The Rev. Kyle Severson
October 24, 2021
Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost
Holy Trinity, Chicago
Mark 10:46-52
It all started with the voice of a small child. A third grader. 1
“Pastor, when can we have Tent City at our church?”
They had just been on a tour of a local Tent City on a field trip
through their a weekly faith formation time at that congregation.
“Tent city is a well-organized, long-standing coalition of self-governing [people who are homeless] who have banded together for safety, community, and advocacy.
Over the years [the city of Seattle began to allow] Tent City to encamp within the city limits but only at places where they had been invited,
and for no longer than 90 days in any one spot.
So it fell largely to the churches of Seattle to be their advocates and hosts.”
“Pastor, when can we have Tent City at our church?”
It was the voice of the Holy Spirit in their midst.
Six months later they were having a congregational meeting to talk about this surprising idea. “As unlikely as it seemed, the idea of hosting Tent City was gaining momentum and many were beginning to believe that it could actually happen.
But welcoming the stranger, as theologically and scripturally sound as it was, also seemed […] unlikely at best.”
It was “an upper-middle-class congregation
whose ministry included a childcare center that served 70 children.
Their well-manicured, block-long property on the summit of Phinney Ridge was one of the few green spaces in the neighborhood.”
Pastor Hoffman remarks,
“It was hard for even the most imaginative […] proponent of the Gospel to escape the hard truth that people living in adjoining million-dollar homes would not instantly embrace their invitation to the homeless as a magnificent idea.”
In preparing for the congregational meeting,
they knew there would likely be some well-reasoned and well-intentioned objections. And so they were ready to address those with scripture and theology.
“They had even gone so far as to rehearse responses to those who might threaten to leave the congregation, should they choose to move ahead.”
“But we hadn’t prepared ourselves for newly baptized Kathryn.“ Pastor Hoffman writes about the experience.
I was fortunate enough to meet Kathryn and Pastor Hoffman during my first year of seminary in an immersion course about baptismal preparation,
the catechumenate – much like your “Life Together” programing -
though he also recounts the story in one of his books.
Kathryn had gone through the year-long adult faith formation process and had been baptized by total immersion at the Easter Vigil.
In a horse trough – Just like the one that Pastor Mueller and our spouses drove to pick out! I wonder how we dreamed that one up!
Pastor Hoffman says, “Not only had she gone all the way under the waters at the moment of her baptism, but also the waters had totally covered her with a new way of understanding her life, her faith, and her relationship with the body of Christ.”
“After listening to the conversation at the forum with restrained patience, Kathryn stood in the assembly and took a deep breath.
‘I can’t believe the objections that I’m hearing to this opportunity.
I can’t believe them because, as I was preparing for my baptism last year, this is what you told me that being a baptized child of God would mean. You told me that to be a disciple of Christ meant to care for those less fortunate.
To reach out to those in need. To share God’s love with all people.
That’s what you taught me it means to be a disciple of Jesus.’
And then Kathryn said something
for which no one had rehearsed a response.
‘So if we decide that we can’t invite Tent City to be on our front lawn,
I will have to leave this congregation.
If Tent City can’t be here, then I can’t either,
because what you have taught me about who we are as the people of God and what it means to be one of you will not be true.’
The room fell silent. For all intents and purposes, the conversation was over. To be sure, there were still opponents to address and details to be worked out,” but God had spoken to them –
first through a third grader and then through Kathryn, Pastor Hoffman recounts.
While I don’t encourage anyone to use these ultimatum-type arguments when it comes to making decisions together as a family of faith, Kathryn understood the foundation of the faith she had been taught in that place to include love of neighbor in real tangible ways.
This is what it means to be followers of ‘the Way.’
From the Book of Acts and other sources in history,
we know that the early followers of Jesus were called followers of ‘The Way.’
I love that name! I feel like there is so much energy in it.
“We are followers of The Way.”
Their faith in Jesus had implications for the way they lived their lives.
What they did…how they thought…
It was all part of their way of life.
We hear that they took three years or so of learning ‘the way’ before they were baptized and confessed their beliefs.
It was kind of like an apprenticeship as learned ‘the way?”
As they learned the way of being.
