Who's Laughing Now?

B Pentecost17 2015

September 20, 2015

Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-7

Mark 10:27

For AUDIO Click Here.
Sermon begins after the scripted reading.

Readers: Narrator, Abraham, Man, Sarah

Narrator: The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said,

Abraham: My Lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on— since you have come to your servant.

Narrator: So they said,

Man: Do as you have said.

Narrator: And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said,

Abraham: Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.

Narrator: Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate. They said to him,

Man: Where is your wife Sarah?

Narrator: And he said,

Abraham: There, in the tent.

Narrator: Then one said,

Man: I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.

Narrator: And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying,

Sarah: After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?

Narrator: The Lord said to Abraham,

Man: Why did Sarah laugh, and say, “Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?” Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.

Narrator: But Sarah denied, saying,

Sarah: I did not laugh;

Narrator: for she was afraid. He said,

Man: Oh yes, you did laugh.

Narrator: The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him.  And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Now Sarah said,

Sarah: God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.

Narrator: And she said,

Sarah: Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.

Grace to you and Peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Last week we started with God’s story of creation – particularly creating us… for relationship.  We’ve flown right past the stories of when things went sour: the snake in the garden, Adam and Eve’s sons Cain and Abel – first generation murders, the wickedness of the whole world that God “solves” with a flood, except it doesn’t solve anything.  Over and over again humanity keeps turning away from the God who created them.  It is hard for me to stomach how quickly we forget the goodness for which God created us: the goodness of stewardship of the earth and each other, the companionship and creative spark… how quickly we turn to use these things against God’s will for us.  Trying to overpower one another, rather than follow the lead of our empowering God.  Trying to claim for ourselves the title of ruler of our own creations, rather than honor the God who is the maker of all.   It’s really quite amazing how persistent God is.  If we were to read Chapters 3-18 of Genesis, story by story, we would see how messy it is.  And over and over again how quickly humans turn away from God’s desires and how strongly God desires reconciliation and right relationship with us – God has all this amazing grace for us over and over again.

And God’s efforts for relationship continue here, with the covenant with Abraham and Sarah.  Last March we made that woven cross now framed and mounted on the wall between here and the nursery, a symbol of what God is doing among us, weaving us into covenant community.  A community of people bound together by God’s Grace. 

The covenant God makes with Abraham and Sarah, is that they will parent a multitude.  A whole nation of God’s people will come from these two.  A nation that will count more numerous than the stars and will be graced to grace the world.

But, as you have figured out, there is a problem.  Sarah and Abraham think there is a problem anyway.  Abraham is 99 and Sarah is 90.  God doesn’t see this as a problem.  But they do.  Abraham and Sarah are incredibly faithful people.  They have listened to God’s command to move across the country.  They have endured famine.  They have challenged God, asked for proof of God’s promises.  They are deep-in with God.  Deep in relationship.  Worshipping God as their creator, praising God for all good things that come to them, and listening to God, they have tried to help God, even, accomplish what he has promised.  The promise of a baby. 

And so here it is that The Lord shows up.  Three “men,” show up at Abraham and Sarah’s tent.    Abraham and Sarah rush to provide food and shade for the guests that Abraham has begged to stay.  Did he know who they were at that point?  It is not clear.   But this gift of generosity and hospitality tells us something about Abraham and Sarah, and the kind of grace they were already showing the world. 

And the men stay, and they talk, they tell Abraham many things about The Lord’s plans… but first… it is this promise, once again.  This is the fourth time Abraham has heard this promise.  The first time he was 75 years old.  It’s 24 years later.  Imagine what that promise was like to hear When they were 75 and 66?  Fantastic I’m sure. (Sarcasm). Impossible!  But then God just keeps promising… and promising… and promising… is it any surprise that Sarah sees God like a deadbeat parent who never actually shows up for a playdate?  She has let go of the monthly anticipation, she no longer runs through her mental calendar for every bad piece of fruit she ate.  She hasn’t imagined the twinge of that butterfly movement in her abdomen for years.  Some of us here have felt that specific loss of a future hope for a baby. 

