The Beautiful Sunset of Life in the Kingdom of God

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston
October 27, 2024
Proper 25, B
Jeremiah 31:7-9
Psalm 126
Mark 10:46-52

Anyone ever ask for help, only to be ignored by others? Anyone ever ask for help and been silenced by others, told to keep quiet and to stop being such a bother? Anyone ever been made to feel ashamed for asking for help? That was the story of Bartimaeus, the blind beggar who called out to Jesus. “Have mercy on me,” he cried. “Oh, do shut up!” The people responded.
 
The crowd had contempt for Bartimaeus. Maybe because he was blind, they thought he was a sinner? Maybe he smelled bad and looked weird? Maybe they just didn’t want to be bothered by that rather annoying blind guy who was constantly begging and therefore constantly reminding them that they had plenty to be able to help him and were too self-absorbed or too fearful to do so? Perhaps they wanted to protect Jesus from that same annoyance and mild guilt that they felt? “We’re here doing religiousy godly stuff with a religiousy godly guy, and you’re just wrecking it Bartimaeus; go away.”
 
Whatever the case, Jesus didn’t share the crowd’s contempt for the blind beggar, Bartimaeus. Instead, Jesus invited the crowd to be a part of Bartimaeus’ healing. “Call him here,” Jesus said to the crowd, giving them the chance to repent of the contempt they had toward Bartimaeus, speaking to him with invitation rather than pushing him away. So, the first healing Jesus gave Bartimaeus was to have him be one with the people around him again. Then, as one with the crowd, Bartimaeus came to Jesus, and Jesus spoke to him like a human being. He restored Bartimaeus’ sight, and Bartimaeus joined him on the way.
 
In that whole encounter, the kingdom of God was revealed.
 
We’ve been hearing Jesus’ preaching for weeks now about life in God’s kingdom. We heard Jesus tell a rich man that eternal life means loving God and loving people here in this life. We heard Jesus teach his disciples that serving others, not ruling over them, but serving others, is greatness in God’s kingdom. Love God and love people, and let everything else flow from there.
 
So, when Bartimaeus asked for healing, Jesus continued his teaching about eternal life and God’s kingdom by showing the people what love God and love people is like. Those in the crowd who saw themselves as above Bartimaeus were turned into Bartimaeus’ servants. Jesus sent them to give Bartimaeus the message that Jesus was calling for him. The crowd became like a servant in a household who would call to the master of the house, letting him know that someone had arrived.
 
Jesus let the people become servants, rather than the important people they saw themselves as, and by giving them that servant role, Jesus helped heal the crowd, letting them live the life of the kingdom of God. Love God and love people. Through love God and love people, Jesus gave Bartimaeus and the crowd the eternal life of love in God’s kingdom.
 
Now, I’m going to guess a couple things here. One, that eternal life of the kingdom of God sounds lovely; it sounds great to me, I’m guessing it sounds great to others. Two, I’m also guessing that, as lovely as it is, the image and feeling of the kingdom of God will quickly fade, and we’ll end up back with contempt, maybe contempt for those like Bartimaeus whom we see as beneath us, maybe contempt for the crowds who see us as beneath them.
 
Like the beauty of a sunset, we’re captivated and awed by the images of the

kingdom of God, and then like a sunset, the beauty fades, and we are brought into the dark of night.
 
Then, it is easy for us to have contempt, especially for the crowd. Forgetting the beauty of God’s kingdom, let’s face it, it’s fun to be right and righteous. Having contempt for the crowd feels right and righteous. Having contempt for those around us whom we see as the crowd feels right and righteous. Don’t they deserve our contempt?
 
I imagine Bartimaeus having contempt for the crowd. It does feel like they deserved it. He had been living the violence of looking out for me alone because of their indifference to him and their contempt of him. It was Bartimaeus against the world, or the world against Bartimaeus. His life was me against the world, a life of darkness and contempt. I imagine him being exhausted, drained of life.
 
The struggle of waking up to a world of darkness, not his blindness, but the darkness of him against everyone and everyone against him. That darkness drains the life from people. Me against the world saps us of our humanity. Struggle, fear, anger, with no one in your corner. Little or no trust. Little or no joy. That’s the life of me against the world, the darkness of night when the beauty of the kingdom of God fades.  
 
