“Take heart; get up, he is calling you.”

Reagan Gonzalez
10/28/18
St. Matthew’s Episcopal
Lincoln, NE

I spent the last few days traveling to and from Gering, Nebraska, along with the St. Matthew’s delegation, for the Diocese of Nebraska’s 151^st Annual Council. During our time there we were participants of and witnesses to all the joyous and Holy Spirit-filled ministries that make up the Episcopal Church in this state. We heard ‘ministry moments’ where individuals from around the diocese stood up and shared stories about a particular ministry their church had taken on.

We passed a diocesan budget and resolutions pertaining to the governing bodies of the council.

We had small group discussions about each of our own ministries and churches.

We ate together. We prayed and worshiped together. In all that we did we celebrated being the body of Christ in our own unique way from one end of this vast state to the other.

After the long drive back home yesterday however I was greeted by the news of another mass shooting that had taken place in our country. 

While the Episcopal gathering in Gering was praying Morning Prayer yesterday a gunmen entered another worship space and opened fire on the congregation. As you have seen or heard from the news eleven were killed and at 6 were wounded in the shooting that took place at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Armed with anti-Semitic slurs, an assault rifle and three handguns the gunman had no other objective than to spread hatred and cause pain through a violence that has become all too familiar in our current climate.

My Jewish and non-Jewish friends took to facebook and other social media platforms with words of mourning, anger, and shock. Some posted information about memorial services or prayer vigils to be held in the coming days. Some simply quoted portions of psalms or other religious texts while I as your preacher wondered what you might need to hear today, and how I was ever going to find words adequate enough to meet the magnitude of despair that an event like yesterday brings.

The clearest way forward seems to be to remember that when times feel darkest we must lean all the more into faith, even when that faith feels like only a hope for goodness and a hope that maybe there is something more powerful than the dark.

And it is darkness we encounter in today’s gospel. There is the physical darkness of Bartimaeus, the beggar on the roadside outside of Jericho, and there is the social blindness of the crowd who try to make him be quiet amidst his cries of acclamation in Jesus’ identity as the Son of David. There is also the blindness of the disciples who up to this point in the gospel of Mark are not clear on the Messianic nature of Jesus’ calling and presence among them.

I don’t know which blindness you most associate with today. The blind disciples who follow without really looking? The ones who walk right through the deep mysteries of life without knowing they are even there. The blindness of following the status quo? The ones in the crowd who hush Bartimaeus.  Who hush those who aren’t in their inner circle and therefore don’t need to be heard. 

Or the blindness of Bartimaus? The one who seeks, who is calling out in the darkness for light. Not just to see, but to see again, to be restored and to be brought back into light that at some point was taken away.

The good news my Beloved is that no matter what blindness is afflicting you, there is healing light. 

While they may have to wait until the end of the story the disciples experience the light of resurrection. They witness the power of life over death, of God through action saying, violence will not be the end, I will redeem even this. I watch the sunrise every Sunday morning remembering those disciples who witnessed that first resurrection morning light.

The crowd surrounding Jesus and Bartimaeus also find sight. They are converted from a crowd that hushes and berates, to a crowd that calls, that invites, that makes a way for Bartimaeus to reach Jesus, “Take heart, get up, he is calling you.” May we be so open to Jesus’ presence to change and become open to the needs of those around us.

And finally Bartimaeus: The faithful blind man who somehow through faith sees Jesus without being able to see. Who will not be silenced in the presence of the one he knows can bring light, restoration, and hope. The one who knows that healing cannot be separated from following. “Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way,” we are told. Even in our darkest moments may we have the faith that hopes for the regaining of our sight.

In this world full of blindness and increased acts of cruelty taking place based on that blindness it is becoming increasingly necessary that we show love and support to our neighbors, especially those different from us. That we do not plead ignorance and remain in the dark, but with the help of God we come into the light and stand up when we need to stand up and speak out when we need to speak out.

In the General Thanksgiving prayed in our Morning Prayer service we lift these words to God, “Give us such an awareness of your mercies that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, but giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days.”

Now is the time to step into the light, where not only with our lips but in our lives we stand in support of our Jewish neighbors. Our Muslim neighbors, our homeless neighbors, our refugee neighbors, and all others who walk this earth with us.

Adam Greenwald, a Rabbi acquaintance from Los Angeles, had this to say in light of yesterday’s events,

“Despite the deep rage and profound heartbreak that I -- and, I suspect, most of you now feel -- I urge us all to respond to his hatred with a renewed commitment to love:

To love one another, and to stand heart-to-heart in solidarity with our Jewish family all around the world that weeps today as one…To love and thank the first responders, who put their lives on the line, captured the perpetrator, and cared for his victims. And, to continue loving the stranger -- to show this brutal person and others like him, that we will never stop believing in and building towards a world built on compassion and goodness. As Holocaust survivor, Paula Lebovics, said…just this past Sunday morning, "they can't make us into people who hate."”

Yesterday was a day of darkness, and if you need to sit in that darkness for a little while no one will hold that against you. But when you’re ready, when you grasp onto the faith inside you that whispers of hope, in that moment, take heart; get up, God is calling you. Regain your sight, and follow.

Amen.