10.27.24 "All's Well That Ends Well" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

Job 42.1-6; Mark 10.46-52

Oh no, it can’t be true … please tell me it ain’t so.

Britain’s Royal Mail to close down rail operations … after nearly 200 years of moving mail by rail …

It’s called “the Royal Mail” - to carry the king’s mail … Henry VIII established the Royal Mail in 1516 - by coach and horses, of course -  rail came in 1830, with the opening of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway.

And now, a long and storied tradition reaches the end of its days, or more appropriately, the end of the line.

All’s well that ends well …  

And if things are not yet well, it’s not yet the end … 

Our Gospel story this morning is that of a blind man … Bartimaeus … in the fabled city of - Jericho …  

You remember the spiritual: Joshua fit the battle of Jericho … and the walls came tumblin’ down …

Centuries later, Jesus in Jericho …

Jesus and Joshua … the same name … different languages - Joshua in Hebrew, Jesus in Greek … both mean: Salvation.

Salvation happens in Jericho … it’s the gateway to the Promised Land when the wandering people of Israel finally make it across the Jordan River … trumpets blow, the walls tumble down …

Salvation happens in Jericho … the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector … a wee little man who climbs a tree to see Jesus … Jesus passes by and sees him and says to him: Come on down; I’m going to your home today.

Salvation happens in Jericho … the story of the Good Samaritan … a man on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho is attacked, robbed, left for dead … a traveling Samaritan takes pity and washes the man’s wounds, takes the man to a local inn for treatment and pledges to cover all medical expenses.

Salvation happens in Jericho ..

Blind Bartimaeus cries out - Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! … the crowd hushes the man, but the man shouts louder … 

Jesus hears the man, stops, and says to the disciples: Call him here.

 Bartimaeus throws off the rags of a beggar and goes to Jesus … I imagine the crowd, making way … touching Bartimaeus, telling him, Jesus is straight ahead, go on, you can do it … he wants to see you.

Jesus asks Bartimaeus: What do you want?

My teacher, I would like to see again.

Bartimaeus was born with sight … he knew what it was to see the bright skies of Palestine, the faces of loved ones and friends, he knew what it was to make a living … but now, by the side of the road, in the rags of a beggar …  

His vision is restored … he becomes a follower of Jesus.

All’s well that ends well … 

But care is needed when we express our faith.

Statements of faith are more easily said in circumstances of comfort and safety.

It’s easy for me to affirm the goodness of God in the comfort of Pasadena …

Compared to so many places in our world where suffering and sorrow are woven into the everyday fabric of life.

Can we speak of God in such times and places?

Yes, we can, but let’s do it with care!

The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than than the shouting of a ruler among fools.

There is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.

The LORD is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep silence.

There are times when words fail us … words don’t always work … what is needed is friendship, quiet friendship … to sit with someone in their sorrow and pain. 

To hold a hand quietly … to sit at someone’s bedside … 

We weep with those who weep … we walk with those who cannot run … we sit with those who cannot walk … 

Far better to offer a tissue where there are tears … a bandage where there is a wound … a hand where steadiness is needed.

Words may come later … and we do have words, that’s for sure … good words, words of faith and hope … the LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want … the LORD is my helper, I will not be afraid … Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever… words that point beyond themselves to the larger reality of God’s love for the world … 

Not a triumphant love … a suffering love … a love that takes up the cross, bears the sins of the world, dies a hideous death at the hands of Imperial Rome, conspired against by the religious authorities … crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell. 

Yes, he rose again from the dead, and ascended into heaven … the Holy Spirit comes to the upper room with flame and wind, to inspire and empower the disciples to enter into the world and proclaim the word of hope of … the goodness and power of God’s love.

a suffering love, that abides with us in the night,

a love tiny enough to lay in a manger, 

and small enough to hang on a cross … 

a love just right to fit into the contours of our heart!

Jesus said to one of the crucified beside him, Today, you’ll be with me in paradise.

In this life, not all things end well … but in the end, the trumpet will sound, and a new heaven and a new earth will appear …

If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Faith points beyond the boundaries of time and space … beyond the immediate hopes of this life … 

Millions of people never regain what is lost … 

millions suffer hardship and misery … 

untimely death and untold sorrow …

our task, our work, our love, arm-in-arm, side-by-side, to change as much of the world as we can:

as much justice as we can achieve, 

as much peace as we can establish,

as much health and healing and hope as we can muster … 

constantly praying, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

In time …

We all walk through the alien door called death … 

age, accident, war, disease … 

our mortal flesh returns to God’s good earth for safekeeping, 

our breath, our soul, returns to God’s heart, for safekeeping … 

until that great gettin’ up morning when all is made new. 

In the end, the final healing … on the other side of the alien door … 

Some say with conviction, this is it - there is nothing more … dead is dead, and gone is gone … but love never ends … in a mystery vast and incredible, what we are is held in the heart of the universe, in God … 

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee 

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;

….

One short sleep past, we wake eternally 

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

In this life, much to gain … in the life to come, much more to attain. To live is Christ, to die is gain.

