The Coming Kingdom of Advent

As you may be well aware, next week begins Advent. As I thought about our scripture passage this morning, I felt it would be appropriate to direct our attention to the coming season of Advent so that we might be reminded of its significance. So, for those of you who do not know, the word advent means “coming” or “arrival” and the Christian calendar celebrates Advent during the four Sundays preceding Christmas. This is a time to prepare our hearts and minds for the celebration of that first coming of Christ remembered in the holiday of Christmas. Advent focuses our attention on the scriptural prophecies and gospel narratives surrounding the event and meaning of the in-breaking Christ. So today, as we worship, let us begin to reflect on the significance of the Advent season by examining its meaning in the life of our church.

As you have noticed in the past, and as you will see in the coming weeks, our church will decorate with several important colors and objects. First, the color of the Advent season is purple. This is a color used to represent penitence and fasting as well as a royal color to usher in the celebration of Christ the King. But this color is not peculiar to the Advent season. Purple is also the color of suffering and sacrifice used during the Lent and Easter season. Thus, there is an important connection being made by way of the common color: the birth of Christ cannot be separated from his death. The in-breaking of God's love in the birth and life of Christ is intimately related and filled with meaning through the death and resurrection of that same Christ. Thus, the Purple of advent is completed, in a sense, by the purple of the Lent and Easter season.

Although the abundance of Red and Green seem inseparable from Christmas, they do not have meaning specific to Advent as a formal event during the church calendar. However, those colors do have meaning. There are old European practices which incorporated the notions of continuing life and hope through the ever-green and holly. Thus, Red and Green became representational colors for on-going life and ever-lasting hope. So although these colors are not formal Advent colors, they do provide additional meaning as we mindfully worship.

The decoration of the sanctuary with different greens is an important and meaningful display that pertains to the above colors. The tree, boughs, and wreathe signify the ever-lasting life found in the in-breaking Christ. A central component to Advent is the presence of the Advent wreathe. The wreathe acts as a story teller of meaning. Each part of the Advent wreathe has a unique meaning which works with every other part to tell a meaningful and powerful story. It is in the notion of a circle that we find its particular power and meaning. A circle represents the infinite or the unending. There is neither a beginning nor an end to a circle. Thus, the circle is “ever-lasting.” As a result, the circular wreathe has a two-fold eternal emphasis. The ever-green has an ever-lasting—symbolically eternal—color of life, and is shaped in the never-ending—symbolically eternal—circle. The church uses these colors and shapes to bring our attention to the eternal God who provides ever-lasting and life-giving hope through the gift of Love.

In addition, the wreathe contains candles which possess their own unique meanings that help to narrate the wreathe story. Anchored to the life-giving and eternal wreathe are candles which offer light. Here we find meaning in the Light of God offered to the world through the in-breaking Christ. Christ provides the night-dispelling light by which we are transformed from a life of bondage to a life of freedom. The middle candle is the Christ candle which represents the centrality and foundation of Christ for our lives. Its white color represents the innocence and purity of his message and ministry. The four outer candles represent the four centuries of waiting between the prophet Malachi and the birth of Christ. As each candle is lit, a century of darkness recedes until Christ bursts into the world and fills the entirety of the world with his light. Thus, the totality of the wreathe narrates a story of God's eternal Love anticipated and then given through the Christ event.

All of the Advent objects and colors help us to focus on the spirit of Advent. This is truly a time of expectation, anticipation, preparation, and yearning or longing. We are the children of God who expect the fulfillment of God's promises in the completion of God's Kingdom. We anticipate its establishment and completion by preparing for it. We prepare through active participation in the up-building of God's Kingdom, following the direction and guidance of Christ. We long and yearn for that time to be now, faithfully persevering the difficulties that accompany an incomplete Kingdom. Thus, Advent directs our attention to the sustaining force of our longing to see the Kingdom made complete: Christ. The hope we have in Christ as God's in-breaking Love produces the desire to see the Kingdom made complete.

So what about this Kingdom? What about this incomplete Kingdom that asks for us to contribute to its establishment? Turn with me to our text this morning; turn to John 18. As you do, please be reminded of the spirit of Advent. Keep in mind that we are readying ourselves to be in a spirit of expectation, anticipation, preparation and longing. To be in this spirit we must understand the nature of that Kingdom toward which we move in expectation, anticipation, preparation, and longing.

John 18: 33-37

In our scripture passage this morning, the author of John's Gospel leads us to the issue of Kingdom in this exchange between Pilate and Jesus. In every situation where we find Jesus, we must ask ourselves what reason the author has in recording this event. It is clear here that this event is important in understanding the nature of the Kingdom. In Greek, the word for “kingdom” is basileia, but it is not used in the same sense by Jesus and Pilate. Pilate, a Roman governor, recognized Herod as one of the two “kings” to the Jews. Although the position of king, or tetrarch, was actually a puppet institution for the Roman government at this time, Pilate is using the word “kingdom” to refer to this particular political and measurable space within the Palestinian world. Thus, Pilate inquires about what it is that Jesus has done. Has he claimed kingship? If so, then that would be a seditious claim against Rome deserving death. But Jesus immediately clarifies Pilate's clouded terminology.

In using the political sense of the term Kingdom, Pilate is placing Jesus into a specific time and place that does not adequately reflect the reality of the divine Christ. The divine aspect of Christ prevents the Kingdom from being merely a political, geographic space within this world. Thus, the messianic Kingdom talk transforms the this-worldly “term” into a transcendent other-worldly idea with no location in time and space. Jesus tries to explain this idea a little more succinctly when he says that “My Kingdom is not from this world” (v. 36). Jesus could not have claimed to be the King of the Jews if this meant sedition against Rome. Rather, Jesus meant that to be King of the Jews was to usher in the Kingdom of God in which there were no physical boundaries. In fact, Paul carries out this notion when he talks about the physical distinction of circumcision. In creating a transcendent kingdom, Christ has transcended the very physical distinctions that were typical in Jewish faith.

These are the famous words of Paul in Galatians: “there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (3:28).

So what is this Kingdom that causes us to stand in expectation, anticipation, preparation, and longing? It is a Kingdom that is not of this world. It is a Kingdom marked by no physical boundaries because it transcends those distinctions. This is a Kingdom in which we are all one in Christ Jesus, liberated from a life of bondage by the ever-lasting gift of God's Love. This is the Kingdom of Light, ushered in by Christ, for all who would accept the Gracious Kindness of God's Mercy. It knows no time. It knows no place. It is in this world, but not of this world. It is expected, anticipated, prepared, and longed for by the people in this world. But it is not for people of this world. It is for God's children. The people of God.

