Good Shepherd United Church of Christ

"What Do You Want?"                       Psalm 34:4-9

Oct. 24, 2009                                    Mark 10:46-52

Metairie



My husband and I met in Massachusetts , went to schools in the Northeast, started our careers in the Northeast, conceived and birthed our children in the Northeast.  So how did we end up raising our kids in Colorado , with all our roots in the Northeast?



For me as a parent there was one deciding incident and it had to do with "wanting".  When our oldest son, Colin, was in 5th grade, some politicians (crooked politicians who wanted to line their pockets with kick-backs from the construction industry), some politicians in Danbury , Connecticut decided to shut down the State Fairgrounds and replace this wonderful institution with the largest enclosed mall in New England .  That was the first blow to my affection for my hometown.



The second blow was more personal and also parental.  The next year Colin was in 6th grade and in that vulnerable stage where peer approval was very important.  By this time the mall was largely built and contained many, many stores- all of them with plenty of merchandise to tempt teens.  And then too, there was the lure of the food court with its forbidden and delicious offerings- pizza, ice cream, sodas, donuts- all the things that were in short supply in his home kitchen.  To say nothing of the lure of the social life of teens that thrived at the mall.



So of course, my son wanted to go to the mall, just like all the other kids.  But this did not fit so well with our family values.  We wanted Colin to run around in the woods, go to libraries and zoos and aquariums with his family.  But he was at the stage where we were becoming an embarrassment and he wanted to be with his peers, of course.



So with a certain amount of chagrin mixed with resignation, we cut the kid a deal:  Yes, under certain circumstances (the school work was done, the room was tidy....you know the list) we would permit him to spend some time at the mall with friends whose parents we knew.  So "going to the mall" became the reward.  And off he went one Sunday after church, to my disgust.  After a couple of outings Colin and I had a discussion which blew my socks off...



"What do you actually DO when you go to the mall?" I asked.  "Oh," he said, we walk around and look at things."  "Do you go into the shops?” I asked.  "Sometimes," he said.  "But what do you DO?" I persisted.  "Oh, we talk about what we WANT", was the reply.  "So" I asked in disbelief, "you walk around the mall WANTING stuff?”  Yep, that's what they were all doing- walking around as junior consumers, wanting stuff.  Basically, cultivating a shopping addiction.



We moved a year later to a town where there were no shopping malls, where the outdoors life was highly prized, and "wanting things" was largely reserved for skis and bikes, rather than clothing labels, like Tommy Hilfiger.



But, you know, we did not escape the mall culture; within a decade Colorado , at least the Front Range , succumbed to the consumer driven culture that had us depart the East Coast.



"What do you want?” asks Jesus of Bartimaeus, the beggar by the side of the road outside Jericho .  "What do you want?"



Matthew, Mark and Luke all include this encounter in their gospels.  Mark, the gospel written first, was the prototype for the other versions.  As usual each gospel has its own take on the interaction, but all three include the crying out of the blind beggar:  "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.  Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!" from the man who would not be shushed by the crowd.  And he does - Jesus does have mercy on the blind beggar.   Jesus grants the blind man vision.  Here the gospel writers vary - only in Mark does Jesus say to Bartimaeus, "Go your way"- but Bartimaeus follows Jesus.



Scholars say that this story is both a healing and a call story.  It is also typical of the writer of Mark, who  has a bit of an agenda to expose the disciples wavering faith in contrast to the life preserving faith of the people on the edges of life.  Mark depicts the faith of the beggar, who throws off his coat- his meager possession that is likely his tent, his jacket, his bank where he stashes any coins that come to him, his shade in the daytime and his warmth in the cool nights - he tosses that aside as he rushes to Jesus to receive mercy and then joins in the heavenly parade towards Jerusalem.  Contrast this with the rich young ruler, who could not give up his many possessions in a previous encounter with Jesus.  Mark is really tough on disciples, which might make us examine our blind spots which keep us from entering the commonwealth of God .



But let's save that for stewardship season and today let's focus on this common them, twice repeated in all three gospels:  the crying out, the shushing, the crying out and the response of the gracious Son of David, even Jesus Christ, who interrupts his journey in these last days before he reaches Jerusalem, to respond to the crying out of the blind beggar.  "Jesus, Son of Man, have mercy on me!"  "Mercy! Mercy!"  Mercy is translated "kindness" or "compassion" when you look it up in a Biblical Concordance.



