- Restored to More by Dean Feldmeyer -- God’s restorations do not look backward to what was but forward to what can be.
- Second Thoughts: Restored to What? by Tom Willadsen -- Tom focuses on the larger context in which the Lord’s redemption of people takes place.
- Sermon illustrations by Ron Love, Mary Austin and Chris Keating.
- Worship resources by George Reed that focus on restoration.
- Bartimaeus’ Faith Children’s sermon by Bethany Peerbolte -- This children’s sermon seeks to normalize the experience of spiritual blindness.
Restored to More
by Dean Feldmeyer
Job 42:1-17 and Mark 10:46-52
When my sister and her husband bought a small farm along the Ohio River in northern Kentucky, we thought she had lost her mind. She who had balked at mowing our suburban lawn on our father’s riding lawnmower was now going to mount a tractor and harvest vast fields of soybeans and corn? We didn’t think so.
And we were right.
Turns out it was the house they wanted. They were going to rent the acreage to a neighbor farmer. The house, however, was another matter. Under all that dilapidated vinyl siding, she told us, was a log home built in or around 1858.
“We’re going to restore it,” she said with a smile bright with innocence and naiveté.
At the appointed hour, we, her brothers, showed up with our implements of destruction and began removing the siding only to discover that she was right. There was an old log home under there.
Off came the siding. Down came three rooms that had been added to the original structure. Off came the asphalt shingles to be replaced with cedar.
About a month later I asked her, “So, what are you going to do about the electric wiring and the indoor plumbing and all?”
“We’re having it all torn out and replaced with modern stuff,” she said, as enthusiastic as ever.
“But, I thought you were restoring it to its original…”
She stopped me. “We have to live in it, Dean. So, we decided that, while we were restoring it we would just go ahead and improve it, too.”
And they did. Somehow, they managed to restore the original log home, add several rooms, improve the wiring and plumbing, and HVAC, and still preserve the feel of a primitive home built in 1858.
Restoration to something better may seem like a contradiction but, in reality, it’s a paradox that we experience frequently both in this world and in the kingdom of God.
In the News
Make America Great Again!
It is a phrase that has become ubiquitous. Plastered on gimme caps, bumper stickers, yard signs, and billboards, it harkens back to a time when America was, presumably, better than it is today. It calls for a leader who will lead us in restoring our country to some perfect past which has, somehow, been stolen from us.
What did that past look like? Well, it depends upon whom you ask.
The perfect past, we can assume, is a remembered past. And since everyone today was born in the 20th or 21st centuries, the past which we long to have restored must come from those times.
But a close and analytical appraisal of the past 100 years leaves our search for the American Utopia wanting. Every decade has its high moments but those highs are, inevitably, balanced by equal if not heavier lows.
New inventions, improvements, advances, and insights are met with old prejudices, hatreds, crimes, and attacks. For every new airplane there’s a lynching. For every new vaccine there’s a riot. For every new charity there’s a war. Our advances in life-saving technologies are met and mocked by our advances in life-taking machinery.
Our every experience of what might become human perfection turns out to have been a very narrow window, indeed, slammed shut by the realities of famine and disease, the dust bowl, the Great Depression, and the War to End All Wars, all left to run amok while we spend our resources on new ways to destroy each other.
The cry for a return to a great past is, most often, in reality, a cry for a return to a privileged past for a select few who are usually white and almost always male.
In a New York Times op-ed column dated October 1, Paul Krugman lays it out in plain English: “It’s perfectly possible for a man to lead a comfortable, indeed enviable life by any objective standard, yet be consumed with bitterness driven by status anxiety…this resentment was and is driven not by actual economic losses at the hands of minority groups, but by fear of losing status in a changing country, one in which the privilege of being a white man isn’t what it used to be.”
This is the kind of resentment and anger you find in “highly privileged people who nonetheless feel that they aren’t privileged enough or that their privileges might be eroded by social change.”1
The restoration these men desire is a restoration to a time when they didn’t have to worry about using words like “foreman,” “chairman,” or “mankind” and the impact those words might have on their daughters. They want to rest assured that, because they are men, they will be offered a better price on a new car than their wife or daughter will. They want to return to those thrilling days of yesteryear when it was just accepted that men took up more physical space than women, needed to earn more money than women, and didn’t have to worry about being “politically correct” every time they talked to or about someone of a different gender or race or sexual orientation (whatever that is).
They want to be able to be angry, and crass, and rude, and mean without thinking or having to worry about offending someone or hurting their feelings.
And they want other people’s kids to speak English when they go out in public, pray in school when the teacher tells them to, recite the Pledge of Allegiance and mean it, and stand up for the Star Spangled Banner. They want to go back to a time when people said Merry Christmas without worrying what religion you were because everyone was Christian or at least pretended to be just to keep the peace.
They want to be restored to a time when the majority ruled and if you didn’t like it you were welcome to leave.
That is what people tend to mean when they talk about restoration.
Scripture talks about it differently, however.
In the Scripture
One need not tell read the entire book of Job to get the basic thrust of the story. Job is a good man -- a really good man. And his life has gone well. He’s rich and, probably, handsome. He has a big family, all of whom love him. And he has three friends who are willing to come and sit with him and grieve with him for a week and say not a single word.
Even when, after all that time, they suggest that he might want to examine his life and look there for the cause of his problems, he insists that he is a good man. And he’s right.
His problems are caused not by his behavior but by a little bet between God and Satan as to how much bad will have to befall Job before he turns his back on God. Satan’s answer is “a little more.” God says it will never happen and let’s Satan have his way with Job. He can do anything he likes to the poor man, take anything he wants to take except Job’s life.
