Bold, Courageous Risk-taking - a sermon for 28 October 2012

A Sermon for October 28, 2012 (RCL B Proper 25)

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts:             Hebrews 7:23-28; Psalm 34:1-8,19-22; Mark 10:46-52

Themes:        goodbye
Title:               But He Cried Out

My dear friends: for the last four (or three) years, God has given me the privilege of speaking with you from this pulpit as I have attempted to make sense of Holy Scripture within the context in which we are living in our society today.

As I reflect upon what God has laid upon my hearts over the years, there is a wonderful serendipity with the Gospel reading appointed for this morning.

Jesus and his disciples and a large crowd are passing Jericho on their inexorable march toward the conflict in Jerusalem. Along the way, a blind beggar cries out for help.

And the Lord Jesus turns to this man and asks him an amazing question:

“What do you want me to do for you?”

Bartimaeus makes his request for the restoration of his eyesight, and Jesus replies with a line that is quite typical for him to say: “Go; your faith has made you well.”

My friends: I invite you right now to think with me for a few minutes about the fact that true faith in God is bold, courageous risk-taking.

Think about it for a minute, my friends: the Messiah, the Son of God, this very popular Rabbi surrounded by eager crowds, on his way toward the end of his life in the showdown in Jerusalem – this one stops in the road in order to offer his services to a poor, blind beggar.

“What do you want me to do for you?”

Why? Why does he act in this way toward Bartimaeus? What about the other blind beggars whom the Lord surely passed by on the road without even a notice? Why is Bartimaeus healed?

The crowd ordered the poor blind man to be quiet, but he would not. Instead he shouted out all the more.

You see, Bartimaeus took a risk. He was incredibly vulnerable. Poor, blind, sitting down in the midst of a large boisterous crowd. People were yelling at him; they could have struck him, kicked him, hurt him.     

But Bartimaeus would not be silenced. He took the risk; he called out for help.

The Lord heard and replied. “Your faith has made you well.”

It is always this way with Jesus.

He calls out the twelve. They risk everything to go and follow him.
Four friends risk much to bring their sick brother to Jesus for healing.
The syro-phonecian woman risks scorn and ridicule – and worse – by debating with Jesus for the healing of her daughter.
Here, Bartimaeus risks his personal safety in order to ask for healing.

Over and over again, those who connect with Jesus are the ones who take risks in order to be near him, who take risks for the sake of love.

Do you see it, my friends?

Everything in the life of faith depends upon taking risks.  In fact, that is the very essence of faith: bold, courageous action, the ability to take risks.

And this is seen so clearly not only here in the Gospels.

Look at all of the saints who are honored and celebrated in the church: Paul of Tarsus, Patrick, Benedict, Francis of Assisi and Clare his dear friend, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, even Mother Teresa of Calcutta of our times. On and on and on we could name them.

All of these are honored and remembered and celebrated today. WHY?

Because they took risks for the sake of God! They were bold in risking much for the sake of the Gospel.

Some of these risked physical harm, like St. Patrick when he returned to Ireland and faced those who had attacked his village and had kidnapped him.

Francis and Clare took the risk of living life entirely by faith, with no material possessions at all and no money, no possessions at all. And guess what? They lived lives filled with incredible joy and peace! Because, by the way, you do not need money to have joy and peace in your life!

Other risked social embarrassment and exclusion, like John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, as they labored to reform the church in their day and restore it to its spiritual foundations.

Countless others risked their time by devoting hours on end to prayer and meditation.

This kind of devotion offers no promise of immediate reward. It is something people do because they fall in love! They fall in love with Christ and they want to spend time in his presence. For all they know, this will be wasted time which they can never recover, with nothing to show for it. But saints have done it – over and over again, simply out of love.

And what have they gained? They have gained intimacy with God, closeness to Christ.

Amazing insight, vision, a sense of peace and trust in God which does not change even when the circumstances of life.

A number of different times, I have shared with you this quote, which is one of my favorites:

“Grace will not baptize us while we sit at home, slighting the means which God has appointed.” These were words preached by John Henry Newman more than 160 years ago, but their truth applies in all ages.

The grace of God is available today. This is transforming powerful grace. It is dynamic energy and power.

BUT – it is available to those who take risks, who step out in faith into the unknown with boldness and courage and confidence.

Now, to be clear, not all risk-taking is good. One of the primary reasons that our society finds itself in such an economic downturn is due to reckless, irresponsible risk-taking by those in the financial sector.

It is not risk-taking by itself which is inherently good, but risk-taking for the sake of love, for the sake of God. It is the willingness to lay yourself – your wants and needs, your money, your resources, your time – to lay these down in order to serve others, to serve God.

THAT is faith in action.

This past week I became acquainted with the story of Katie Davis.

As an 18 year old from Tennessee, Katie traveled to Uganda during Christmas break with her church youth group. She was immediately captivated by the people and the culture of Uganda. Her heart was touched by the graciousness of the Ugandan people, but also by their immensity of their needs.

13 months later, in January of 2008, Katie had graduated from high school and had returned to Uganda to launch a new effort at helping impoverished children here to receive a basic elementary school education and the basic food staples needed to live, and to be nurtures by a caring, Christian community. Today, Katie is a 23 year old young woman living in Uganda, and she is in fact now a mother – at 23 years old! – who has officially adopted 13 orphaned Ugandan girls. (See her story here: http://www.amazima.org/katiesstory.html).

What causes an intelligent, athletic, attractive high school graduate – the senior class president, no less! – to leave behind her home and her friends and her future career potential in order to care for poor children in Uganda?

Faith in Jesus, because true faith is bold, courageous risk-taking.

Those who step out for the sake of God are the ones who go out and change the world!

When God gives the call to you, my dear friends, how will you respond?

Remember: “Grace will not baptize us while we sit at home, slighting the means which God has appointed.”

Oh, you can sit at home and watch TV and complain about how messed-up the world is and then wonder why it’s not getting any better! Sure, you can do that.

But that is not faith! That is not active participation in God’s mission in the world!

That is not the way to experience grace in your life.

Think it through for a moment right now. Think through your life. What have you risked for the sake of love, for the sake of God?

What is true of our individual lives is true of our churches as well. What has your church risked for the sake of love, for the sake of God?

 

True faith in Jesus Christ is bold, courageous risk-taking.

 Not because we hope to gain anything from it! We have already gained everything!

Baptized into Christ, we have been forgiven and redeemed in him.

And now, because of that, we have the chance to step out in faith, to risk ourselves for the sake of him who died for us.

Christ offered himself for us, so that we might offer ourselves for him.

That, my dear sisters and brothers, is what it means to have faith in Jesus Christ.

May you never forget this, never shrink back from God’s call out of fear, never seek to protect yourselves from the pain of sacrifice. But may you always reach out in love for the sake of the Gospel, and offer yourselves so that others may live in the grace of Christ. Amen.