"Have kindness on me."

Have compassion on me"

"Mercy!"  Mercy for me"



And mercy is what he gets.



Jesus has come to proclaim the in-breaking of God's realm and Jesus, especially in the Gospel of Mark, provides actions that illustrate the Kingdom of God .  What is God's plan for our planet?  Go back to the beginning - God created humanity with tremendous tenderness and kindheartedness.  Go though all the testimonies and what do you find?  Mercy upon mercies.



"Mercy", says one theologian (Walter Bruggeman) "is the strange transformative reach from a center of strength to a center of need that changes everything and makes all things new...Jesus gave his life as a continuing act of mercy", representing in full measure the God that he calls "Abba", "Daddy".



A poetry collection entitled "Otherwise" (Jane Kenyon) offers these images of God's multiple mercies in a poem called "Briefly It Enters, and Briefly Speaks"



I am the blossom pressed in a book,

found again after two hundred years....



I am the maker, the lover, and the keeper....



When the young girl starves,

sits down to a table

she will sit beside me....



I am the food on a prisoner's plate....



I am water rushing to the well head,

filling the pitcher until it spills....



I am the patient gardener

of the dry and weedy garden....



I am the stone step,

the latch, and the working hinge....



I am the heart contracted by joy....

the longest hair, white

before the rest....



I am there in the basket of fruit

presented to the widow....



I am the musk rose opening

unattended, the fern on the boggy summit....



I am the one whose love

overcomes you, already with you,

when you think to call my name.



"Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!  Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"  And he has and he does and he will, this Jesus, who represents God, Abba, Daddy.



So, what do you want"  What do you crave?  Once we become mature, beyond the wants of a 6th grader stalking the mall, hungry for the latest toy- then, what do we want?



I would submit that what we want is some kindness, some compassion, just like the beggar on the side of the road.  "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me."  Or in the song of an old crooner:  "Try a little tenderness.  I would submit, furthermore, that kindness, tenderness- always a gift of God - is at the hear of our truest craving and that if our longing for kindness, for compassion, were satisfied, our other cravings would fade away.



God's mercy is all around us, daily, and God's mercy has been our constant companion since the beginning of time, thought every challenge of any journey.  Only sadly, sometimes we are too attached to other cravings to notice and reach out to accept God's mercy.  To receive God's mercy we do need to pay attention.  To receive God's mercy we need to get out of the malls of false-want and into the halls of compassion.



And Jesus showed us over and over how to escape the wants that wither and wane and how to pursue the longing for kindness that is our true want.  That is:  practice kindness, share mercy with all whom you encounter.  I have one more poem to illustrate.  The poem is called "Kindness" (Naomi Shihab Nye in "110 Poems of Love and Revelations", ed. Roger Housden).



Before you know what kindness really is

you must lose things,

feel the future dissolve in a moment,

like salt in a weakened broth

............................................................

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,

you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho

lies by the side of the road.

You must see how this could be you,

how he too was someone

who journeyed through the night with plans.

...............................................................

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside

you must know sorrow as the other, deepest thing.

..............................................................

Then it is only kindness that makes sense any more

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

And then (it) goes with you everywhere

like a shadow or a friend.



"Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me."



And Jesus does have compassion on the man by the side of the road, who wants only to follow.



You don't need to go to the mall or to on-line catalogues.  You don't need to cut coupons or take on a second job.  Kindness is a community well, springing up with water.  You may drink as much as you want because God's compassion is overflowing.  And you may give away kindness with extravagance, indiscriminately because you will never run out either.  And kindness always works miracles; kindness makes a tough situation better and kindness makes a good situation better, too.



If you lose you job, you still have kindness; if your home is foreclosed, you still have kindness;  if your friend forsakes you, you still have kindness;  if your boss abuses you, you still have kindness;  if you are sick, even unto death, you still have kindness!



Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.  Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!  He does!  You do!  We do!  You can bank on it- you are a trillionaire and better- when it comes to mercy.



Let the people say, "Amen"