Taking
a Second Look…"I Can See Clearly Now…"
Texts:
Mark 8:22-26 (main focus); James 5:13-20
Dear friends in Christ, grace and peace to
you from the one who is and who was and who is to come, our living Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Have you ever taken a second look? Better
yet, do we need to take a second look? Are there times when we didn’t take it
but would’ve been beneficial if we would have?
For example...On Saturday, September 1st,
I ran in my second half marathon in Saint Paul. There were thousands of women participating
in this event. We needed to board a shuttle bus that took us from the finish
line to the starting line, 13.1 miles away. Before I boarded the bus, I could
see a lady through the window, sitting in the front seat, who looked familiar.
She saw and recognized me and waved. It was one of my co-workers from Caribou!
Or so I thought…
As I boarded the bus, we said hi to each
other, and she said my name. Adrenaline is pumping at events like this. I was
excited and gave her a high five, saying, “Hi, Jess!” Woo hoo! Exciting!
The next day, I posted something on Facebook
about the race, mentioning the names of those who I knew participated,
including Jess’s name. Later in the day, I received a message from Sarah, saying,
“Nice to see you at the race. Great job.” Ohhh…It wasn’t Jess that I saw but
Sarah, whom I had worked with at my previous job...In fact, we had been in the
same training class 11 ½ years ago! Now, in my defense, I hadn’t seen her in
YEARS! And the two of them look very similar. But, I’m a little embarrassed,
because I called her by the wrong name! And Jess may have been wondering why I
mentioned her. I guess I needed a “second look.”
Okay, who else has had that happen to them?
Speaking of second looks, in today’s Gospel reading from Mark, Jesus heals a
blind man. This miracle is unique and unusual, in the sense that it takes two
attempts to heal him, with the first attempt only offering partial vision. What’s up with that? Could Jesus lack in power?
Did the blind man lack faith? Was the blindness that stubborn and hard to cure?
Did the blind man REALLY want to see? Would he be overwhelmed by having ALL his
sight back at once? After all, peoples’ lives drastically change when they
are healed.
A question for us to consider: If too much
is revealed to us right away, would we feel overwhelmed? Maybe we think we can
handle it, but can we? “You can’t handle the truth!” (“A
Few Good Men”) Are we trusting God
rather than ourselves, our own understanding?
Of course, a song popped in my head with
Mark’s Gospel: “I can see clearly now the rain has gone.” Who’s familiar with
that song? I don’t know who sang the original, and I can’t remember who sang
the remake, but we could sing: “I can see clearly now since Christ has come.”
This healing story appears between two
examples of the disciples’ blindness. Prior to this passage, in verse 18, Jesus
asks the disciples, “Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and
fail to hear? And do you not remember?” (NRSV). This was in reference to the feeding
of the five thousand. Do they REALLY see who Jesus is? How often do we look but not see?
What if…Could this two-part physical healing
of the blind man be a hint that the disciples need a kind of healing, that they
will receive spiritual healing?
For the first time, Jesus asks an afflicted
person about the success of his healing attempt, much like a doctor would do. As
Jesus asked the blind man, “Can you see anything?” he later asks the disciples,
“Who do you say that I am?” which we heard a couple of weeks ago. As you may
remember, in verse 29, Peter sees something, after the mighty works, and shares
his insight: “You are the Messiah.” The one that was going to free them from
oppressive political power. The first stage of healing appears to be complete.
But, in verses 31-33, Jesus foretells his
death and resurrection. How the Son of Man is to undergo suffering, rejection,
death…What??? Who wants any part of that? Who wants the “I Heart Suffering”
shirt? Peter doesn’t want to hear it, and Jesus says in verse 33, “Get behind
me, Satan!” Peter sees, but it is the equivalent of walking trees. That second
touch is needed to see all things clearly: The Messiah is to suffer and die. What
kind of a victorious hero or conqueror has to suffer and die? It’s easy to
dwell on that part, but we, as the disciples need to remember, that in three
days he will rise again. The disciples were looking for a political king not a
redeemer. Jesus would save them in a different way. Yes, Jesus suffers and dies
a humiliating death. But, his rising from the dead reveals God’s power to
restore sight and life.
A concept for us to remember today is that just as Jesus never gives up on bringing
sight, we are to never give up seeing and never give up walking with others in
their journey to see.
Healing of the
disciples’ sight would come gradually and with great difficulty, much like the
sight of the blind man, but Jesus never gives up on them. Nor us. No matter how
many times we may stumble due to our blindness. As humans, we will relapse. We
are sinful creatures. But, through our baptism, we die to the old and brought
to new life in Christ. Baptism is to be renewed and experienced every say. As
Martin Luther said, the Christian life is nothing else than a daily baptism,
begun once and continuing, purging the old, sinful ways so that the new, living
ways arise. The slaying of the old and resurrection of the new person continues
lifelong.
We cling to the water, the promise, amidst
all the pain, sorrow, trials, and death in this world. We are not removed from
all of that; baptism is an incorporation not only into the death but also the
resurrection of Jesus. Where we stand today is not the end, the “be all, end
all.”
So,
how are we never to give up seeing and never give up walking with others in
their journey to see? An answer can be found in our reading from James, as
two words ring from it: prayer and community. Prayer needs to surround everything
we do, whether happy, sad, suffering, cheerful. Now, how many of you have always had your prayers answered in the way
you wanted them to be? Why do you think that is?