So this morning, as we reflect on the beautiful meaning and power of advent, in its story-telling wreathe and significant colors, remember the spirit of Advent which draws our attention toward the up-building and establishment of God's Kingdom. May our lives reflect the expectation, anticipation, preparation, and longing that is necessary for the completion of the Kingdom of God. May we be ever mindful of the glorious story that we take part in, a story that is told in the wreathe of advent as well as in the heart of each Christian here this morning. May we not forget the power and meaning of the Advent season as we worship and exalt the Most Glorious, Most High, Almighty God. For this is a God that is eternal in being and in love, offering us life-giving Grace in Jesus the Christ.

Benediction:

May the God of Love and Kindness fill us with the courage and strength to build up the Kingdom of God. May we exalt the God who ushered in the Kingdom through Christ by devoting our words, thoughts, and actions to the purpose of completing that Kingdom. Let us not be bound by fear, selfishness, or weakness, but willingly strive to see the work of the Most High God done on this earth. For we live and love in this world, but not of this world. We live and love those in this world, recognizing they have worth and value beyond this world. Let us not forget these things in our busy lives of work, learning, and leisure. May our spirits embrace the Advent season, and may our lives bring Glory to God. Amen.

Remembering Thanks

What a wonderful time of year this is. We are at the threshold of a beautiful season, beginning with our thanks and transitioning into a time of gift-giving, all wrapped up in the celebration and warmth of friends and family. This is truly a blessed time. As we gather together to worship as a community of faith, I hope that we can take this opportunity to recognize that we have much to be thankful for. We have much to rejoice about, much that we can offer up to the Glory of God. But I must confess that although this season is new for 2006, it is also cyclical and repetitious in our lives, happening again and again and again with each new year. And that very cycle and repetition concerns me. It concerns me because like anything we do over and over again, it is easy to fall prey to that cliché phrase: “Going through the motions.” It is so easy to forget the profound meaning of Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas, that we often do not realize we have forgotten it. We simply do those things we have always done. So this evening I hope we can reflect upon the meaning of giving thanks, what it means for us as Christians who enter into this most glorious Thanksgiving holiday.

Thanksgiving does not mean football, although that particular religion does have a significant role in the holiday festivities for many families. Yes, I did say the religion of football, because it does have elements of religious worship and ritual which have become an influential part of our current society and culture. But as we, in our Christian tradition, interpret Thanksgiving, let us not think that the Bears, the Cowboys, or the Lions occupy the central meaning. Your Thanksgivings might easily be soured if your whole understanding is centered on football, because your team might easily lose. Thanksgiving is built upon the notion of Thanks, of offering up our Thanks, of celebrating in Thanks. So what is this thing we call thanks?

The definition of Thanks you might find in your dictionary--had you brought it tonight--would read something like this: Thanks: gratitude, recognition of responsibility. If we trace back the meaning of the word thanks in its history of use we will discover that “think” and “thank” share the same origin in Latin, stemming from the verb “to know.” As a result, “thank” gets developed throughout the history of Germanic and English language as a certain type of knowledge. In Old English, “thanc” is related to thought. Thus, the meaning of thanks, as we use it now, becomes clearer when we notice that the term is a type of thought, particularly a grateful one. Our definition mentioned gratitude, but it also mentioned recognition of responsibility; the deliberate thinking about who or what brought about our gratitude.

And gratitude needs to be further understood as well. Gratitude is a positive emotion of indebtedness. Often this emotion seeks to be satisfied with a return favor because it is so overwhelming. So when we put it all together, when we understand Thanks in light of gratitude and knowledge, we see that Thanks is a thought demonstrating indebtedness.

If you would turn in your bibles to Psalms 100: 4-5, I believe we will see a very famous example of how the Psalmist understood giving thanks.

Our Psalmist specifically recognized God as Good, Loving and Faithful. In using the term thanksgiving, the psalmist directs us toward an indebtedness that we should have to God's Goodness, Faithfulness, and Love. Why is God Good, Faithful, and Loving? The entirety of Psalm 100 praises God for being the source of life and for taking care of God's people. God has taken care of God's people through the redemption of our transgressions. In this, God has brought us hope. But what's more, God has provided us with the beauty of being in fellowship with the Almighty One.

So here we come to understand the way we use the term Thanks, what it means for us to give God thanks. But there is more to this holiday, for it has a historical origin. Every year in
November school children are taught about the first Thanksgiving. In this event the children of our nation are given the beautiful story of a peaceful feast between the newly arrived Pilgrims and the local native population of Wampanoag “Indians.” The Thanksgiving feast celebrated the gratitude of the Pilgrims toward their friendly Wampanoag neighbors. These Native Americans had not only been kind, but generously aided the Pilgrims by teaching productive farming techniques to the European new-comers. The welcoming relationship that was fostered and the food-stocks that were harvested were worth celebrating and feasting. Thanksgiving became an event to remember and enjoy the bounty of life's blessings by partaking in the blessing of sustenance in company and fellowship. The thanks that were offered positively “remembered” and rejoiced over the gift of friendship and survival. Now, many years removed from this historical event, we continue to offer our thanks, our remembrance, our joy. This is a day of feasting and celebration, often in new and unique ways which bring to the fore of our mind the provisions we have richly received. We give God thanks for being Good, Faithful, and Loving to us, God's indebted people.

There is a final aspect to thanks that is intimately related to the word's origin and use in terms of thought. In a sense, to give thanks is to remember. If there is an absence of thought, then there cannot be thanks. We cannot forget when we give thanks, for thanks requires the thoughtful confession of past fortune to appreciate present circumstances.

What good, then, is it to forget? I am sure many of you are better at forgetting than others. Some of you may have even forgotten that you forget. Now regardless of age or heredity, even the those of us who remember “everything” have difficulty remembering when we don't stop to contemplate and reflect upon the past. We have difficulty giving thanks for those things we appreciate when we forget why it is that these things are so valuable. Thanksgiving Day cannot be a day in which we forget the past circumstances which have led us to our present situation. For the bountiful richness of life we now enjoy is a direct result of our past fortunes. But it is not only a result of our past fortunes, it is also a result of our past mis-fortunes. The bounty of Thanksgiving resides in the realization that we have made our past mistakes and circumstances presently, positively meaningful through a God that is Good, Faithful, and Loving.

The idea of remembrance is a profound notion within the history of our Faith. It stretches back to the Israelites many thousands of years ago. But remembrance was also embraced by another religious tradition which traces its origin back to the Israelites. Within Islamic Theology, the idea of dhikr is both central and important to Muslim Faith. Dhikr is divine remembrance. For Muslims, one of the gravest sins is to forget God, Allah. Thus, there is a special place for Remembrance within Islamic Theology which places emphasis upon not forgetting Allah and Allah's divine goodness.