So when Sarah hears it for the 4^th time, she laughs at God’s promise, because what else is there to do?  She has let go of God’s promise.  But with this laugh, //Sarah falls into faith. // She falls back into the loving arms of God, back into the relationship, back into trusting God.  Yes, you heard me right, Sarah falls back into faith. I don’t mean she manages to come to some personal mental mind-game to convince herself once more that this baby thing will happen.  No, she hears the promise again and she laughs out of her scorn, her calloused heart, her disbelief.  Sarah hears the promise dredging up her history of failure – she couldn’t produce a child, she resents the child she allowed Hagar to have in her stead.  And she knows, she can laugh or she can cry.  

And God takes her hard, pained, laughter.  What she thinks is her failure.  And he redeems it. 

God says, no, my child, what you think is failure, I see as the perfect opportunity.  Maybe I could have fulfilled this promised through Hagar and Ishmael, maybe there was some surrogate or adoptive opportunity.  But in this story, the world needs to know that this whole family of people I have chosen has come into being through my hand alone.  Through my miracle-gift to you. 

I will take your supposed failure, your hurting heart, and your cynical laughter.  And I will give you a new life.  A life of hope and wonder.  A life of mystery and trust.  A life of joyful laughter. 

She has given up this promise, it is no longer hers to hold.  But God has not given up on her.  God sees her and knows the promise he has made, and God is using her story to stretch our understanding, once again, of what God’s promises looks like – children born of women who are barren, to men who are well past virility… and God’s promises look like youngest children being made king, and in the strangest move of all, God coming to sacrifice his own life, that we might know God’s total self-giving love. 

God’s promises looks like Grace.  Like complete and total grace.  You can’t earn it, you don’t deserve it. You have given up on it.  But it comes, it breaks in to your predictable world with unpredictability… turning our tears to laughter. 

God laughs with her when that baby comes into the world.  The baby bearing the mark of this story as his name – Isaac, which means, Laughter.

Isaac, whose birthstory bears witness to us… that even for us God will turn our despair into joy.  Our pain into pleasure.  Our scars into wisdom. God can use anything, even the most painful history we hold, the thing that feels most like death… that is death to us… that is what God will use to make in us new life.  A new life with God. Like Adam and Eve, and Cain and Abel and Noah and his family, and Sarah and Abraham… all the characters of God’s Sacred Story that keep falling, just to find out that God is still with them!  Waiting for that last laugh of exhilarating joy, just you wait and see.

We’ll keep falling too.  But God will be sure, we’re falling into grace.

Amen.

Narrative Lectionary... IN THE BEGINNING...well, not quite the beginning.

B Pentecost16 2015

September 13, 2015

Genesis 2:4b-25

John 20:21-22

For AUDIO Click Here.
Sermon begins after the scripted reading.

Narrator 1: These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.

Narrator 2: And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man,

God: You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.

Narrator 1: Then the Lord God said,

God: It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.

Narrator 2: So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner.

Narrator 1: So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,

Man: This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.

Narrator 2: Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.

Grace to you and Peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

You have identified the first value of Bethlehem as The Illuminating Word of God.  You may have heard me preach on this before…it will not be the last time.  This value is the very reason we enter scripture differently this fall.  Instead of hearing a collection of stories from a particular gospel, we will begin at the beginning of God’s Word as we know it.  God’s Word that begins “In the beginning” and ultimately is expressed to us and for us in Jesus.  In Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.  For this is what God “says” – it’s God’s Word– this is God’s message of grace. 

We are told in this story today that God’s will is to create and relate.  Millennium BEFORE Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God was sending the same message.  The message of complete and total grace.  Out of nothing, out of the dirt, God graces us with existence and relationship.  This is our journey this fall… together we will fall into Grace, fall into the Sacred Story, fall into the epic tale of God and the ones whom God loves.

