Today’s service is led by the Revd Mark Rodgers
Welcome
Welcome to Sunday worship on this, the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost. I’m the Revd Mark Rodgers and I’m one of two stipendiary ministers in the URC Shropshire pastorate. It is good to welcome you all here today, as all of you are welcome in the name of Christ. Let us start worship with some words from Psalm 126. The words in normal type can be said by those of you on one side of your church and the words in bold can be said by those on the other side, if you choose. Or you can simply listen to me.
Call to Worship
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced.
Hymn Come, Now is the Time to Worship
Brian Doerksen © 1998 Vineyard Songs (UK/Eire) OneLicence # A-734713
sung by Chris Brunelle and used with his kind permission.
Come now is the time to worship.
Come now is the time to give your heart.
Come just as you are to worship.
Come just as you are before your God. Come
One day every tongue will confess You are God.
One day every knee will bow.
Still the greatest treasure remains for those who gladly choose You now.
Come now is the time to worship.
Come now is the time to give your heart.
Come just as you are to worship.
Come just as you are before your God. Come
One day every tongue will confess You are God.
One day every knee will bow.
Still the greatest treasure remains for those who gladly choose You now.
Prayers of Adoration and Confession & Assurance of pardon
Wonderful Abba You do so much for your people,
for the lame and the blind, for the lost and the found,
for the young and the old,
and we want to praise you with our shouts of joy.
Where there are barren lands you supply the streams of water,
where there are rocks to stumble you flatten the path.
And as we gather from all over
we make our praises heard in adoration of you.
But, Forgiving Mother, look upon us this day
and bless us with your forgiveness
as we have not looked at the world and its people
in the same way you do.
We have made life more difficult for some rather than easier,
We have taken away food, drink, and resources
from others where you give.
We have shepherded people away from us and from you,
rather than gathering them in.
In your love and grace, please forgive us,
as sometimes, we do not know what we are doing.
And we ask this through your Son,
the one who opens our eyes to you and a new way of being. Amen
Shout, sing, dance, praise the Lord our God,
for Jesus came to this earth and spoke the words –
“your sins are forgiven”. Amen
Prayer for Illumination
God of all knowledge and understanding give us now just a glimmer of what you know. Help us to hear your word, understand its meaning, and see what it means for you, us and the rest of your people. Amen
Reading 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 labour, 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 in which they shall not stumble; for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
Hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness
Thomas O. Chisholm (1923) Public Domain sung by a 250 Mass Voice Choir at St Andrew’s Kirk, Chennai and used with their kind permission.
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
there is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
as Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
all I have needed Thy hand hath provided:
great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest;
sun, moon, and stars in their courses above
join with all nature in manifold witness
to Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love.
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
all I have needed Thy hand hath provided:
great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow:
blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
all I have needed Thy hand hath provided:
great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
Reading St Mark 10:46-52
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.
Sermon
I’m sure most of us worshipping today come from generations where we had more freedom. Young people in particular could come and go as they wished. The world was their playground and many would get up early, spend the whole day outside having adventures and then come home for an evening meal with bumps, scrapes and bruises all over them. Even dogs seemed to roam the street more, dog licence or no.
I’m sure many of you this morning have tales of adventures that you went on and some of the dangers that you faced. From a very early age I was an extremely inquisitive and curious little boy and this led to many hair raising stories that could have led to serious injury or worse, but thankfully I’m still here and intact. But that is how children are, full of questions, innocence and naivety, the qualities Jesus was probably pointing out to his disciples whenever children were around him.
But some children are not that fortunate. One such child lived in 19th century France. This 3-year-old went into his father’s workshop and decided to help his dad out by making a saddle for a horse. As he climbed up on a stool to grab the sharp tools needed, he slipped and the tool cut open his eye. This became infected and spread to his other eye, so by the time he was 4, he had become blind. As sad as this is, this young boy led a happy life, and in school he was top of his class, as he remembered everything he heard. At twelve, his life was to change as he met a soldier called Charles Barbier, who told him about his system of writing that he had produced to help soldiers read in the dark. The young man, Louis, looked at it, realised that it needed simplifying, and perfected a way of reading for other blind people that is now used all over the world.
Monsieur Braille didn’t need to develop this system, he was clever enough. But he opened up the world to blind people all over the planet, who perhaps didn’t have the listening skills or the memory he had.
