A group, a quality of being friendly, how you learn about people is their use of words. You can learn about yourself. For us here in the church words are sustenance. There are people of other kinds. Some that find no value in them. Some steal with them.
Next week the world will gather for the latest UN Climate Change Conference. Mostly what they will be doing is debating which words to use in the final agreement. This process is essentially a continuation of the work that came out of the first Earth Summit in 1992. Many words have been argued over and the pattern has always been for the weaker words to win. Everything to date has been voluntary. We don't really seem to have a way forward. Our own climate change response has been an open question since 1992.
The environment first become interesting to me as I saw these pressing questions would have real answers on the scale of a human lifetime. Specifically my human lifetime. Earlier in my life the worst weather always seemed to be snow now for me it is rain. The intensity of the rainfall today is nothing that I am used to. 100 year storms we need new names. Words sometimes don't work anymore.
We have had an issue of flooding that has thus far stumped our plumbers. The education wing has flooded several times recently and the best we can figure at this time was it is due to the intensity. More rain in a shorter amount of time than the drains were designed to take care. In the past we designed systems to speed up drainage at our own peril. Best practice today attempts to slow water down.
I don't argue with you about the science, but just to say we have given up on avoiding climate change. The best we can do is keep it to below +1.5 degrees. There are slogans of hope to keep it to this level now. Honestly with my experience in this process I think it would be a miracle to keep it at this level as we only have promises and little real action.
The international work reminds me of the long history of the clean water act. Many people think this is something of the past. Created when I was 1 year old, they still have not solved agricultural runoff. They agreed on a wonderful word: exempt. We have toxic algae blooms in the lake cause apparently there is nothing we can do about this problem.
In the early 70s it was easy to stop pollution from point sources such as factories with pipes going into the river. Storm water and combined sewer flows were completely ignored for 30 years. In 2003 when I graduated from the urban school there was finally a permit system being created for storm water.
In our region the last 20 years we have been building tunnels to store storm water for later treatment. In my mind it may have been more cost effective to rebuild everyone's home in Cleveland and put a rain garden in the back yard. Slowing down the water is something we have not done the last 100 years. Non point pollution is hard and global climate change the hardest example.
There is one point of hope. This problem has been worked on by more people than any other problem in the history of the world. Local Agenda 21 since 1992 has involved more people than any other project in the history of people.
We have a unique problem of imagination. The same intellectual creature that is sending robots with cameras to mars is the one destroying the only habitable place in the universe it knows. We are a species of contradictions. We get ahead of ourselves.
So before we do today, we have a short scripture from Mark chapter 10: verse 46-52. I will read from the Amplified Bible:
46 Then they came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar, Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting beside the road [as was his custom]. 47 When Bartimaeus heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout and say, “Jesus, [a]Son of David (Messiah), have mercy on me!”
When we find ourselves in crowds we almost become a type of super organism. We watch each other for cues. The crowd knows better than us we naturally believe. Interesting research has shown this to be true. A crowd guessing the weight of someone will usually be spot on with the average of their answers. Think about that for a second. No right answer but on average the right answer. This is fairly well establish science of the crowd. Something emergent.
A poll of the general population about the top five environmental priorities and a list made up by experts will match. This is fairly well established science I have seen in action. Community holds more than us.
48 Many sternly rebuked him, telling him to keep still and be quiet; but he kept on shouting out all the more, “Son of David (Messiah), have mercy on me!”
The crowd kind of made a decision. Maybe not everybody in the crowd had decided what Jesus was yet. By calling him a Son of David he was telling the crowd his opinion. These were early days yet.
49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man, telling him, “Take courage, get up! He is calling for you.”
Jesus it seems didn't have to yell as the crowd seems to have here. Quick to rebuke and just as quick to support. These were followers Jesus could use. These were followers who could learn on the road from Jericho.
50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped up and came to Jesus. 51 And Jesus said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” The blind man said to Him, “Rabboni (my Master), let me regain my sight.” 52 Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith [and confident trust in My power] has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and began following Jesus on the road.
I love the way this chapter starts in verse 1: Getting up, He left there (Capernaum) and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan; and crowds gathered around Him again and accompanied Him, and as was His custom, He once more began to teach them. As was His custom.
So they were leaving Jericho. On the road from Jericho to Jerusalem we meet the good Samaritan. "Good" Samaritan. You know as a youth when I first heard this story these words told me something different than they do today. It sounded nice. The "good" Samaritan. Didn't really occur to me that it could not. I was taught about the world from certain angles.
