To see AGAIN ! Proper 25B/ Pentecost 23B 27th Oct 2024

2024  10  27   Proper 25B  Pentecost 23B

 

“I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;…”

How true, it is for all of us, that we hear of God by the hearing of the ear.  Our parents may have been the ones who introduced us to God, or maybe a friend or teacher.  Something has led us, such that we are here in a place of faith.  We are in a place of faith literally,(church building) but also, figuratively (where we are at on our journey of life).  Our faith is a result of our experiences, who we are and what we have heard. 

 

Job was such a faith-filled man!  He was devoted to God and there was no one so faith-filled and righteous in all the land.  Then, Satan was allowed to afflict him and he remained faithful to God, but he did eventually grumble.  This is us.  We live in this fallen world and we experience probably just some of what Job experienced.  Job had lost his fortune and his children.  He was a man deeply grieved and after a time of grief that was too deep for words, he spoke.  He knew he’d done nothing to deserve the calamity and we can only imagine his feelings.

 

Perhaps you can do more than imagine.  Perhaps, you too have experienced deep grief.  There are many, who I know, who turned away from God after experiencing grief.  One dear friend of mine has experienced pretty near the amount of grief as Job.  It seems that it was one thing after another.  Just when she starts to feel that she is getting her life on track another wave of calamity comes to overwhelm her.  She says that she doesn’t believe in God anymore, even though she was heavily involved and faithful as a young adult.  When we talk, she describes God to me as “YOUR God”… not hers.  What has happened, is that she feels betrayed by God and hurt beyond being able to accept that God, if he exists, could possibly love her.

 

At this point in time, my friend can not SEE God.  She has more than one good Christian friend who try to care for her and encourage her to have faith – but we have not experienced all that she has.  She hears about God, but she can not see him.  She can not see God, because her experience has taught her that God is not on her side and so her eyes are closed to him.

 

Our Psalm today, tells us that “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD rescues them from them all.”   Afflictions happen… over and over, regardless of how righteous we are.  This is the message of the book of Job; bad things happen to good people and it isn’t because of anything that they do.  The cause is unseen and unknown to us, but our response has an effect in the heavenly realm.  Job was truly loved by God and God lifted Job up in the end, but first God showed Job something super important, and a lesson we all need to remember:  When our eyes are opened to see God, we will see that he is so far beyond our image of him that we will be somewhat overwhelmed and even embarrassed.  In Job’s words, “therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes."  Job formally considered himself righteous, but now that he actually SEEs God, he despises himself… such is the glory and righteousness of God.

 

There was a song in the 90s, “One of Us”.  “If God had a face what would it look like? And would you want to see - If seeing meant that you would have to believe - In things like heaven and in Jesus and the Saints - And all the prophets?”  What we learn from Job, is that God is bigger and beyond any box that we put him in….In fact, we have been learning this in the past weeks also, when we looked at the “fear of the Lord” and how that was to have an understanding of the greatness and majesty of God, and we should keep this understanding that God is greater, in mind as we continue to get to know him.  We also need to ask that same question as the song…. Would you want to see?

 

I often ask this question; Would you prefer the truth or a lie that makes you feel comfortable?  It is the same with God.  Do you want to see God?  Remembering that seeing will mean realizing your own error and like Job, despising ourselves and repenting.

 

In our Gospel reading there is a man who wants to see.  Blind Bartimaeus is named as the son of Timaeus.  This tells us that Timaeus was a known person and his son was not just some random blind beggar.  However, his blindness had rendered him completely reliant on others.   In fact, his vision of himself, as a person who needs others to help him, enables an attitude we all need… humility… to ask for help.  Bartimaeus is used to calling out for help, so when Jesus comes by, he calls out loudly.

 

Jesus asks the man what he wants him to do for him.  This is an important question, Jesus doesn’t assume that the blind man is begging and wants money, and he doesn’t assume that the blind man knows who he is and desires healing also, but he asks the blind man what he wants.

