Cuba Christian Church
Pastor Amy Wharton
Job 42:1-6, 10-17
Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22)
Hebrews 7:23-28
Mark 10:46-52
“Take God’s Word to Heart”
Several years ago I had a conversation during a bible study about forgiveness—we talked back and forth for awhile and finally decided that when we forgave someone else something that they had done to hurt us, we were setting ourselves free from that sin. When someone intentionally or unintentionally hurts us—physically or emotionally—the pain we experience will often imprison us. While we don’t always have the ability or opportunity to be asked for forgiveness—we have the opportunity, always, to forgive.
Forgiveness is a part of extending mercy to others—though it’s not the fullness of mercy, it is probably one of the most common ways that we experience mercy, as we give it or receive it.
In the text this morning from the book of Job, we hear Job’s response to God’s reconciliation with him. God does not apologize for all that happened to him—but in the course of the whole book of Job, there is an understanding that evil things happen even when good people do not deserve them. And though Job was hurt in several ways—financially, by losing his flocks and herds; emotionally, through the loss of his children; and physically, through disease and pain—he was able to reconnect with God. Though he had challenged God’s wisdom in his overwhelming pain, God reaffirmed God’s own wisdom and never turned God’s back on Job. God was not always gentle and soft, but God was understanding and allowed Job to communicate, inviting Job’s conversation and dialogue.
In today’s text, Job has come to an understanding of God’s intentions for him—at least as much as he can handle that understanding and those intentions. He has come to understand that God is God and no one else can handle that job.
He has taken the word of God to heart—the word written on every leaf and tree in creation, heard in every puff of wind and soft breath, seen in the wing of each bird and the birth of each child and experienced in the power of death and disease, as well as the life that surrounded him. He was guided to acknowledge the presence of God in his life—the mercy and love as well as the overwhelming power.
The message of the book of Job, especially in regards to mercy, is not a soft message, but one that each of us have experienced. In the book of Job, we learn that God is merciful and that God has created a world with earthquakes, floods, violence, disease and pain. We learn that in the midst of a world of competition for food, water and shelter we still can experience a merciful God; we learn that God intends for us to be reconciled to one another and to the lives that we are given.
Mercy in relationship to God means knowing God will receive us no matter how deep the separation and where that separation comes from. We can take heart and experience God’s mercy in the midst of the deepest heartbreak and despair, because even there we know that God has accompanied us and holds us close.
We can take heart in every situation because in each time and place mercy is the foundation of God’s being—it is what God offers to all of us.
The psalmist of the 34th psalm was in a place of pain and sorrow crying out when fear had been overwhelming.
I looked for God and God spoke,
taking away from me all that I fear.
If you look to God, you shall radiate God’s light;
you will never have to hide in humiliation
—you are to be humble, not humiliated. (Paraphrase Ps. 34)
Awful things happen, we can crumble in the face of evil, but in God’s mercy we are given the opportunity and the strength to prevail, even if we die in the process—it’s an unexpected truth, but it’s true. Even if evil kills us, if we do not give in to being evil, we prevail against it. Take heart in God’s mercy when we need it most.
The letter to the Hebrews provides a description for the mercy we receive through Jesus as high priest, an understanding of Jesus work and life in the world. And as high priest he once for all provided us reconciliation through his obedience—providing mercy for us so that we can come together with God and with one another. God’s mercy gives us the assurance that we have been forgiven through Jesus’ work and life—and we can be all that God calls us to be when we followed the way that Jesus revealed for us.
We can take heart in the word of God through the stories that reveal God in the actions of Jesus when people were in need. When the man Bartimaeus called to Jesus to have mercy on him, his call was for a return to community—to productive living and satisfying work—that kind of mercy. Bartimaeus, this name individual wanted a place in community—the mercy that comes from belonging to one another. And he is named, that’s an important facet of mercy in this case.
Mark’s gospel is filled with any number of references to individuals who are unnamed: the majority of those whom Jesus heals or exorcises in the early chapters, the woman who anoints Jesus in 14:3–9, even the scribe whom Jesus praises as not being far from the kingdom in 12:34.
Every once in a while a specific individual is named, such as Bartimaeus here. Why give these names and not others? Why would you refer to the name of someone in your conversation with another person? In all probability, it would be because your conversation partner has acquaintance or even personal knowledge of that person.
Mark is comfortable leaving a number of individuals unnamed to the community he addresses – but not Bartimaeus. There is some textual evidence that points to leaders in the early church bearing those names. It also could be so with Bartimaeus. The blind beggar whom others wanted to shush may have been someone whom Mark’s community knew and valued as a partner in the gospel.[1]
This incident of Jesus’ merciful action is affirmed by the community as they recognize the name of this man—and perhaps his father. If he was someone they knew, they had evidence of the kind of mercy Jesus offered and the kind of mercy that God wanted and the mercy that they were to offer others. In this story, Jesus listened and responded with care and with healing. So Jesus offered the mercy of restoration and reconciliation in the face of people who simply wanted this blind beggar to be silent—the kind of mercy that is about justice and recognition of fellow humanity as much as quick pity.
We can take heart in God’s mercy because we all need it—we need the mercy that comes from the expectation that we can al be more than we are at this moment. And we need that mercy because we are loved no matter who we are and what we have done in this moment and place. The beauty of God’s mercy is that we have it when we don’t deserve it and that it grows with us as we reflect more and more who God would have us be.
The mercy of God calls us to places and times beyond where we stand and yet comforts us with the knowledge that we are loved beyond any standard by which we might measure our merit. We receive the mercy of God when we have deliberately flaunted the gifts of God through waste or greed or lust or hatred or other sin. We receive the mercy of God so that we are drawn toward a God who knows our great potential because that God has created us and knows our hearts.
We can take heart in the knowledge of God—God knows our insides better than we know them. In the person of Jesus Christ, we are told that God came to know us through Jesus’ humanity and experience of all that we experience. So God’s mercy extends to us through a deep awareness of our weakness and deep into the strengths of our existence.
Let us take heart because God’s word reveals God’s mercy to us—making accountable and drawing us onward, yet bathing us in continuous mercy so that we know we are continuously loved and forgiven, we must simply believe it.
To God’s glory. Amen.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] “What’s in a Name? Bartinaeus, son of Timaeus,” Resource Sheet Oct 25 2009, Seasons of the Spirit Adult Pentecost 2 2009, p 49.
No comments:
Post a Comment