A Sermon Preached at St. Stephen’s on Oct. 29, 2006, by the Rev. Cork Tarplee

            There’s a true story about our bishop, Jack Croneberger, that has taken on iconic status among the clergy of the diocese. It happened at a clergy conference not long after the bishop took office.  Bishop Croneberger decided to hold a softball game and many gathered both to play and to watch.  In the crowd as they began to choose up sides was Jim Warneke, a priest from Teaneck who is blind. Nobody, not even Bishop Croneberger, knows what possessed him to ask the blind priest, “Would you like to play?”  Jim’s answer was obvious, “Bishop, I wish I could, but you know I can’t.” “Sure you can,” said the bishop. “It’s just a friendly game. You pitch for our side and I’ll catch.  Just throw the ball to the sound of my voice.”  And so began the famous softball game in which a blind priest pitched.  Jim even batted with a little help from his teammates and got on base.  Nobody remembers who won.  Nobody cares.

            That story is a real-life parable about faith and standing up on your own two feet.  Scholars believe that another is the story we read as our Gospel this morning.  This one is about a blind beggar named Bartimaeus.  As the story opens, Bartimaeus is sitting by the roadside when Jesus comes along—on his way, as we know from the rest of the story, to Jerusalem, and finally to the cross and resurrection. What follows is a remarkable exchange in which Jesus respects Bartimaeus, even in his blindness, as a capable, mature human being.  Jesus can see that the man is blind, but does not answer his cries by going over to minister to him.  Instead Jesus calls Bartimaeus to get up and come over to him.  When Bartimaeus does that, Jesus asks the most remarkable question: “What do you want me to do for you?”  Jesus might have done a lot of things here.  He might have given alms; he might have just healed the man.  But he asks the blind man to speak for himself. “What do you want me to do for you?”

            Bartimaeus for his own part accepts the responsibility he has been given.  He acts on faith, steps out and walks over to Jesus, and answers the question with brutal honesty.  What does he want?  He wants what seems impossible.  He wants to be able to see.  And that is what he asks for.  Notice, too, that he doesn’t stop taking responsibility when he gets what he asks for.  Jesus tells him, “Go; your faith has made you well.”  But Bartimaeus doesn’t go away. The last line of our reading tells us that Bartimaeus followed Jesus “on the way.” Followed as a disciple; followed, I suspect, all the way to Jerusalem .  To the cross and afterward to be a witness to the resurrection.  I can think of no other reason why the Gospel might have recorded the name of one beggar among many whom Jesus encountered.  The early Church knew him and knew his story.  They knew that he asked for what he really needed, stood up on his own two feet, and took the responsibility that came with following Jesus.

            There is much for us to learn from Bartimaeus.  As many commentators have noted, this blind man sees Jesus more clearly than most of us do who have our sight.  In our own form of spiritual blindness, we tend to turn to our faith for comfort.  We want sympathy for our woundedness, acceptance and pardon for our shortcomings.  We want to be comforted by the everlasting arms.  And so we are.  No matter who we are or what we’ve done, we find in Christ the compassion we are seeking.  No matter how deeply sorrowful or afraid we may be, we find in Christ the sweet comfort of One who sees the secrets of our hearts and loves us without question.

            But Bartimaeus reminds us that there is much more to faith than that.  In Bartimaeus we see the honesty that would lead us to search our hearts for what we really need in order to lead life with courage and dignity.  In Bartimaeus we see the shouldering of responsibility that would lead us to reach out in compassion and acceptance to others. As a prayer in a Communion service we sometimes use puts it, “Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Table for solace only, and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal.”  Bartimaeus reminds us that Christ comes to bring us comfort to be sure, but also through us to change the world.

            In his autobiography, Elie Wiesel tells of growing up in pre-war Hungary where he befriended Moshe, the poor man who cleaned his synagogue.  One day Moshe saw Elie in the synagogue praying and asked, “Why do you pray?” Moshe then went on to suggest that the child ask God questions.  “Every question,” he said, “possesses a power that does not lie in the answer.  Humans raise themselves to God by the questions they ask.” When he finished, Elie asked, “So why do YOU pray?” Moshe answered, “I pray that God will give me the strength to ask the right questions.”

            The bishop asked the blind priest the unexpected question, “Do you want to play?” Jesus asked Bartimaeus the unexpected question, “What do you want me to do for you?” Both questions got deeply honest answers—and evoked courageous responses.  Let us pray to hear God’s questions of us, and let us pray for the strength to ask God fearless questions of our own.  For I am convinced that God wants us all to have the courage to stand on our own two feet: to play this great game of life and to follow Jesus on the way.                                                                AMEN