I can imagine Bartimaeus still having contempt for the crowd even once his sight was restored. He could have still felt that it was he against the world, but Jesus helped heal his heart of contempt before he healed his blindness. Bringing the crowd into Bartimaeus’ healing, allowing them to be Bartimaeus’ servants, Jesus allowed healing of contempt, restoring not just sight, but the beauty of that sunset of eternal life in the kingdom of God.
 
As a result, when his sight was restored, Bartimaeus followed Jesus on the way. They walked off into the sunset of the kingdom of God. The eternal life of the kingdom of God in this story of healing. Jesus healed the crowd. Then Jesus healed Bartimaeus, not primarily of blindness. Jesus healed Bartimaeus of isolation. He healed him of me against the world.
 
From the darkness of isolation and contempt, of violence and anger, Jesus brought both Bartimaeus and the crowd around him to the eternal life of love God and love people. From the dark of night, Jesus brought the crowd and Bartimaeus the beautiful, and healing sunset of life in the kingdom of God.

We Never Need Fear Showing Compassion

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Emmanuel Episcopal Church
October 24, 2021
Proper 25, B
Mark 10:46-52

We Never Need Fear Showing Compassion

So, Jesus met a man on the outskirts of Jericho who was blind and lived his life begging on the streets. Who was this guy? Did he have any family? If so, why wouldn’t they care for him? He wasn’t crazy. Had no demon. He wasn’t dangerous. He was, however, obviously a pretty terrible sinner, otherwise he wouldn’t have been blind. That was often the thinking. Rich? Successful? God had blessed you because you were so deserving. Poor and downtrodden? Well, I don’t know what you did to anger, God, but maybe stay over there because I don’t want any part of it.

Never mind that God clearly states in the Book of Job that prosperity and adversity don’t come to people because God has chosen to bless them or curse them. Unlike us, God doesn’t play favorites. Unlike us, God doesn’t share with those he likes and shun the ones he doesn’t. The man’s blindness was not due to divine retribution for anything, and yet people of Jericho probably saw the blind man as cursed by God. That tended to be the thinking.

Perhaps that’s why no one would take him in. Thinking he was cursed, people let him beg on the street. They even shushed him when he tried to talk to Jesus to ask to be healed. “Oh be quiet, he shouldn’t heal the likes of you.” Or maybe, “We don’t want him to know you’re here; he’ll think badly of us.” 

In any case, Jesus heard the man crying out to him, and Jesus cared about the man, calling him to come to him. What Jesus didn’t do was ask for any sign of repentance. He didn’t ask the man to stop sinning. He didn’t tell him to forgo his wicked ways, he just asked him what he wanted. “I’d really like to see,” the guy said. “Cool, I can take care of that;” Jesus replied, “your faith has made you well.” With that, Jesus healed him, and the man followed Jesus as a disciple.

By Jesus’ response to the man, we know that his blindness was not any sort of divine punishment. No repentance required. The fear and disdain which the people of Jericho had for this blind man was not necessary. God hadn’t cursed him, and God wasn’t going to curse them if they were near to him or kind to him. 

Perhaps then, in healing the blind man, Jesus healed not only him, but also the people of Jericho. Consider the message given to the people of Jericho by the fact of Jesus healing this man. 

“You needn’t be so fearful, isolating and shunning those who are downtrodden. You needn’t be so afraid of God that you shun those you think are being punished by God. That’s not how God works. See, you have great love inside of you; that’s how God works, and if you remove your fear, your love can flourish. You can love and care for the downtrodden. You needn’t shun them. You can love them.”

There are people who often get shunned nowadays by a good number of Christians. Those who get shunned include our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer siblings, shunned because they are seen as sinners, quite possibly cursed by God. They aren’t, of course, and there is no reason for them to be shunned. We see more and more of our LGBTQ+ siblings coming to meet Jesus in the Episcopal Church because by and large, they aren’t shunned here, and like the blind man, they follow Jesus as disciples and apostles. 

