First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield, MA October 27, 2024, Proper 25
Jeremiah 31:7-9: For thus says the Lord: Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, “Save, O Lord, your people, the remnant of Israel.” See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor together; a great company, they shall return here. With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back; I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path where they shall not stumble, for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
Mark 10:46-52 [Jesus and the disciples] 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.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Hasn’t this been a beautiful fall here? The weather has been gorgeous, and the fall color great. It almost kinda sorta makes up for all the other stuff. We’ve hinted about the stresses of this particular fall, what with the presidential election next week….. but add to that the things you know about in your world. I’ve several friends who’ve had major league health issues this fall, for instance. Maybe you’ve had a child who’s been struggling, or your family has been passing a cold from person to person for the last six weeks. Maybe you have struggles at work, like the folks at Hasbro, the game company in Rhode Island, that announced layoffs this week. Maybe… well, there’s no need to list them all. It’s just needful to say that each of us, all of us, know what it’s like to have bad stuff on the table in the midst of everything else. And we know how stressful it is.
God knows how stressful it is. And the scriptures for today help us see the way in which our faith in God can help us, even in the worst of times, to keep our equilibrium.
The first text, the one from Jeremiah is written for people who have seen the worst. Their country had been conquered; the land was no longer a good, safe place to live. Their leaders had been forced into exile. They’d always thought they would always have a king who would be a literal descendant of King David. Think of the situation as being a lot like life in Cambodia in the 1970s when Pol Pot would execute anyone who even wore glasses or was educated. Except that instead of being executed, the educated leaders where exiled.
In the midst of all that horror, Jeremiah offers hope to his hearers. The missing people, he says, will return. The missing will come back. The city will be re-built, the Temple restored.
It will not be the same, but it will be good.
Jeremiah’s words are a promise that there will be good in the future. Maybe it’ll look different than we expect, maybe parts of what’s to come won’t bring us pleasure, but even so, there will be good.
Look again at the Gospel lesson for today, the story of the Blind man who gets healed. But this time, think about what being healed did for him, how it changed his life. We usually think that being healed like that is a complete blessing, but what it really is, is a complete change.
His new life is going to be good, but in different ways. The thing is, blind or seeing, God is with him.
Whatever’s going on in your lives, as you deal with the stress of this election, think about this – God is with us in good times and bad. I don’t know that we can always absorb that. Maybe the stress is so hard that you can only take in a couple of minutes of autumn beauty. But it is always there, somewhere. God’s presence is always there.
Institutions rise and fall, loved ones are with us, and then they are gone. Robert Frost wrote in his poem, “nothing gold can stay” and it is the truth. He knew, though, and we know, that something will come in its place, and that somewhere there will be glimpses of God to sustain us in the days to come.
Amen.
© 2024, Virginia H. Child
To Believe is to Care. . . To Care is to Do 