We will trace the grace from the garden of Eden, to Isaac born to Sarah and Abraham, through Jacob, the scoundrel, and from Moses to the Israelites great covenant of the 10 commandments, by way of Ruth to the people’s cry for a king, just to land in the prophets (Elijah, Hosea and Isaiah) as they remind God’s people of the grace of this determined God who wants to be their king.  We will tell the story of God’s grace even in exile, because grace is most present when the fallen need to be redeemed.   And we will come to Christmas with a whole new understanding of what God is about to do with this baby in this manger, for we will have seen God’s grace come over and over again, until finally God picks a particular time and place to take on human form, to live out the self-sacrificing grace of loving us to a human death, and breaking the condemnation of death into new life. 

We are walking on holy ground. Like Moses, God may ask us to remove your shoes.  Take a minute to remove that which protects you.  Take off the hard soles that prevent you from feeling every rock and stick beneath your feet.  Take off the armor around your heart that stops you from thinking too deeply about where God might be showing up.  God’s showing up right here. 

The creation story from Genesis 2 that we heard today, is just the beginning.  But most of you have already noticed.  It’s actually not the very first story in scripture.  Genesis 1 is also a creation story.  These two stories of creation are different, and there is much to be explored about their differences, sort of like having four gospels that all tell the story of Jesus.  The two creation stories are set side-by-side so that we might get to know more of the innumerable things there are to know about this God who wants to grace us with his presence. 

You may know by heart what comes before in Genesis 1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…” and each day of creation is accounted for in a neat 7-day week, and all that God creates is acclaimed as “Good.”  All of creation is created good, and is intended for good.  God has every intention of shaping and claiming creation for the beauty of connectedness and balance: light/dark, night/day, land/water.

Which makes it all the more noticeable when we get to verse 18 in Genesis 2 and God says “It is not good [///] that the [human] should be alone.”  What? It is Not Good?  Something God has created is not good… YET.  For while God creates the Adam out of the adamah, the human made of humous, the God-shaped-dust… God creates not just a piece of great pottery, but a BEING meant for relationship. For the God who is relationship put that imprint upon us.  The God who is relationship created us to relate to God!  And for being  together in family units, in congregations, in communities… as the grace opportunity to learn to forgive and to love the way God does.

God creates the woman, another God-shaped-dust, because animals, as wonderful as they are, just don’t make the same kind of equal helpers that other humans do.  Here too, is another way God creates in his own image.  Just like the woman, it is God who is named an “ezer,” a “Helper” in the rest of the Grace Story. Like in Psalm 46: “God is our refuge and strength, our very present help in trouble.”  Or, you may know this one, {sing line:} Here I raise my Ebenezer – that line is about raising a monument to our ultimate helper, our ultimate grace-giver – God!  Eve is created as Adam’s helper, as Adam is for her, she is the only one who could equal him, and the completion of the created order of complimentary pairs.

Here, at the beginning, God creates us.  The Bible story starts with our ever-present, eternal God deciding to start time, to bring into being with his very breath, a whole world filled with wonder.  And a particular species – homo sapiens – who are created with an imprint of God’s image.  Created for the very purpose of relationship with the creation around us, and with our God. 

Millennium before Jesus, God puts in place the world that Jesus will one day enter.  What possessed God to do it?  It looks like God, in God’s three-in-one self, wouldn’t think of existing on one’s own.  No, God birthed life at the beginning because that’s what God does.  Out of the three-in-one God, the God that IS relationship, a relationship is born.  A relationship with us.   What more powerful grace is there, than the love of our ultimate God for the insignificant beings, that in relationship to God, are made significant. 

As we continue on this journey through God’s Word, I’ll be filling-in the in-between stories, as it is helpful.  But I am sure that some of you will be curious to crack open a Bible and see for yourself what we’ve missed.  You will have Devotional Inserts each week to help you with that.  There are bookmarks for you to take home and put in your Bible, so you can stay connected to the arc of the Grace Story, even if you cannot be with us on Sunday.  And you can join us on the first and third Wednesdays for ‘Bible and Wine’ and get another whole level of Bible – the New Testament, to be ready to more deeply understand the Grace story.

This week, as you, church, disperse into the community, as you put your shoes back on for the daily grind.  You may take a little more notice when God’s holy image shows up in your life.  In the desire to create something; be it a spreadsheet or a website or a drawing.  In the desire to relate, to love your pet or your spouse or your child, 

regardless of how lovable they may be at that moment.  In eating your veggies, or tending and harvesting your garden, may you remember the garden that God plants us in: the dust out of which we have come and the breath that makes us like God, and the ongoing care that God has to help us bear fruit. 

