Why doesn't God just fix us?: The story of a blind man

He had a father once. His father's name was Timaeus. We do not know what happened to his father. Maybe he was dead. Maybe he just could not deal with having a blind son. Everyone dreamed of having a son in Jesus' day. A son meant a future, someone who could make an income, someone to care for you in your old age. Timaeus must have been thrilled to have a son, to know that his bloodline would continue, that he would have help, support, recognition.

It would not have taken long for his parents to realize that their baby was blind. Or perhaps he had been born with some sight but it had been taken from him gradually, slowly, painfully. He could have fallen ill and lost his sight. He could have had an accident. Whatever happened, at some some point, Bartimaeus became blind. And, at some point, his family left him. By the time we meet him, he is alone. The son of Timaeus is alone and blind.

He sat beside the road on the way to Jericho. It was a good road to beg, narrow and windy. People who were traveling could not avoid the blind man. They could not pretend that they didnt see him. The road was too narrow for avoidance. No, people would have to pass right by and their discomfort, their shame, their guilt would sometimes bring them to give him food or water or better yet, money. And occasionally someone gave him something not out of guilt but out of genuine kindness. And these moments were probably like light itself to him.

Most blind people can hear really well. They must hear, it is all that they have. They are forced to depend on their other senses. Those senses sharpen. Bartimaeus must have heard rumors about this Jesus, the one who could heal, the one who performed miracles. He must have heard people talking as they walked, listened in on conversations as travelers processed what they had heard, what they had seen, as they discussed the way that Jesus looked, the miracles that he did. He cured the blind! The lame walked! The dead came back to life! They were saying that this Jesus from Nazareth was the Messiah, the Son of David.

Bartimaeus began to hope, you know that he must have begun to hope. Would Jesus ever walk his way?

Then, one day, he heard the name. Jesus was coming! Crowds were amassing in Jericho to see him. He would pass right this way, on this narrow road. This was the chance of a lifetime. This was the moment.

Bartimaeus was used to being shoved aside, ignored, even trampled in crowds. How would he get Jesus to come to him? How could he make sure that Jesus came, that he healed? The only thing he had was his voice. So as Jesus approached, Bartimaeus began to yell. People told him to be quiet. They told him to shush, but he ignored them. This was his only chance, the chance of a lifetime.

"Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Bartimaeus was smart! He was acknowledging that he believed Jesus to be the Messiah. "Son of David," he cried out again, "Have mercy on me!!"

Jesus hears him. He hears the urgency in this mans voice. He hears the plea, the desperation, the hunger, the need. But instead of walking to the blind beggar who sat on the side of the road, instead of walking by him like everyone did and healing him on the way, Jesus stops and stands still. He tells his disciples to call the blind man. Jesus wants him to walk, to meet him on his own two feet. Jesus calls him to come.

And there is this moment when the blind beggar must get his rigid body off the ground and grope his way forward to the King of Kings. Only after his walk, only after he comes on his own two feet, in his sloppy, unsure, groping way, does Jesus heal him. And you would think that he would have walked tentatively, not knowing what was out there, but when Jesus calls him, Mark writes that he throws off his cloak and jumps up! He is bound and determined to seize the moment and find the Lord.

I find it fascinating that the Son of God made the blind man walk to Him. Why? Jesus had walked for hundreds of miles and would walk further still. He would have to pass Bartimaeus anyway. Why ask the poor man to get up and make such an effort?

Somehow, I believe that the effort was important. You see, when we ask God to fix things for us, God often wants us to go in on it with Him. God wants us to come first to Him, before all of our problems are solved, before we are healed. In fact, the healing often begins when we realize that the first steps must be in God's direction. You may think that the first and most important thing you need is for your problems to be solved, but the first thing is always to grope your way forward in the dark towards God, not knowing if anything will get better, not knowing if God will answer your prayers but somewhere, deep inside, understanding that it is your only hope.