 

We know from our previous weeks that Jesus is the exact representation of God.  And something we are told about God is that he respects our free will.  If we don’t want God in our lives, God will seem silent. But quite often we expect God to know what we want even though we haven’t asked.  God does know… but he respects our free will and therefore asks us; “What do you want me to do for you?”

 

In Old Testament times, God was sort through the mediation of a priest.  The Good News comes with Jesus who is greater than a high priest.  With the priestly organisation, there would be certain sacrifices given and then your sins declared forgiven.  The Good news we have is that we give no sacrifice to be forgiven.  We are forgiven because Jesus has, once and for all, become the sacrifice.  So now without any hinderance God asks of us, “What do you want me to do for you?”

 

Bartimaeus knows what he wants.  He wants to see again.  Seeing clearly brings about change.  The Gospel of John tells us that unless you are born again – or born of the spirit, you can not see the Kingdom of God.  We are encouraged to know the truth and the truth will set us free.  We need to see the truth…. We need to realize that God is asking us that same question; “What do you want me to do for you?” 

 

God is always there and always hoping that we will ask him to enable us to see.  We have heard of the goodness and love of God and perhaps we have “seen” that goodness also, therefore we responded by choosing to belong to the family of faith.   However, we live in this world, and we go out into this world, and become distracted or blinded by its temptations.  Its temptations might be the pressure to fit in… and be politically correct, or it or maybe simply its busyness etc… Sometimes these things align with God’s goodness, but often times that pressure to fit in and go with the flow is a long way from putting God first… and we become blinded…. And so, we notice that word at the end of Bartimaeus’ request, the word “AGAIN”!  "My teacher, let me see again."

 

Jesus responds to that request, and the blind man was healed.  Did you notice that when Bartimaeus was healed his life direction changed?  Not only was he no longer begging, but we are told that he followed Jesus on the way.  In some places in the New Testament “The Way” was how they referred to becoming a follower of Jesus.

 

We need to consider; Do we want to see?  Seeing means that we will need to respond to our cleared vision and this may mean perhaps more directly following Jesus.  Seeing God’s way, may even mean a complete turn around.  Bartimaeus threw off his cloak before Jesus healed him.  He already knew that his life was going to change and he welcomed that change.  But he needed to let go of his old life, in order to step into the new.  Are there any things that we need to throw off?  What is it that is holding us back from stepping into the path that Jesus has marked out for us?

 

When Job had his eyes opened to the greatness of God, he repented of his prior limited vision and his future was brighter than his past had ever been.  This life will have afflictions and hardships but our future in God is brighter than anything we can imagine.  To be brave and step into all that God calls us to, we need to see him clearly.  “Lord I want to see again”.  Let this be our prayer this week as we strive to walk into the path that God has called each of us.

To grow we need to step out in faith 13th Oct 2024 Proper 23B Pentecost 21B

 2024  10  13   Proper 23B  Pentecost 21B 

Many who are first will be last, and the last will be first…. Where are we in this picture of the kingdom of God?  We are comfortable.  We have everything we need in this age and even most of what we want.  God has blessed this generation and our nation so abundantly.  When God blesses us, it is so that we can be a blessing to others.  This message of Jesus to the rich man to give away all his money to the poor always makes me a little uncomfortable.  How about you?  I’m grateful for the words Jesus speaks that say, “for mortals it is impossible, but not for God. With God all things are possible”. 

 

Whenever we come across the challenges of scripture, we need to remember that “Gospel” means “Good News”.  The Gospel of Jesus is truly Good News, but many Christians accept the Good News that Christ came to bring us eternal life… yay, we are saved…. And never actually worry about this part about leaving everything and following God.    

 

In this life there are many people hurting, like Job.  They cry out to God and hear nothing.  We are the body of Christ and His spirit is with us – we are the hands and feet of God on earth and most people will experience the answer to their prayers through us.  We, the children of God, need to grow in faith, much like a child will grow, to look beyond ourselves and to care for others.

