josephholubsermons


 

October 25, 2009 -  Reformation Sunday
Mark 10:46-52 

"WOW!"

"Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way."  Mark 10:52

I was in second grade, and I sat in the back of the class.  I couldn't see the letters of the alphabet printed out on a long display right above the front blackboard.  I think they still have them in classrooms today.  I told my teacher, Mrs Snow, that I couldn't see the letters.  She thought I was having problems with the kids who sat near me in the back of the class, and I just wanted to move to another seat.  She accommodated my request and moved me to the front seat in the class.  After my first day in my new location, I told her I still couldn't see the letters displayed above the blackboard.  Ah Ha!  My problem was not the kids who sat near me in the back of the class.  My problem was my eyes.  The issue was my vision.    

So Mom and I went to see "Uncle Lou."  Uncle Lou was not my real uncle but my mother's cousin's husband.  "Uncle" was a designation of affection.  He was a jeweler and an optometrist. He ran a jewelry store, but way in the back of the store he also had a little room equipped for eye examinations.  It was like a mysterious, secret hidden room that was totally intriguing to a seven year old boy.  I thought it was pretty cool.  He took me back into this concealed space that had a special contraption that I had to look through and then read letters projected onto the wall.  You know the drill.

After awhile we emerged, and Uncle Lou announced to my mother, "Marie, Joey needs glasses.  He is severely near-sighted." 

Uncle Lou had me sit down at a little table, and he told me to look in the direction of the front of the store out toward the street.  It was just a few days before Christmas, and of course, the store was adorned with Christmas decorations of all kinds: lights, glitter and garland, and in the front display windows there was a winter landscape scene with a snowman in one window, and a Christmas tree with a little electric train going around its base in the other window.   And then without warning Uncle Lou walked behind me, and  he placed two lenses that were very close to my prescription in front of my eyes, and he said,  "Now Joey, this is how you should be seeing things!"   I will never forget what happened next.  With a spontaneous exclamation of shock and joy I blurted out, "WOW!"   

"WOW!"  My blurry, unfocused world that I assumed was normal suddenly came into focus.  For the first time in my young life I could see – I mean really see – see details – see distance – everything had a sharp edge – the specifics of faces - colors and objects no longer blurred together into an undefined haze.  My new vision transformed my life!   My life was now punctuated by "WOW!"

I have to think that the blind man in our gospel story, Bartimaeus, must have experienced something similar.  He too must have had an experience of "WOW!"  How could he not?  He had been given the gift of new sight, and an appropriate response to such an astounding gift is, "WOW!"  

But we must remember, this is not merely a story about one man who received sight.  As I have mentioned numerous times before, the gospels are products and testimonies of a faith community, in this case Mark's faith community.  Mark wrote his gospel some 30 years after Jesus, and Mark included this story in his gospel because the story reveals what Jesus had come to mean for them.  Bartimaeus symbolically represents and reflects their Mark 's communities' experience of the living presence of Jesus.  In Jesus, they as a community had experienced new sight -- new vision - new perspective - and it was a "WOW Experience," and even after 30 years, the "WOW" had not worn off! 

It is my conviction that following Jesus is a "WOW Experience."  Following the Jesus of Mark's gospel is a totally "WOW Experience."

Notice the last verse of the story. "Jesus said to (Bartimaeus),  'Go, your faith has made you well.'  Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way."  

Faith is utterly central to the Christian life.  We talk about faith all of the time. But what is faith?    How would you define and describe faith?  In the history of Christianity the essence of faith has been defined in many ways - certainly more than one way - actually in at least four ways.  

Since the Protestant Reformation especially, that is commemorated this day in the liturgical calendar, faith has been largely defined as belief in correct doctrines and creeds; belief in the "right things."  This is sometimes called a propositional understanding of faith and this understanding of faith gained a great deal of traction in the Reformation carrying to the present.  Since the Reformation a plethora, almost an uncountable number, of denominations and Christian expressions have exploded onto the scene, each defining itself to a great extent by what they believe; by specific beliefs.  One brand of Lutherans believe "a," another brand believe "b," Presbyterians believe "c," Baptists believe "d," Roman Catholics believe "e," Methodists believe "f," Episcopalians believe "g," and on it goes with as many differing beliefs as letters in the alphabet and many more, way beyond x, y and z.  To a great extent Christianity has become a matter of belief in the "right things" as opposed to having "wrong beliefs."   And of course, it is often accompanied by an ongoing, sometimes heated and contentious debate as to what constitutes right and wrong belief - even to the point of, in some circles, declaring that salvation is reserved only for those who have "correct beliefs"  - and of course it is their specific set of "correct beliefs."

But as I look deeply and live deeply into the gospels, and especially as we have journeyed through Mark's gospel this year, I see and experience faith described and portrayed in a radically different way.  For Mark's community faith was not belief in propositions and doctrines, but faith was something radically different and much more dynamic and electric and alive and life transforming.  For Mark's community faith was trust and commitment and the "WOW Experience" of  living into a new vision of reality; an alternative view of reality that does not accept the status quo as normalcy.  

·         It was a "WOW Experience" when Jesus invited Simon and Andrew, James and John to lay down their nets, and their livelihood and their security blankets and follow him, asking them for their trust and their commitment. "WOW!"

·         "WOW Experiences" abound in Mark's gospel: when Jesus reached across religiously legitimated boundaries that were reinforced by a harsh and legalistic application of Mosaic Law: by touching lepers, and affirming Gentiles, and lifting up the least and last of culture, and practicing inclusive table fellowship that included the rejected and despised, and intentionally breaking sacred Sabbath laws, and inviting his disciples into a new vision of reality that was the opposite of the way life was structured and conducted as accepted as normal - it was one  "WOW Experience" after another.  "WOW!"

·         It was a "WOW Experience" when Jesus completely redefined who was worthy to be a disciple as he held up two marginalized women as role models of trust and commitment: the woman with the hemorrhage of twelve years and the Syrophoenician woman  with the possessed daughter as models of discipleship shocking his own disciples and others who could only respond with an astounding "WOW!"  

·         Mark's community was saying "WOW" when he included the story of the feeding of thousands, when everyone was fed sufficiently - no one was left hungry - and abundance was left over.  "WOW!"  Imagine intentionally striving to create community life based on such a vision of distributive justice.   "WOW!"

·         And of course, it was almost beyond "WOW" when Jesus issued the ultimate challenge of trust, commitment and vision that to follow him means "taking up a cross" and following - following him down a path of sacrificial and self-emptying love right into the teeth of a culture absorbed with self-aggrandizement, status, security and power.   "WOW!"

Our gospel story says that Bartimaeus "regained his sight and followed Jesus on the way."    That's also a description of Mark's community.  They lived with a new set of eyes, the eyes of Jesus, that enabled them to see and live into a new vision of reality - see new possibilities for humanity and community that breached all the existing parochial, confining and marginalizing boundaries of their religion and culture that had been accepted as normalcy. 

Mark's faith community hadn't reached a point yet where they had imprisoned God and Jesus inside the confining boxes of doctrines, creeds and correct beliefs that almost always jettison and amputate the "WOW" out of the faith experience. 

I pray that we like Bartimaeus, like Mark's community, will regain our sight and never, never, ever lose the sense and experience of "WOW" as we follow Jesus on the way.