It is hard to understand why the Maker of the Universe would want us to get up and walk. Why doesn't God just do it all for us? Why does God ask us to try stuff when we cannot see clearly, when we are not even sure what it is that God is asking of us? Dont you sometimes feel like you are trying to do God's will and you don't even know what that will is? That you are groping in the dark, hoping that at least your efforts please Him?

That blind man must have looked like such a fool, in front of all the disciples and the crowds. Jesus asks the disciples to call Bartimaeus for him. He does not do it himself, so the blind man does not even know the sound of his Master's voice. He has to walk around in the dark, listening to the movement, the beating hearts, the sounds of many voices. Until he finds the Lord.

The blind man is healed because asks, yes, but also because he gets up and goes out to find Jesus. He doesn't just wait for God to fix his life, he acts to fix it too.

Dean Jose Angel is here today. He is the Dean of the Episcopal Cathedral in Havana, Cuba. He lost his voice a number of years ago, and they tried everything that they knew how to in Cuba. But no one could heal his voice. He came to the United States, hoping to find some help for his Cathedral. He did not know how he could continue to preach without a voice.

Here, about one year ago, as Dean Jose struggled to read just a portion of the Eucharistic prayer, Dr. Ryan Uitti, a neurologist at Mayo, was watching and listening. After the service, Ryan told Dean Jose that he believed he knew what was wrong. His problem was neurological, not vocal. He began a treatment plan at Mayo. You will hear him celebrate today. His voice is coming back.

Dean Jose prayed to God for help, and then he asked for help and he came to us, and we came to him. And a miracle occurred.

Theodore Roosevelt once uttered these words in a speech in Paris, France in 1910...

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood: who strives valiantly...who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly."

Today, you will be invited to bring your pledge cards up with you to communion. You will be asked to place them in a basket before the altar of God. Some of you might feel like the blind man, groping your way forward, thinking, why should I give when I need so much? Why should I get up and walk forward and give a portion of my income to God? Why doesn't God just give to me?

God gives best when you give too. God gives best when you go in search for him with your whole self, with your body, your mind, your resources, your talents, your money. Get up and walk. Dare to walk into the arena of life. Haven't you ever wondered why we only bring communion to those who cannot walk to the rail? Its not for convenience, it's because it is essential that you get up and walk to Jesus. Even if you have no idea which way to go. You may need to grope forward in the darkness to find Him. But when you find Him, He will open your eyes more. You will see. And you will give thanks.

And so Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, walked to Jesus, and his eyes were opened. And he gave thanks to God.

Eden and St Francis

Do you think that animals go to heaven?

Here is my theory. Ask yourself this: who got kicked out of Eden at the beginning? Was it the animals?

Only humans fell from harmony with God. Only humans have original sin. Only humans need to be baptized, to confess their sins. Animals need none of this. They never left Eden. When they die, the go to God. They never left, after all.

Bill was a therapist in a thriving hospital practice. He had been offered a job as an in house councilor in a big corporation. He did not know what to decide. One afternoon, he was walking down the street when he saw the door of a Catholic Church open. He went in, though he never went to church. He asked God what he should do. And he heard a voice in his head.

"I'll lead. You follow...All trust. No fear."

Brother Bill did not end up at either job. Instead he became a monk. He wore a robe made of patchwork from old jeans he had discarded. Every day, he goes out in the streets of Chicago and meets gang members on their turf. He calls them his brothers and they called him Brother Bill. He takes them around in his beat up old car. He takes them to the movies. When they get into fights with another gang and he gets wind of it, he comes to the scene and quietly just stands in between the gangs. One time a bullet flew very close to his head. Another time he was hit with a bottle but he did not move. He stands there, between guys who want to murder each other, he just stands there and loves them.

A saint is a crazy person. It is someone who does not see the world as we see it. They don't think down is down or up is up. They don't think that money is important or finding a companion of raising children right. They are so in love with God that they have returned to Eden. Being a saint is all about perspective. You have to fall in love with God totally and stop thinking like this world. When you do that, you begin to live in Eden again. Often people think that you are absolutely crazy. But hundreds of years later, they may realize you are a saint.