The air we breathe, the water drink, the dirt we till, the dirt we are.  That’s grace. 

Let’s fall into it together.

Amen. 

Shining Through the Trees (5/5)

B Pentecost14 2015

August 30, 2015

Mark 12:28-34

Deuteronomy 6:1-9

Bethlehem Values Series - Summary: VISION

We are shining the light of Christ so brightly

that everyone is drawn in to God’s love through this community.

The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark. [Glory to you O Lord]

²⁸One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all?"²⁹Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one;³⁰you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.'³¹The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."³²Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that 'he is one, and besides him there is no other';³³and 'to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,' and 'to love one's neighbor as oneself,' — this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."³⁴When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." After that no one dared to ask him any question.

The Gospel of the Lord [Praise to you O Christ].

Grace to you and Peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

What would you say if someone asked what your personal mission statement is? 

Have any of you done this before, thought about your individual mission?  We often do this collectively in our businesses and organizations, but what do you think God is calling you to do each and every day? 

The scribe in today’s story asks Jesus that question.

Ok, Jesus of Nazareth, I am impressed by your answers to the trick questions the other Jewish groups and leaders have been asking you. Myself, as an expert in the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/OT, the Jewish law), I think you might actually get it.  I think you might actually understand what God is asking of us in our holy and most central scriptures.  So tell me, “Which commandment is the first of all?”  That is, how do you know, in all of the Bible, what is most central to our faith.  What directs you in your daily ministry, Jesus?

That is the question.

The question that Jesus answers with two slices of scripture, one from Duet 4 and one from Leviticus – “'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one;³⁰you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.'³¹The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

This is the answer.

Jesus sums up all of Hebrew law and teaching in two tiny phrases: Love God first, Love your neighbor as yourself.

So we do.

This is what Jesus came to teach us, God’s vision for the world and his Personal Mission Statement.  What’s yours?

Your personal mission statements would all have unique, individual words to describe how you live out the way you follow Jesus in the world.  How you love God and love neighbor. I learned about personal mission statements from my friend and mentor, Ron Glusenkamp.  I wish I could tell you exactly what it is… but I remember the essence because every time I am with him, I see him do it! “Laugh, Feed and Love.”[i]  

The thing that is so funny about mission statements, especially for people who are God’s children and Jesus followers is that we have a whole book filled with different ways to say the same mission, over and over and over again (The Bible).  Mission/Vision/Values processes and statements can feel like we are just regurgitating something that’s already been said. 

But we use them because we, fallible, distractable creatures can have a hard time staying on track, staying focused on living a Christian life, without some kind of compass or north star in words that means something to us.  The best Vision & Mission statements are our north star, pointing us in the direction God calls us to go.  Our values are like our compass to get there. 

Today we hear Jesus explaining not only his personal mission statement – but God’s!  God, our creator, redeemer and sustainer – God’s mission is to penetrate this world with his love.  Like light shining through our brokenness, we see God’s power healing, restoring, and making us new.

And that’s where your vision, mission and values come in, Bethlehem.  These are our guiding light, our compass to head where God is calling us now.  

We see a vision of the world where the light of Christ shines so brightly that everyone is drawn in to God’s love through this community.  

Our mission is to welcome all through the light of Christ by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and being a place of shelter.

We value the Word of God, All People, Serving and Opening the eyes of Faith. 

With our vision clear, Jesus says to us, along with the scribe in today’s Gospel, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."

When we live into our vision, mission and values – we love God first, and love our neighbor as ourselves – we experience the wholeness and beautiful restoration of God’s kingdom!  We follow that shining light and we let that light shine through us. 

We have been talking about our values for the last four weeks, our compass on this journey. The Illuminating Word of God, Seeing All People and Perspectives, Serving our Communities with Delight and Opening the eyes of Faith at every age. 

With this compass, we are moving into the new program year.  Our compass comes first in the shape of intentionally putting the Illuminating Word of God central in all we do.

