Fr. Bill Carroll – The Twenty-Second Sunday After Pentecost, October 24, 2021
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Most often, we hear today’s lesson from Jeremiah at the Great Vigil of Easter. Speaking to the Jews in a time of exile, God promises to renew his Covenant with them, and to bring them home. For our part, Christians have always understood this prophecy in terms of the mission of Jesus to all people, everywhere. And so, at Easter, we remember how God delivered his ancient and beloved People from slavery. And, against this backdrop, we remember Jesus breaking the bonds of death itself—and setting us free from every form of bondage.
But God’s promises to Israel come before that. They’ve been carried off by the Babylonians, their enemies to the north, in an imperial war of conquest. The Temple has been destroyed. Their holy things have been looted and desecrated. They have known defeat and brutality at the hands of their oppressors. They have experienced frustration and despair.
And yet, God is with them. God will never, ever abandon his People. And so, God raises up prophets and fills them with his Spirit, so that they might preach his Word. God’s Word is powerful and able to bring about what he says. Whenever God speaks his Word to us, he is inviting us to be changed by his love and to collaborate with his saving purpose for the world.
Today, God promises us a New Exodus. For soon, God will bring us out of exile and defeat. Our God has come near, and he is working to save us. He is about to do something new:
See (says the LORD) I am going to bring them from the land of the north,
and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,
Among them the blind and the lame, those with child and
those in labor, together;
a great company, they shall return here.
With weeping they shall come,
and with consolations I will lead them back.
God goes on to say that he is a “father” to the People, but the images God uses are equally maternal. God’s love for us is the tender love of a good parent, who nurtures and strengthens and consoles us. God’s love is also that of our shepherd and king, who fights off the wolves and leads us safely home. God heals us, and he makes us whole.
That brings us to the Gospel, where Jesus meets Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus is blind. And so, he sits by the roadside and begs for a living.. In those days, he had few other options. The specific road mentioned is the road to Jericho. (It is the very same road made famous in the Parable of the Good Samaritan.) It is a dangerous, dangerous road—filled with bandits. But, when Jesus sees Bartimaeus there, he takes action as the Son of God. He shows us the liberator God of Exodus, at work in our flesh.
Jesus sees Bartimaeus. He sees him cut off from his neighbors and unable to make a living. He sees the stigma that separates him from his community and their worship. Jesus really sees Bartimaeus—just like long ago God heard the cries of his People in Egypt. Our God is a God of mercy and steadfast love. He is moved by our cries for help. And so, when Jesus sees Bartimaeus, he comes alongside him and offers to help. Jesus does not overpower Bartimaeus. Like a friend helping a friend, he asks him what he wants him to do. And then (and only then), he restores Bartimaeus’ vision and sets him free, so that he can follow the Way.
Brothers and sisters, today, Jesus is calling us to follow him in the Way of love. He is calling us to be healed of our spiritual blindness, so that we can see and befriend the neighbors he gives us, and respond to them in love. He is renewing us in his Spirit. He is setting us free. And he is calling us to share his mission.
Jesus is calling us to follow him right here in Longview, Texas. He is calling us to regather his church—to make it stronger and more faithful on the other side of Covid-19. But, more than that, God is calling us to help him change the world. One person at a time, one church at time, one neighborhood and school and city at a time, Jesus is calling us to help him change the world. Until every last one of us learns to see the world like he does—and then help him make it whole.
Because too often the places we live and the communities we belong to are filled with isolation, desperation, and rage. Too often, we mistreat each other—and find ourselves wounded and lonely and estranged from one another. For we live in the earthly city. We live in the city founded by Cain—with all its inhumanity and violence. But we long for Jesus and the New Jerusalem.
This morning, I’d like to challenge us to see each other with the eyes of Jesus. We can start with the people here in this room and with all our brothers and sisters at Trinity. Do we really see each other? Do we see the various ways that we are hurting? Do we see the grief? Do we see the frustration? Have we bothered to learn each other’s stories? Brothers and sisters (to borrow some words from St. Paul), I believe Jesus is calling us to “bear each other’s burdens.”
But, in addition to that, are we allowing ourselves to be seen and be helped? Are we sharing our stories of struggle and faith? Are we being honest with each other and with God? Are we asking God and each other for what we need? I am convinced that most of us—even the ones who seem to have it all together—are suffering. Everybody’s got something.
Our Lord is closer to us than we are to ourselves. He is acquainted with our grief. He knows who we are and what we need. One thing is certain: we can bring our whole selves to Jesus. We can always turn to him for healing and transformation. Today, he is calling us to share his love with each other and to participate in one another’s healing.
Here at Trinity, we are an imperfect church. (There’s never been any other kind.) But, by the grace of God, we are a very good church. We are a community where real healing, real forgiveness, and real love are experienced. We are a church (one of very few in this town), where all kinds of people are welcomed and embraced for who we are. We are a church, where we don’t have to measure up to some kind of arbitrary standard, in order to be loved and accepted. We are a church where Jesus meets us where we are—and then invites us to follow him.
Jesus gathers us around himself to renew us in his love. That is the meaning of the meal we are about to share. In the Eucharist, Jesus feeds us with his own Body and Blood and unites us and renews us in the Spirit of love. And then he sends us out, in the power of that Spirit, to share his love with others. Until every last person knows real joy and love and freedom. And we feast at his Table in the New Jerusalem.
See (says the LORD), I am going to bring them from the land of the north,
and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,
Among them the blind and the lame, those with child and
those in labor, together;
a great company, they shall return here.
With weeping they shall come,
and with consolations I will lead them back.
Amen.