In the end, even after he has lost nearly everything a man can lose; Job never turns his back on God. He does, however, demand some answers about why all this horrible stuff has happened to him, to which God launches into a list of all the great things God has done and created and caused and then says, in effect: “Who are you to question me?”
Job says, “Okay, you’re right. You are God and I’m not. Who am I to question you?”
Whereupon God showers Job with all kinds of blessings, more (it is pointed out) than he had before.
Being modern, sensitive people we will always point out that providing Job with a bunch of new children hardly makes up for all the others that were allowed to die in a tornado, but that is modern, rational thinking and this is an ancient parable whose job it is to deal with one issue and that issue is to teach us that God is the great Restorer, especially for those who exhibit a strong and immovable faith in God.
Let us note, however, that for the author of this story, that which is restored is greater, better, and more awesome than that which Job had before. When God restores, God restores to more. God’s restoration does not look back to what was, but to what can be in the future.
In the gospel lesson Jesus is just about to leave Jericho when Bartimaeus, a well-known blind beggar by the city gate, calls out to him. The people around Jesus shush Bartimaeus, afraid he’ll make “a scene.” But he is not deterred. In fact, that just makes him call out all the louder. (You gotta admire his hutzpah!)
Jesus hears him and tells the people to have him come forward and Bartimaeus is so excited about the invitation that he throws off his outer garment and comes before Jesus unadorned and, in fact, nearly naked. (Much grist for sermon material here, no?)
Jesus asks him what he wants, specifically, what he wants Jesus to do for him and he responds, “Teacher, let me see…again.” He could once see but his eyesight was taken from him. He wants his vision to be restored. And I don’t think it’s too much to assume that he wants his life, as it was when he was sighted, to be restored as well.
He wants to be able to appreciate that particular shade of blue that fills the sky on a cold, winter morning. He wants to be able to marvel at a meadow filled with sunflowers, at a field of soy beans row upon row, at the mischief in the eyes of a child, and the love in the smile of a mother.
He wants, once again, to see his own face in a mirror, his wife’s eyes and nose on the face of his daughter, and the joy that floods over his father’s countenance when they harmonize on a favorite hymn.
In other words, he wants his old life back again.
And maybe he gets some of that but that’s not what Mark tells us. What Mark tells us is that Bartimaeus gets a whole new life following Jesus on “the way.”
Ask God in faith for restoration and what we are likely to get is not just what we had but more. We are likely to get what we need as well.
In the Sermon
Every once in a while I’ll be writing something -- a story, a sermon, an article – and somehow I’ll push the wrong button on my computer and the work I’ve done in that session will be deleted and lost for eternity. As you can imagine, this does not make me a happy person. I rant and rave and curse the computer and my own stupidity and then, after all my ire is spent, I sit down to restore that which was lost.
And inevitably, when I read the new thing that I have written, I have to admit that it is better than the old one which was lost.
My writing has been restored to something better.
A successful sermon on these texts will be liberally sprinkled with stories, possibly personal ones, about loss, restoration, and the end results of both. In this way we will be able to prepare our charges for the inevitable loss which life serves up to us and the powerful possibilities that are presented to us when we experience God’s very special understanding of what it means to “restore” that which is lost.
To live is to experience loss and to grieve for that which is lost.
When we are children we experience the loss of a pet through death and the loss of a plaything through wear and tear or, possibly, through our own carelessness or lack of attention.
We go to our parents and ask for restoration and sometimes they are willing and able to help; they restore the toy that was lost or the dog that died with a new puppy. But sometimes they can’t make the pain go away. That which was lost can’t be replaced.
But no matter how much care is given to the restoration, we know that it, the new item, is not the same as the old one. Life after restoration will not be the same as it might have been if restoration was not needed or called for.
As we grow older this experience is repeated over and over until it becomes part of who we are and helps us create the ritual that will lead us through the losses that are part of what it means to be an adult human being.
We will be, in some way, at least, prepared for the losses that come and we will know how to grieve our way through them to the recovery God has prepared for us at the other end of the process.
And we will know that even when restoration comes to us nothing will ever quite be the same.
It is possible that things will be better after restoration but, better or worse, they will be different and they will make us different than we were before the loss came upon us.
Hopefully, and with God’s help, we’ll be more and better than we were before.
1 Krugman, Paul. "The Angry White Male Caucus." The New York Times Oct. 1, 2018.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Restored to What?
by Tom Willadsen
Mark 10:46-52, Psalm 34, Job 42:1-6, 10-17
In this week’s primary article restoration is the theme that the The Immediate Word writers saw as the common thread uniting these readings. Restoration can take many forms. My focus will be on the larger context in which the Lord’s redemption of people takes place, and other, perhaps surprising ways in which restoration is manifest.
The scars are souvenirs you never lose/
The past is never far.
(Recording by Goo Goo Dolls, written by John Rzeznik)
Jacob wrestled with the Lord, after having sent a virtual force field of wealth ahead to his brother Esau. He came away from the wrestling match not having exactly prevailed, but having held his own, with a limp and a new name/identity, no longer “the healer grabber” or “supplanter” Jacob became “Israel,” “the one who contended with God.”
Today’s reading from Mark is the end of something like a hinge in gospel’s narrative arc. Immediately (that’s Mark’s favorite adverb!) before Peter identifies Jesus as the Christ, in Mark 8, Jesus healed a blind man. Jesus and the disciples have been making their way to Jerusalem since September 16, if you’re following the lectionary. There are some very interesting differences between these healings.