This understanding and focus upon Remembrance is central to our scripture passage this morning.

Turn with me to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 4.

Deuteronomy 4: 23

In this passage we are brought back to Moses' teachings about Idolatry. As the second of the 10 commandments, Idolatry is considered a terrible, grievous sin toward Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But let's not dive into the idea of idolatry as much as recognize an important phrase used here in our text. The words, “take care, lest you forget” is a formula to designate importance. In an oral culture where words could not be recounted unless they were remembered, the memory served an important religious function. The memory provided the slate for recording the acts of God and God's commands in the life of the common Israelite. Thus, in order to keep the Law of God, one had to first remember and then do the Will of God. Simply forgetting the Law of God was a passive rejection of God with grave consequences.
Flip a page or so to Deuteronomy 6:10, reading through verse 12.

Once again we find the all-important phrase “take care, lest you forget.” But in this passage we find that Remembrance is directly linked to the blessing of the promised land. The Israelites are instructed to remember, to not forget, the God who removed them from slavery and delivered them into the bountiful riches of a promised land where they could live and worship. To uphold this remembrance, the Israelites celebrated Pesach, or Passover, to commemorate this very liberation from slavery in the land of Egypt.

This notion of remembrance should inform us in our celebration of Thanksgiving. Like the Passover, Thanksgiving should be a time of remembrance and worship. We should give God our thoughts of gratitude for being Good, Faithful, and Loving. We should recognize our indebtedness by acknowledging that it is God who alleviates our insufficiency. But notice this, if we do not remember our insufficiency, if we do not recognize that we are in debt, then we cannot be grateful, and we cannot give thanks. In our scripture passage, the Israelites were told to remember the God who delivered them from slavery, who brought them out of the evil that surrounded them. God gave their suffering new meaning by redeeming them into fellowship with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in a land flowing with Milk and Honey.

We too, cannot forget our indebtedness. We cannot forget the fact that we have been plagued by sin. We also, cannot forget that we have suffered and been surrounded by evil. Each of us here has a story of sin, the evil you are responsible for, and a story of suffering, the evil you are not responsible for. God is Good, Faithful, and Loving because God has brought meaning and hope to both of those stories. God has redeemed your sin and offered you hope and meaning in your circumstances. There is not one thing that we should not give to God in thanks. Like the Pilgrims and Wampanoag Native Americans, let us offer up to God our Thanks for the abundance of God's blessing in Goodness, Faith, and Love. We can give thanks to God for our nation, which provides a national holiday where we can reflect and remember the past. But let us not forget.

Before we close, I want to leave you with the often untold story of the Wampanoag. These Native Americans occupied a place among the estimated 40 million indigenous people of America. Despite the beauty and joy of the first Thanksgiving event, over the course of the next hundred years or so, by 1650, there were less than 10 million Natives. This was the direct result of disease on the one hand, but also a systematic slaughtering on the other. The destruction of more than 30 million people resulted from a genocidal sin that saturated the origin of our nation. We tread their blood beneath our feet. This is an equally important thing to remember as we celebrate Thanksgiving. For Thanksgiving marks a special day to celebrate the peculiar and uncommon friendly fellowship between Native and European. But it is not a day to overlook and forget the brutality and malice of our nation's history. We must give thanks because we have been redeemed despite our present sinfulness, and our past history of sin and evil. We are an unclean people of an unclean nation who need the cleansing forgiveness of a Good, Faithful, and Loving God. Let us not forget our past, our debts, our sin and our suffering. These things are equally important to acknowledge so that we might embrace our redemption by a loving and gracious God. A God who, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, gives us new hope and meaning.

So this Thanksgiving, as you celebrate with family and friends, “take care, lest you forget.” Take time to remember the truth of a Good, Faithful, and Loving God who is worthy of our gratitude. Give thanks to God, our Glorious redeemer.

God is Love

I struggled to come up with an appropriate sermon topic for this morning's message. Since I have the privilege of delivering the message this evening at the community Thanksgiving service, I thought it might be a little too much to focus on the issue of Thanks this morning. So instead of delivering a message about how to give thanks, or what thanks means, or our responsibility to be thankful, I thought I would touch on a scripture that provides us with something to be thankful for. And now this might seem basic, it might seem too simple, but I think the idea we will find in our passage this morning is often lost in the shuffle of Christian life and activity. Turn with me to our text.

Text 1 John 4: 7-12

There are about fifty sermon topics packed into this single passage from the author of the epistle of 1 John. But let's focus in on the heart of this message: Love. The first observation we should make is that the source of all Love is God. God produces Love. God is the spring, the generator, the creator of Love. There is not Love without God. The next observation is a little astounding: whoever loves is of God. Well, if you are like me, that seems like quite a radical jump. But I think that the connection is made quite clearly at the end of verse 8: God IS Love. Thus, if God is Love, and one possesses Love, then one possesses God. In other words, if you Love, then you are of God. God's presence saturates your being when you Love.

In a book written by Dr. Richard Selzer, there is a story that recounts an event surrounding one of his patients who underwent surgery for a facial tumor. The doctor found himself next to his patient's bed witnessing something that he attributed to the presence of God. He writes:

I stand by the bed where a young woman lies, her face postoperative, her mouth twisted in palsy, clownish. A tiny twig of the facial nerve, the one to the muscles of her mouth, has been severed. She will be thus from now on. The surgeon had followed with religious fervor the curve of her flesh; I promise you that. Nevertheless, to remove the tumor in her cheek, I had to cut the little nerve. Her young husband is in the room. He stands on the opposite side of the bed and together they seem to dwell in the evening lamplight, isolated from me, private. Who are they, I ask myself, he and this wry mouth I have made, who gaze at and touch each other so generously, greedily?

The young woman speaks. "Will my mouth always be like this?" she asks.

"Yes," I say, "it will. It is because the nerve was cut."

She nods and is silent. But the young man smiles. "I like it," he says, "It is kind of cute." All at once I know who he is. I understand and I lower my gaze. One is not bold in an encounter with a god. Unmindful, he bends to kiss her crooked mouth and I am so close I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate to hers, to show her that their kiss still works.

The doctor, in his amazement of the young husband's love, recognizes him as a god. Why is that? Did the doctor truly think this young man was Ra, Zeus, Shiva, or Yahweh? I wouldn't venture to say that Dr. Selzer actually thought he had before him a God among Gods. What I believe this doctor recognized was that this young man possessed a God-like attribute, something peculiar that seems to point beyond self-absorbed humanity. This young man had Love. Genuine Love. Real Love. And, as our text explains this morning, since God is Love, our doctor friend immediately realized the presence of God. This young man, filled with Love, was filled with God.