When Francis was a little boy, he saw a beggar. Francis was the son of a cloth merchant. He was in the town selling his fathers cloth. And there was this man who was hungry. Francis thought to himself, "This man is hungry!" so he ran after the man and gave him all the money he had made. When his father got home, Francis got severely punished. But the problem was that Francis did not see things as his father saw them. He saw a hungry man and he nothing else mattered but caring for that man, not money, not his dad's opinion, nothing.

Francis saw God in everything. He saw what God wanted and he saw what God made. It was as if he was already living in heaven. When his dad told him to come home, he said no, he was giving his life to God. His dad said, "Then give me your belongings." So Francis, in front of the Bishop and all the people, took off his clothes. All of them. And he stood, naked, like Adam and Eve. He was no longer concerned with what people thought of him. He thought only of God.

Francis saw this world as if it was Eden. When he saw a sunset, he would cry tears of joy at it's beauty. He spoke to the sun and the mom as if they were his companions. He held the animals and knew that they were precious in God's eyes, beautiful and valuable and magnificent.

Yesterday, Debbie our sexton found the body of a dragon fly. I stood before that dragon fly with some of the children and just stared at it in awe. It was so intricately made, so unbelievably beautiful! All the world could have just stopped for that one moment and witnessed its intricacy. That is how incredible is the handiwork of God. And Francis saw it.

Towards the end of his life, Francis got wounds in his hands and feet, just where the nails pierced Jesus. These wounds we now call stigmata. He did not show them to many people. He mostly hid them, but at was how deeply he felt the pain and joy of Jesus. He became just like Jesus.

Katie is a young woman in her 20's. In high school, she fell in love with God, like Bill, like Francis. She was homecoming queen and class president. But when she fell in love with God, she decided not to go to college but to move to Uganda. Because of war and a disease called AIDS, there are thousand of orphans on Uganda. Katie simply began to feed them and teach them about God. And then she started adopting. Now she is in her 20's and she has over 20 children. Is she crazy? Yes! Crazy in love with God. And supremely happy.

How much do you love God? Can you be crazy too? Or are you too afraid to let go of your reputation and your money? Look at these animals. You care for them. Don't you know that God will take care of you too? Look around you. Eden is still around us. It's called the Kingdom of God, but you have to Fall in love to see it. You have to let go of everything else to see it.

Submission

Jesus' brother, James, wrote long ago to the early followers of Jesus, "Submit to God."

I once counseled a man who at the age of forty had not yet married. The girl of his dreams was waiting for him, they had been dating for five years, but he would not marry her. So she was planning to move away. "I can't stay here, loving you and having you not want to marry me," she said. The man was distraught. He asked for help. When asked why he was so afraid to marry, he said that he was afraid he wouldn't be able to play golf.

Golf? What did that have to do with it? The man was afraid that he would have to give up his freedom, to put someone ahead of himself. He was afraid to submit to his wife. He was afraid to put her first, but there is no other way to have a successful marriage. We have to learn to put ourselves second.

The word to submit has taken such negative undertones. We think of it as an act of a weakling or a victim. It is a word used for abuse and oppression. But submission can also be an act of radical love, especially when it comes to God. To submit. The Greek word is hupotasso, upo means under and tasso means to place in order. Hupotasso, to place oneself under. Scholars believe it was originally a military term, meaning to place oneself under the authority of a commanding officer. The physical gesture associated with submission to God is to kneel or bow. It is a way of saying, "God, you are above me."

The disciples argued with each other about who would sit closest to Jesus in heaven. They knew that there would be a table in heaven, that they would be fed. But who would get to sit next to Jesus? Who would get the seat of honor? When Jesus asked them what they were talking about, their ambition embarrassed them and they didn't know how to answer him. "You must be like a little child to be with me," Jesus said.