When Jesus was way up north in Bethsaida, along the Sea of Galilee, some people brought a blind man to him. Jesus took the man by the hand, led him away from the village, put saliva on his eyes and then the man said he saw trees walking around. “Then Jesus laid hands on him again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored.” [Mark 8:25] Then Jesus sent the man home and said, “Do not even go into the village.” Jesus performed this miracle in private, it was difficult -- is there another healing story in which Jesus needs to act twice? We don’t know the man’s name and Jesus’ instructions had the effect of keeping this miracle secret.
Now compare that passage to today’s reading from Mark. Jesus was in Jericho, much closer to Jerusalem, only two days’ journey away. We know this blind man’s name, Bartimaeus. We even know his father’s name, Timaeus. The crowd doesn’t bring the blind man to Jesus; the crowd tried to hold him back. Jesus didn’t even touch Bartimaeus, he just said his faith had made him well. All this took place in the midst of the crowd, with many witnesses. The disciples were getting together with others in the crowd to head up to Jerusalem for what we call Palm Sunday.
Here is Jesus at a very different moment in his career than when he restored the blind man’s sight in Mark 8. This most recent miracle is in public and he’s facing Jerusalem. He’s warned his disciples for what lies ahead, at least he’s tried to warn them. Three times he foretold his death to them; do they get it? Jesus appears more powerful, even more decisive in this passage.
And immediately (there it is again!) Bartimaeus followed Jesus. Perhaps that is the point of the story. That once someone has put their faith in Christ, blindness suddenly turns to sight. People see clearly. And Bartimaeus sees so clearly that he follows Jesus into Jerusalem as the Palm Sunday parade is just forming. (I’m not sure what to make of the fact that Bartimaeus threw off his cloak. He could suddenly see and he was in his underwear -- where everyone else could see! I’ve had that dream.) This is the turning point in Bartimaeus’ life, and the end of the turning point in Jesus’ life.
Turn your attention to the crowd for a moment. Look at the ones who told the blind man to be still, not to bother the Savior. “Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly.” [10:48] Who’s blind in this story? Who can’t see what’s in plain view? Who needs restoration? Certainly it’s the crowd, those who have gathered around Jesus, those who are about to march into Jerusalem. Who sees clearly? Certainly the one who a moment ago couldn’t see anything! He’s the one who will not be silenced. Even though it’s inconvenient, and he’s maybe an embarrassment because of the scene he just caused.
Whom do we overlook? Who among us sees clearly, but we want to silence? (Presbyterians, remember we are called to hear the voices of peoples long silence in the Brief Statement of Faith.) Who has the courage to stand up in a crowd and call out for what they need? The blind man. The persistent one. The one who refuses to be kept out, that is the one who can write a poem like the lesson from Psalm 34.
I sought the Lord and he answered me,
And delivered me from all my fears.
Look to him, and be radiant;
So your faces shall never be ashamed.
This poor soul cried, and was heard by the Lord and was saved from every trouble. You see, it’s the one who cries out, the one who seeks the Lord’s help, who gets it. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Those who do not, or cannot, mourn -- move through grief -- do not know comfort.
It is the persistent who are grateful and who are changed. And this persistent one turns to follow Jesus because he is restored.
Several years ago a parishioner gave me a perfect description of my own prayer life. Nearly all of my prayers fall into one of two categories: “Help me, help me, help me” or “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” This is certainly true of prayers I raise spontaneously in the course of the work day. But when my “help me” prayers are answered, and my thank you prayers are over -- see, the two are linked, they’re the same prayer, really -- I am rarely changed as Bartimaeus was. I am not restored. I go back to being what I was before I needed and called for God’s help. I blend back into the crowd. A crowd that would really rather not deal with a noisy blind guy who commanded Jesus’ attention. Maybe Bartimaeus did the same thing. We don’t know. There is no other mention of him in the Bible. Maybe once he was restored he joined the rest in waving palm branches. (He didn’t throw his cloak on the road; he threw that off when he approached Jesus.) Maybe the next time he added his voice to those who did not want Jesus to turn aside and restore someone. I think Bartimaeus had one of those life-changing encounters with the Son of God and was transformed/restored forever. A lot of people come to know Christ as Lord and Savior that way. They can suddenly see; their faith makes them complete. They are restored; and they follow.
Most of the people I know in the mainline 21st century American church do not come to faith once and forever. We stray. We sin. We forget. We need to turn around (that is, repent) every day. Every hour. We need to keep turning form selfishness. We need to keep turning from the crowd whoever they may be. And we need to keep returning to follow after Christ. We know what Bartimaeus did when he could see, but never hear again whether he stayed faithful, or whether he struggled with following Christ.
I think most of us are in the crowd. The crowd that tries to keep the blind beggar silent. We need to recognize we have a role in this story and we’re not the stars or the heroes. What makes scripture powerful is that it forces us to recognize that we’re not always noble, we’re not always virtuous, we’re not always the good guys, we’re not always right. And we always need restoration. And God’s idea of our restoration is never what we imagine.
A few weeks ago I was talking with a couple colleagues about what to my mind is the most difficult concept in theology: the atonement. Whenever we examine a candidate for ordination, I ask about the atonement. What does it mean, how do you understand, I ask, that Jesus Christ died for your sins? And one of my colleagues gave me a new way to understand the atonement, a new metaphor for this difficult concept. He said the atonement is an accident. There is a baby crawling across a road and an out-of-control truck is barreling down the road. The truck can’t possibly stop in time to keep from hitting the baby. Suddenly someone runs into the middle of the road, throws the baby out of the truck’s path and is killed instantly. Jesus is the man who saves the baby. Who are we? We are the baby. Who are we? We’re the driver of the truck.