Starting Sept 13^th, we will be using Bible readings in worship that begin in Genesis and move through the timeline of the Bible to tell God’s story.  We will near the narrative of the Bible more sequentially.  Along with that, we will have devotional inserts that you are invited to bring home, like many of you read and pray with the Christ in Our Home booklets, these will coordinate your daily readings and prayer with Sunday morning.   

We will come together for Adult Study (after worship and fellowship) that invites us to consider how we understand God as Lutherans for 7 weeks; and then beginning in November we will dig into scripture with an overview of the New Testament.  You will have two opportunities to overview the New Testament with daily readings using a more scholarly approach with commentary and videos from experts: one on Sunday mornings and one on a weekday evening with our “Bible and Wine”  bookclub.

I pray that all of you will join me on this journey of getting to know God’s story better this fall.  For this is our next best step to learning to use our navigation tools, individually and as a community.  Pointing ahead to that Bethlehem star shining Christ’s light so brightly that everyone is drawn in to God’s love through this community.

Amen.

---

[i] Pastor Ron Glusenkamp’s personal mission statement is: “enlighten, entertain, evangelize.”

Opening the Eyes of Faith at Every Age (4/5)

B Pentecost13 2015

August 23, 2015

Mark 10:46-52

Romans 3:21-31

Bethlehem's Value #4

The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark. [Glory to you O Lord]

⁴⁶ As [Jesus] and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. ⁴⁷ When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁸ Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁹ Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” ⁵⁰ So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. ⁵¹ Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” ⁵² Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

The Gospel of the Lord [Praise to you O Christ].

Grace to you and Peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

You probably know someone who has lost their eyesight over time... have you ever spoken to someone who completely blind?  I remember asking a friend if he could remember what it was like to see.  Yes, he said.  He could remember, he could dream in color, but some things were fading from him memory.  Faces.  He couldn’t remember the faces of the ones he deeply loved.  The pain in his voice matched the tears welling in his eyes, but was strangely disconnected from his blank stare.  The ability to see those faces again was something he dearly longed for. 

I imagine him when I hear the story of Bartimaeus.  There were people Bartimaeus used to see, and now he could not.  There may have been work he used to do, that he couldn’t do any more.  There may have been relationships that he had been cut off from when he was blinded, no longer being able to support a family or himself – maybe people thought he was cursed by God.  A Jew’s faithfulness, at the time, should have been evidenced in his blessings. 

But God wasn’t done with him yet.  Bartimaeus may not have been able to see with his eyes, but he could see what was going on around him.  

He could see who Jesus was.

Bartimaeus – a blind man is the one who names him “Son of David”  the promised Messiah, come to save the world.  And Bartimaeus is bold enough to ask for that salvation here and now.  “Have mercy on me!” he calls out.

Have mercy on me!  The same thing we cry at the beginning of every worship service – often in Latin – Kyrie Eliason!  Have mercy, Lord!  Save us, Lord!  Whether it is our own sin, or just the wretched sin of the world that has gotten us in this despairing place; we pray for God’s mercy and grace to find us.  For we know that God has the power to change what we cannot.  We pray this prayer when we hear of the latest mass shooting or the sad state of rape culture on our college campuses.  We look at ourselves and consider how we have contributed to the problem, and we look to God with faith in his loving presence among those who are hurting, and in using all hurt to transform the world.  Just saying this – Kyrie Eliason! Lord have Mercy!  Is an act of faith.  Reaching out to God when we see how sin is so much bigger than a problem we can fix.  This is faith.  Putting our trust in God.  Giving over our way of seeing, for God’s way of seeing. 

The people around him spoke stearnly.  I am sure they though Bartimaeus wasn’t worth the Teacher’s time.  But Bartimaeus knew better.  He knew the God of grace cares for those at the bottom of the social scale.  And he knew Jesus was from God.  Where had he heard this good news, I wonder?  Had someone who cared for him told him this was his only hope for a different life?  Some faithful soul had passed by his begging corner shouting out Hosannas and Glory be to God for their own blessed healing?  Faith is caught, not taught they say.  So the faith-bug had bitten Bartimeaus; Jesus was it, the promised one.  Breaking hope and healing like shafts of light through a canopy of branches. 