When you ask God for something, what do you ask for? For health? For enough money? For a good job or home or successful business? Have you thought about what you are asking for? We all want health and success and popularity but are they really what we want? If the purpose of life is to sit near Jesus at the table, then maybe it is not good to put yourself first. Maybe you need to ask for what would make you more like a child. A child submits to the authority of the parent, it is part of the reality of childhood. A child does not always know what it best, so the parent must decide. Maybe instead of putting ourselves first, we need to follow James' advice and submit to God.

Just two weeks ago, the vicar of St. Mary's Church, Sue Carmichael, was attacked by a homeless man. I was early morning and he had come to receive some money. Damian was living in the woods. He had been drinking. Sue had known him since he was young. His mother was a drug addict. He was mentally ill. She had helped him for years. That morning, when he came in, he was holding a beer. "You don't want that," Sue said and she took the beer. And Damian went crazy.

He punched Sue in the face numerous times. Then he pushed her on her knees and held a knife to her neck. He is huge and strong. She was overpowered. But Sue said that she felt this incredible peace. She just kept saying, over and over again, "Damian, I love you. I love you. You don't want to do this."

Damian stood her up and put his big head on her shoulder and sobbed. "You have to call the police don't you?" he said. "Yes, I'm afraid that I do," she answered. Damian was taken into custody. Sue went to the ER, where she spent more time worrying about Damian than about herself. She is fighting for him to be put in a mental hospital rather than in jail. She fights for him.

Why was Sue not afraid? How was she able to trust, like a child? Well, for one thing, Sue Carmichael knows what to pray for. And she knows that her desires are not necessarily what God wants for her. So she has spent the past 30 years in Springfield ministering to the poor, the homeless, the mentally ill. She gives her money, her heart, her self. She knows what it means to be a baptized child of God. There is nothing to be afraid of. A baptized one already has everything that they could ever want.

When Damian brought her to her knees, Sue knew what it was like to be there. She did not try to get up, to fight him, to struggle. She stayed on her knees. She told him that she loved him. She trusted in the strength of God, not her own strength. She was not afraid.

In a radical act of submission, Sue was willing to die for God. She gave her whole life away.

Why are we called to give? To give is to visibly and practically put yourself under the authority of God. This pledge season, the church is going to ask you to pledge money. We ask you to do this first, before you decide all that you need and all that you want. Ask God first what He wants. Put his authority over yours. Be like a little child and ask your Father in Heaven to guide you. All the things that you want, they may not be what's best for you. Don't you know that there is so much more than just what we see before us? Don't you believe that God knows you better than you know yourself? Give, you baptized ones, and put God first in your life.

Oh, and my friend from my former parish, he did end up marrying his love. And he does play golf. But sometimes, when she needs him to be with her, he doesn't play but submits and loves her more.

James and Generosity

James was Jesus' younger brother.

I had a younger brother. I also have three sons, so I know the phenomenon of the younger brother. The younger brother, if healthy and outgoing, usually bothers the older brother. The younger brother is set to outdo the older. There is inevitable competition, envy, wrestling and yes, play.

Jesus lived with his family for many years. We do not know exactly how many, but he went back home with his parents at age eleven after being found in the temple in Jerusalem talking with the rabbis. From that point on, we hear nothing about his upbringing until his baptism in the river Jordan. But it can be assumed that he lived in Nazareth for at least a few years and continued to know and live beside his brothers.

James, along with his other siblings and his mother, came to Jesus after Jesus' ministry had officially begun. They came not to listen to his teachings but to make him come home. A crowd had gathered. James and his family declared in front of everyone that Jesus was "out of his mind." (Mark 3:21) and they tried to grab him. They wanted to bring him home by force, if necessary. All their experiences with their older brother told them that Jesus had gone crazy, that he was not acting like himself. Jesus' behavior was an embarrassment to them, such that they were openly hostile and tried to take him by force. They did not realize that, at Jesus' baptism, he had awakened to who he was. They just wanted life to go back to normal. They just wanted their brother back. What did they know about baptism?

After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to only one person who had not followed him in life. He appeared to his brother, James. I believe that James was able to see the risen Christ because, although he did not believe in Jesus, he did love him. He loved his brother and it was that love that opened his eyes.