In the lesson from Mark, who are you? The man who’s restored and filled with joy at being able to see again? The one who follows Jesus? Or are you part of the crowd, urging the persistent, poor, blind man to keep quiet? It’s both isn’t it? Aren’t you both restored and in need of restoration? Jesus calls to both parts of you. The faithful, eager follower and the stubborn, blind member of the crowd. He calls and calls. He invites. His call is persistent and faithful. And he’s calling you to restoration. Right now.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Job 42:10; Jeremiah 31:8; Psalm 126:1; Psalm 34:2; Psalm 34:19; Psalm 126:3
Hope / Stewardship / Ministry / Discipleship
Harris Rosen, who grew up poor on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, became wealthy in the Florida hotel business. Obtaining the status of being a multi-millionaire, he decided to invest part of his fortune into a troubled community, with the melodious sounding name of Tangelo Park. The mostly black community is located in Orange County, Florida, and is near Orlando.
The city lost its income from tourism, causing the neighborhood of small, once-charming houses to become a neighborhood of drugs, crime and too many shuttered homes. Nearly half its students had dropped out of school.
Twenty-one years after Rosen’s 1988 investment of $11 million, Tangelo Park is a striking success story. Nearly all its seniors graduate from high school, and most go on to college on full scholarships that Rosen has financed.
Young children head for kindergarten primed for learning, or already reading, because of the free day care centers and a prekindergarten program that Rosen provides. Property values have climbed. Houses have lawns and crime has plummeted.
Milton Anderson, a resident, sculpted a bush in his front yard in Tangelo Park. He said he had seen improvements in the community and more pride in homeownership in the past 20 years.
The community is small -- with only 3,000 people -- and filled with homeowners, making it unusual for an urban area. Tangelo has determined leaders who were fighting the drug trade even before Rosen’s arrival. And it has had Rosen’s focus and financing over 21 years.
Regarding his investment in the community, Rosen said, “It’s not inexpensive. You stay until the neighborhood no longer needs you.” But, he added, there are a lot of wealthy people with the resources to do the same thing if they choose.
Sitting with his feet propped up on his old, weathered wooden desk, Rosen, 75, fit, trim and not given to formalities, said his program was rooted in an element absent in many American neighborhoods.
Rosen offers these words for his benevolence, “Hope. If you don’t have any hope, then what’s the point?”
* * *
Job 42:10; Jeremiah 31:8; Psalm 126:1; Psalm 34:2; Psalm 34:19; Psalm 126:3
Testimony / Righteous Living / Ministry / Shepherding / Restoration
Eugene Lang, was a self-made businessman who flew coach class and traveled on subways and buses, contributed more than $150 million to charities and institutions during his lifetime, including a single $50 million gift in 2012 to Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, his alma mater, and $20 million to the Eugene Lang College, part of the New School in Manhattan.
But he will be best remembered for his impulsive gesture in June 1981, when he was invited to deliver the commencement address to 61 sixth graders at Public School 121 on East 103rd Street, in East Harlem.
Lang recalled, “I looked out at that audience of almost entirely black and Hispanic students, wondering what to say to them.” He had intended to tell them, their families and their teachers that he had attended P.S. 121 more than a half-century earlier, that he had worked hard and made a lot of money and that if they worked hard, maybe they could be successful, too. But, he went on to say, “it dawned on me that the commencement banalities I planned were completely irrelevant.”
He wondered how he could get these predominantly black and Puerto Rican children even to look at him. Scrapping his notes, he decided to speak to them from his heart. Lang said, “So I began by telling them that one of my most memorable experiences was Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, and that everyone should have a dream. Then I decided to tell them I’d give a scholarship to every member of the class admitted to a four-year college.” He told them that he would earmark $2,000 for each of them toward college tuition and that he would add more money each year that they stayed in school.
The gesture received national publicity, and he was invited to the White House by President Ronald Reagan.
But Lang was aware that simply providing students from poor or troubled homes with a scholarship would not ensure success; many would drop out along the way, unable to elude the traps of drugs, jail and untimely pregnancy. So, Lang “adopted” the class, treating them to trips and restaurant meals, counseling them through crisis after crisis, and intervening with school officials. Soon, Mr. Lang founded the I Have a Dream Foundation, setting up its office in Manhattan. He hired a project coordinator, established a year-round program of academic support with a mentor and tutoring for each student, and sponsored cultural and recreational outings. Lang eventually expanded his program to include not just sixth graders, but all grades.
Explaining his motivation, Lang said, “If this was my natural child, and my child were to do this, would I say, ‘The hell with this kid’? You can’t do that. The chances are the child will be derailed, and you have to be there and be sensitive and reach out and try to bring the child back on track.” He went on to say, “Giving should not be mechanical. It should be the fruit of one’s feeling, love and sense of responsibility. Giving is not giving back. There is no quid pro quo. Giving is self-fulfillment.”
Eugene Lang students call themselves “Dreamers.”
* * *
Job 42:3; Psalm 34:2; Psalm 34:19; Psalm 126:1; Mark 10:52
Peace / Acceptance / Restoration / Hope
Gisele Bundchen, 38, lives all of our dreams. As one of the world’s highest-paid-super-models, she had a $25 million contract with Victoria’s Secret. She has appeared on countless magazine covers. She is married to the New England Patriots super-star quarterback Tom Brady. She lives in several extravagant homes across the globe. She has a nanny to help her with her three children. This is Gisele Bundchen, from the outside.
