"Faith Wide Open"
Psalm 34: 1-8; Mark 10: 46-53
Reformation Sunday – All Saints Celebration
October 29, 2006

Jesus says, "What do you want me to do for you?" What do you? Bartemaeus answers, "My teacher, let…LET…me see again." Even if Jesus lets him see, it’s still up to Bartemaeus to open his eyes and look. God makes possibilities; we make realities!

Even though Bartemaeus cannot see, he sees much about himself and the world. He cannot see Jesus is there but he knows he is. He calls out. Bartemaeus is just like us! We cannot "see" Jesus either. We have to know he is there and call out expecting to be heard…calling out till we know we are heard.

And Jesus’ first words to Bart sound familiar because it’s the same question he asked the disciples in last week’s passage: "What do you want me to do for you?" But where James and John saw nothing but self-interest for a future time sitting next to Jesus in heaven, Bart sees hope for the present moment…. "Let me see again!" He sees more than the sighted disciples. He sees with eyes of faith. Believing is seeing! Faith wide open! Jesus responds to him saying "Your faith has made you well." …which could also be translated "your faith has saved you".

How does Bart exactly demonstrate his faith to Jesus? Was it his persistence? …his responding to the call? …in his knowing what is the most needful thing to ask? ….all of these? The gospel writer leaves it up to you to decide.

Bartemaeus regains his sight but the story doesn’t end here. Having thrown off his cloak…the constraints of his past…his "cloaking device!" …he moves from beggar to disciple as he follows Jesus…literally…for us it would be figuratively.

Bart does not live in the hope of a future hope. It isn’t just positive thinking for a better future. Bart lives hope. He lives in the present moment…he isn’t willing to go down quietly. He is willing to throw off his cloak and change his life to live the life he longs to live.

When has believing in someone…like Bart believed in Jesus, opened your eyes to see them in a new light? When has believing in yourself the way God believes in you opened your eyes to seeing yourself in a new light?

How does your faith change the way you view things…as depression creeps in, loneliness drains, confrontation at work puts you on edge, anger flares at the dinner table?

People hear Jesus and see Jesus through many eyes: the eyes of fear, the eyes of suspicion, the eyes of judgment, the eyes of abandonment, the eyes of complacency, the eyes of depression, the eyes of hope. Some don’t see because they won’t look at all. The eyes through which we look color what it is we see….like rose-colored (or other colored) glasses.

Does your faith change the way you view things at all? If not, it probably has less to do with the quality of your faith than it does with your unwillingness to throw off those old tattered begging cloaks of yours…your unwillingness to really name for yourself what you most need….your unwillingness to be patiently persistent in calling out… your unwillingness when given the opportunity to see and be different, to see and be different!

Ah…Re-formation Sunday! How might you "taste and see," "hear and see," look and see," or "touch and see," the new life God has already prepared for you if only you are prepared to live it? So many eye opening experiences surround us if we only had eyes to see...hearts open to feel…courage to be!

Whether we know it or not, whether it’s in our awareness or not, God is in our eyes and minds and mouths and hearts and hands letting us be more, creating in us the lives we long for….if we would only live them! Why aren’t you living them?

God is changing…re-forming you at this very moment. Do you feel God in there? Where in there do you feel it? Is God in there re-forming your mind and the way you look at yourself and at the world? Is God re-forming the things you do with your hands…your learned skills? Or is God in there re-forming and softening your heart to take a different stance within a stressful situation in your life? Where is God in you; and what is God up to?

Not sure?
Ah….what is it you want God to do for you? That’s where God already is…re-forming you!

And what is it we want God to do for us as Tippecanoe Presbyterian Church? God is already doing it…re-forming us…restoring our fortunes doing great things for us as we rejoice and keep dreaming…just like the psalmist says! As we are open to seeing with eyes of faith wide open, our tears turn to joy… for believing is seeing…not the other way around! On this All Saints Day, we can choose to live so that when we die….the world cries…and we rejoice!