Our passage this morning goes on to explain a further step in understanding the relationship between God and Love. Not only is it true that God is the very Love we see in the world, but God also Loves us from outside the world. God, the Almighty One, transcends our world. There is a song that says: “God is bigger than the air we breathe, the world we'll leave.” If this is true, then God, being in very nature Love, is not only within the world, but is transcendent and therefore outside the world. This Love from outside the world is the very idea of unconditional love. Our world is full of conditions. Our lives are full of conditions. There is always something that influences the situation, be it time, physical location, or people. These conditions of experience do not apply to the entirety of God's Love. God, being Love, Loves us inside our world and outside of it. God Loves us in our conditioned life, but with an unconditioned Love that is from Above. Time, location, and other people do not hinder God and God's Love.

Our passage of scripture points us toward God's unconditional, un-earthly Love: Christ. Jesus Christ is the un-earthly Love of God breaking into our world. The Love we find in Christ's sacrifice for the atonement of our sins not only demonstrates the supreme example of Love for our own actions, but is also the in-breaking Love of God that allows us to taste true, unconditional Love for ourselves. For God Loved us! What a thing to be thankful for. What a thing to rejoice and be glad about. God Loved us!! But what's more, God still Loves us!! Christ is not a one-time deal, but the eternal in-breaking of God's Love!! There is no condition on the Love of God as expressed through Christ. Christ is the condition-less expression of God, the transcendent nature of God's Love being shoved into a life of ministry, death, and resurrection.

So this Thursday, as you are celebrating Thanksgiving with friends, family, or anyone that might accompany you, be reminded of the Love of God; the amazing, beautiful Love of God. Be reminded that God's presence is marked by the Love that is seen in our world. As the famous hymn is entitled: “They will Know we are Christians by our Love.” Remember that this is true, for just as Christ was the eternal in-breaking of Love, we are the current expression of God's Love for those around us. Never forget that we must bring God to the world, and that the only way to make this happen is to Love; and to do it abundantly.

Let us Sing.

Hymn.

Benediction:

God of Love and Grace, may we be ever thankful for the Gift of Love that you sent into our World. Let us rejoice always in the bounty and majesty of your servant, Jesus Christ, who gave to us the truth of divine Love through the Cross. May we never forget the reality of God in Love, so that we might be inclined to be missionaries of Love in all of our thoughts, words, and actions. And Gracious God grant us the perseverance to Love with the eternal in-breaking Love of Christ despite the conditions that surround us. For in Christ we Love, and in Christ we are Loved. In all of this, we are Thankful.

Amen.

The Suffering Widow

The church and money, money and the church. It seems inevitable that the topic of church funding and believer tithing should crop up. And as I was researching for this very sermon I discovered that the Disciple's lectionary included the text regarding the offering of the poor widow. So here I was, wavering between the lectionary text and the distaste for preaching on such a “tricky” topic. I have never been one to take church offering and donation lightly. I recognize its importance in the life of any church. I also understand the importance of committing financially to this church at this particular time in its history. However, I find it very challenging to encourage other's to give, especially when it can be construed that faith, grace, or salvation is somehow intricately related to the value or sincerity of the gift. In fact, it is not only this possibility that makes me wary, but it is also the very presence of such a perspective in our culture today. There are churches all over our nation and ministries all over the world which equate financial offering and faith, wealth and blessing.

Where might you find this theological understanding? Maybe you have stumbled upon a televangelist on a sleepless night. If you have, you probably sat and listened to their captivating stories of faith, blessing, and healing. They offer their message with power and passion, confidently attempting to bring about a new faith within television viewers. I often sense their energy and listen for their solutions to life's most difficult problems. And maybe you have done the same. Many times as I skip from channel to channel looking for something worthwhile to watch, I stumble upon a zealous preacher proclaiming the transforming power of Christ and promising their viewers unfathomable riches and blessings.

I hear stories of broken—and often broke—individuals who have received blessing—often financial—from giving their lives over to God. The televangelist time and time again instructs his or her viewers to have a true faith measured by the willingness of financial donation. The televangelist confidently promises that healing, blessing, and riches are promised to those who give of themselves, specifically through monetary contributions to God's work. And what better way to give to God's work than to give heartily to the very program or network that has inspired the new-found faith? After a few stories of miraculous healings attributed to the financial gifts of disease ridden Christians, we are asked to follow the words of Old Testament prophets and give so that God might give unto us. We are left with the promises of God seeming so close. All that needs to be done is call the telephone number and pledge an amount. We are told that sowing this seed will bring us the fruit of our grandest desires. Desires that God wants to and will satisfy, provided we give enough.

If you are familiar with this process, you may understand its peculiar use and interpretation of certain biblical texts. This message, often named the “Health and Wealth Gospel,” establishes a financial relationship between God and believer. Here, the gifts of believers demonstrate the faith required to receive further blessing from God. Thus, the conclusion is that healing and wealth can only come when individuals test the limits of their financial security. This is often supported by texts from the Hebrew Bible along with scattered New Testament passages.

But I can't help but ask myself a few important questions: Is God's Blessing that of financial riches or spiritual growth? Can God bless us without giving us wealth, health, or security? Is it possible for our faith to be adequately measured by the degree of monetary investment we make within a ministry or organization? Despite the message of the televangelist, there are more ways to demonstrate our Faith than with gifts to TBN or other televised ministries. Moreover, God's blessing is not limited to financial wealth or physical healing. There is power and richness in suffering and persecution. In addition, there is an equally great need for gifts of time, participation, and effort to ministries in our local community, in our state, in our nation, and abroad. When we boil down the message of the Health and Wealth Gospel, we see a suspect relationship between God and Humanity along with a suspicious accumulation of funds by televangelists and their organizations.

This is the very shaky theology that makes me hesitant to preach a sermon on tithing and our financial responsibility to the church and its ministry. But it is also this very misconception of church finance and believer tithing that inspires me to touch on this subject. And what better way to tackle such a topic than with a text that is often misinterpreted. Our passage this morning is repeatedly used to inspire everyone, poor and rich, young and old, ignorant and wise to make enormous financial sacrifice for the church and God's ministry. What is omitted, what is left out, is the very context of this passage and the attitude of Jesus toward the religious system that is being described. Today, this morning, you have the opportunity to witness the radical nature of Jesus' ministry and his passionate displeasure with the social ills that pervaded the religious scene. We will observe a dedicated widow, but we will not overlook the corrupt system that drove widows into destitution and poverty.