 

What is it that stops us from fully stepping out in faith?  For the young man in our Gospel story, it was his riches.  For us, it might be our reputation, our lifestyle, the comfort of our routine of work and leisure time, …or something else.  This Gospel message is not just about a rich young man, it is about all of us.

 

Jesus knows we are not perfect, which is why – as we read last week – he made purification for our sins.  This is the truth.  God has made the way – and that thing which was impossible, is now possible because Jesus has died to make purification for sins… and he rose again.  We have eternal life through our union with Christ.  What more is there to say?  Maybe I should stop right here, this is the ultimate truth, and the absolute Good News, but to stop here, would be to remain a spiritual baby who is not growing in faith and the love of God….  Are we stunting our growth because we are not stepping out in faith?  When we are willing to truly follow Jesus, life is a long way from ever being boring.

 

 Even though we follow God, things WILL go wrong.  There will be times we hurt and cry out to God like Job feeling that God has abandoned us.  Last week we talked about the big question of “Why”.  Why do bad things happen to good people?  This is the question that runs through the book of Job and in the end, we realized that why is a faithless question.  Asking “why” means we are not trusting in God, and most importantly, we need to grow in our understanding of how much God loves us so that we can continue in our integrity even when everything goes wrong and we don’t understand.  I’m really not very good at this… but I’m on the journey, and we don’t learn to walk in a day… it happens gradually, and it happens to be much more achievable when we have God’s people supporting us.

 

I am incredibly grateful for psalm 22 and the book of Job.  Psalm 22 looks like it could have been written by Job – but it wasn’t.  The author of the book of Job is unknown, but some traditional Jewish scholars attribute it to Moses, but Psalm 22 is attributed to King David.  This tells me that at least two great and mighty people of faith struggled to understand and have faith in God when things went wrong.  In the biography of Mother Teresa, she tells of a huge struggle she felt… a dark night of the soul, when she couldn’t sense God.  It is natural to grieve loss and feel rejection, and perhaps what is common at these times for the people of God is to feel that God has rejected us.  “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”  These are the opening words of Psalm 22 and they show us that the author is feeling like God has rejected them.  This is a rejection that hurts.  It is a feeling of abandonment that cuts deep.  I’m wondering if you recall where else these exact words were cried out? When Jesus was on the cross he also cried out, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” 

 

Everyone feels this dark sense of God’s abandonment at some time in their life, even when they are mighty people of God like David, Job, Elijah and many more.  In our reading from Job, we see that Job feels like he can’t perceive God – he can’t sense God in his life and he expresses the wish that he would vanish in darkness.  Have you been in that place too?  So worn out with grief that you are maybe even angry at God and feeling abandoned by God?  These feelings are a reality of life.  We may have lost our lifestyle or our loved ones.  Even when we’ve been faithful to God and through no fault of our own, bad things happen and we feel hurt and abandoned by God.  So, what is God saying to us today, through these readings?

 

Jesus, who also cried out, My God why have you abandoned me, is our high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, because in every respect He has been tested as we are, yet without sin – as the reading from Hebrews tells us.  Last week we read that Jesus is the exact representation of God and He made purification for our sins.  In other words, God makes purification for our sins.  In other words, God sympathizes with us in our weaknesses.

 

In all of the Bible from front to back we read and learn about who God is.  And we learn that he is compassionate and he cares for all and so much so that he saves our tears in his bottle – is what one psalm (56) tells us.  And this same God, in answer to the question about inheriting eternal life, says what the young man expected… “you know the commandments; 'You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud. Honor your father and mother.'"  Our rich young man had kept these laws.  Have we?  Another scripture tells us that if we have looked lustfully at another, we have as good as committed adultery and if we have uttered angry words with another, we have committed murder….  The bar to perfection is higher than us.  We can’t keep it, but that doesn’t mean we should stop trying.

