Today in the Spirit: Proper 25B
The readings appointed for Proper 25B are all infused with intense yearning—a longing in the hearts and voices of the people of God for deliverance. The reply of God varies in each, but in every case, it appears that strength is to be found in the asking. The assigned Gospel reading from Mark 10:46-52 features blind Bartimaeus crying out to the Messiah, “the Son of David,” against all obstacles, for healing as Jesus passes through the city of Jericho. And Jesus stops to deliver the healing he asks for.
Both the OT reading and psalm this week give voice to multitudes of Israelites who, like Bartimaeus in the Gospel reading, seek deliverance from God, but who, unlike Bartimaeus, have little or no sense that the Deliverer is near to them. The assigned reading from Isaiah 59:2-20 is a lament from the people of Israel who have returned from exile to find their homeland in shambles: “‘Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom’” (9). But there is hope in a word from YHWH through the prophet: “‘And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,’ declares the Lord” (20).
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In reciting or singing the assigned Psalm 13 in our worship, we take on for ourselves the yearning tone of the Israelites in the OT reading and Bartimaeus in the Gospel reading: “‘How long will you utterly forget me, O Lord? How long will you hide your face from me?’” (1, BCP New Coverdale)… “‘But my trust is in your mercy, and my heart is joyful in your salvation. I will sing of the Lord, because he has dealt so lovingly with me; indeed, I will praise the Name of the Lord Most High’” (6, BCP New Coverdale).
The assigned reading Hebrews 5:11-6:12 in our Year B Hebrews series also carries a tone of longing. Still, in this case, it is that of the Christian pastor looking for growth and perseverance from the flock of people he is addressing: “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God (5:12)… Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity…” (6:1).
The assigned Collect is another prayer to God to hear and grant the supplications of “your people.” Interestingly, perhaps contrasting with the Bible readings describing people’s longing before Christ’s ministry on the cross, this plea is for peace in “our time,” our age, following his saving ministry.
The Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
We Hope for Light and Behold Darkness (Isaiah 59:9-20)
9 Therefore justice is far from us,
and righteousness does not overtake us;
we hope for light, and behold, darkness,
and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.10 We grope for the wall like the blind;
we grope like those who have no eyes;
we stumble at noon as in the twilight,
among those in full vigor we are like dead men.19 So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west,
and his glory from the rising of the sun;
for he will come like a rushing stream,
which the wind of the Lord drives.20 “And a Redeemer will come to Zion,
Psalm 59:9-10, 19-20
to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord.
See how the passage begins in the first person (“we”), addressing YHWH (9-13), then changes to the third person (“they”), becoming purely descriptive (14-19). More changes in voice occur before and after the passage in Isaiah, indicating that maybe this sermon formed out of some sort of liturgy of the exiles returning to Judah.
Whatever the case, especially when it is read out loud, you feel the people’s hopelessness and yearning. It’s like the feeling of air coming out of the room. The imagery in the first verse (“we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom,” 9) sets up the reader of Isaiah for a dramatic contrast with the great opening lines of the next chapter (“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you” (60:1-2).
Lord, how still everything seems to lie when I realize the depth of my sin. Like in the passage, I address you directly at first, but the darkness is consuming to the point that all I can do is register the experience of being lost. The blind man Bartimaeus in the Gospel reading appears to be one who has come to that solitary place. Was it just his refusal to be bullied that caused him to shout all the more, or also his desire to be heard deep in darkness? With Bartimaeus and these exiles returning to desolation in Judah, I have been to the place where the only hope–really the only hope–for coming out into the light is you, dear Lord. Jesus, yes, you “come like a rushing stream” (19), and “our Redeemer will come to Zion” (20).
Today, assist us in our worship, Holy Spirit, to hear in this reading the deep yearning for the Father God and to “see” the paralyzing blindness from which you have delivered us by the Son.
Consider and Hear Me O LORD My God (Psalm 13)
1 How long will you utterly forget me, O LORD? *
Psalm 13, BCP New Coverdale
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long shall I seek counsel in my soul and be so vexed in my heart? *
How long shall my enemy triumph over me?
3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God; *
give light to my eyes, that I sleep not in death,
4 Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him”; *
for if I am cast down, those who trouble me will rejoice.
5 But my trust is in your mercy, *
and my heart is joyful in your salvation.
6 I will sing of the LORD, because he has dealt so lovingly with me; *
indeed, I will praise the Name of the Lord Most High.