Turn with me to our text this morning.

Mark 12:38-40

If you have joined us in bible study over the past few weeks, you will remember that as we studied the book of Matthew the theme of “Hypocrisy” became extremely important to Jesus' teachings in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus sought inner purity and motive, not outer demonstration for the good of personal glory. Jesus lambasted the empty actions of the religious leaders of his day, something that surely left those very leaders frustrated and angry. Here, in our passage this morning, we find Mark portraying Jesus in much the same light. Jesus, fed up with religious hypocrisy, teaches his disciples not to follow in that folly. He cautions them against the scribes who walk around in long robes and are greeted publicly in the marketplace. These robes would have been readily understood by Mark's readers as lavish dressings made for show and display. The greetings in the marketplace involved common Jewish worshipers prostrating themselves in front of the religious leaders to kiss their feet. The vanity and excess of the scribes, pharisees and religious leaders of the day appears to have driven Jesus virtually insane.

Thus, Jesus' message was not only aimed at his disciples, but it seems to be a radical call for change in the religious system of the day; a system that not only thrives on vanity and worldly glory, but also exploits the weak and vulnerable to achieve this goal. Here, in verse 40, Jesus explicitly mentions the widows' houses being devoured by the scribes. This is not to mean that the scribes ate people's homes, but rather that the estates of widows were being exploited to benefit the religious leaders of the time. Often, widows were looked after by the “scribes” and Jesus seems to understand that they were being taken advantage of; used for their possessions and monies to support a religious system that paraded in vanity and hypocrisy.
Given Jesus' displeasure for the religious leaders and their actions, we turn to a specific example of scribal exploitation. Return with me to our text. Verse 41.

Given the context of Jesus' recent teachings, it is almost as if Jesus is bringing his disciples on a field trip to witness the plight of the widow as a definitive example of poor religious leadership and an exploitive religious system. The widow, in all her poverty and need, gives to the offering offering box just as the rich give. But what is amazing here is two-fold: the first important thing to notice here is traditionally understood as the perseverance and virtue of the widow, who having nothing, still gives to God what she feels to be God's. There are no excuses for this woman who willfully sacrifices the source of her future livelihood, all that she has left. She has given out of her poverty more than any of the rich have given out of their abundance.

This first observation usually leads to the conclusion that we, in our abundance, have much that we can give and few excuses to fall back on. The church and God's ministry needs money and offerings and we should be willing to go great lengths to provide such support and funding. However, this is one interpretation I do not believe to be complete unless we fully understand the total intent of Jesus in teaching about this event. Jesus' final words are this: “Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, ALL that she had to live on”... and although Jesus does not use the following expression, the context and the mood of Jesus' words seem to be adequately concluded with the phrase: “What a shame!” Jesus is not only drawing our attention to a virtuous widow, but also to the evils of a system where a widow, who should be the recipient of these offerings is actually a contributor. The widow, in all her destitution is still expected to contribute even though it will break her. And this system not only exploits such people as these, but it does so while maintaining a false disguise of piety and religiosity. Ultimately, Jesus is revealing the evils of the religious leadership by not only pointing out their personal flaws and weaknesses, their hypocrisy, but also reveals the systematic evil of a religious society which perpetuates poverty and suffering instead of alleviating it.

This radical message of Jesus may be the very source for his arrest and eventual crucifixion. What we witness in these texts is a man who passionately seeks to overturn the evil, not just personally in individual instruction, but collectively in social reform. Jesus calls for the end of social injustice and exploitation as much as he does for personal purity and repentance. Like a prophet of the Hebrew Bible Jesus makes lasting statements about the nature of society and its religious circumstances. These are not to be taken lightly or swept away to be ignored. Jesus is a radical who brings a profound message aimed at transforming not only people, but peoples. This is a message that will change both individuals and the world.

So today, as we think about our offering and tithing, let us remember the plight of the poor widow. We are not asked to sacrifice our livelihood for the good of the church. No, the church's very aim is to maintain, sustain, and even create the livelihood of its people for the Glory of God. The offering plate should not be seen as an over-whelming source of hardship and suffering. Rather the offering plate should be a beacon of Hope and Love, Grace and Mercy. We who are not in a circumstance of financial poverty should be joyfully willing to give a portion of the abundant blessing we have received already from God. Not so that we might receive more from God, even though we might, but to provide for the ministry of a church that relies on the contributions of its members.

Finally, let us not forget that the contributions we offer extend beyond tithing. God asks that we give to our religious community, and this giving can take many forms. This church desperately needs your time, effort, and energy. This church, as it moves forward with important and lasting projects, begs for your willingness and dedication in many aspects beyond money. Ministry requires people willing to minister, and as much as money can minister, money needs people or it loses its voice and character. Money does not talk, people talk. Money does not comfort, people comfort. Money does not encourage, people encourage. Money does not have a helping hand, people have hands. Money is not God's Love, people must be God's Love. Thus, do not feel as though God requires money for salvation, or that if you cannot give that you are somehow spiritually inferior. God's favor does not rest in wealth and health, but in hope and love.

However, we should also notice that because we have such abundance, we must be willing to give back to God what is truly God's. We cannot excuse ourselves from giving to the church. If we do not have money, give effort and energy. If we lack energy and effort, give time. But do not think that money is all the church needs. And for those of us who do have money, who have been blessed abundantly by the most high God, please give joyfully to the One who sustains your livelihood in generosity. We have much to offer, let us not hinder the work of God out of our selfish ambition and desire for personal gain. We gain only in the Love of God, and that Love is found not only in our personal ministry, but in the collective ministry of this Church. May that be a powerful transforming ministry for the Glory of God. Amen.

Let us Sing.

Benediction:

May the God of Grace and Peace give us strength and courage to pursue God's everlasting Cause of Righteousness and Justice. May the Most High God provide us the means to make such glorious Kingdom a reality. Let us not squander such means, but may we recognize that all we have is truly God's so that we may further God's Will and Way. There are many gifts we have to offer, may we not hoard them up to maintain our own glory, but may we offer them to God's work, to toil in sacrifice and hardship for the Glory of God. For it is in God that all things are given, and in God all things are one day returned. May we wholly step into the offering plate this morning. Amen.