Louis Braille was a bit like Bartimaeus in that he had been able to see at one point in his life. In our New Testament reading this morning we hear that Jesus is travelling to Jerusalem and has arrived at Jericho. This was an oasis city, a place where Herod could build his winter palaces close by and a place that attracted the rich and powerful. And wherever the rich and powerful are, the poor and outcast are not far behind. Beggars were a common sight on the roadside, and one of these was Bartimaeus. He had heard of Jesus and recognised him as the Messiah, calling him the “Son of David”. He calls out to him constantly, much to the consternation of everyone around. They tell him to shush, but he continues, until Jesus takes note and beckons him over. “What do you want me to do for you?” asks Jesus. “Let me see again,” is the reply. Let me see again. What a joy it must have been to have sight restored after being in darkness for so long. “Go; your faith has made you well”, says Jesus and Bartimaeus’ sight is restored and he joins the group on the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Of course, some people either lose their sight over time due to age or illness, or are born blind and have never been able to see. But some people have excellent eyesight but are also blind for most of their life. Let me explain.
One of my favourite films of all time is The Truman Show. Truman lives with his wife on Seahaven Island and has done everything on Seahaven Island. Photographs at his mother’s house show that they have taken him all over America but the reality is he has never left. And he is too scared to leave as he had a seafaring accident when he was young that meant he nearly drowned and so he won’t leave. His fears are constantly topped up by messages on the radio, TV and even posters in the travel agents saying how dangerous it is to fly. But Truman is in love. Not with his wife, but with another – Sylvia. They met whilst they were in High School and he has missed her ever since. She was taken away by her father and he has never been able to trace her. Everyday, Truman buys a magazine and sneaks into his basement to cut out features of models that are similar to Sylvia and he makes a collage of her face, to help him remember her.
But Truman is living a lie. He is blind to the truth, that his life is one big TV show that he knows nothing about. It is Big Brother for real. As a baby he was chosen from birth to grow up with and surrounded by actors in a giant studio in Hollywood. Everything in his life is artificial from the sun and the moon, to his wife and job. But Truman remains blind to it because he was brought up that way. He is being conditioned. That is until little things happen to open his eyes and he realises his life is a lie and he escapes.
If you took part in the all age activity earlier on you will have heard about scotomas, or blind spots that we all have. It is the way we condition ourselves that stops us from seeing things that are right in front of us. It is how we find it hard to find car keys or the remote control, because we tell ourselves they are gone, or missing, and so our brain stops us from seeing them right in front of us.
We all have blind spots due to who we are. It is due to our upbringing, our parents’ views, our neighbourhood, our culture, our church. All these things shape us but also sometimes stop us seeing things. This is similar to what was happening in our Jeremiah reading this morning. The people of Jerusalem are in exile. They are in the doldrums and like Bartimaeus they require a bit of hope in their lives, to keep going. But due to their culture, and their belief in the Torah, they were blind to any hope because they thought that their exile was punishment for their sins or their father’s sins and this punishment is passed down to second, third generation and more. This punishment moving through the generations extinguishes all hope. So God speaks to and through Jeremiah, and tells them there is hope, that he will bring everyone back, and not just the privileged or the powerful, but those who live in the margins. With God, even in the darkest hours, there is hope.
So sisters and brothers. What are our blind spots? Can we see the bigger picture? Are we like Truman? Do we live a true Christian life or something that looks like a Christian life but makes us blind to how we should be living? To find out, we can do three things:
Firstly, listen to Jesus asking us the question, “What do you want me to do for you?” Do we really want help? Bartimaeus could have been happy blind, he could have just wanted a new cloak, or shake the hand of Jesus in a fleeting encounter. But he wanted to see, and more importantly, he wanted to belong, he wanted to be part of something. He went with them to Jerusalem, he became part of the change that was needed in the world. We might already be part of change, and we might already be the best version of us, in terms of living out the Gospel. But it never hurts to hear the question and to search ourselves to see if there is anything we are blind to, that might be impeding us, or the church, or the coming of the kingdom of God. Don’t presume Jesus knows if you desire change, listen to the question.
And then secondly, we can answer his question in any way we want, including “nothing, I’m ok for now thanks.” But as human beings we are all capable of missing something, we can all play our part in taking away somebody else’s hope, without realising, without knowing. So try always answering as Bartimaeus did, “I want to see.” There is so much suffering in the world today and so much exposure due to all the different platforms we can access news on that we become more than numb to it, we become blind.
It is difficult not to become immune or blind to some of the injustice that goes on around the globe but this is where our faith comes in. We can first ask Jesus to help us see what injustice is going on, then we can ask him for help to solve it.
And we are the lucky ones. We have already opened our eyes to faith. We are already believers. But there are many out there, far more than us, that can’t even see God or Jesus. It is our duty as followers of Jesus to continue his good work and spread the word of God throughout the world, but if we have blind spots ourselves, how can we help those who are even more blind?