Why
are some people healed and some not? I remember when my oldest sister Char
was sick, we prayed and we prayed and we prayed for her healing. All the
driving back and forth from HCMC in Minneapolis, amidst keeping up with work
and school…It was exhausting. I truly believed with my whole heart, my whole
family did, that she would get better…Even with the transplanted kidney
failing, having it removed, being sent to transitional care, being sent back to
the hospital with an infection in the wound, discovering a hole in her bowel,
her vitals crashing, liver failing, heart attack and a stroke she would never
wake up from, having to make the decision about removing from life support…I
had said the whole time that she was going to walk out of that hospital, and
you know something? She did…Just not the way that we were hoping for.
As you may know, I am a Country fan. Martina
McBride sang a song called “Anyway,” and the chorus goes, “God is great, but sometimes life
ain't good / When I pray it doesn't always turn out like I think it should / But
I do it anyway.” Why pray anyway? Because God does heal.
And Prayer draws us closer to God, and God draws closer to us. A local pastor
offered his insight on the James passage by saying, “The first several times I read this
passage, I read it as if the author was telling us, ‘pray and you will be
healed.’ Though we continue to pray for healing, I read it now as ‘you who are
suffering or sick, pray to remind yourself that Jesus is with you.’ We have the
promise that we will be ‘raised up,’ as the promise of eternal life with God.” You
are not alone. Jesus walks with you. We walk with each other. Pray for each
other. Let people know you are praying for them.
One way we can pray
for each other is to be a prayer mentor, praying for one of our new members who
will be joining this congregation next week. Please prayerfully consider it.
There is no such
thing as a wasted prayer, as God hears all of our prayers. Would I have prayed
all those prayers all over again? Of course. During this
time, it seems that many people, here in this community, also people from my
life, are all going through some sort of hard time, whether it’s loss, illness,
broken relationships, you name it. There are a LOT of hurting people right now.
My heart breaks for each one, feeling that hurt. We live in an imperfect world,
all of us imperfect people. Things happen outside of our control, like disease,
bad weather, accidents, the recent Minneapolis workplace shootings. “Are any
among you suffering? They should pray,” as James 5:13 states.
In our brokenness, we’re recreated; a new
creature. We all have scars: physical, emotional…The scars tell the story…Through
the sharing of stories and experiences, we are transformed. Like a puzzle, yes,
you still see the lines…And we are put back together, as the Holy Spirit brings
wholeness. In James, we see how we can walk through the brokenness together.
If you think about it, Jesus didn’t remove
suffering from this life…In a sense, he was preparing the disciples for it. The
good news is that light triumphs over darkness every time. As an author once
said, “You stick a candle into the dark, but you can’t stick the dark into the
light.”
Walking
with others in their journey to see…That goes for both inside this
community as well as those outside the walls. The last verses in James reference
bringing people. After all, in Mark’s Gospel, people brought the blind man to
Jesus. Who are we bringing?
I was informed
that this last Tuesday, September 25th, had exactly 12 hours of
sunlight and 12 hours of darkness. Being in the middle, I stumbled upon a quote
that said, may we “Dare to reach out [our] hand[s] into the darkness, to pull
another hand into the light.” Be bold for Christ,
like a dark roast coffee. For those who don’t drink coffee…Um, another analogy…Hmmm,
I’ve got nothing, so just be bold! J
We are to be involved in each other’s lives. What
happens to one impacts the other. Last week, for the
first time in years, I watched “Finding Nemo.” How many of you are familiar
with it? Nemo’s dad searches for him, and he encounters another fish named Dory,
played by Ellen DeGeneres. This complete stranger makes the entire journey with
him, in searching for his son. There are some down moments, and Dory reminds
him, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming,” (to the congregation) c’mon, sing it with me, “Just keep swimming,
just keep swimming.” We all need that reminder from time to time. When one
wants to give up, we see the power of mutual encouragement.
I want to close with a story…Some of you may
have seen this on my Facebook page, and, no, I’m not talking about the
celebration of National Coffee Day yesterday. And, I have a confession to make…I
did not get my free coffee from Caribou yesterday in celebration of National
Coffee Day. Although, trust me, I drank my share of coffee from home. J
In Memphis, 17-year-old Seth Goldstein was feeling
well and running a good race. He was halfway done. Then, that’s when it
happened…One of the kids in the group that had just passed him fell to
the ground. The others the kid was racing with kept running onward toward the
finish line. But, Seth did something altogether different. He stopped. The kid’s
lips were turning blue and his eyes were rolled back in his head. Seth called for
a parent to phone 911. Blood was bubbling out of the kid’s mouth, because he
had bitten his tongue. Seth rolled him over, so he wouldn’t choke to death. His
calmness kept everyone else calm. When the boy started to come out of it Seth kept
reassuring him, “You're going to be OK. We're here. We're with you. You're
going to be OK.” Before long, an ambulance arrived, and the real EMTs took
over. Then, Seth asked, “Can I finish the race?” No one realized he was another
competitor. They said yes, and he did, long after all the others were done. The
fallen runner did turn out to be fine. He had suffered a seizure because of the
heat. Seth finished the race, and if you ask him, he will tell you it's the
slowest race he's ever run. But, it's also his personal best. As Christians, we
put others first. We stop when others fall. We bring them across the finish
line with us, even if it means we finish in last place, because, more
importantly, love wins.
As you come forward for the body and blood of Christ today and to ask
for prayer, do you need to take a second
look? Remember that just as Jesus
never gives up on bringing sight, we are to never give up seeing and never give
up walking with others in their journey to see.
And now may the peace of God that surpasses
all understanding guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Caroline Harthun
House of Prayer Lutheran Church
8:30am and 10:45am
Sunday, September 30, 2012 – Healing Service