Loving with Agape

Text: Mark 12: 28-34

Have you ever been asked to define love? It's a tough proposition. So many different aspects seem to accompany that concept. There is physical attraction, emotional connection, intellectual stimulation and even elements of the “unknown” or “inexpressible.” I am told that many pages of many books, many stanzas of many poems, and many thoughts of wise women and men have been devoted to investigating the idea and expression of “love.” But what is love anyway? Why is it so difficult to understand, yet so easy to “feel.” Why does it appear that there are never the “right words” to adequately capture and communicate the emotion we possess inside? With all these questions about love, how can we possibly be expected to love God when we can't even grasp that notion between two humans? So today, with the help of Mark's passage, we might try to construct an idea of love that will not only properly describe our relationship to God, but that might inform our understanding of how to interact with those around us.

I once heard an interesting story about two people who seemed to be in love. A young man, still in school was dating a young woman who, after finishing her studies, had began a nursing career. Because she considered their relationship to be quite serious and because she loved the young man so, she offered to help pay for his collegiate expenses. Thus, her income was used to repay the college loans that the young man had taken out to pay for school. As their relationship developed, discussions of engagement and marriage prodded the young man to consider asking his lovely girlfriend to marry him. Unfortunately, this young man did not have the funds to purchase an engagement ring despite his grandest desires to give his loving girlfriend something special. However, there did seem to be one solution.

The young man had been managing his school loans and each additional loan he had needed to take out his girlfriend willingly payed. Thus, the young man thought it quite brilliant to take out an additional “school” loan to acquire the needed cash to pay for an engagement ring. He simply put that additional loan on the list of school loans his girlfriend payed for and “voila”... he now had an expense free gift for his girlfriend to bind them in commitment to one another.
Unfortunately, this “brilliant plan” was concocted without the knowledge or approval of the girlfriend. Needless to say, she was quite impressed with the expensive engagement ring that her boyfriend gave her, never realizing she paid for it herself.

As funny as this circumstance is, it does lead us to a few important questions. Is this a demonstration of love? Would you, in the girlfriend's position, consider this to be an expression of love or a deceitfully sly maneuver to remain financially afloat? Is there something missing from this gift? I hope that despite your chuckles you see through this young man's error to realize that true Love requires sacrifice. There is something about “doing it the easy way” that detracts from the young man's gift. The uneasiness we have in accepting this method of acquiring such a gift is rooted not solely in the lack of honesty, but in the mirage of this ring as a “gift.” The engagement ring was not a gift because it was not the young man's to give. The dishonesty surrounding the ring stems from the very fact that the young man used someone else's money to provide the ring, and thus did not sacrifice himself for it.

The love that the young man signaled to the young woman through the ring does not seem complete. Yet, we cannot deny that the young man probably possessed an attraction and friendship with her. I think this story begins to hint at the downfall of the English word for Love. You see, in Greek there existed several distinct and different words for love: eros, philia, and agape. Eros, the root of our English 'erotic', means passionate attachment. It was narrowly understood to be a recognition of beauty. However, the connotation surrounding eros was physical. Usually it was employed to describe physical, romantic love.

Philia, found in words like Philadelphia (“city of brotherly love”), meant the love between friends. This bond of “friendship” was often considered to culminate in the mutual recognition of compassion and loyalty between two people. This kind of love might be understood as the bedrock of all other notions of love, for it provides the foundation by which any relationship can be cultivated. Yet, in itself, philia is not the totality of love. For there is yet another form: agape. This third way of expressing love is considered self-giving, for it is a sacrificial compassion. Although Philia culminates in compassion agape requires compassion to be more than a feeling, but an action. The self-giving nature of this compassion is almost entirely idealistic; meaning that it is difficult if not impossible for us to attain. Yet I believe this is the distinction we make when we say: “Do you love her, or do you love her?” I think that agape was left out of the equation in our story of the young man, thus making his love seem incomplete.

Now, let us return to our text this morning and investigate how God asks us to love by understanding the type of love to which God calls us. To give us some context, we need to remember that Jesus had been approached by the Sadducees on the issue of the Resurrection. Now what is important to understand here is that the Pharisees and the Sadducees are not exactly two loving arms of the same religion. The Jewish religious landscape at the time of Jesus was splattered with divisions much like Protestant Christianity is today with denominational divide. The Sadduccees were the protectors of the temple cult, meaning they administered sacrifices at the temple. The Pharisees were more concerned with the strict obedience of the more rigorous “oral law”. This was an additional system of laws outside the Torah. The Pharisees believed that if a Jewish person were to follow the oral law, they would naturally obey the written law. The Sadducees rejected this notion of the oral law as well as other teachings of the Pharisees. One of their biggest disagreements was about the nature of the Resurrection.

The Pharisees adamantly maintained that there would be resurrection of the dead, but the Sadducees vehemently denied this. Thus, when the Sadducees approached Jesus on the issue of the Resurrection, they were more or less testing out his theological beliefs to discover if he aligned with their understandings. In Jesus' response to them he supports the idea that God is the God of Resurrection. Naturally, the Pharisees would be very happy with this response. And it is described just that way. Look at verse 28.

A scribe, one of the Pharisees, found that Jesus answered well. He agreed whole-heartedly with Jesus' rejection of the Sadducees theological beliefs. Thus, this scribe genuinely asks Jesus a question, not out of contempt or trial, but out of interest. And Jesus answers him very succinctly. First Jesus offers to the scribe what was known as the shema. This is found in Deuteronomy Chapter 6, verse 4 and can be what we might call a Jewish “statement of faith”: “Hear , O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One” (v. 29). Jesus then continues to quote the fifth verse of Deuteronomy 6 by saying how it is that we are to love God. Finally, Jesus quotes Leviticus 19:34 when he offers the “second” commandment: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 31).

The very concise view of the entire Law that Jesus provides is not necessarily original to Jesus. Rabbi Hillel, a contemporary of Jesus, offered similar understandings when he was quoted as saying: That which is hateful to thy self, do not do to thy neighbor; this is the whole law and the rest but commentary. Go and learn.” But what Jesus does uniquely here is not simply sum up the law into basic propositions, but he provides insight into how we go about those basic propositions.

The key passage is in the idea of loving God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Jesus tells the scribe that the most important things is to love, but not with any kind of love, with a specific type of love. This is a love of the entire personality. It covers the mind, the emotions, and the will. The “heart” in Hebrew understanding was the seat of man's thinking. The “soul” was considered to be the spring of man's will and feelings. The “mind” was the source of intelligence and thought, and was often interchangeable with the Hebrew conception of “heart.” The Hebrew perspective on “strength” was that it represented the physical power and being of man. Thus, this collection of words points toward the entire personality, the whole “being.” There is nothing with which we can hold back in our love of God. It is a complete and total orientation of the self.

