October 28/29, 2006
Reformation / Proper 25
Mark 10:46-52

LIGHT IN MY DARKNESS

Helen Keller is no longer as famous as she once was. For one thing, she died in 1968, and that's as good as ancient history. The made-for-TV movies of her life have been relegated to old VHS shelves in the video store, and the world has moved on to much more glamorous celebrities.

She once wrote a magazine article entitled "Three Days to See." She wrote about what she would like to see if she were granted sight, if even only briefly. On the first day, she said, she wanted to see her friends. Day Two she would look at the world of nature. The third day she would spend in the city of New York, where she had gone to live, watching the busy work-day, the traffic, the people and the city. She ended her article like this: "I who am blind can give one hint to those who see: Use your eyes as if tomorrow you were stricken blind."

Bartimaeus also knew what he was missing. When he answered Jesus he said, "Teacher, let me see again." Something had happened, and he knew what he had lost when he lost his sight. But he had no way to see again, except for a miracle.

I don't know about you, but that often happens to me. Oh, not that my eyes don't work, but I can't SEE as well as I did before (or if I do, don't do anything about it, and I may as well be blind) - can't see what my laziness and indulgence do to my physical health. Or, I'm blind to some habits that interfere with my relationships. I say, it's a miracle my son and daughter-in-law put up with it. You know what I mean?

It might be struggling with alcohol, and in your better moments you remember how it used to be before the disease took over. Or now, in your marriage, compared to the first few years when you were... happy. Or, you never used to think of death or what disease will work you over first, and now that's all you think about. Or once you and your dad played catch and talked 'till it got dark, but now all you ever do is fight. Or you remember how delighted you were with a $10 bill and a new CD, and now your car's not new enough, your computer's too slow, and you need another trip or home improvement project in order for the sun to shine again. "Lord," in other words, "I want to see again."

Last week I got an email, and with permission I'll read some of it to you: "Good morning, Pastor Nate... We have been working on organizing our finances. A baby really makes you think about the future... The messages from church this month have all been buzzing in my brain... I am haunted by our, my, consumer culture and behavior. If we can give, why don't we?

"When I was in Peru we were thrilled to be able to give away clothes, jewelry, money, personal hygiene products, our labor... anything. It was so clear that all we needed were clothes and the shoes on our feet - and even those were so expensive they could have fed a few families for months.

"I do care about poor, hungry, and forgotten people more than Caribou coffee, clothes, and home furnishings. So how does such cognitive dissonance occur? If we can give, why don't we? ...Anyway, thank you for putting the itch in my heart and brain."

She wanted to see again - and she IS! And I think she has the anatomy right, too. A certain holy itch in the heart can work miracles in our eyesight.

Putting this itch in our hearts and brains is my job. You can track it back all the way to that afternoon in Jericho where it happened to Bartimaeus, but the details, the genealogy of my job, if you will - not important, because it's not the preachers or the individuals or the church identification, pedigree, or brand that really counts, it's what happens in the heart when the itch results in new vision, a better sense of sight, a... reformation, you could call it.

I decided to use not the official text for the Day of Reformation but use instead the story for whatever weekend of the year this is - use Bartimaeus - because I believe that's what reformation is, not just for Lutherans but for Christians. Reformation is that daily process of coming back to see again, and it's always going on - coming back to see what changes need to happen, see what isn't happening 'cause we need a miracle for it to happen... see what a miracle it is that it doesn't have to start with us.

It starts with God who already loves us and receives us, no questions asked - and the miracle is, it's ours and we simply receive it like Bartimaeus - receive it, trust it, live with it by faith, and follow Jesus wherever he will take us.

One thing the Lutheran reformation brought (brought BACK) to the whole Christian church was an emphasis on preaching, on engaging the heart and the brain with the Scriptures to never miss the opportunity to hear the Word of God, the news that God always takes us (takes you, too, by the way) where you're at, takes you no questions asked, and now you see, again, that God also never leaves you there but invites you into life with Christ, to follow Jesus... with your heart and head.

Well, preaching's a Protestant characteristic that has now reached across all the brands and traditions of the Christian church. In some ways, though, and frankly in too many churches that's been taken too far, over-emphasized and misapplied. There's something in our human nature that demands perfection and inflicts punishment on ourselves and others if we don't meet that standard of perfection - but what's worse, then we like to make God the enforcer of that system of rewards and punishment. The result is that too many religious people (and too much Protestant preaching) focuses on law and judgment, sin and punishment, and that's why so many religious people are self-righteous or mean.

Lutherans I hope! try hard not to go there - we're not Protestant; we're Lutheran - partly because we also deeply appreciate the sacraments, which are a catholic element (not just Roman Catholic but small-c catholic, historic, we think, "biblical" characteristic) - pointing so well to how it's GOD who acts for us, God's initiative, and we're receivers. Holy Baptism even when we're too small to be aware of it, God coming to receive us no questions asked... Holy Communion, nothing for us to qualify, no application forms, no test to take, no grades - just coming 'cause Jesus said to, said, "Here's my body for you, my blood for you."

Open your heart; in other words, open your eyes. You can see again. And next week when you're back here, your eyes swollen shut by a world at war, or a home in turmoil, or a life going nowhere, and your fingers sore from holding on too much - next week, unfold those fingers, touch this water of life and take this holy food - unlock your heart and open up your ears to listen to more preaching, listen to yet another sermon that will call you again to faith in a gracious God at a Table that is here for everyone.

I know what Helen Keller meant, "Use your eyes as if tomorrow you will go blind" - know what you might miss and appreciate it now. But I think it's more than that. Life is continually learning to see... in order to see again tomorrow when it will be more difficult. Use your eyes to see a miracle daily, no questions asked, loved by a gracious God, love into an every day reformation - and (in Helen's scheme) three days' worth besides. First, the miracle itself, a resurrection; then the world God made for us to care for and appreciate; and then to follow Jesus with new vision into the traffic of a busy work-day world where we belong.

That kind of eyesight takes not just preaching, but a certain itching of your heart and a brain to interpret those signals and translate them from here into something useful.

Nathan Castens
Chanhassen, Minnesota

The children's sermon was the story of the day when light shined in Helen's darkness. I don't have the specific reference, but she wrote of this in her book, Light in My Darkness. Likewise, I don't have a reference for the article, "Three Days to See."