10-25-09 Seeing
The Gospel According to Mark 10: 46-52
Tracy Kidder’s latest book, Strength in What Remains, tells the story of a Vermont doctor who is like and unlike his neighbors.[1] Deogratias is an immigrant who fled Burundi’s epic violence.
The new ground he stood on in the strange land of New York became holy, when a woman saw him, learned his name, and persisted in finding him a home. The ground he walked became sanctified when that home, the apartment of a retired professor and his artist wife, opened up and received him, when they saw him, listened to him, incorporated him into their lives.
Deo’s story makes me wonder whether he was the “blind man” trying to make his way in a city that could not see him, or whether the city itself was blind.
If everyone is blind, lack of sight is unlikely to be identified as a problem. Only when a new perspective enters the picture, an ability to see, does a new way forward come to light. The couple that “adopted” an adult, Deogratias, found their childless lives illuminated.
All of us have blind spots. None of us have God’s fullness of sight. All of us are capable of seeing more with God’s help and each other’s loving attention.
In his online blog, http://willimon.blogspot.com/ Willimon shares the recent story of one of the camps in the North Alabama United Methodist conference. It seems that during their spring annual conference this year, a man stood up and helped the blind see. Their beloved camp, Sumatanga, was bent to breaking under the wait of hard realities. Willimon shares: Lessons Learned in Saving Sumatanga
A frequent response to Bob’s speech at Conference was, “I had no idea Sumatanga was in so much trouble.” For too long the Trustees tried to struggle alone with Sumatanga’s problems. Transparency and facing hard realities are essential, especially in the church. Our people show that they are eager to respond when they know the truth.
Preserving the past is no substitute for adaptation to the future. We cannot save the old Sumatanga. Change or die. We can only see the present crisis as an invitation from a living God to serve the present age, to pray for creativity and fresh courage. …. Bob Murray spoke to us all in ordering us (in his speech to Annual Conference), “Get over it!”
People are the key. The arrival of Bob Murray, the innovations produced by Bart Styes, the new team they have assembled, the day that Mike Byrne became chair of the Board made everything possible. The best way to change an organization is to change the leadership. Furthermore, Sumatanga knows that their future is not in getting more money from the churches but in getting more Christians at the camp. As Bob says, Sumatanga is in the hospitality ministry. If Sumatanga keeps focused on servant ministry to people, its future is assured. It’s such a temptation for the church to forget that we serve.
Willimon called to memory the years God has used Sumatanga for “some extraordinary acts of vocation, revelation, and renewal.” And like Jesus restoring sight to blind Bartimaeus, he celebrated clarity of vision brought by new leadership.
Try this encounter with the story of once blind Bartimaeus.
Read Mark 10: 46-52. While you read, imagine yourself in the story and notice whose eyes you are seeing through: Jesus’? The crowds’? Bartimaeus? The disciples?
Become aware of what you experience from this perspective.
Read Mark 10: 46-52 again. Become aware of what God is opening up for you in this moment. What new insight or instruction is the Holy Spirit giving you?
Read Mark 10: 46-52 one more time. Ask yourself, “what do I have to thank God for in this experience?” What will I tell others?
[1] Tracy Kidder, “Strength in What Remains,: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness,” New York: Random House, 2009.
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