 

When we have done, what we know is wrong we don’t want to be reminded of it and we deny or justify.  As a teacher, I can’t tell you how often I witness this.   On Saturday I heard a lady call out of her car as she drove past, “My body, my choice.”  She was making a statement about abortion.  No one was accusing her of anything, but there was a peaceful, quite March for life taking place. Why would anyone be offended by someone promoting goodness and life and advocating to save lives?  Next time something causes us offense, I challenge us all to stop and ponder, why?  Is it because it triggers some deep hurt in us where we have failed, but refuse to admit it, preferring to justify our actions?  We all fail.  We all sin and for any of us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven is like a camel going through the eye of the needle - impossible.  The only way through is to get rid of the baggage.

 

The eye of the needle Jesus was talking about, is most likely the small gaps in the wall that surrounded the ancient cities.  An army couldn’t get through, but a single person could without any baggage or armour – and not with a camel.  Grief and the sense of God’s abandonment can cause us to harden our hearts to God.  We carry the baggage of hurt and our hardened heart is our armour.  It is a heavy load.  We justify ourselves, saying, “I have kept all the commandments- I go to church… Or, I don’t go to church but I’m a good person.” We justify and make excuses instead of confessing our sin, or like Adam in the garden of Eden, we put the blame elsewhere.

 

By our actions, by our words or excuses and justification we can not stand as holy before God and it is easier for the camel to go through the eye of the needle than for any of us to enter the Kingdom of God.  With mortals it is impossible, BUT with God all things are possible.  Jesus made purification for sins…. It is finished.. He has accomplished it and we all are in the same boat so no one can boast.

 

We are NEVER abandoned by God, no matter how deep we are in that dark night of the soul.  Feelings are not the fact.  Jesus died so that we can be absolutely assured of God’s love and acceptance.  He has made the impossible possible.  But let us partner with him, stepping out in faith, leaving all things and follow him.  We too lay down our lives and offer our lives to him as a living sacrifice.   We pray it each week; Father, we offer ourselves to you as a living sacrifice in Jesus Christ our Lord. Send us out into the world you love, …..  As we step into the path that God has destined for us, let’s lay down the baggage that prevents us.

Trusting... accepting the Kingdom like a child. 6th Oct 2024 Pentecost 20b Proper 22B

2024  10  06   Proper 22 Pentecost 20B

Why, oh why, oh why????  My granddaughter has reached that age, where she asks why and I’m not really sure why she even asks why, but it sure is a challenge sometimes.  The book of Job, which we read from today is a book that asks the same question – why?  We also find that Jesus, after being tested by the authorities about marriage, has his disciples asking him why also.  In verse 10; “Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter.” Why did they have to ask him again?  Did he say something that was new to them?  For us who have often read this passage, it all seems very matter of fact.  So, why did the disciples need to question him again?  It seems to imply that there was a common belief here that Jesus was challenging.  Moses made an allowance for people’s failings, but Jesus reminds them that there is a more perfect way.

 

Job was a man who walked a perfect path.  He was known as a man of Integrity.  Integrity is a virtue that we really need to cultivate… in ourselves and in our children.  When has someone encouraged you to give up your integrity?  Possibly the last time you recall, might have been when you were at school being peer pressured into joining in with the forbidden antics, but as adults, the peer pressure still exists.  We are peer pressured into thinking the same, into believing the same….  And this may or may not be a threat to our integrity, but sometimes it is and we don’t always as readily realize it.  A simple example; everyone exceeds the speed limit at this particular part of the road, and if you do the speed, the person behind sits so close that you feel the pressure to conform.

 

Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is looking and even everyone else is doing the wrong thing.   It is something I often talk about with the school children because even very good children will tend to follow the crowd when no authority figure is looking.   Therefore, we strive to teach them about this thing called “Integrity”, and I usually explain that it is something that we need to practise, in order to be strong in integrity.

