Faith Healing

This week's reading from Mark 10:46-52 contains an interesting miracle healing,

They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; get up, he is calling you.’ So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher, let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

First, notice how the blind beggar perceives Jesus as the or a "Son of David",

"Son of David" refers to the promise God made David that the king would have an heir who would reign over Israel forever (2 Samuel 7:12–16); God also promised to "raise up for David a righteous Branch," the Messiah, who will rescue Israel from her enemies (Jeremiah 23:5–6). Jesus is descended from David on both His mother Mary's side (Luke 3:23–38) and His adopted father Joseph's side (Matthew 1:1–16). Bible Ref.

Next that although Bartimaeus' sight was restored by his faith, it wasn't until Jesus' judgement was voiced that Bartimaeus was healed.

I have seen some miraculous healings in my time, and when a patient or family member tried to give credit to the doctor, I would shift the credit to Whom it belongs, and when the patient persisted in crediting the medical staff, I would try to explain that God put them there, and it was He who gave them the knowledge to participate in the healing process. 

Still, how many of us are quick to give credit to the antibiotic when we recover from an infection or when an aspirin relieves our headache?  

Make sure to perceive and acknowledge the actions of the Son of David in all these things 

The answer to a frightful future

Wise advice from Fr. Dwight Longenecker at The Imaginative Conservative,

"The issue of women’s ordination, therefore, is one comparatively minor aspect of the much larger issue of our times: the destruction and distortion of human sexuality and ultimately the destruction and distortion of the human race itself.

What is the answer to this frightful future? Angry rants by conservative preachers will not suffice. Neither will reasoned arguments by philosophers or theologians. The answer to any distortion of reality is the positive action taken by sane, healthy, honest people.

Young men and women need to marry, stay married, have lots of children and show in their words and works the vibrant attractiveness of all that is simple, beautiful, good, and true. Then their pro-life and pro-family choice needs to be supported by their extended family, community, church, and society."

I would add that in addition to demonstrating good works, that young men and women need to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world by their words as well.

Party Politics

 This Sunday's reading is Mark 10:35-45, and here we see party politics coming into play among the disciples,

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ And he said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ They replied, ‘We are able.’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.’

 When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to them, ‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’

Pretty self explanatory... right?

Jesus' closest followers got it wrong at times. 

Is it any wonder that we do too?

 

When politicians create a "social valuation of life"

 I highly recommend reading this article by Amanda Achtman at Public Discourse. She discusses the development of "euthanasia centers" in Nazi Germany where the "unfit" were killed and the methods for the genocide of Jewish people were "perfected." 

These,

"euthanasia memorials do not receive nearly the volume of visitors that flock to the more notorious death camps; most people are unaware of the links between them."

We must remember this history lest we repeat it as more and more nations accept the notion of "euthanasia." 

Here is an excerpt, 

The medical records of the euthanasia victims list such things as: “congenital feeble-mindedness,” “social nonconformity,” “anxious relational psychosis,” “unable to work,” “incurable,” “danger to the public,” “unstable and dishonest,” “sullen and unapproachable,” “senile dementia,” etc., as conditions that obviously warranted death.

Ambiguous as these criteria are, they were used to reduce people to conditions that disqualified them from belonging in the world. The person with a name became the mere instance of a type. Doctors would refer to patients by their illness, disability, or inner struggle as a kind of shorthand that eclipsed the person. This is a particularly insidious form of dehumanization, when a person’s entire identity is reduced to a diagnosis, prognosis, or accessibility aid.

In short, a consensus arose around a social valuation of life, which became difficult to dispute. The rationale for killing people became entrenched under the guise of general agreement. The precedent became part of the argument. If the general presumption becomes that the rationale is logical, if there is a sense that fungible criteria are legitimate, then people are susceptible to being classified within them, regardless of whether they would have put themselves in that category.

Today we might instinctively look at Nazi criteria for death as utterly baseless, but at the time seasoned medical professionals regarded them as reasonable. To have a sense of history is to grasp the arbitrariness of such criteria. When it comes to killing patients, there is no way to get the criteria just right because the stamp of medical approval sends a social message that there is a category of persons who should not exist.

Perplexed then greatly astounded

In this Sunday's reading from Mark 10:17-31, Jesus teaches us about how we attain eternal life

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.” ’ He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’ Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ They were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’

 Peter began to say to him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’

I noticed the tension growing as the disciples were first perplexed and then greatly astounded at Jesus' words. 

The real astounding moment is when Jesus explains that for God, passing a camel through the eye of a needle is easy.

 

"Floods came and the wind blew"

We are still cleaning up from hurricane Helene, but the Pewster-in-law's place in Florida is in the bullseye for the next storm. They are snow birds and are only there in the winter so they are safe in their summer primary home. My friend on Sanibel Island has evacuated. 

I was born on an island that was wiped out by a hurricane over a century ago, and I grew up in hurricane country riding out many in my childhood home which was seriously shaking during one storm. My father taught me how to prepare, and to never buy a house in certain flood prone areas or to own a beach front home. 

I feel for people like my friend who live on or near the beach, but I remember my father's advice as well as the words of Jesus, 

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.  And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Matthew 7:24-27

Still, we build on sand anyway, and the floods will come some day to wash it all away.

So as to not leave you on a sour note remember,

"Many waters cannot quench love,

    neither can floods drown it." - Song of Solomon 8:7a

Let the floods come, God loves us and watches over us. We just would do better if we followed his advice. 

God's plan or yours?

 While this Sunday the Revised Common Lectionary cuts out a large part of Hebrews chapter 1 and a slice of Hebrews chapter 2, I looked at the Gospel reading and was left wondering how the revisionist preacher would handle it.

Mark 10:2-16

Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’ He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’ They said, ‘Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, “God made them male and female.” “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’

Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, ‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.’

 People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’ And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

I imagine that the typical revisionist preacher will avoid talking about the first two paragraphs altogether and focus on the third one, or he/she/it will not even touch the Gospel reading and instead focus on where he/she/it took the grandchildren last week.

 When Jesus talks about human sexual relationships, he goes back to the beginning, a time before sin, and God's design for us. 

When the revisionist talks about human sexual relationships, he/she/it must push things to the present and humanity's designs, so he/she/it has to ignore Mark chapter 10 among other things.

Who will you follow, God or man?