In her memoir Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life, published in October 2018, Gisele Bundchen wants you to know her from the inside. She wrote in her book, “Things can be looking perfect from the outside, but you have no idea what’s really going on.” She went on to write, “I felt like maybe it was time to share some of my vulnerabilities.”
Even with a nanny, she finds motherhood stressful. She struggles with the independence she lost by having children. Having breast fed her children her breasts were no longer symmetrical. That beauty fault damaged her self-esteem, so she had breast augmentation surgery. The morning after the surgery she regretted her decision. She and Tom have arguments, and often don’t speak to one another. Fearing the long-term health effects of football, for years she wanted Tom to retire, but he won’t. At the age of 17 she had to model topless. After a bumpy flight on a small airplane in 2003, she started to have panic attacks. The panic attacks would “ambush” her and she felt “powerless” over them. This led her to contemplate suicide. She wrote, “I actually had the feeling of, ‘If I just jump off my roof, this is going to end, and I will never have to worry about this feeling of my world closing in.’”
The suicidal thoughts caused her to reevaluate her life. She began a total lifestyle overhaul. She was dating Leonardo DiCaprio at the time, but felt “alone” in the relationship. She ended the courtship, and a year later met Tom Brady. She gave up her unhealthy eating habits. She began using yoga and meditation to relive her stress. Now, she meditates at 5 a.m. every day.
Gisele Bundchen said that writing her memoir was a “healing” process. She went on to say, “There were a lot of things that you go through in your life that you prefer not to remember because they’re too painful. But knowing what I know now, I realized that when there is acceptance, there is no pain. There is freedom.”
* * *
Job 42:6; Hebrews 7:25; Mark 10:47
Judgment / Evil / Sin / Salvation (need of) / Justice
Pablo Escobar was a Colombian drug lord who eventually controlled over 80 percent of the cocaine shipped into the United States. Under his leadership 15 tons of cocaine came into the United States every day. His drug trafficking earned him the rank of one of Forbes Magazine’s 10 wealthiest people in the world. Escobar was worth $30 billion.
Escobar entered the cocaine trade in the early 1970s, collaborating with other criminals to form the Medellin Cartel. He earned popularity by sponsoring charity projects and soccer clubs, but later, terror campaigns that resulted in the murder of thousands turned public opinion against him. He was killed by Colombian police in 1993.
When he realized that he would never be Colombia’s president, and with the United States pushing for his capture and extradition, Escobar unleashed his fury on his enemies in the hopes of influencing Colombian politics. Escobar was responsible for the killing of thousands of people, including politicians, civil servants, journalists and ordinary citizens.
Escobar lived in the Monaco Building in Medellin, Columbia. After his death the Monaco Building became a tourist attraction. Realizing this was a bad image for the city, in September 2018 the mayor of the city, Federrico Gutierrez, showed up at the building with a sledgehammer. Before he began his demolition of the Monaco Building the mayor said, “This symbol, which is a symbol of illegality, of evil, will be brought to the ground.”
In its place there will be a park dedicated to Pablo Escobar’s victims.
* * *
Job 42:6; Hebrews 7:25; Mark 10:47
Judgment / Evil / Sin / Salvation (need of) / Worship / Idolatry
The great baseball legend, Babe Ruth, is buried in the Gate if Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York. The monument above his grave has Jesus blessing a little boy in a baseball uniform. Along the base of the monument the word “Ruth” is written in large capital letters. The New York Yankee slugger, known as “The Bambino” and “The Sultan of Swat,” died of throat cancer in 1948 at the age of 53.
For Yankee fans the grave has become a shrine. Whenever the Yankee are in the playoffs countless fans come and visit the grave seeking Ruth’s blessing for victory. They leave countless objects from baseball bats, baseballs, cards, flowers, liquor, and even his favorite foods. The cemetery superintendent, John Garro, has to assign additional maintenance workers to the grave to monitor the foot traffic of worshipers and to remove the pile of gifts left at the feet of Jesus and before the name “Ruth.” In one instance, after delivering a pizza, the delivery man genuflected and backed slowly away from the grave in reverence.
Garro tries to keep control of the onslaught of fans seeking good luck from “The Bambino.” He told a reporter for The New York Times for an October 2018 article, with the Yankees in the playoffs, that he says to the worshipers. “Other people are buried here.”
* * *
Job 42:3; Job 42:10; Psalm 34:4; Psalm 126:1; Mark 10:52
Healing / Restoration / Hope / Faith / Righteous Living / Worship
Montel Williams is best known to us as the host of the The Montel Williams Show, which aired from 1991 to 2008. It began as a tabloid talk show, but over the years Montel focused less on controversial topics and more on inspirational stories. What most viewers don’t know is prior to his television career he was a graduate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, serving 15 years in the military. He began as an enlisted man in the Marines, then attended Annapolis, and finished his career as a Naval officer.
On May 30, 2018, Montel was working out in a New York City hotel gym. He was in the middle of doing a set of 65-pound-weighted squats when he heard a noise from behind him. Knowing he was alone in the gym, he immediately knew something was wrong. When the room became a kaleidoscope, he realized he had a stroke. He had a rare cerebellar hemorrhage stroke. The sound he heard was a weakened blood vessel in his cerebellum bursting under the presser of his workout. This caused a pool of blood, the size of a peach, to form in the back of Montel’s brain. He was in ICU for 21 days at New York-Presbyterian hospital.
From this experience Montel has learned to slow down his active fast pace of life. Montel said, “My biggest mantra for years was, ‘Mountain, get out of my way.’ Well, how about just stand on top of the mountain and take a look around?”
