BProp25

Job 42:1-6, 10-17; Psalm 34:1-8; Hebrews 7:23-38; Mark 10:46-52

October 25, 2009

 

 

A newborn baby opens her eyes

and sees the face of her mother.

What must it be like to see your mother’s face for the first time?

From the very beginning she begins to interpret expressions on faces

beginning with mother and father

and then those other special people in whose hands she is placed

and whose faces she can see up close.

We look as newborn infants into the faces of those who care for us

and we search for signs of safety and nurture.

Through seeing these primary people, we begin to interpret what our eyes see.

We begin to ‘see’ the world

as safe or dangerous, full or empty, embracing or rejecting.

We begin to understand ourselves as gift or burden, lovable or unlovable.

They say that what we ‘see’ about the world and ourselves

in those first days and months of seeing

will shape our lifelong ‘view’ of the world and ourselves’

 

And as we grow up we develop our seeing in particular areas of skill.

A pilot learns to see the sky better than most of us.

An experienced doctor or nurse can see symptoms that the rest of us would miss. A master teacher reads the face of students and gauges how to engage them.

An accountant can look at pages of numbers

and describe the health and priorities of an organization.

A horticulturist can read plants.

When we went on a family/youth retreat a few summers ago up at Nantahala,

We went hiking on one of the trails.

The kids bounded up the trail, some of the parents walked briskly

and left a few of us strolled at a leisurely pace.

Bill Gresham was one of the leisurely folks

and he saw all kinds of signs that told him what has taken place in those woods.

And so he interpreted for the rest of us –

where old fences had been,

what the names of plants were, which ones were edible,

what an old tree had been through in its lifetime.

Let Charle Statler walk you through the Mauldin House gardens

and you’ll come out amazed at what she has helped you see.

 

And, a mother can read the face of her child

and see signs of illness or giftedness or obstacle or promise

long before the child, even adult child,

is fully aware of what’s going on inside them.

 

When I was a teenager, my youth group had planned a trip.

The day before we were supposed to go,

My mother said she didn’t think I should go this time.

I couldn’t believe she wasn’t going to let me go!

I called my youth leaders and asked them to beg her for me.

I pulled every trick out of the bag to persuade her.

She just said, “Not this time, Honey.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, when I look at you, something just tells me

that you need to stay home.”

The group departed without me.

And the day they left, the sore throat and fever started

and I spent the week in bed with strep throat.

 

So fundamental is sight to our functioning and relating in this world,

that we use the terms ‘read’ and ‘see’ as metaphors for understanding.

“Oh, now I see.”

or “I see what you’re saying.”

or “This is my read on the situation.”

or “What’s your vision for our future?”

 

So deep is this metaphor in human expression

that the Bible and Christian music constantly use sight as a symbol for faith

and teaches that seeing with the eyes of faith

is the deepest kind of ‘seeing’ there is.

 

The words of a Christian renewal song may be familiar to you:

“Have you seen Jesus my Lord? He’s here in plain view.

Take a look, open your eyes, he’ll show life to you.”

 

And from the familiar hymn:

I want to see the brightness of God.

I want to look at Jesus.

Clear sun of righteousness, shine on my path,

and show me the way to the Father.

 

After Job has struggled through his trials with God,

he finally says that he has uttered things that he did not understand,

and that God is too wonderful for him to fully know.

It is then that Job says his eyes now see God.

He has come to a deeper understanding and embrace of the mystery of God.

 

Blindness became a way to express the inability

of the disciples and others to understand Jesus.

Healing and the gift of sight was a way to describe

a person’s being opened to a new perception of life through Jesus.

 

In Mark’s gospel our reading today is the end bracket

of a section about disciple’s inability to understand Jesus.

The section also begins with the story of

a blind man who was brought to Jesus.

Jesus lays his hands upon the man’s eyes

And the man sees partially, so that he can see people,

But they look like trees walking.

When Jesus lays his hands on the man’s eyes again,

The man looks intently and his sight is fully restored

and he can see everything clearly.

 

I want to compare another scene in the gospel with today’s.

Two weeks ago we heard about the rich young sighted man

who came to Jesus, called him ‘good teacher’,

and asked for instruction/guidance on doing the right things

in order to get into heaven.

Jesus, truly loving the man, looked past the traditional religious rules,

which the man followed meticulously,

and told the man what truly was hindering him –

the priority he gave to his possessions.

The man walked away from Jesus, shocked and grieving.

He didn’t make that climb to the top of the metaphorical mountain,

and his eyes were never opened to the new perspective on life that Jesus offered.

 

Today we have blind Bartimaeus, a poor beggar.

He wants, more than anything else in the world, to see again.

When Jesus takes notice of him, he leaves his one possession on the ground –

his cloak that he would spread out in front of him

to collect the coins tossed his way.

He leaves cloak and coins, stands up

and lets the crowd kind of mosh him through to Jesus.

Jesus asks him what he wants him to do for him.

He had asked the disciples the same question

and their request was to be able to sit on his left and on his right.

Bartimaeus calls him ‘rabbouni’ – my rabbi.

You hear his words coming from his mind, his heart, his gut,

when he says, “MY teacher, let me see.”

Mark writes that he gains his sight and follows Jesus ON THE WAY.

The sighted remain blind and walk away from the life offered to them.

The blind receive sight and follow on the way to new life.

Many who are first will be last, and the last will be first. [Mark 10:31]

 

We can wonder what it is like for a newborn baby to see for the first time.

We can only imagine what it would mean to a person

to be able to see again after being blind.

But what about this other kind of seeing?

What do Jesus and the gospel writers want us to see?

They want our eyes to be opened.

Which means, they want us to be opened.

Our minds opened.

Our hearts opened.

Our very core opened.

 

Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest and monk, who teaches about prayer

names these three aspects of our lives.

Whatever form our prayer may take, he teaches that real prayer happens

when we come to God with:

*an open mind, honest, bringing wonder and quest,

rather than opinion, seeking to know God’s presence rather than answers.

*an open heart, and it is most often the case

that we don’t bring our open hearts to God until they have been broken.

*an open soul, longing to be filled.

 

The mind of Christ,

The heart of Christ that knows our suffering,

The body of Christ that feeds and sustains us.

 

Like Job and Bartimaeus and a newborn child

we will look into the face that will shape our world.