I’m eternally grateful for the experiences in this community of faith and others that taught me about this path.
This morning we are on the way…
The people of Israel and Judah,
the remaining faithful, are still in exile
but we hear promises of “what was scattered [being] brought back”2
from the farthest parts of the earth.
They are real people –
with all of who they are,
with all of their vulnerabilities,
with all their needs for support and care
required for a long journey.
God is present – God provides – God’s compassion is sure.
They are ‘a great company’ altogether.
As one writer points out –
“Not a threatening military force, not a band of elites”
But rather a great company, all in together, with God leading them.
Another great company or crowd is preparing to leave Jericho with Jesus and the disciples – but this time I don’t hear of the same intention of care –
folks are left on the side of the road, the way,
and told to be silent.
As I hear the texts this morning,
the experiences of Bartimaeus and those around him bring up a foundational question.
How will your life together,
your life on the way, be marked?
Particularly in two ways –
First.
Will your life together be marked by silencing the voices of others
or amplifying the voices of those in need?
Bartimaeus cries out – no shouts out –
“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Kyrie, kyrie eleison.
And what is the crowd’s reaction – and what is our reaction more often probably than not? Shhhhh...don’t embarrass us.
C’mon don’t make a big deal.
But Bartimaeus continues to call out, shout out, even more loudly,
with more passion, “Son of David, have mercy on me.”
Jesus acknowledges what he hears and tells the crowd – “Call him here.” And so the crowd say, “Take heart; get up, Jesus is calling you.”
Will this community of faith be marked by saying shh…don’t embarrass…don’t make a big deal…or by lifting up those voices – take heart, child of God; Jesus is calling you? Of course, we know what we want the answer to be…
But let’s be intentional about that.
I’m afraid a third reality is probably even more of a concern
that we don’t hear the shouts because we aren’t even in relationship or encounters folks. We actually need to be out on the road, on the way.
And second, in the example of Bartimaeus, perhaps a bit more personal - will your life together be marked by persistent shouts of prayer?
Will you keep shouting and never give up?
Will you be the squeaky wheel on issues of injustice?
Will you be the persistent shout seeking mercy for yourself
and the most vulnerable in your midst?
Will you not give up – even when you are asked to quiet down?
For we know that Jesus is always at the ready –
“What do you want me to do for you?”
You might well remember this is what Jesus also asks of James and John last week When they so boldly ask for seats of power – at the right and at the left.
Here too Bartimaeus asks for what he thinks he needs –
Mercy. Sight.
I don’t know what you need.
Maybe its recognition and power – when you think you deserve it.
Maybe it’s mercy and sight.
I’m not sure what’s reasonable to ask for and what’s not, if anything.
But they didn’t hide from asking. They thought it and didn’t hold it back. I think there is value to owning our thoughts and coming to God with whatever is on our mind.
I’ve heard people relay guilt about praying for silly things
for things they want rather than need
for inconsequential things…
I’ve heard people criticize others for praying for a parking spot.
But I know that every time I come to this church, I pray for a parking spot! And yes, that’s probably not highest on God’s priority list…
But what would it be like to place every little thing in God’s hands…
In the hands of the One who Created us
In the hands of the One who redeems us
In the hands of the One who promises to sustains us
The hands promised to be far more faithful than we can ever be
What I do know is that Jesus is always asking –
What do you want me to do for you?
Dear people – don’t let anything hold you back from calling out to Jesus. Boldness, persistence, clarity, certainty.
I’m not sure this is what we’ve often been taught in prayer.
Especially because we are scared when then it doesn’t seem to come to fruition.
Will you be a people about amplifying the voices of those disenfranchised and in need? Will you be a people that boldly asks God, persistently asks God, for what we need? This is the kind of faith that will lead to restoration and wholeness.
Isn’t true, dear church, that most of us are ‘on the way’
more of a work in progress than not??
We aren’t perfect. But we are on the way.
And thankfully Jesus keeps showing up all along the way
in the face of those we might least expect.
And always asking –
What do you want me to do for you?
Might we respond in vulnerability and trust.
Amen.
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1 The following story is adapted from Paul Hoffman, Faith Forming Faith, 1-5.
2 Elaine James, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-30-2/commentary-on jeremiah-317-9-5