What Do You Want Me To Do For You?

Mark 10: 45-52

For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.” They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside.  When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

In the name of the Creator, the Liberator and the Comforter. Amen.

So it’s been about four and a half months since I’ve come here and I was realizing that I’m still in that phase where, forgive me for being a little selfish, but I need to have some confirmation every now and then. I’m seeking it out that you don’t have buyer’s remorse and it’s just not natural. It’s just how we do and it’s totally fine, but I’m listening, but it’s not just about me. It’s really where are we as a church at this time in our life of the church, not me or our individual lives, our church. The church is now 73 years old and we want to have another 73 years at minimum. At minimum. So how are we going to do that? Where are we going to go? Where are we going to be? And I’m thinking about this, I’m praying on this and I’m just carefully, I don’t want to make a big deal out of it at this point, but just I’m listening to what your thoughts all are and we have some ideas coming together and people share.

And my sense is that all in all, you’re beginning to feel like, okay, yeah, we’re here. We have had a tumultuous time with a lot of transition and Covid and pastor leaving and interim and bridge and bridge and interim. And it was a lot going on. And right now we are beginning to settle in. We’re going to be here for a bit all together. And that’s a good feeling to have. Things are feeling a little bit more stabilized. 

And then at the same time, sometimes I hear this question, but Niels, what about the numbers? Do you have a sense about the numbers? 

By that is meant the number of attendees and members. And that’s a very completely honest and open and reasonable question because we need a certain number of people to be able to keep us going and that we’re always looking to expand and to reach and to evangelize. It’s a hard word for some people, but at the same, bring the good news, don’t have to be ashamed of that. But there’s also a question and a feeling of anxiety that bubbles with the question about the numbers. Totally normal thing to do.

For as long as I’ve been involved in church life, I mean actively involved since about 2002, the question of the numbers has been part of the conversation in the mainline church. And when I was in seminary in Berkeley, there was a lot of conversation about church growth. And when I participated in summer school, there was a class at one point about church growth and it attracted more students than any other summer class did, except for the one where a very famous person showed up. But that’s a separate story. And about 75% of the participants in this class I’m estimating, but I think that’s about right, were pastors of churches that were in decline and they were worried and anxious and they were anxious because they were thinking, well, am I going to have a job in a few years? I get it. And it’s not just our church and not just seminary and not even the UCC, it’s the Presbyterians and the Lutherans and the Methodists, everybody’s talking about it. And so sometimes you have to recognize that questions arise not just from our own individual anxiety, but in a kind of cloud of conversation that supports anxiety and that generates it and it almost makes it normal. Like of course that’s what we ask. 

Sometimes you have to recognize that questions arise not just from our own individual anxiety, but in a cloud of conversation that supports anxiety and that generates it and makes it normal.

And “of course” has two meanings. On the one hand, yes, you’ve invested a lot of time and energy and resources in building this church and you want it to last, of course, of course. But also of course, if everybody’s asking the question, isn’t that automatically signifying, meaning that that’s the right question to ask. 

But when you take a moment and step back and think about other times in your life when you’ve asked questions in an atmosphere of anxiety, personal social, in your families, maybe very often the questions that you ask were actually not the right questions.

Just imagine being in a moment when you’re single and you want to date, is that person going to like me and being anxious about being liked by somebody you’re dating hardly ever gets you in a place where you present yourself, where you inhabit yourself in such a way that you continue to even like yourself, let alone have somebody else like you. When you’re at work and you overly worry about performing to the standard of your boss, us, does that actually draw out the best from you? Is my boss really liking me? Are they liking what I’m doing? Being anxious? That doesn’t draw out your talents, that doesn’t draw out what you really have to offer.

And so the question often is, and hopefully you have the opportunity to ask the question, am I in a work environment that supports me bringing and showing forth my best rather than to perform against some external standard that may or may not fit my talents? Asking questions out of anxiety, rarely ever offer the right questions. 

The Bible is not always good reading for people with disabilities or chronic illness!

When we turn to the story that we read today from the book of Mark, the story about Bartimaeus, let me say one thing before we read the story. We talk from time to time about the fact that the Bible is not always good reading for women. I’m not saying anything shocking here. You’ve heard me talk about it and touch upon it. It’s also not always good reading for people with disabilities or chronic illness because in this story we see a blind man who then gets cured.

Asking questions out of anxiety, rarely ever offers the right questions.

And Bartimaeus’s own faith is the end of the story. And that leads a lot of people to believe that if they have a condition, a chronic illness or a disability, that if they just had more faith, they would get better too. And there’s a lot of churches in the country and in the world that would profess that. And that’s a terrible bind to put people in. That’s just a terrible thing to do. 

The other thing that is not so cute about this story is that as a metaphor, blindness here is used to indicate: not fully understanding, right? That is what blindness metaphorically indicates. And at the same time, once the person shows, Bartimaeus shows accurate understanding, he can see. If you’re blind, that metaphor must strike you in a somewhat bad way, like you’re not understanding it clearly enough that there’s that parallel. So be very careful when you read these stories and I want to just lift that up. But we approach it metaphorically. It’s been handed down to us from the generations. 