 

Job was told by his wife to give up his integrity and curse God and die.  Why did she say this?  Well, there is a little back story to Job that you need to know; Satan had accused God that Job only feared God because God had blessed Job.  Therefore, God gave Satan permission to test Job and so, in one day, all Job’s possessions came to ruin and his children were killed.  Job was grief stricken but continued to worship God.  Then came Satan again and afflicted Job with sores, and his wife sees his suffering and encourages him to curse God and die.  But Job refuses.

 

The book of Job is very important.  It deals with the subject that all people struggle with; why do bad things happen to good, God-fearing people?  The traditional and narrow answer is one that we see echoed in many of the encounters of healing people had with Jesus; that sickness and tragedy is because of sin.  Although it is obvious that when we do something foolish the consequence may lead to destruction, there are many good people that through no fault of their own, experience terrible tragedy. 

 

We do live in a fallen world where we are subject to the consequence of both our sin and the sin of others, but sometimes there seems to be such an injustice in the Russian roulette of who bears the consequence.  This “Why do bad things happen to good people?” question, is one of life’s big questions.  And one that people will often give as a reason to not follow God.  The book of Job gives us another reason, other than the sin that is in the world.  It opens our minds to understand that there is a spiritual realm that we know very little about.  This spiritual realm has rules and ways of operating that effect us, and how we respond has an effect in that spiritual realm also.  The book of Job deals with the reality of who we are in that spiritual realm and it deals with our attitude, and challenges us to ponder, “Do we respond with faith, when bad things happen?”

 

I recently saw a theological lecture where the lecturer explained that our image of God matters.  It is important that the God we proclaim is not just a megaphone for ourselves and our own ideas, but that we allow God to be bigger than what we can comprehend.  This is what the book of Job does.  It reminds us that God is bigger and that there are reasons that we just can’t know.  While remembering that God is… El Shaddai …  the Almighty and beyond us, God does desire for us to know him and love him, which is why Christ came to our world.

 

 Christ is the exact representation of God, which is what we note in our letter to the Hebrews today.  “He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,..”

 

God made purification for sins!  What does this tell us about God?  You know the idea of Karma is that we get what we deserve.  We do the wrong thing and we eventually get pay back… and the same for if we do the right thing.  Does this always work in our world though?  It is an obvious NO… and the book of Job draws our attention to this fact.

 

 If Jesus is the exact representation of God, and he made purification for our sins, then it stands to reason, that God is sacrificially and unconditionally loving.   This is totally different from Karma, where if we did wrong, we’d be reincarnated as a bug.  And just between me and you…. Much better news!  God’s love is such that He himself willingly made purification for our sins.  How it all works, and what is going on in the spiritual realm is beyond our knowledge and comprehension, which is the main point in the book of Job – God’s way and wisdom is beyond our understanding. 

 

But who are we in the spiritual realm?  We are lower than Angels… for a little while.  As Hebrews tells us; "What are human that you are mindful of them or mortals that you care for them?  You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor,..”  We are central to God’s purpose and we are part of his plan and we are his beloved children, but there are hints that God has a leadership place for us as his royal children.  As yet, we don’t know more than a hint of God’s plan, but it is just enough to show us that there is something more that we can not yet fathom… we simply need to JUST TRUST.

 

Trust in God!

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.  Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it."

 

My husband tells me that “Why” is a faithless question.  Because the question, “Why” implies that we don’t trust God. God is sovereign and things will be one way or the other, but our role is to have faith in God and grow in the knowledge of God’s love and grace.

 

Children do ask “Why”, and we will answer them the best we can, but more often than not, they can’t comprehend what the answer is, and they need to simply trust us.  It is the same with God and us.  We haven’t the ability… yet… to comprehend the goings on in the spiritual realm, and scripture tells us that No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined the things that God has prepared for those who love him.”  and we are not meant to worry about it, but trust and rest in the knowledge that God loves us and know that he does all things for our ultimate good…. It is for a good that is bigger than this finite existence. How exciting to know that God has something planned for us.  Let us rejoice in this truly Good News, and may this truth give us strength and comfort when the tough times come.  So that we can remain people of Integrity.