Of course there are other groups of people who get shunned by various Christian groups. Those who welcome our LGBTQ+ siblings often end up shunning those who had shunned our LGBTQ+ siblings. The shunner becomes the shunned. Fear, hurt, even compassion for a group of people are all reasons why we end up shunning others, but having compassion on one group of people doesn’t mean we have to shun another group of people. 

We have great love inside of us; that’s how God works, and if we remove our fear, our love can flourish.

We needn’t fear giving compassion to fearful, angry people. Folks get angry because they are fearful. I daresay we all know what that feels like. Right now, we’ve got folks who are afraid of COVID and so they are taking precautions against it. We’ve also got folks who are afraid of losing their jobs due to the precautions against COVID harming the economy. We can have compassion on both groups. Even as we get terribly afraid and the other group causes us even greater fear, we can still have compassion for fearful people. Jesus’ healing of the blind man shows us that. People are afraid, and we don’t need to be against one group of frightened people in order to be for another group of frightened people.

God was not cursing the blind man, and Jesus’ compassion on him showed that compassion on one another is God’s desire for us. God doesn’t desire our contempt for those we fear. Of course, we’re going to feel contempt for those we fear, and that’s what we get to give to God, rather than to them. God can handle our contempt of others, as we give it over to God and ask his healing to remove our fear and contempt so that love can flourish. That’s how God works, through the great love inside of us. 

We never need fear showing compassion. We needn’t fear showing compassion and
love for the wrong sorts of people. The blind man was seen as the wrong sort of person by the people of Jericho. We’ve got lots of wrong sorts of people in our world. Vaxers, anti-vaxers. Maskers, anti-maskers. Believers in climate change and climate change deniers. Those sinful groups of people whose morals and views of the world are utterly at odds with God’s ways, and those pointing out those sinful groups of people who believe that their own morals and views of the world are in step with God’s ways. 

All of these groups of people are doing their best in the world to do the right thing. All of these groups of people have great fear and end up behaving out of that fear. All of these groups of people get to have compassion shown to them. All of them, and all of us have great love inside; that’s how God works, and if we remove our fear, our love can flourish.

Jesus Wants Us to be Joyful…not Fearful, Lonely, Right, or Isolated.

Brad Sullivan

6 Easter, Year B

May 6, 2018

Emmanuel, Houston

John 15:9-17

Jesus wants us to be joyful…not fearful, lonely, right, or isolated.

Abide in my love, Jesus said, so that my joy may be in your and your joy may be complete.  Jesus had all sorts of emotions, just like every other human.  Anger, frustration, contempt.  Think about how Jesus was with the scribes, the Pharisees, the money changers, his own disciples at times.  Jesus was powerful in the extreme, and those emotions and ways of being, anger, frustration, contempt are powerful as well.  They were a part of Jesus and they gave him a nudge to start acting or doing things every now and then, and yet rather than choose to act and live out of those powerful emotions, he chose to live in the powerful weakness of love. 

The powerful weakness of love is so much more powerful than anger.  Love is so much more powerful than frustration.  Love is so much more powerful than contempt…and love often feels like weakness.  Love is vulnerable.  Love doesn’t force the other but offers, guides, leads the other, allowing the other not to follow.  Love allows for failure and is not coercive.  Love does not belittle or taunt.  Love allows for things not to go “my way”, allowing for the needs of the beloved over one’s own desires.  Love also trusts in the mutual nature of love such that the beloved will also reciprocate that love, trusting, not forcing. 

Jesus could have forced people to do whatever he wanted.  When push came to shove, however, he acted not out of his power, not out of anger, frustration, or contempt.  Jesus acted instead out of the powerful weakness and trusting nature of love, and he told his disciples to abide in his love, not in any of those other emotions or ways of being.  Abide in my love, Jesus said.

Abide in that which ultimately led Jesus to the cross…ok, my sales pitch isn’t really as good as his.  Jesus talked about joy, and love allowing our joy to be complete.  So, what keeps us from joy?  How about fear?  How about when, because of our fear, we choose to dwell not in love, but in anger, frustration, and contempt?  When we’re afraid, we feel weak, and we want to feel strong, so we often turn to anger, frustration, and contempt.  They are powerful, and so when afraid we act out of those things which make us feel powerful, but where do they lead?