And lastly, if our sight is restored, whose eyes do we see with? Other than our own, it helps to put ourselves in other people’s shoes, because as the old saying goes, “if you want to be understood, firstly understand.” So from our story in Mark today, who can we relate to? Who’s eyes would we struggle to see through? What if we were Bartimaeus? Would the crowd easily shut us up? Would we be too scared to call out to Jesus? Would we leave our past life behind and follow him?
And what if we were one of the crowd with Jesus? Would we want this beggar around us? He’s risking harm to Jesus from the authorities by shouting out that he’s the “son of David”. Do we want that sort here? How come Jesus gives him attention and never paid me that much time!
Sometimes we see the world differently as we get older. The freedoms I talked about in our generations might actually still exist for many people in the world, but we as we get older remove ourselves from that world, we move into a more comfortable way of living by choice and we become blind to some of the issues and experiences we would have seen in our youth. Perhaps we were the loud one once living on the edge, but now we consider our lives to be more akin with what Jesus wants. Perhaps we need to look again.
And, finally, leave where you are, leave this time of worship, and when you are lost in the week, caught up in the cycle of your everyday duties, stop and then think about this passage from the point of view of Jesus. Look through his eyes, and know blindness no more. Amen
Hymn Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven
Henry Francis Lyte (1834) Public Domain. Courtesy of St Andrew’s Cathedral & Choir, Sydney, Australia
Praise, my soul, the King of heaven;
to his feet your tribute bring.
Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,
evermore his praises sing.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Praise the everlasting King!
Praise him for his grace & favour
to our forebears in distress.
Praise him, still the same as ever,
slow to chide, and swift to bless.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Glorious in his faithfulness!
Fatherlike he tends and spares us;
well our feeble frame he knows.
In his hand he gently bears us,
rescues us from all our foes.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Widely yet his mercy flows!
Angels, help us to adore him;
you behold him face to face.
Sun & moon, bow down before him,
dwellers all in time and space.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Praise with us the God of grace!
Offertory
Giving Lord, as you give wholeheartedly to us, we bring our gifts and ourselves to you. Bless what we offer you, so that it may be used to help those who need it most, and to open the eyes to the world so that they may see the coming of Your kingdom. Amen
Prayers of Intercession
Loving, caring God, You are a God for everyone,
from the rich man to the man in the gutter.
To the disciples who wanted status,
to the man who wanted the basics.
We now turn our attention to those we can think of.
They are not everyone Lord,
but they are the people we are worried about, near and far.
We pray for those people caught up in conflict.
In warzones, gang violence, petty skirmishes or criminal acts.
We pray for everyone’s safety,
and that peace will ensue, leading to prosperity and growth.
We pray for all those with responsibilities for leading groups of people, whether that be countries, states and councils, or big corporations.
May they make decisions with Christian values,
with the care of the people in mind, rather than power and profit.
We think of those in our own country
where the darker nights bring fear due to living alone,
or the thought of putting on the heating causes stress
as it is not affordable and has become a luxury.
We think of those who can only dream of putting on the heating
as they live on the streets.
We ask that solutions be found so that people do not feel
scared, cold or need to be roofless.
We pray for our churches, and ask that you bless us
with a renewed sense of vigour and passion for your word.
That we can reach out more to those who need to hear it the most,
and can be a place where people feel loved and belong.
And we pray for friends, family and ourselves.
Many are ill or in pain, many fear a diagnosis or do not feel themselves. Be their strength and shield, offer them a healing hand,
and bless them and us with the knowledge
that you love us and are with us at all times.
We pray all of this, in the name of your son,
our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
And let us bring all our prayers together by saying the one prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, saying –
Our Father…
Hymn I Watch the Sunrise Lighting the Sky
John Glynn © 1976, Kevin Mayhew sung by the Clonmore Choir OneLicence # A-734713
I watch the sunrise lighting the sky,
casting its shadows near.
and on this morning bright though it be,
I feel those shadows near me.
But you are always close to me
following all my ways.
May I be always close to you
following all your ways, Lord.
I watch the sunlight shine through the clouds,
warming the earth below.
And at the mid-day, life seems to say:
I feel your brightness near me.
But you are always close to me
following all my ways.
May I be always close to you
following all your ways, Lord.
I watch the sunset fading away,
lighting the clouds with sleep.
And as the evening closes its eyes,
I feel your presence near me.
But you are always close to me
following all my ways.
May I be always close to you
following all your ways, Lord.
I watch the moonlight guarding the night,
waiting till morning comes.
The air is silent, earth is at rest
only your peace is near me.
Yes, you are always close to me
following all my ways.
May I be always close to you
following all your ways, Lord.
Blessing
As Jesus asks “what do you want me to do?” Let us leave her today to ask what we can do for others with the love of God, in the name of Christ, and with the warmth of the Holy Spirit. Amen