Given the different Greek words for love, it is entirely obvious and sensible that the word Mark uses in our passage this morning is agape. We are called to give our entire selves to God and this giving is sacrificial. It is what it means to Love God as God. And thus, when we can devote ourselves entirely to God in self-giving Love, we can then properly Love those around us. This understanding of Love was made complete in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Jesus is both a model for us, and an expression for God. Jesus models a complete devotion to God in Love and Obedience, and then models ultimate sacrifice for others in his death for all humanity. But Here we also see the supreme demonstration of God's agape for humanity through Jesus. God loved us all supremely, in that we are offered Grace through Jesus' death.

The scribal Pharisee affirms Jesus' words saying “You are right, Teacher” (v. 32). He too believes that these commandments are more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices of the temple cult, which is why he became a Pharisee and not a Sadducee. But it is more than affirming his political name within Judaism, it is an admission that Jesus is correct in his understanding of Love. Thus, Jesus responds “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” This is not the future Kingdom, but the Kingdom that would begin upon the death and resurrection of Christ. The Kingdom of forgiveness and Grace, of Righteousness and Good Work. This is the Kingdom of Love and Sacrifice. The scribe has thus made his place in this Kingdom through his recognition of true Love.

This morning, as you reflect on the words of Jesus written in Mark, ask yourself if you have completely committed yourself to God. Have you made God the object of a self-sacrificing Love? Or have you fallen short and not truly given of yourself? Are you holding to a friendship and passionate attachment like the young man who bought the engagement ring with his girlfriend's money? Or are you truly in Love with God?

No matter how you answer that this morning, the Good News is that God is truly in Love with you. He has supreme agape for you and longs for you to seek after that same love for God and God's people. Will you do that this morning? Will you commit yourself to God and God's people this morning? I pray that you will.

Come. Let us sing.

Hymn.

Benediction: May the God of Grace and Love shower his blessings upon you as you toil and work for the furthering of God's Kingdom. May you fully realize the depth and beauty of God's Love so that you can return it to God and to God's people. There is nothing more Glorious than to feel the presence of the Almighty God wrapping God's arms around you in protection, mercy, and compassion. May that be the reality of our embrace as well, that we would wrap our arms around those who need our protection, mercy and compassion. Let us Love the Lord our God with all our Heart, Soul, Mind and Strength, and Love our Neighbor as ourself. There is nothing greater than this for the rest is just commentary. May we go, Love, and learn. Amen.

The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus

Text: Mark 10:46-52

Our scripture passage this morning is a very interesting story. There is a degree of depth and beauty in this passage that may not initially strike us, but upon further examination, re-examination, and reflection hopefully we can discover a powerful truth embedded in the words here. Ask yourself the following questions this morning: What does it mean for Bartimaeus to be healed? What did it take for Bartimaeus to be heard? And what is the reaction of Bartimaeus to his healing? Finally, What can we learn from this passage given its place within the gospel of Mark?

After asking yourself these textual questions, ask yourself about your own receptivity to the answers we propose. To phrase it another way, as you are asking yourself questions about the text, think about whether or not you are willing to listen to the answers. Will you let this passage affect you this morning? Will you take the meanings of this text and apply them in your own lives? Will you only hear the words of Mark, or will you listen to the words of Mark? Listening requires both hearing and understanding, and understanding demands application. Thus, in listening to Marks words, will you be transformed by the power and beauty of understanding the message, and will you follow Jesus alongside Bartimaeus? My prayer is that our hearts are not callused by self-righteousness, that we would be humble enough to investigate the message this morning and genuinely respond to its implications.

Before we return to the text, allow me tell you of an experiment I read about this week. It actually reminded me of a similar experiment we tried in my high school science class, and the results were strikingly similar.

Sometime ago psychologist Ruth W. Berenda and her associates carried out an interesting experiment with teenagers designed to show how a person handled group pressure. The plan was simple. They brought groups of ten adolescents into a room for a test. Subsequently, each group of ten was instructed to raise their hands when the teacher pointed to the longest line on three separate charts. What one person in the group did not know was that nine of the others in the room had been instructed ahead of time to vote for the second-longest line. Regardless of the instructions they heard, once they were all together in the group, the nine were not to vote for the longest line, but rather vote for the next to the longest line. The experiment began with nine teen-agers voting for the wrong line. The subject would typically glance around, frown in confusion, and slip his/her hand up with the group. The instructions were repeated and the next card was raised. Time after time, the self-conscious subject would sit there saying a short line is longer than a long line, simply because s/he lacked the courage to challenge the group. This remarkable conformity occurred in about 75% of the cases, and was true of small children and high-school students as well. (www.sermonillustrations.com)

It is simply amazing how willing we are to conform to the standards that are around us, to the expectations that are before us. It is difficult to step out against the crowd, to move in the direction opposite of accepted thinking. Moreover, it is tremendously tough to face the actual opposition that occurs in pursuing a minority viewpoint. Although you may recall examples in your own lives when you dissented from the majority and were ridiculed, there are some important events in history which adequately illustrate the value of minority thinking.

Take, for example, the issue of slavery in 19th Century America. There are countless examples of strong-minded individuals who were killed for making it their life's work to expose the evils embraced by the majority of society. One such person was Elijah Parish Lovejoy, the son of a congregational minister. A Princeton Theological Seminary graduate, Elijah Lovejoy became the pastor of the St. Louis Presbyterian Church in 1834. He established a religious newspaper called the St. Louis Observer and advocated the abolition of slavery. In 1836, Lovejoy published a detailed account of a lynching and trial where the leaders of the hanging were acquitted. Many were angered by the sensational report and some gathered together to destroy Lovejoy's press. After having his press destroyed, Lovejoy moved to Alton, Illinois where he continued to advocate abolition. He had his new presses destroyed over and over again, but he persisted in publishing his views in an attempt to confront the violence and evil of slavery. After being given a press by the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, a local mob attempted to destroy it. This final encounter resulted in the tragic shooting and death of Elijah Lovejoy.
(http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASlovejoy.htm)

Now, place yourself as a Christian in a society dominated by slave-holder rationale. Put yourself in the mindset of a person who recognizes the wickedness saturating society. What would you do? Would you speak up or cry out? Some might think they would simply move to a place where there thoughts were not in the minority. But slavery was a pervasive issue all over the United States at that time, not just in the South. Abolitionists in the North faced immense obstacles in declaring their message and were often subject to intense mobs attempting to prevent them from speaking or being heard. Here are the written words of a Vermont Bishop in the Episcopal Church:

I shall prove in [this] book, by the most unquestionable authorities, that slaves and slaveholders were in the Church from the beginning; that slavery was held to be consistent with Christian principle by the fathers and councils, and by all Protestant divines and commentators, up to the very close of the last century, and that this fact was universal among all churches and sects throughout the Christian world.