With this psalm, we might imagine ourselves this Sunday taking on the voice of Bartimaeus waiting for Jesus to come along the road in Jericho. In doing so, I think there is a temptation to treat these words of “David” as representing a higher level of trust in God at the end than at the beginning, his desperate tone at the outset a dead low tide in believing and the enthusiasm at the end a high water mark.
We must be careful here, lest we misunderstand both what is happening within us and how God responds when we are very low. One crucial thing to see in the short psalm is that, through every change in the tone of voice in this psalm, David is addressing “YHWH his God.” While to despair is to be rendered unable to turn our face to God and call on his name, to look on him and plea for mercy from a place of severe pain is perhaps to find a new summit in our faith journey and the very thing that provokes the most love and passion from the Father to act on our behalf.
In his book Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortlund provides quote after quote from the writings of Puritan divines who make this very point. One citation from B. B. Warfield commenting on John’s narrative of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead is this: “What John does for us…is to uncover for us the heart of Jesus, as he wins for us our salvation. Not in cold unconcern, but in flaming wrath against the foe, Jesus smites on our behalf. He has not only saved us from all evils which oppress us; he has felt for and with us in our oppression, and under the impulse of these feelings has wrought out our redemption.”
Today, Holy Spirit, I recognize in David’s faith, through desperation, that which most provokes God’s compassion, yielding joy in salvation.
Go on to Maturity (Hebrews 5:11-6:12)
5:11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
6:1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits. 4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. 9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
By this point in the epistle, it has become clearer that the pastor/author is addressing Jewish Christians who, wallowing in immaturity and misunderstanding, straddle between confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and practicing “dead works” associated with Hebrew ritual (like “washings”). He views the assimilation as dangerous business indeed, producing “sluggish”-ness and ending in the terrible state of “near to being cursed.” Discussions using verses such as these from Hebrews over the theological possibility of losing one’s salvation in the future should by no means cause us to overlook the pastoral concern of syncretism (amalgamating religions) in the present.
A message to what I will call late bloomer Christians (people like those the book of Hebrews is addressing, but without all the Jewishness). Late bloomers in the faith I would identify as those who have had at least some exposure to the gospel message and examples of Christian living growing up, but who, for whatever reason, have decided to go their own way in their twenties and thirties, only to come back strong later on: To you, let this passage be a serious warning. You are missing some things now you may never get back. The Lord has you in your hands, but there is a cost–a serious cost–to wasting so much precious time in the world, mixing faith and self-gratification. That is true whether you are “going to church” all the time or not.
And to pastors of churches with an abundance of late bloomers: Be patient, but don’t hesitate to preach like the pastor who wrote Hebrews for us.
Today, in the Spirit who takes what is Jesus’ and makes it known to us–no matter how long it takes, I will respond to the message of Hebrews to put aside childish ways and “go on to maturity.”
What Do You Want Me to Do for You? (Mark 10:46-52)
46 And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. 47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” 50 And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” 52 And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.
“What do you want me to do for you?” In all three versions of this story, Jesus asks the blind man (or men in Matthew) this question. We say, isn’t the answer obvious? But is it? He might have wanted money. He may have wanted the Lord to tell people to help him. But, no, Bartimaeus desires something bigger and better than existing in the same world of deprivation and scorn that he experiences in the present. He will ask others for money, but from “Jesus of Nazareth,” he wants more! He has always wanted to be able to see. Yet, from the Hebrew Scriptures, he knows it is only the Messiah of God (the Son of David”) that can make the blind see:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind…”
Luke 4:18
So, with others’ help, Bartimaeus is led forward to Jesus, and the Messiah demands that he say what he wants as a confirmation of his faith in the One standing in front of him.
Requests made to the incarnate Jesus in the Gospels are no less prayers than the intercessions we make to an invisible Jesus now. We can learn much about prayer in conversations like this one we find in the Gospels. In my view, good prayer ministry happens when prayer leaders do not simply pray for the person or on behalf of the person but when they lead supplicants to ask Jesus the very question Bartimaeus receives: “What do you want me to do for you?” Are you on a team praying with others on a Sunday morning or at a mid-week service? Lead those precious ones who come to the front of your line to speak to Jesus directly and, confessing their faith in him, make the big request.
Today, Holy Spirit, build my skill as an intercessor for others. Let me be like those who lead Bartimaeus to Jesus, into the presence of the Son of God.
Today in the Spirit
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