To joy?  Not so much.  Dwelling in and acting out of anger, frustration, and contempt leads to hurt, resentment, loneliness, victimhood, maybe a sense of being right (in a me versus the world kind of way), and a profound lack of joy.  We may feel powerful, but we also feel more alone, more fearful, and worse about ourselves.  Such is the way of fear and dwelling in power to overcome our fear.

When we choose to abide in Jesus’ love, to make love our home, then we will in all likelihood be led to the cross, to that place of powerful weakness.  So when we abide in love and are led to the cross, what gets nailed to that cross?  How about being right?  How about our hurt and resentment?

Is anyone else here kinda good at hurt and resentment, at being hurt or let down by someone whom we deeply love, and then letting that hurt turn to resentment?  It certainly feels strong.  Walls up, weapons out, not going to hurt me again, but it never leads to anywhere good.  Greater fear and isolation, loneliness, victimhood.  It may feel right or righteous, but it certainly doesn’t lead to a place of joy.

Say you’ve got a mini, stay at home date night planned for after the kids are asleep, and your wife falls asleep again putting one of the kids to bed, and instead of your usual feelings of hurt at being stood up again on such an occasion for the exact same reason as usual, you choose instead to be happy for your wife because as tired as she is, she got to get some well needed sleep.  (As a top of my head, totally hypothetical example.)  Being happy for my wife led me to be joyful amidst the let down, and a little while later, she woke up anyway.

Jesus wants us to joyful, not fearful, lonely, right, and isolated.  Jesus wants us to be joyful, and so he taught us to dwell in his love.  We dwell in love, we let love lead us to the cross, and we put our hurt and resentment on that cross.  Then when someone we love lets us down, we can dwell in love for that person. 

When someone we love lets us down, rather than dwelling in hurt and resentment, we get to ask ourselves, “why did they let us down?”  Maybe they were overwhelmed.  Maybe life just happened.  Maybe they were doing their level best and reached a limit in what they could do.  Maybe in letting us down, they got something that they really needed, and so rather than being hurt, we can be happy for them.  We are talking about someone we love after all.  Maybe our hurt can turn to concern for them if it seems that their letting us down came from a place of limit or need on their part.  Out of concern, we get to act out of love on their behalf, our hurt and resentment transformed to gladness or concern for the other, and gladness or concern for the other are places of joy, expressed through love.

Abide in Jesus’ love, and we do get led to the cross, so that our fear and hurt may be transformed into joy.  Jesus said he wants us to abide in his love so that his joy may be in us and our joy may be complete.  I often think of Jesus as so serious and our religion so serious.  Anyone else?  Christianity is so serious, isn’t it?  Jesus died for our sins and rose that we may have life eternal.  Jesus lived and showed us his kingdom here on earth and taught us to live out his kingdom here on earth, loving, forgiving, caring for those in need.  It’s all so serious, and he was so earnest and serious in his teachings, so at times I tend to forget how darn joyous Jesus was.  He hung out with people.  He partied.  He took delight in children, and found joy and beauty in grass and birds.  He didn’t worry about daily struggles because in his kingdom, people take care of each other.  When visiting his friends Martha and Mary, it didn’t bother him that the house was a mess or that the meal wasn’t perfectly perfect and on time.  He was enjoying being with his friends. 

As much as we are earnest in our faith and are intended to take our faith seriously, Jesus didn’t tell us to abide in his love so that our earnestness and seriousness would be complete.  Abide in my love, Jesus said, so that “my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.”

So what does joy look like?  Joy looks like forgiveness and compassion leading to a place of peace, of happiness and love for the other.  Joy looks like hope and being surrounded by love in the midst of sadness.  Joy looks like enjoying time with people in all of our imperfect glory.  Joy looks like being cared for and caring for others.  Joy looks like the sun coming up every morning and letting that be enough.  Joy looks like acceptance, accepting life for what it is and finding the peace, hope, and love in what life is, rather than constantly wishing for life to be something else. 

Joy looks like placing the power of our hurt and resentment on the cross and abiding in that place of love.  Jesus invites us into his joy, that his joy may be in us.  Jesus invites us to abide, to dwell in the powerful weakness of his love so that our joy may be complete.