Pentecost 22, October 25 2015 (full size gallery)
We had two services today, 9am Rite 1, Holy Eucharist and 11am Morning Prayer, Rite II. The combination of these services usually happens on the last Sunday of the month.
Despite what the calendar says this was the first real week of fall with the leaves beginning to show color. The colors have been brilliant despite the dry conditions in late Summer.
Attendance was down at the services – only 6 at 9am and 25 at 11am.
This is the week we kickoff the Season of Giving. The idea is to properly plan for various ministries that do fundraising in the Nov/Dec time frame for the purposes of their operations. We want to give as much time as possible for the parish to respond and at the same time not have each cause due on the same day We published the schedule at both services, in the weekly email and in the November newsletter. We have 4 this year – Samaritan’s Purse, the UTO, ECM, and the Village Harvest.
The promise of restoration and healing flows through today’s readings. The prophet Jeremiah looks forward to the rescue and renewal of God’s people. Job has all his lost property restored because of his fidelity to God. The author of Hebrews affirms the promise of full salvation through Jesus Christ and continued growth for believers. In today’s gospel, Jesus grants physical and spiritual wholeness to blind Bartimaeus.
The sermon quotes from both Jeremiah and Mark. It uses a Robert Frost poem "The Death of the Hired Man" to discuss the idea of coming home."Mary believes that home is something that we don’t have to deserve—to be able to go home and to be taken in when you get there is sheer grace– an undeserved grace.
"In today’s Old Testament reading, the prophet Jeremiah writes about the people of Israel returning home from exile. Jeremiah imagines the time when God will gather the remnant of Israel, who have been scattered all over the earth, and will bring them all back home to Jerusalem…And God is bringing them back home, not to die, but to live again. Why? Because God loves the people of Israel. So God will bring them home—into safety, protection, comfort, fulfillment, into a place of consolation."
"The story of the blind beggar in Mark is also a story of homecoming. The blind beggar, Bartimaeus, finds a home better than anything he has ever known—through an act of sheer grace on the part of Jesus. Because the first thing Bartimaeus sees when he regains his sight is his true home. He sees Jesus standing still right there in front of him.Love, grace, mercy, protection, consolation, peace, safety—a whole new life in Jesus. At the end of the story, Bartimaeus, having regained his sight, follows Jesus on the way.
"How many times in a day does Jesus pass along beside us, and we ignore him, or refuse out of pride to call on him for mercy, even when deep down inside, we know that we’ve got lots of areas in our lives that need healing? That we, too, are blind? That we, too, are weak, and worn out on the trail?
"How do we come up with the courage to ask for the kind of undeserved grace that would give us the desire to ask for healing, to throw off all that holds us back and simply to follow Jesus on the way to home, into the new and everlasting life that God has laid before us?
"Beloved, God loves us and wants to bring all of us home into one great merciful and grace filled fellowship of love and blessing. "
Commentary by Canon Lance Ousley, Diocese of Olympia, Washington
"Sacrifice is a key element in the journey to understanding the core relationship in stewardship. And it is closely linked to surrender. I suspect Bartimaeus knew something about both of these ideas. It also is no mistake that this story about Bartimaeus follows closely after and in context with the rich young man’s quest for something more and James’ and John’s request for a glory position. So often we are blinded by the things of this world unable to see true life found in an abiding relationship with God.
"But blind Bartimaeus throws off his only possession, sacrificing his cloak along the road to Jericho to be in relationship with Jesus. Some might not say this is an act of stewardship, but at its core stewardship is about our relationship to God. It this transaction Bartimaeus is willing to surrender ownership and control of his cloak, to be dispossessed of it, to be in Jesus’ presence. Bartimaeus didn’t want to be encumbered from reaching Jesus in any way, and he was willing to sacrifice all to achieve his quest.
"The steward’s heart knows that things of this world pass away, but that a relationship with Jesus is eternal. The steward also realizes that in the theological statement of "all things come from God, and of God’s own we give," God is the true owner of all things. Therefore, the steward surrenders claim to ownership, even sacrificing for a deep abiding relationship with the One who can give us peace, set us free, restore us to wholeness, and reconcile us to community.
"Each of us is somewhat like Bartimaeus, Job, and the remnant of Israel. We all have endured hardship or brokenness and are in need of healing, restoration and wholeness. But are we willing like Bartimaeus to boldly sacrifice, throw off and surrender those things which could hinder our reaching the One who can make us whole?
"Take heart, get up, Jesus is calling you.
"Will you blindly run to him?"