* * *
Job 42:10; Psalm 34:2; Psalm 126:1; Psalm 126:3
Discipleship / Love / Community / Ministry / Blessings
Since 2008, Bob Williams, a retired teacher and coach, has been handing out Hershey bars to everyone he meets in his small town of Long Grove, Iowa. In ten years, Williams, who is 94 and called Candy Man, has given away 6,000 bars. Of his endeavor Williams said, “I thought it’d be a nice way to get to know people and bring a little cheer.” He went on to say, “You’d think I’d given people keys to a new car. They’re thrilled!”
The Hershey Company has promised Bob Williams a lifetime supply of Hershey candy bars.
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Psalm 34:1; Psalm 34:4; Psalm 126:1; Mark 10:52
Healing / Ministry / Perseverance / Mission / Hope
On September 16, 2018, at Angel Stadium in Los Angeles, eight-year-old Hailey Dawson became the first person to throw the first pitch at all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums. And, she did it with a bionic right hand.
She was born with a rare condition that left her missing the middle three fingers of her right hand. To compensate for this she uses a bionic arm.
In 2015 she began her mission which she called “Journey for 30,” which she has now completed in Los Angeles. When asked why she embarked on her “Journey for 30” she replies that with her disability, “If I can do it, you can do it!”
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Job 42:5; Psalm 34:1; Psalm 34:8; Psalm 126:3; Hebrews 7:24; Hebrews 7:25; Mark 10:52
Worship / Healing / Understanding / Salvation / Faith
In the Roman Catholic church, the altar has inspiring symbolic meaning. The altar represents the table on which Jesus celebrated the Last Supper. The cross on the altar, which has Jesus still nailed to the cross, represents his sacrifice on our behalf. The table is made of natural stone, for scripture reads that Jesus “is the living stone, rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen and precious.” On the altar are engraved five crosses, representing Jesus’ five wounds on Calvary Hill.
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Psalm 34:8; Jeremiah 31:8; Psalm 126:3; Hebrews 7:25
Mission / Discipleship / Salvation / Evangelsim
On February 24, 1742, Peter Bohler gathered a group of Moravians who would sail to the American colonies. There they would establish a settlement in what became known as Bethlehem in Pennsylvania. They first began their missionary work to the black slaves and American Indians. The group, as they were to traverse the Atlantic Ocean, became known as the “sea congregation.”
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From team member Mary Austin:
Mark 10:46-52
Courage
In yelling out to Jesus for help, despite the crowd trying to shush him, Bartimaeus shows great resolve. His courage moves him toward Jesus, seeking healing, when he could stay put in the life he knows. Instead he throws off his cloak, perhaps his one valuable possession, in exchange for a new life. Researcher and writer Dr. Brene Brown says that “Vulnerability is not weakness; it’s our greatest measure of courage. A lot of cheap seats in the arena are filled with people who never venture onto the floor. They just hurl mean-spirited criticisms and put-downs from a safe distance.” Bartimaeus ignores those people, as he hurtles toward Jesus and a new kind of life.
Brene Brown says, “When we commit to showing up and risking falling, we are actually committing to falling. Daring is not saying, “I’m willing to risk failure.” Daring is saying, “I know I will eventually fail and I’m still all in.” Fortune may favour the bold, but so does failure.”
Brown adds, “Once we fall in the service of being brave, we can never go back. We can rise up from our failures, screw ups, and falls, but we can never go back to where we stood before we were brave or before we fell. Courage transforms the emotional structure of our being. This change often brings a deep sense of loss. During the process of rising, we sometimes find ourselves homesick for a place that no longer exists. We want to go back to that moment before we walked into the arena, but there’s nowhere to go back to. What makes this more difficult is that now we have a new level of awareness about what it means to be brave. We can’t fake it anymore. We now know when we’re showing up and when we’re hiding out, when we are living our values and when we are not.”
Bartimaeus never goes back to his original place by the side of the road. He ends up showing even more courage, and follows along with Jesus.
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Mark 10:46-52
Places Where We Are Blind
The physical blindness of Bartimaeus, healed by Jesus, is a mirror for the places of spiritual blindness we all have. Writer and retreat leader Alaja Bonheim tells about meeting up with her own blindness -- and getting three fresh pies out of the encounter. On an afternoon break, while leading a retreat, she stopped in a small town for lunch. She found a café and stopped in. “I’m in luck,” she thought as she walked in. “It’s empty.” But as the waiter handed her the menu, she spotted a man leaning against the kitchen door, watching her intently. “A heavyset fellow with a paunch, he was obviously in no hurry. He must be the owner, I figured. My coffee arrived, and still he stood there, clearly observing. I wished he would leave, but no. There he remained, hovering like a hawk.” Then the man walked over, full of questions. Was she a tourist? Was she on vacation?
“Inwardly,” she says, “I began to bristle. I don’t remember whether the word ‘redneck’ actually crossed my mind, but I had definitely pegged him as one. Of course it didn’t help that, as fate would have it, he quite literally did have a red neck. Rednecks scared me…Whenever I encountered someone who seemed to fit the bill, I would draw a wide circle around them. And so, though I was answering the café owner’s questions, and appeared to be connecting with him, in truth I had already rejected him and wanted nothing to do with him. My usual strategy would have been to put up walls and discourage any contact. But this time, I couldn’t get away with it, the reason being that just before we broke for lunch, I’d given the workshop participants an assignment for the afternoon. It was a practice I call “Seeing with Sacred Eyes.” And the instructions were these: Whenever you encounter someone, mentally greet them as God. Inwardly, bow to them, and honor them as embodiments of Spirit. “If you’re uncomfortable with the word God,” I told the women at the retreat, “no problem. Just use whatever words work for you. You might greet them as sacred beings or as embodiments of the great Mystery.”