And what you have to understand is that this story is the last story in the gospel before Jesus enters Jerusalem in the last week. We go from Jericho, it’s very funny how this story is that Jesus went to Jericho and then he left Jericho.

No, nothing in there about what actually happened, must not have been a very interesting place. Nothing much happened in Jericho. But after this story, Jesus arrives in Jerusalem. That’s when we have the triumphal entry. Palm Sunday is when we celebrate that. You have to last week, washed feet, last supper, crucifixion, resurrection, right? This is the story that comes before all of that. And Bartimaeus is there and he calls out “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” Now, “Son of David” is important here because the prophecy that the gospel of Mark has referred to before is that out of the stem of Jesse, David’s father will come our savior. And so when Bartimaeus called out, son of David, what Bartimaeus is saying, “I know who you are. I understand what it is that you’re coming to do. You are the son of David. You are the promised Messiah, and you are here to save me, have mercy on me as you are about to perform your saving work.” 

It’s that understanding of who Jesus is that Bartimaeus brings into this story. There’s many ways to think about Jesus. In the book of Hebrews that we also heard from Jesus is portrayed now after the resurrection and the ascension as the priest who mediates between us and God. It’s a beautiful image in many ways, eternal mediator between us and God.

Who are we bring as the Body of Christ?

But I wanted to go back to the story like who is Jesus here. And following that, who are we as the Body of Christ? After all, the church as we are, are also known as the Body of Christ and doubt by the Holy Spirit to continue the saving work of Jesus in the world. That’s what that means. And there are three ways in which the church operates. Three kind of categories if you want of work that we do in the church. 

One: we worship God!

One is we worship God. We come together to have deeper and more meaningful relationship with God. Even if you don’t believe in God, you come here to have a deeper, more meaningful spiritual life. This is where you get to reflect on questions of stewardship, gratitude, deep spiritual gifts that have been handed to us from the generations. Gratitude, forgiveness, things that we’ve spoken about in the past that are so important in our lives. 

And who is God and can we know more about God. But also who is God? Where is God in this time in my life that I’m struggling and fighting? We come together to ask those questions, but also to draw nearer. That’s one. 

Two, we come together to be together. We are better together than we are alone. We come together so we can support one another, but also we can have fun together. We can enjoy a cup of coffee and cookies and silly hats, and we can enjoy just the presence of one another. And remember that maybe at the times when I feel that I’m struggling, somebody in my community might know what I’m dealing with. And whether I talk about it with them or not, doesn’t even always matter. I know I can be in the presence of people who have gone through the struggles that I am going through and therefore I am not alone. And sometimes you talk about it explicitly with somebody and sometimes you just let it be. Whichever is your style. But the important thing is that we are together. 

Three, we want to make a meaningful impact in the world!

And the third leg of the stool, if you want, is that we want to make a meaningful impact in the world. And we do this better together. We want our lives, I think this is a human thing, everybody wants their life to have meant something. When we come together and do certain things, we can make more of an impact. We can feed more people through our food room than we could do on our own. We can clothe more people, provide more for babies. It is meaningful when we as a church show up at a pride celebration. It is meaningful when we as a church are represented in a struggle for reproductive freedom. These are all kinds of ways in which our church shows up in the world meaningfully in order to make an impact.

These three elements are beautifully summarized in one verse in the Bible that we’ve sung sometimes, I don’t know if you remember it. (Singing) God has shown you the way, what is good and what our God requires of you, Micah 6:8. But to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God, but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.

That’s the church. That’s the church. The question is how do we bring more love into the world and to each other? More gratitude … more joy … more welcome … more affection … more embracing … more openness.

None of these things you can measure. If you’ve noticed. I preached a sermon here more than a couple of years ago, and the title was Nothing That Can Be Measured Matters. Nothing That Can Be Measured Matters. Now, you didn’t see me preach that. You may have heard me preach it. Because I recorded it the day that I learned that my father had died. Some of you remember that time, some of you were here for that was a moment when I was acutely aware of the truth of nothing that can be measured matters. What can you measure about your relationship with your father that is actually meaningful?

That actually is what you bring with you in a time when I’m coming together with my brother and other family members to prepare for the burial. Nothing. 

Nothing that can be measured matters. And so I want to say to you what Jesus said when Jesus asked. Bartimaeus, what do you want me to do for you? This is a crucial critical question. Are you going to say, I want more numbers! Or are you going to say, I want the church. I want a deeper connection with God. I want a stronger feeling of community, and I want more impact in the world. 

What will you say, when Jesus asks, What do you want to me do for you?

The numbers will take care of themselves. It is my conviction, my absolute belief that if we can bring ourselves back to that question, what do you want me to do for you as a church? And we approach it in that way and we recognize it is not what we do to bring in more numbers, but it is who are we being that we inhabit the work of the church within ourselves that we can grow to the point where Jesus also will tell us, go, your faith has saved you. 

Amen. Amen.