Bartimaeus knows who Jesus is.  He sees that the Savior has come, and he is not going to let him pass by his pleading prayer.  And Jesus stops.  He stops and listens.  He stops and listens and calls Bartimaeus to come. 

Bartimaeus leaps off the ground and lands in front of Jesus.

Did you notice that Jesus asks Bartimaeus the same question he asked James and John last week?  “What do you want me to do for you?”

What do you want me to do for you? 

Same question, but different requests.  Here we have an inversion of James and John’s request for personal glory.  “Have Mercy on Me” Bartimeus cries, “Teacher, Let me see again!”

Teacher.  He calls him teacher.  Bartimaeus knows this Jesus has much to teach him.  And Bartimaeus is ready to learn, ready to study his every move, ready to pray as he prays, ready to love as he loves, ready to follow him on the way. 

Jesus seemed to know Bartimaeus was ready for a new life, new life found on the way with Jesus. 

I can imagine Jesus saying “Yes!  This is what I have come to do – to let people see!  See God through me.  This is the great mercy for which you ask, Bartimeus —Yes!  I will open your eyes to match the eyes of faith that are already open in you.”

It’s your core value #4, Bethlehem.  Opening the Eyes of Faith at every age.  Bartimaeus hears the good news, he has faith, his eyes are opened, he follows.

Have you ever felt that it was hard to believe in Jesus? Or, for that matter, hard to believe that there is a loving God? 

I get that.  We look around us and see pain.  We look at scripture and we see some old stories.  Sometimes it just feels too fantastic to believe that this man named Jesus offered people real healing and that God broke in, over and over and over again, when we don’t see that kind of miracle happening in our daily lives.

Believing certain things happened in a certain way at a certain time isn’t really the definition of faith.  Faith is not about finding the right facts. 

What is faith?  Trust in God.  Trust that God not only exists, but loves us and wants good for the world.  And that God has the power to influence us – not just to change what we don’t like in our neighbors, but to change me.  Faith in God is believing that this almighty benevolent being cares about me enough to want to show me a new way to live.  A way of grace.  A way where I get things I don’t deserve, and so does my neighbor.  A way where I am gentle with myself, and my neighbor.  A way of life that hopes for transformation for the world, starting with me. 

Faith is trust that all this is possible.  And that the power of God can come into my own deepest hurts and heal them. 

Bartimaeus had that kind of faith.  He put his trust in this man Jesus, in the God that empowered Jesus to be the Messiah, the son of David.  Bartimaeus, a blind man, might have been viewed as incapable of much.  His fate was to lie on a mat, begging for sustenance.  No one thought he could teach them, or teach us.  But he did.  God goes on, once again, giving us this story in scripture of God using the last person anyone would point to as a leader, or worthy of God’s choice.  Yet he is.  Because he has the one thing God wants us all to have…faith.

When we feel like it is hard to believe, we are given the words of the liturgy that we pray with Bartimeus –Have mercy on us!  Open our eyes to your ways—that we might live liberated of our denial of who you are to us. 

For when we live knowing Jesus as Bartimaeus did— it changes things.  For us.  Our priorities change.  When we let the Kyrie fall out of our mouths, our eyes are open, again, to see that God the greatest.  Our eyes are open, again, that we do not have to be in control of everything, because ultimately, God is in control.  Our eyes are open to the truth of our beloved status in God’s kingdom. And you, Faithful Children of God, are called to follow in Jesus way.

So, dear Bethlehem, let me say, finally, that you are invited to walk with Jesus in Bible Study this fall – either in the weekly study here on Sunday mornings after worship, where we will be talking about Lutheran beliefs for the first 7 weeks, then moving to scripture study.  Or in Bible and Wine, our monthly Bible book club that will be studying God’s Word, the foundation of our faith in community with our ecumenical brothers and sisters at Holy Trinity Episcopal. 

Let us pray…

Open our eyes God, that we might know and love you first.  Give us faith, that we might live in right relationship with all the world.  Let us walk with you on the way, like Bartimaeus. 

Amen.