The practice of inwardly bowing to someone is a wonderful way to evoke the perception of them as unique, special, and sacred. And since only the heart is capable of perceiving others as sacred, this practice automatically leads us to heart-thinking…But sitting in that restaurant, my instructions felt like a tall order. Dismayed, I considered my redneck. Surely the divine Beloved wasn’t supposed to look like this! He wasn’t supposed to have a beer belly and hairy hands.” So, she tried it.
She talked with the man, in her mind, noticing the things about him that were special. She tried to set aside her own prejudices. At the end of lunch, when she asked for the check, the man told her to wait. Surprised, she stopped. He raced back to the kitchen, and came back with three fresh, still hot pies. “Looking at me with a shy grin, he explained, “This one’s cherry. This is apple walnut. And that -- that’s rhubarb strawberry.” Seeing my puzzled look, he added, almost apologetically, “Well… you see, I made them for your [retreat participants.] I thought they might enjoy them.” I was dumbfounded. While I was having my coffee, relieved to be rid of him, he’d been baking up a storm to make a special gift to a bunch of women whom he’d never met. Would he have acted any differently, had I not honored the divine presence in him? Who knows. All I can say for sure is that when we judge people, we go blind to their divinity. But by opening our hearts, we call forth the best in them. And there it was, in his simple gesture of hospitality, kindness, and welcome.”
We can all, like Bartimaeus, be healed of our blindness, even if ours is spiritual.
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Mark 10:46-52 and Job 42:1-6, 10-17
Restoration
In a commencement speech, Paul Hawken urges the graduates to attend to the restoration of our natural environment. He invites them to the work of restoration by saying, “There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring. The earth couldn’t afford to send recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.” All the work of restoration has an impossible quality to it, and yet it must be done.
Hawken calls our attention to the great cloud of witnesses, all doing the work of restoration. “You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more…It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way…Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers.”
Restoration is our shared calling, following the example of Jesus our Redeemer.
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Mark 10:46-52 and Job 42:1-6, 10-17
Working for Restoration
Entrepreneur and writer Paul Hawken says that billions of people are working in our world for the good of others, and he adds, “This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown -- Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood -- and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity. Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, non-governmental organizations, and companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history.”
A small change -- like Jesus healing Bartimaeus, or God restoring Job’s fortunes -- can ripple out in all kinds of ways.
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Mark 10:46-52
Being Blind
Like Bartimaeus, architect Chris Downey was once sighted, and then had to adjust to life as a person with blindness. Downey had surgery for a brain tumor, which was a success, but then two days later, his sight began to fade, and it was fully gone by the third day. Downey was determined to maintain his busy practice as an architect and teacher in San Francisco. “Now, as a consultant to architectural practices in San Francisco and beyond, he commutes to the city via public transportation four days a week. On the fifth day, he heads to UC Berkeley, where he teaches accessibility and universal design.” Adjusting to life without sight, he says, involved “a lot of intense training…Mentally, it’s hard work. You’re having to think through things in a different way. The first time at a major intersection where I stepped off into the street to cross on my own, it was like, ‘Oh my god.’”
Downey starts his days being picked up at 5:05 a.m. for crew practice. The sport is ideal for him. He says, “It’s a great way to start the day. It’s amazing and cool being in these tiny boats with the water right there at your fingertips. Once you’re in the boat, you’re facing away from the direction you travel, so you’re just another one of the guys. Everyone’s relying on the feel of the boat and sound of the oars hitting the water.”
Downey says his disability has enhanced his work as an architect, and brought him new levels of insight. He designs with a tactile palette, not just a visual one, in mind, striving for different surfaces and sounds. “Blind people rely on acoustics to get around. I test materials with my cane to see how they feel. Instead of doing a ‘walk-through,’ we create a ‘tap-through,’ so you hear what it’s like when you tap your cane throughout the building.” The world hasn’t changed, but the way he navigates and perceives it has changed dramatically.
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: Let us bless God at all times!
People: God’s praise shall continually be on our lips!
Leader: Come, let us magnify the name of our God.
People: We will exalt God’s name together for ever.
Leader: Taste and see that our God is good.
People: Happy are we who take refuge in our God.
OR
Leader: Praise to our God who creates and creates anew.
People: God’s glorious works are wondrous to behold.
Leader: God see the glory we were created to show.
People: Even in our brokenness God see the new us.
Leader: We invite God to come and remake us.
People: We will work with God to remake all creation.
Hymns and Songs:
I’ll Praise My Maker While I’ve Breath
UMH: 60
H82: 429
PH: 253
CH: 20
There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy
UMH: 121
H82: 469/470
PH: 298
NCH: 23
CH: 73
LBW: 290
ELA: 587/588
W&P: 61
AMEC: 78
STLT: 213
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
UMH: 139
H82: 390
AAHH: 117
NNBH: 2
NCH: 22
CH: 25
ELA: 858/859
AMEC: 3
STLT: 278
Renew: 57
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
UMH: 140
AAHH: 158
NNBH: 45
NCH: 423
CH: 86
ELA: 733
W&P: 72
AMEC: 84
Renew: 249
Breathe on Me, Breath of God
UMH: 420
H82: 508
PH: 316
AAHH: 317
NNBH: 126
NCH: 292
CH: 254
LBW: 488
W&P: 461
AMEC: 192
Holy Spirit, Truth Divine
UMH: 465
PH: 321
NCH: 63
CH: 241
LBW: 257
ELA: 398
Near to the Heart of God
UMH: 472
PH: 527
NNBH: 316
CH: 581
AMEC: 322
How Firm a Foundation
UMH: 529
H82: 636/637
PH: 361
AAHH: 146
NNBH: 48
NCH: 407
CH: 618
LBW: 507
ELA: 796
W&P: 411
AMEC: 433
Sing unto the Lord a New Song
CCB: 16
Renew: 99
Our God Reigns
CCB 33:
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who creates and re-creates all the wonders you have made:
Grant us the grace to trust in your restoring work
that we might find ourselves and our world
remade even better than before;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you have created us and you are re-creating all of your wondrous works. Help us to trust you so that we may be restored to even greater glory. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our refusal to let God make us anew.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We were made to reflect your glory but we have allowed sin to cloud your image within us. We know that we are made for a better life than we live and yet we afraid of change. We want to be better than we are but we are not willing to go through the process of getting there. We want it handed to us instantaneously. Send the power of your Spirit upon us that we may enter into the work of restoration and redemption. Amen.
