With Eyes Wide Shut
Twenty-first after Pentecost – Year B
Sunday, October 25, 2009

Let us pray: O God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable to you and may they tell of your glory. Amen.

The question is this: Whose blindness was healed? The typical answer is Bartimeaus. But what's typical about the gospel? Doesn't it usually challenge the obvious, expected answer? Doesn't it turn things upside down and offer us the opportunity to see things from a different perspective, to move to the other side and look through a different window? It's a very short passage, let's hear part of it again:

When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus the Nazarene was passing by, he began to cry out, "Son of David, Jesus! Mercy, have mercy on me!" Many tried to hush him up, but he yelled all the louder, "Son of David! Mercy, have mercy on me!"

51 Jesus said, "What can I do for you?" The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see." 52 "On your way," said Jesus. "Your faith has saved and healed you." In that very instant he recovered his sight and followed Jesus down the road.

What did Jesus do? Not much really. He told Bartimaeus to be on his way. In fact it's not much different than what the disciples had said to him – Off with you, hush up, be on your way. The difference is that Jesus paid positive attention to Bartimaeus – accepted him, honoured him and then told him that his faith was strong and healing. Unlike the disciples who just wanted this bothersome beggar to shut up, Jesus gave Bartimaeus the time of day.

And so once again I ask: “Whose blindness was healed?” Could it be that the disciples, the ones who just wanted Bartimaeus to be quiet were really the ones who were blind? Could it be that despite being with Jesus as they roamed the Galilean countryside, hearing his stories of inclusion, witnessing the way he raised up the unlikely heroes they still didn't get it?

I think so.

This isn't a story about the opening of the eyes of Bartimaeus, it is a story about the opening of our eyes. And that's the heart of the gospel – the glimpse of God's community that we weren't expecting, the sign of God's community that goes against the common understanding. The story makes its point by showing us that it takes a blind person to help us see and hear.

Experience should help us to understand this. We know that a lack of sensory ability in one area can often result in heightened perception, increased ability with other senses. People with vision impairment can hear with more acuity and their hands can tell them what their eyes cannot see.

I tried hard to let this teaching speak to me as part of my preparation for worship this morning. My timeline and schedule over the past couple of weeks seemed well suited to this endeavour. Over the past eleven days I attended an event for ministers newly arrived in Alberta and Northwest Conference, followed by attendance at the Banff Men's Conference, then a trip to Ontario to help my Mom celebrate her 85^th birthday and finally a visit to the Alberta and Northwest Conference Senior High Youth Rally which is taking place this weekend in Airdrie. Having read the passage somewhat earlier than is my usual pattern, I let this story of seeing and hearing seep into my conscious and sub-conscious mind to see what I could see.

I expected to be surprised and delighted. I also expected to be disappointed and both expectations were met! Here then is perhaps a poetic summary of what I learned about God's community in the varieties of events and activities in which I had a part in the days of the past two weeks.

The newcomer's event was an unexpected delight. My own attendance at this event as a newcomer was almost twenty years ago, so I don't remember much of what it was like, so other than a short introduction of myself and some information about the geography and nature of the United Church of Canada in our conference, I was there as an observer and to make connections with these new leaders on a more informal basis. It was lots of fun, a gentle, pleasant and powerful affirmation for me of the quality of leadership that exists within the church, and the importance of stirring the pot with new ideas, new styles of ministry and new experiences. Were my eyes opened? Yes, not with sudden insight but rather reassuring confidence about the church as it lives out the call of God in this denomination in this conference. As I reflected on the newcomer's event with three subsequent events to obscure the particulars of the meeting during the week before last, and with the pleasant and serene surroundings of the Star of the North Retreat Centre in Saint Albert serving as a helpful background, the words that came to mind were those of Psalm 133 as set to music by Pablo Sosa. Behold how pleasant, how good it is, how pleasant and harmonious when God's people are together, Fragrant as precious oil when running fresh on Aaron's head.

The Banff Men's Conference was next on my agenda. As I reflected on it on the flight home last night, I wrote this: signs of hope, memories of despair. Other years when asked about the Men's Conference, particularly by curious women who quite rightly wonder what a “Men's Church Conference” would be like I've said that it's probably everything you think it might be – including all the concerns you might have. The Men's conference is the same age as me, and I would say there are times when it is showing its age – living in the past, not quite up to speed with the new church and the post-Christendom world. But there are signs of hope. The speaker this year was Daryl Auten a last minute change from the scheduled Bill Blaikie – ordained United Church minister and former MP and current member of the Manitoba Legislative Assembly. You may remember that last weekend was the farewell to Gary Doer and the leadership convention for the Manitoba NDP. That's where Bill Blaikie was, much to my disappointment. But I also told people that Daryl Auten would do a good job and that he did. Daryl is a potter – in fact he potted the communion chalice I was gifted with when I was ordained in 1990, and like he did at this past summer's General Council, he used potting as a metaphor, just as the prophet Jeremiah did, for our relationship with God. It was a powerful and touching series of theme presentations. It also happened that the music leadership had a change. Two members, Gord Oaks and Chris Giffen of the General Council music leadership team – namely the band ReVolve were the music leaders this year and they were the source of much hope for me that the Banff Men's Conference might experience a renaissance in the coming years – one that will see the cost of participation and the average age of participants decrease – the conference needs it and the church needs it. It's my hope that future planning committees will be able to also see with new eyes and new insights to make it happen.

Ageing – just as it was in my assessment of the Men's Conference was also the theme for my visit with my mother. Without going into a lot of detail – let me just say that sometimes helping others to “see” and helping ourselves to “see” can be a very great challenge. We did have a great party on Thursday – a poignant reminder of the kind of community that can exist in the community of faith. One of the visitors at the party was the minister who was at the church of my teenage years and who is unquestionably my preaching hero. I try to channel Barry Day when I preach and I had the opportunity to tell him so on Thursday, making both his day and mine. He so often helped me to “see”.

Finally, Friday night and yesterday – the Senior High Youth Rally. The church of the present. There is a tired old cliche that really irks the youth who are part of our church. People will talk about how youth are the church of the future. It comes up in congregational meetings, at presbytery meetings and at General Council. The youth quite rightly try to set things straight. They are not the church of the future they are the church of the present. They are a community of God's people right now – not in some imagined future, not in some version of the church constructed to look like it does now with new, young people slotted in to fill all the vacancies, when they are just a bit older. No, they are the church, and if I was to share with you the most powerful and revealing insight of any I experienced in the various events of the past eleven days I would tell you that there is a powerful and impressive, dedicated and skilled, deeply faithful youth leadership team in our conference. They are truly where things are in our church right now – they are building a new vision of the community of God's people and helping old guys like me – because “yes” I have to admit that's what I am becoming if I'm not there already – helping old guys like me to “see”. I like to think that I still have some of that youthful vision within my soul, and I certainly think that I see more youthfully than some of the old souls that can be found at the Banff Men's Conference, but like the disciples we can all be taught to see with God's eyes. We can all be taught to glimpse God's community with more clarity.

May our eyes wide shut be opened to the presence of God leading us to be all that we can be. Amen.