we live in deliberate and intentional attentiveness. Too many people are bored because in pride, they believe that they have exhausted the relevance of biblical knowledge and the traditions of the church. People can be bored because they have become lazy in habits of their mental and spiritual practice.
Rather than be bored with what we think we know about Jesus, God and the church, let us be restless today like Bartimaeus. Let us be uncomfortable with our state of blindness and cry out for more spiritual sight.
And like the prayerful song we pray today: Open my eyes that I may see, visions of truth thou hast for me, open my eye, illumine me, Spirit Divine. Amen.
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