Once James saw who his brother really was, James was baptized. Water poured over his head, just like it poured over your head, over my head. And from the moment he was baptized, James was changed.

Life cannot stay the same once you give your life to Jesus. Once the waters of baptism have poured over your head, everything changes. From that moment on, you don't belong to this world. You can avoid this fact and run from who you really are or you can begin to live into your inheritance and act like a child of God.

James would later write a Letter which was included in the Canon of the New Testament. He wrote that all of us who have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus are called to live out that baptism. If we do not act as baptized Christians, living for others and for God, we kill the faith in us. If we do not act baptized, our faith is nothing, it is dead.

Often when someone is baptized, we think, "Done! She is saved now. Heaven awaits her." And it is true that God opens the gates of heaven to those who are baptized but if they do not act on their faith, if they do not pray, and worship and give, then when the time comes to walk through that gate, they will not know how.

From the moment of your baptism, God says "Come Inside." "Come to me." " Feed my sheep. Tend my lambs." And from that moment, God will place people in your lives, people who need your help. And you must respond. You are called to be generous. You must give your life to God.

Jesus responded to those who needed him. When a woman who was not a Jew came to him, begging him to heal her daughter, at first he was rude. But her desperation reminded him of who he was. He was called to respond to all who crossed his path. Jesus, the Son of God, was himself baptized. And if we follow him into those waters, we must be willing to follow him out the other side and into the fullness of his life.

Do you remember the story of Corrie Ten Boom? She was a baptized Christian living in the Netherlands as World War II approached. She and her family aided the Jews in any way that they could. One day, a well-dressed woman came to her door with a suitcase. The woman explained that she was Jewish. Her husband had been deported and her son had fled. She was afraid to go home as the authorities had already come to her house once. Could she stay with them?

I want you to stand in the shoes of Corrie ten Boom and her family for a moment. Stand in that doorway. Corrie ten Boom could have said no. She and her family, they could have closed the door, and with good reason. To take in this woman meant possible death or imprisonment for them. They did not have enough food. There were a million reasons why this was not practical, not sensible. But the ten Booms knew who they were. They were baptized Christians. They did not put themselves first. They were called to give their lives away. Without hesitation, they took her in.

The ten Booms would house many Jews. They built a secret hiding place in Corrie's room. They erected a false wall behind her bookshelf. Just 30 inches, it was the size of a large wardrobe. But when the Nazis came arrest the ten Booms, six Jews hid in that room and were saved. Corrie's father and sister would die at the hands of the Nazis but Corrie herself would live to tell her story.

Do you really think you have a choice when that door opens and someone asks for help? Don't you realize that from the moment you were baptized, your life became God's own? And when the church asks you not for your life but for the simple act if giving money, don't you realize that generosity is part of who you are? Your money is not yours. It was washed away in baptism. You belong to God now and you live eternally with God. The generous life is what calls you now.

If Corrie had closed that door, James would say that her faith would have died right there on that doorstep. But she did not close the door, she opened it. She responded to her baptism by saying yes. How will you respond?

Words of Life

There is a video out on Youtube about a blind man. He is sitting on the sidewalk in a large city. He has placed a tin can in front of him and occasionally someone walking by drops in a coin.  There is a cardboard sign beside him that reads, "Blind. Need help."

The man patiently waits and listens to the sounds of people's feet rushing by, the sound of an occasional coin hitting the other coins in the can. After a few minutes, the man turns his head towards the sound of some high-heeled leather boots as they approach. The boots stop in front of the blind man. He reaches out and touches them, feeling their smooth leather surface. A young woman bends down, but instead of placing a coin in the can, she takes the cardboard sign and turns it over. Then she writes something on it and places it beside the man. She walks away.

Something has changed. Almost all the people passing by are now putting in coins. Some put in many coins at once. Some are stuffing in dollar bills. The man has to empty the can again and again.