Today it sounds the opposite of what I had first learned. Jesus used the story to shock his audience and they saw no Samaritans as good. We often get distracted along the road, but we also can learn the other angles of life. Why? To understand the question of free will.
So we are often leaving Jericho. This crowd passing this outsider. He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar, Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting beside the road [as was his custom]. I am reminded of some of my Grand father's words:
"Our experience of life may seem to us to be of a personal and private character. But they are more than that, they are a passkey into the lives of others. There are three words which describe what our attitude ought to be towards humanity today: the first is "pity", the second is "Compassion", the third is "sympathy". There is a difference between the first of these words and the other two. Pity is an aristocratic virtue: Pity is static, Sympathy and compassion are dynamic virtues. Pity condescends; compassion and sympathy share. The greatest help we get in time of trouble comes to us from someone who can say to us quite simple, "I have endured all that".
We have in those words the secret of the appeal of Jesus to our minds and hearts. He was tempted just as we are. He was hungered and homeless as millions are today. He was misunderstood and rejected and lonely. The greatest thing we know about pain is that Jesus felt it. And for the Christian the significance of these facts rests on the conviction that God Himself is not content with divine and aristocratic pity for his children; but that He has compassion on them and sympathizes with them."
My grand father was preaching about Job as we remember Job 42:10 And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
It is a question of free will. Many sternly rebuked him, telling him to keep still and be quiet; but he kept on shouting out all the more, when is this ok and when is it not? “Son of David (Messiah), have mercy on me!” Now everyone understood what Bartimaeus was calling Jesus and Jesus knew what he was calling upon him to do. I imagine Bartimaeus wanted to see, but I imagine Jesus wanted more. I wonder that this was a lesson for those present and for all time. I imagine Jesus had things Bartimaeus needed his sight to do. I imagine there is more involved I can not conceive.
And Jesus said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” Bartimaeus had an answer because he knew he was blind. I wonder what I answer, what we answer. I wonder if we see or if we are blind. I might ask for the same thing Bartimaeus did. “Rabboni (my Master), let me regain my sight.”
Let me not think whole all those things I learned from one angle.
So they called the blind man, telling him, “Take courage, get up! He is calling for you.” Part of following Jesus is being ready to follow Jesus. The crowd which had rebuked this man now took up his part. This might seem problematic to have followers who keep missing the point.
In school kids often say we did this before. I explain most of what we do we have done before. This is a great truth. We learn in following Jesus to follow Jesus. I see at this early stage how hard it is to follow and how easy. We can't all yell out in the crowd, but Bartimaeus did. Many sternly rebuked him, telling him to keep still and be quiet; but he kept on shouting out all the more, “Son of David (Messiah), have mercy on me!” 49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” Everyone's attitude changed in a moment.
How do I apply this story to my life? Do I need more faith to solve all my problems. It is hard to define the problems as I see. I don't think the lesson is that blind people don't have enough faith. Not everything God needs us to do requires sight is the best I can figure. But we have this story.
This story of power. We have this story of a problem well defined. Immediately he regained his sight and began following Jesus on the road. Bartimaeus was waiting for something and when he saw it he knew it was time. That is how we know when it it is the right time. Cause it isn't always.
We are always on the road from Jericho. As we see in 21rst Chapter of John: 22 Jesus said to him, “If I want him to stay alive until I come [again], what is that to you? You follow Me!” 23 So this word went out among the brothers that this disciple (John) was not going to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not going to die, but only, “If I want him to stay alive until I come [again], what is that to you?”
So this conference next week we can certainly say some prayers that people will work together to use strong words. Some might think we are at the end times and get a pass. People have always thought that as long as we have had Jesus. What is that to you? We follow Jesus and his way is not destruction. Not always easy to tell which way Jesus will go, but it is easy to see that we are not doing enough.
Well the first days are the hardest days, don't you worry any more
'Cause when life looks like easy street, there is danger at your door
Like the morning sun you come and like the wind you go
Ain't no time to hate, barely time to wait
Got some things to talk about, here beside the rising tide
Let Us Pray,
Heavenly Father,
We admit we are blind and not living your will
“Rabboni (my Master), let us regain our sight.”
Let us see you in each person that we meet
Help us come together as one community next week
Help us to know when it is the right time to stand
Help us to know when it is ok to be rebuked for your name's sake
Help us to remember your name and shouting out all the more
Help us love as you have taught us
Son of David (Messiah), have mercy on us.
Amen
Benediction:
Go follow Jesus
Go expect to be surprised
Go and change direction when the Lord calls
Stand up when you need to
Be rebuked when you need to
Nottingham UMC 10/24/2021
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