Preached by the Very Rev. Mike Kinman at Christ Church Cathedral on Sunday, October 25, 2015
Take heart. Get up. Jesus is calling you.
Say that with me. Will you?
Take heart. Get up. Jesus is calling you.
Again.
Take heart. Get up. Jesus is calling you.
Again. Louder.
Take heart. Get up. Jesus is calling you.
Now turn to someone near you and say it.
Take heart. Get up. Jesus is calling you.
Again.
Take heart. Get up. Jesus is calling you.
Once more.
Take heart. Get up. Jesus is calling you.
If there are ever words we needed to hear, it is these.
If there are ever words we needed to say, it is these.
And the good news is, we get to hear them.
The better news is, we get to say them.
And the best news is, they are some of the truest words ever spoken.
We can take heart.
We can get up.
Jesus is calling us.
In this morning’s Gospel. In one story. In fewer than 10 sentences. Jesus gives us a model for our entire lives.
Jesus and his disciples are leaving Jericho. And as they are leaving, they pass Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, sitting by the side of the road. And when Bartimaeus hears that it was Jesus passing by, he takes an incredible risk. Hoping beyond hope that this might be someone who could help him, he cries out “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.”
And what does he get for crying out? Nothing … and worse.
Some ignore him, either not hearing or pretending they didn’t hear.
Others turn to him and tell him to just shut up.
If there was ever any doubt in his mind that his life didn’t matter. If there was ever any doubt in his mind that his place was on the outside looking in, there it was.
Even Jesus doesn’t have any time for him.
Jesus has more important places to go and more important people to see.
Jesus is not about him.
Except Bartimaeus will not be denied.
He cries out all the more, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” And the scripture says three words:
Jesus stood still.
Jesus stops dead in his tracks. Stops everything that he was doing. Stops the entire crowd that is following him. Stops the entire movement that is headed toward Jerusalem. Why?
Because of the call of one blind beggar.
Jesus stood still.
And then he says, “Call him here.”
And then the disciples say those words:
Take heart. Get up. Jesus is calling you.
These are no ordinary words. This is not “ahh … it’s alright, come on over.”
Take heart. Take heart is the Greek tharsei. It means “Be bold.” It means “Have courage.”
It is the Greek version of the word Moses spoke to the people of Israel when they were pinned between the advancing Egyptian army and the seemingly uncrossable Red Sea. “Have courage. Stand firm and see the salvation of your God!”
“Take heart” is a clarion call of courage in a time of incredible crisis. It is a word of hope when all hope seems lost.
It is life where there seems no future but death.
And then “Get up.”
This isn’t just “on your feet.”
This is “Awaken!”
This is “Get woke and stay woke!”
This is the translation of the word Jesus spoke earlier in Mark’s Gospel to the little girl who had died. The one to whom he said “talitha cumi” which means, “little girl, get up.”
Get up.
Get woke and stay woke.
Literally it means come back to life.
“Take heart. Get up. Jesus is calling you.” Means you who are in the deepest despair. You for whom all seems lost. You who have been left to die. Wake up. Get woke and stay woke. Come back to life. Find life where you were sure there only was death.
Why?
Because Jesus is calling you.
Could there be a more glorious message?
Could there be a more glorious message to hear?
Could there be a more glorious message to shout?
And yet all of it would mean nothing if Jesus didn’t make good on the promise. And that’s why the best news of all. Better than hearing it. Better than saying it. The best news of all is what happens next.
Bartimaeus throws off his cloak. He throws off his cloak because Jesus has called him and he is no longer a beggar. He will no longer be identified and categorized and commodified by that label. He is Bartimaeus, which literally means “son of honor” … and having had courage and been awoken, he comes before Jesus and Jesus sees him for who he truly is – not blind, not a beggar, not an outcast, but a child of honor, created in the image of God, beautiful and sacred and powerful … yes, powerful.
And Jesus shows just how powerful. Because Jesus places Bartimaeus in the center of the community and says “What do you want me to do for you?”
If that question sounds familiar, it’s because we just heard it. We just heard it on the lips of James and John last week when they were not crying “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” but “Jesus, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” Only Bartimaeus is not looking for power and privilege and glory. Bartimaeus is not looking to be exalted over others, to sit on Jesus right or his left. Bartimaeus is looking for equity and justice. Bartimaeus is looking for that which has for a lifetime segregated him from a life of dignity finally to be healed.
And so Bartimaeus says, “My teacher, let me see again.” And not only does Bartimaeus see, the scripture says “he follows him on the way.” No longer an outsider and an outcast. No longer a “them” to the disciples’ “us,” Bartimaeus, child of honor, follows Jesus on the way to Jerusalem. On the way to the heart of power. On the way to the cross.
For the past two months, Jesus has been giving us this same message.
We have heard him say “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Then the next week, we heard: “The Son of man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” Then we heard: “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off… and if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off … And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out.”