(Bishop John Henry Hopkins, 1864)

Now, over a hundred years later, we recognize the cruelty and iniquity of the racism that created and perpetuated slavery as an institution. We have witnessed the Civil Rights Movement and find ourselves in a culture and time where the majority is appalled at the concept of slavery. But this was not always the case. Even 19th Century Christianity--as represented by a large diversity of denominations--embraced slavery as a God-given structure within society. To eradicate this warped perspective took the effort and sacrifice of countless lives. These heroes of human rights spoke out and resisted the evil of slavery. They cried out and would not be silenced. They were not even silent in death, for their very death proclaimed their cause. Their memories cried out to the conscience of a nation.

Return with me to our text this morning. We are going to focus on a character in Mark's Gospel that will not be silenced. Let us look again at the blind Bartimaeus. First, to acquire some context, remember that we have been touching on the subject of discipleship and faith over the last few weeks. In following the Disciple's lectionary we have explored the Gospel of Mark, specifically chapters nine and ten. These chapters are part of a specific section of this Gospel relating to discipleship. In chapters 8-10 Mark gives us insight into the nature of following Jesus; about its properties, hardships and rewards. If we examine the “bookends” of the discipleship section we will notice an important framing technique. In Mark 8:22-26, Jesus heals a blind man with Jesus' own saliva and a little mud. Then in our passage this morning we find Jesus healing yet another blind man. These miracle stories are not simply there as a progression of events that happened in the life of Jesus. These miracle stories actually have a purposeful significance: they frame and highlight Jesus' teachings about discipleship.

Thus, these specific miracles of sight allow the reader to understand that there is a consistent message within the teaching found in between. Also, these miracle stories are dividers in that they signal a transition from one section of Jesus' ministry to another. Following the healing of blind Bartimaeus, the Gospel of Mark will continue in chapters 11-13 to investigate questions regarding the divinity and humanity of Jesus, or what is called Christology. As a result of sectional transition, our scripture passage this morning should be instructive for discipleship, but should also hint at the Christology of Jesus. Ultimately what we find is that this miracle story is a pivotal point within the Gospel. It tells us that we have come to the end of Jesus' teachings on discipleship, and it also directs us toward the content of the passages to come.

Now we can easily label this portion of text a “miracle story.” But there is something more going on here. Mark is not describing the healing of an anonymous beggar, but is instead pointing out the name and person of a follower of Jesus. Thus, we can also label this passage a “Call Narrative.” Like the disciple's who were named and called to follow Jesus, so Bartimaeus is called out and then follows.

If we take the literary context of this scripture into consideration, we discover that this important passage reveals a disciple of Jesus who engages in acts of discipleship through recognizing Jesus as the redemptive hand of God. How is that Bartimaeus does this, well he simply cries out to Jesus. Turn with me to verse 47.

Now being a blind beggar was not necessarily disgraceful. There was not much else a blind man could do in those days, yet if you asked Bartimaeus, he probably would not tell you that begging was his vocation of choice. As a result of this desire to be changed, Bartimaeus cried out incessantly to Jesus. In verse 48 we see that he is rebuked for calling out to Jesus. And what does good ole “Bart” do? Bartimaeus cries out all the more! He will not be silenced. Seeing this, Jesus stops, and calls on Bartimaeus. And Bartimaeus throws off his cloak, racing to the feet of Jesus. Jesus asks blind “Bart” what it is that he can do for him, and “Bart” asks for his sight to be returned to him. Jesus heals Bartimaeus and tells him to go. But Bartimaeus, who calls Jesus “Rabbi” or teacher follows Jesus toward Jerusalem. Bartimaeus presumable follows the one he recognizes as teacher so that he can be discipled.

What is it that makes Bartimaeus the recipient of Jesus' healing? Bartimaeus is a beautiful example of two important traits of faith and discipleship. Faith and discipleship require two important things: recognition of need, and a committed willingness. If you will remember, we have over the weeks seen that Faith is rooted in Grace, the realization that we are desperately in need of God's Love and Mercy. Bartimaeus does not simply solicit Jesus for healing, but he first actively recognizes his own need. He says: “Have mercy on me!” Bartimaeus recognizes that he is in need of Mercy, that he is needful. Whats more, Bartimaeus will not be silenced. Rebuked by the crowd that was probably following Jesus as he traveled and taught, Bartimaeus called out louder: “Have mercy on me!”

And then, upon being healed, Bartimaeus chose to follow the teacher. He became a disciple of Jesus on the road to Jerusalem, and he recognized the power and beauty of Jesus' message of hope and transformation. So what can we learn from good ole “Bart”? Do not let anyone or anything silence your cry for help. Receptivity is the foundation of Faith. We must be receptive by recognizing that we need to receive. To remain receptive means ever-lasting recognition that we are in desperate need for God's help. We are beggars who cannot see and need the healing touch of God. But being blind in itself should not hinder out pursuit of righteousness in God's Grace.

Like Bartimaeus we too must throw off our cloaks, give up our “old” selves and fall at the feet of Jesus to be transformed. This takes great courage. Bartimaeus, in the face of ridicule and rebuke, cried out all the more for the Mercy of God. He would not be silenced, but stood steadfast in his need, recognizing the redemptive power of the Most High God. I tell you this morning, that this thinking is difficult. It is much easier to follow the accepted norms of society. Bartimaeus did not have a disgraceful occupation. He was simply doing what was expected of blind men. But Bartimaeus hoped for more.

Will you hope for more this morning? Will you follow Jesus as the Disciple Bartimaeus followed Jesus? Will you take up the courage to fall at the feet of Jesus and first say “yes, I am in need”? Will you then take the risk of standing against evil and injustice in this world, even if it means parting with the “typical” or the “accepted” found within society? Will you be transformed by the Grace of God and follow after Righteousness, doing something that is different, unexpected? Shape society by what you do as a follower of Christ. Be an initiator, be a change-maker. The power of Christ's message lies in transformation. Let that transformation happen within you, then make it happen in the world around you. Step out as a Disciple of Christ, but do not, please do not, stand still. To follow Christ means to do just that, move forward with Christ. Elijah Lovejoy did not stand still. Bartimaeus did not stand still. Will you?

Benediction:

Right now you have the opportunity to stand up and come forth, to come to the feet of Jesus and admit your need. You have the opportunity to accept the healing power of God's Grace and live for the Glory of the Almighty One. And finally you have the opportunity to join in fellowship with other believers, bound by the Love of God. May ou not stand still, may you not let your cry for help go silenced.