Leader: God’s love is abundant for all. We are always welcomed back to join God in the ever creating work of restoration. Receive God’s grace and be restored as you reach out to others.
Prayers of the People
Worthy of praise are you, O God, who creates and restores all creation. Your love never falters until you have brought all to perfection.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We were made to reflect your glory but we have allowed sin to cloud your image within us. We know that we are made for a better life than we live and yet we afraid of change. We want to be better than we are but we are not willing to go through the process of getting there. We want it handed to us instantaneously. Send the power of your Spirit upon us that we may enter into the work of restoration and redemption.
We give you thanks for your presence among us and for your love that draws us closer to you. We thank you for the healing work of your Spirit among us and through us. We thank you for Jesus and for our sisters and brothers in the Church who share in the restoration of all.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for our broken world and for the broken lives within it. We all need healing and restoration. We lift up to you the hurts of our world.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
If you are into restoring old cars or old houses you may have some before and after pictures you could share. If not, the internet is full of them. Pick an example or two and show the children what something looked like before and after restoration. Talk about how proud the original maker must have felt to see their creation come back like new.
God created us to shine with God’s glory. We don’t let that show very well. God is always ready to restore us so that God’s love shines through us.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Bartimaeus’ Faith
by Bethany Peerbolte
Mark 10:46-52
Being open with our kids about times of doubt and struggles in faith is important. This children’s sermon seeks to normalize the experience of spiritual blindness. Through experiencing visual blindness the students will understand better that sometimes our faith gets blurry or blacks out completely. When we cannot feel God’s love it is not gone, we can trust our other senses to feel God close by.
Before Sunday, prepare some vision diminishing devices. Blindfolds of all kinds work. Dollar store sleeping masks are great because they are easy to get on and off. Additionally, rubbing petroleum jelly on the outside of sunglass lenses is a fun alternative. This will give a blurred view by letting in light but distorting shapes, so the wearer can’t make out what is really in front of them. This gives a wider representation of what vision impairment means. It shows the kids that not all people who are legally blind see absolutely nothing.
Grab a few common items the kids wearing the blindfold or glasses can touch and guess the object. Items like crosses, chip clips, toys, etc. can be surprisingly hard to guess. Put all your items and a Bible into an opaque bag.
Sunday, say something like:
Have any of you ever wondered what it would be like if you couldn’t see? I have some things here that will help a few of you experience that a little better. (Pick a few kids who you feel will handle the illustration well and be helpful to you. Give them a blindfold or a pair of sunglasses.) Put these on and tell me what you see. (Give each helper a chance to describe what they see.) When people are born without sight or lose their vision their other senses become very important to them. I’m going to give you an item and I want you to try and tell me what it is. (One by one give a helper an item, give them time to guess, then let them take off the blindfold or glasses to see if they got it right. Do the Bible last. When the student guesses a book ask them if they can guess the title of the book.)
You all did a great job. It can be hard to experience the world when you cannot see what is in front of you. You must learn to trust your other senses.
In our Bible story today, Jesus meets a man named Bartimaeus. Say that name with me. It is fun to say “Bartimaeus.” Bartimaeus is blind and people do not treat him kindly. The people in his town think because he is blind he cannot work and so no one will give him a job. Bartimaeus must beg for food and money on the side of the road. One day Jesus is walking on the road where Bartimaeus is and our friend Bartimaeus yells out asking Jesus to help him. But he uses a special name for Jesus. He calls him “Son of David” which shows that Bartimaeus has faith that Jesus is the messiah. Jesus heals Bartimaeus and says he did so because Bartimaeus has faith. His faith healed him!
Faith is like another sense. It’s a spiritual sense that lets us know God is close by and helps us feel God’s love. Like our sense of sight, we can become spiritually blind, and lose the sense that helps us feel God’s love. That might make us feel sad or lonely or even angry that God left us. When we lose our sense of faith it doesn’t mean God doesn't love us. Even though you could not see the toy or the Bible it was still there. God continues to love us even when we lose faith. It’s like we have a blindfold on or those blurry glasses but over our faith instead of our eyes. It becomes harder to see God’s love.
Bartimaeus shows us how important faith is; it can bring healing to our lives. And just like Jesus healed Bartimaeus’ eyes, Jesus heals our spiritual sense of faith too. When we lose faith and feel like it is hard to see God’s love we can talk to a friend about our faith. Who would you talk to if you felt like you were losing your sense of faith? (allow kids to answer)
Those are all great people to talk to. We can also talk to God and pray for help. Let’s pray now…
Jesus, we know you can heal our spiritual blindness. Help us feel God’s love this week, so that we can be loving to others. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, October 28, 2018, issue.
Copyright 2018 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