We live for the sake of love … we seek justice … we pay attention, we give of ourselves … we strive for the best and the brightest … we confess our sins, we sing God’s praise … because it all counts, it’s all vital, it’s all important … our love, our hope, our deeds, belong to the universe, to the Almighty God who lives and reigns forever and forever … we belong to Christ, we belong to the ages … we belong to the stars …

All’s well that ends well …

Hallelujah and Amen!

11.27.22 "First Sunday in Advent: Hope!"

 Isaiah 2.1-5; Matthew 24.36-44

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth

My two front teeth

See my two front teeth

Gee, if I could only have my two front teeth

Then I could wish you, "Merry Christmas”

Where would we be without hope?

Hope is the stuff of life … perhaps it’s nothing more than our two front teeth, though at the age of loosing teeth, it’s a big deal, for sure.

As we grow older, hope become a bit more elaborate … 

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

Just like the ones I used to know

Where the treetops glisten and children listen

To hear sleigh bells in the snow

 

Hope grows more complex in times such as ours … the age of uncertainty … politics polarized … Christianity struggling for its identity … and for all of us, the day-to-day stuff of life, rearing our children, caring for loved ones, wondering what to cook for the evening meal, or shall we just go out to eat? … the daily stuff, working to make a living, working to make a life.

Hope is the energy of the Bible … from Genesis to Revelation, and everything in between, the power of hope … 

Temporal hope - for this life, this world, here and now … 

Eternal hope - that somewhere beyond this life, beyond the boundaries of time and space.

A place where God and humankind are at one with one another … where every tear is wiped away, death is no more, sorrow and lament are gone, pain and grief are no more … a place: where there is no need for lamp or sun, because the LORD God is Light for all.

A Christian writer put it this way, as I recall, “For myself,” said he, “I was content if there were no life to come … I’ve lived a good life, mostly a comfortable life … yes, I’ve had my difficulties, my setbacks, and sorrows … but for me and my family, life has been good, and when I die, and there were nothing more, I would be satisfied.

And then I travelled to the Third World … I saw children starving to death - skinny little arms and  tiny legs, bloated bellies, eyes large with fear … mothers grieving … fathers crying … death, death, everywhere, and none of it right, and none of acceptable … all of it wrong!

That all of these children should perish in such a miserable state … 

It was then my heart cried out for more … for an eternity where these children could find the life God intended … a fulness of life and love and kindness and contentment … 

What was so cruelly denied to them here, I prayed, would be given to them on the other side of the great divide … for them, I longed for eternity … for them, a safe haven … for them, the light of life, a life of peace, forever with God.

In a world so thoroughly occupied with the here and now, our homes and hearts stuffed to the rafters with the things of life … it’s a bit strange to think about eternity … maybe we don’t need it, but it’s a part of the story … I think it has value, but it’s been misused over the centuries.

When eternal life was used to quiet the cries of distress … the rich and the powerful, the comfy and the contented, tell the poor and the oppressed, “There will be streets of gold, diamond and pearly gates, in the sweet by-and-by … here and now, there’s hardship for you, because God made it so. 

God decreed that some should rule, and be privileged by the work of others.

Enslavement is for your own good. 

Believe in Jesus, and when you die, you’ll be carried away on angels’ wings to everlasting joy.”

There is something wrong with that … tragically, wickedly, wretchedly, wrong.

Is it any wonder that people of good conscience and kindly ways have rejected the preachings of the church?

The colonizing churches proclaimed a message just plain wrong … even into this century, the preaching of salvation without a social conscience … telling people to wait for the “sweet bye-and-bye” … while denying them good and fair wages, while denying them their freedoms and their lives.

I say, loud and clear, there is a component of eternal hope, that has a rightful place in our faith … what we believe, those things for which we hope … the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting … this kind of hope transcends time … 

What we hope for, what we pray for, takes up a lifetime and then some … others will carry on for us when we’re long gone from the scene … 

Eternal hope is real hope … hope, for the here and now, needs eternal hope.

To keep it fired, to keep it hot, to keep it focused and faithful … to never give up … to accept loss and setback, as well as victory and fulfillment, because God is at work in all things for good! The greatest good of all.

Eternal hope is the strength and power of temporal hope … what do, here and now, for the sake of the kingdom of God, really counts … in ways we cannot imagine, or even begin to understand.

Because whatever good we do is taken up into the heart of God … “ … even our halting, halfhearted attempts at faithfulness are counted by God as victories.”

Today, the first Sunday of Advent … hope … 

I think of all the people who’ve made an indelible mark on the world for good … were they not people of hope? 

The odds were often against them .. time and circumstance can be cruel, but they held on to hope, even as hope holds on to us.

Hope is the energy of God … 

God pushes ahead to the Promised Land … Jesus crosses the Sea of Galilee … the Apostle Paul sets out for Spain …

Throughout the ages, women and men of good conscience and wise judgment … poets and playwrights, scientists and inventors, politicians and preachers … gifted with the power of hope - inspire us  to this very day … 

Isaiah’s hope in God: a time when the nations shall beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Paul the Apostle put it like this: Hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Oh little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by

Yet in thy dark streets shineth, the everlasting light

The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

God’s Peace to all, and to all, the power of hope. Amen!