And then the next week, Jesus moved from preaching to meddling because he started talking about money and said: “Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”
And then last week, Jesus said: “whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”
And now this morning, just before he enters Jerusalem, just in case we have – in the best tradition of the disciples – absolutely not understood a single thing he had been saying. Just in case we still think this Jerusalem trip will end on a throne at the palace instead of hanging on a cross, in fewer than 10 sentences Jesus’ Gospel gives us the very model for our lives as his disciples in the story of Bartimaeus.
Our job is not to cultivate wealth.
Our job is not to cultivate power.
Our job is not to cultivate respectability or goodwill or anything else this world values.
Our job – except no, it’s not out job. Our JOY is to seek out those among us who have been most cast aside, who are right now crying out for basic human dignity, equity and justice.
Our JOY is to hear those cries.
Our JOY is to hear those cries and stop what we are doing and to be the voice of hope that says you are not alone, that you are not shouting into an empty wind. That although the odds are stacked against you and the Egyptian army is at your back and all that lies in front of you is a seemingly uncrossable sea, that there is more than hope, there is the sure and certain hope of the resurrected Christ that even death on the cross could not stop.
Our JOY is to stop what we are doing and turn to those beautiful children of honor among us crying on the side of the road and say again and again:
Take heart. Get up. Jesus is calling you.
Take heart. Get up. Jesus is calling you.
Take heart. Get up. Jesus is calling you.
And then our further joy is that we get to be the community that puts their needs at the center. That takes those who are most ignored and oppressed and says: “YOU get to set the agenda.” And then we get to listen deeply to the needs and concerns of those who have been listened to the least. And then our joy, our great joy is to use everything that Christ has given us to make that healing, make that equity, make that justice happen so that these beautiful children of honor can take their rightful place not as second- third- or fourth-class citizens but as fellow one-class travelers on the road we travel together.
And because this is what we get to care about. Because we get to care about being faithful to Jesus’ model of bringing the outcast into the center. Because we get to trust that we are all children of honor and that we already have the only thing that really matters and can never be taken away – the love of God given us in creation and confirmed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because of this, we are freed from caring about anything else but being faithful to that Jesus, being faithful to that call.
And that means, we get to not worry. We get to not worry so much about our own survival. And we get to worry not so much about our $300,000 deficit and how we are going to maintain these buildings and all those other things that might cause us to shrink back in self-focus and in fear. And we get to worry not so much about what’s in it for us because in the love of God in Christ we already have what we need the most.
Because when we hear and when we say “Take heart. Get up. Jesus is calling you.” All we have to be concerned about in that moment is hearing and bringing the healing, life-giving, bold, courageous, get woke and stay woke best news ever of justice and equity and life of Jesus Christ to life in the world and then being a part of making it happen.
This is who we are called to be as Christ Church Cathedral, and this is the road we are on together. We are on it with the work of the cross-class conversations ministry and the Cathedral housing partnership. We are on this road with the work of the pursuing racial justice ministry and opening this space up to and becoming a part of the movement for black lives.We are on this road with our support of the women of Magdalene St. Louis and with our longtime celebration of those among us who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender as beautiful children of honor in this place and in this world.
We are on this road by keeping this space open every day for anyone to enter and get some rest and pray and worship God in the beauty of holiness. We are on this road together whenever we sit with each other and become a safe place to share an experience of rejection and to shed a suffering tear.
We are on this road together simply by continuing to show up together and love one another as we struggle with what in the world does it mean to follow this remarkable and difficult and extraordinary call of Jesus when so many among us are lying by the side of the road crying out “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.”
Next week, we will bring the pledges of our financial gifts to this Cathedral for the coming year and we will place them on this table. Our challenge is that what we give will not be motivated by what we get out of Christ Church Cathedral or a fear of what might happen to Christ Church Cathedral or even in gratitude for what God has done in our lives personally.
Our challenge is that in our prayers and in our conversations with those with whom we make decisions about money we will ask this question:
As we seek a deeper relationship with God and each other in Jesus Christ, are we as Christ Church Cathedral faithfully following the call of Jesus Christ? Are we following the call of Jesus Christ who bids us hear a world crying out for mercy by the side of the road and tell those who are most outcast among us: “Take heart. Get up. Jesus is calling you!”
That is the criteria by which we as Christ Church Cathedral are worthy of support.
That is the criteria by which we as Christ Church Cathedral are worthy of survival.
“Take heart. Get up. Jesus is calling you.”
You who are in the deepest despair.
You for whom all seems lost.
You who have been left to die.
Wake up.
Get woke and stay woke.
Come back to life.
Find life where you were sure there only was death.
Why?
Because Jesus is calling you.
Could there be a more glorious message to hear?
Could there be a more glorious message to shout?
Could there be a more glorious life to live?
People of God. Children of honor. Let this be the song on our lips.
In here and out there.
For us and from us.
Today. Tomorrow. Always.
Take heart. Get up. Jesus is calling you.
Amen.
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