UCC Church of Charlotte

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Gathering
Jeremiah 31:7-9
Mark 10:46-52

Grace and Peace to you this morning.  Grace and Peace.

I am often amazed at how hard the disciples work to keep Jesus to
themselves.  People bring their children to him and the disciples
rebuke them.  People bring their hungers, and the disciples want to
send them away to get food in the villages.  People bring their
illnesses and their infirmities and the disciples panic.

When the blind man cries out, the disciples want him to be quiet.
Perhaps it is the constant strain of needs around him.  Perhaps it is
the scandal of the title of “Son of David,” a messianic name that gets
people in trouble with the powers that be that have no place for the
power of God as a rival.  Perhaps they were worried more about
themselves than about those whose needs were greater.

It says many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.

“I’m here for Jesus to teach me something!  I can’t hear him if you
keep calling out for help!”

Two things worth noting: The blind man cries out all the more; and
Jesus stops and says, “Call him here.”
The Gospels consistently praise persistent faith.

When the friends of the paralyzed man lower him through the roof to
receive Jesus’ touch, when the foreign woman argues with Jesus to get
healing for her daughter, when the blind man cries all the louder over
the voices of those who would prefer his silence, Jesus gets to work.

It would be so much easier to just continue with business as usual.
It would save so much time to just focus on those who need a little
teaching, not those who need healing.  We know from the story of the
woman with an issue of blood that healing takes something out of
Jesus.

We know it is easier for us to do mercy work than to do justice work.
Mercy work is when we feed the hungry and house the homeless.  Justice
work is when we take on those things that cause hunger and poverty and
homelessness.  On Reformation Sunday, let us paraphrase Martin
Luther’s namesake, Martin Luther King, Jr.  It is good and right for
Christians to pull drowning people from the river.  But we must also
go upstream and work at fixing whatever is throwing them into the
river in the first place. Mercy work has always been easier than
justice work.

But the work of the kingdom Jesus is preaching, the will of God that
he is teaching, is not about leaving the hurting ones alone, reliant
only on themselves.

Jeremiah knew this.  When he preaches of the end of exile, of God
gathering the scattered, it is not simply to return the landed nobles
to their homes and the scribes to their libraries.  It is the blind
and lame, the women with child and the ones in travail; it is the ones
in need who are brought back, over smooth roads, straight and free
from stumbling blocks.

When Jesus calls the man, the followers change their tune, “Take
heart, rise, he is calling you.”  How quickly crowds change in the
Gospels.  And how quickly they change back.

And Jesus looks at him and says, “What do you want me to do for you.”

This is quite a contrast to the apostles last week.  Them Zebedee’s
boys, the sons of thunder, want Jesus to grant whatever they ask, and
then ask him for glory and power and privilege and position.

Here is a blind man, eager to find healing.  And Jesus asks, “What do
you want me to do for you?”

When Jesus heals him, he says “Go your way; your faith has made you well.”

He is free.  Free from blindness, free to choose his own way now.  But
when he is healed, the man followed Jesus “on the way.”
This man doesn’t go his own way; he follows Jesus in the way Jesus
preached.  “The Way” was the name Jesus followers had before the word
“church” was used.

He goes from blind, to healed, to follower.  And the disciples nearly
shushed him before it could happen.

The apostles’ quest last week for position and power and prestige and
privilege comes to naught.  The man who wishes to be made whole is
healed; and then he follows Jesus.
    
So how hard are we working to keep Jesus to ourselves?

How hard are we working to not hear the cries and needs around us?

How often do we assume that when we don’t see someone in church for a
while, that they must just be off with family or on vacation, rather
than give them a call and check on them to see how they are doing?

How often do we get caught up in the busyness of the project of the
moment and forget that church is not a series of projects, but a
community, and that our church is a community with a big, wide welcome
mat?

How good are we at avoiding inviting those who need a place like this
to come on in?

Jeremiah says that God is going to gather the scattered and exiled people.

"With weeping they will come,
And with consolations (compassion) I will lead them back."
    
We are the church, the ones following Jesus.  Are we the crowd that
kept shushing the blind man?  Or are we the compassion, the
consolations by which God leads people back?
    
In the midst of our projects and programs, I invite you to take a
moment, find someone you don’t know all that well in our congregation,
and talk with them during coffee hour.  Take them to lunch.  Sit down
over coffee.  If you don’t know how to talk to someone you don’t know
well, simply ask a question, and then listen.  It is the best way to
start.
    
In the midst of the busyness of the church, look around and see who
isn’t here.  Maybe someone who hasn’t been in church for a while, or
maybe someone you know who could use a word of hope and a community of
faith and a little grace.  It can be as simple as “hey, we miss seeing
you,” or “you want to come to church with me this Sunday?”
    
And let us not get so busy “doing” church that we forget to “be” the
church: the followers of the one who welcomes the stranger, binds up
the brokenhearted, and asks the hurting, “what do you want me to do
for you?”
    
And let us not get so busy “being” the church that we forget to be
about “doing” the church: welcoming the stranger, offering words of
hope and peace and joy and love, feeding the hungry, hearing the needs
around us and meeting them.
    
And let us follow in the way.
    
Thanks be to God.
Amen