Towards evening, the young woman returns. She stops in front of the blind man and he touches her leather boots. She bends down to talk to him.

"What did you write on my sign?" he asks.

"I wrote the same thing that you wrote. Only I used different words," she said.

The camera spans out so that the viewer can read the sign for the first time. It reads, "It is a beautiful day. But I cannot see it."

Words. They have immense power. They can illicit generosity or cut someone to the heart. What comes from your mouth effects not only you but those around you. You influence the course of your life by the words that you choose to use.

Andy was in fifth grade and he was on top of the world. He was swinging in the park beside Celeste, one of the prettiest girls in school. They were swinging higher and higher. "I am the king of the world!" he thought to himself. "I am smart, I am handsome and I am swinging with the prettiest girl in school!"

Celeste turned to look at him as they were swinging. And then she said it.

"You have an ugly profile."

Andy did not know what a profile was but he hated the word ugly. "What is a profile?" he asked.

"It is how you look from the side. You have a big nose," she said.

 

Andy swung lower and lower. He got off the swing and ran home, rushed to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. He had always thought he was handsome, but he had never looked at himself from the side. He turned his head. Sure enough, his nose stuck way out.

YOU HAVE AN UGLY PROFILE.

The words would stick in his mind for YEARS. The silly words of a fifth grade girl. And from that day forward, Andy never thought of himself as handsome again.

Words can redefine a person. They can drag you down. They can build you up.  But in our rush to get our words out, to accomplish more and say more, we forget that every single word we speak or write is full of power.

King Solomon was able to build an incredible temple to worship God. The Hebrew people had never dared to build a temple before. Yahweh was too vast, too mighty to be contained in a building. The reason that Solomon was able to accomplish this immense task was because of a promise that God had made to his father, David. God spoke to David, telling him that his son would build a temple. And these words were what made it possible for Solomon to conceive of such a thing. Solomon was given a word of encouragement from God.

What are the words that you speak to your loved ones? Do you build them up or do you tear them down? Do you realize the power of your words?

Jesus' words were so powerful that they could change lives. He spoke what he called "words of eternal life." These words could cause people to leave their work and their families behind and follow him. His words could provoke anger and hatred, even the desire to kill him. His words have echoed through the centuries, changing the lives of millions. To this day, we steep ourselves in the words of Scripture to ground ourselves and listen to God.

A pastor named Craig wrote about his life as a newly ordained minister. One day, a young man came to see him in his office. The young man was severely depressed. Craig had never witnessed someone in so much mental pain. He asked the young man, "Do you think about dying?"

The young man said, "Yes, all the time. All I can think of, over and over again, is how I should be dead. I don't deserve to be alive."

Craig was stunned. He had never heard such self-loathing before. "Please, God," he prayed. "Help me to find the words to say to this man..."

Craig jumped up and ran to his desk. He got out a piece of paper. "I am going to write numbers one to a hundred on this piece of paper. I want you to tell me one hundred reasons why it is good that you are alive; one hundred reasons why it is good for you to be here. I will sit with you for as long as it takes for us to do this."

The young man looked like a deer in headlights. "But I can't think of one thing!" he said.

"Yes, you can! Just start with one thing. One thing!!"

"I can write," the man said quietly.

"Great work!!" Craig cried.

Craig encouraged and coaxed and begged. Finally, after almost three hours, they had a list of one hundred things. The man left his office and Craig did not hear from him again. He prayed for this man every day for years. He did not know whether the man was dead or alive.

After almost ten years, Craig ran into the man in the grocery store. He told Craig that he was married, that he had a job. With tears in his eyes, he pulled out of his wallet a worn and crumpled piece of paper. It was the list of 100 things. He had kept it all this time.

Hold onto the words of life that are given to you. Pay attention that you do not utter words of hatred to yourself or others. If you do, fight those words of hatred with the Word of God, the Word of Life. 
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth by speaking words. God said, "Let there be light!" And it was so. Words are the stuff of life itself, the stuff of creativity.

 

So my question to you is this: what will you say?