1 | sermon Mark 10:46-52

At the moment I am trying to wade through Umberto Ecos book The Foucaults Pendulum. Whilst it not a particularly difficult read, as a Italian professor of philosophy he does tend to lard his plot with learning. Now, of course, his most famous work was the Name of the Rose. Set in a medieval monastery it is essentially a murder mystery with the baddy

2 | sermon being a blind monk who is doing in his fellow clerics because they didnt believe laughter was a sin. To aid him in his crimes, our murderer uses that strange skill that many sightless people have. For Brother Jorge had an almost superhuman sense of hearing. And it was this faculty that allowed him to trap our detective monk, William of Baskerville, and his novice assistant in the burning labyrinth of the monasterys library.

3 | sermon Well, Bartimaeus must have a similar sense of hearing. For with gazelle ability to hear, he heard Christ coming above the tumult of the crowd. In fact, not only did he hear the Lords footsteps, he heard something far more important. He heard Jesus voice. More to the point, he heard Christ calling him. Well we too this day may be beset with problems and challenges and difficulties.

4 | sermon

Worse still, we too can find the call of Christ shouted down by our own spinning minds of doubt and worries and questions. As a result, it is all to easy when so assaulted to feel that we are drowning. It is all too natural to fail to hear Gods lifeline arriving close at hand. It is all too human not perceive the Masters footfall approaching. Since, in truth, we are so preoccupied with our inner turmoil we do not hear the words

5 | sermon call him come here what do you want of me? I think we all know the famous story of the footsteps in the sand. I wont repeat it. Yet no matter how often heard, it does comfort by reminding that in times of trouble we are carried by Christ, Nevertheless, in a way, it also contains a tragedy. And it is this! It is sad that the narrator didnt feel

6 | sermon the supporting presence of God during his times of troubles the times when the one set of footsteps in the sand showed he was being carried. And this brings us to another of Bartimaeus amazing qualities and that was persistence. For he was told shut it but he continued all the louder. Nothing could make him as they say in Glasgow shut his keggie. Since once he heard Christs approach and call he knew he was

7 | sermon is the presence of the son of David in other words a King. B y that he meant a king not in terms of crowns and thrones but a ruler over creation including its malfunctions. A master of reality who could overturn his situation. And, of course, we in church recognise Bartimaeus persistence by another word. And that word is faith. If then you are burdened with a seemingly impossible problem today then I pray

8 | sermon you will keep your ears open. But not only that that you will also be persistent be persistent in shouting out for Gods help, be persistent in screeching for Christs intervention and be persistent in bellowing at the top of your lungs for the Spirits succour. Because it is this holy persistence alone that works out the old adage: Everyone's a winner If that is what they choose, Unless their choice is something else, Then of course they lose." Duncan in his Collected Sermons relates this story. Thousands of years ago

9 | sermon a young Chinese emperor called upon his family's most trusted advisor. "Oh, learned counsellor," said the emperor, "you have advised my father and grandfather. What is the single most important advice you can give me to rule my country?" And Confucius replied, "The first thing you must do is to define the problem." And here is Bartimaeus truly towering quality. A capability that stood above even his hearing and faithful persistence. For he knew precisely what he wanted.

10 | s e r m o n

Since that day he could have simply asked for alms from Christ. Alternatively, he could have asked for someone to lead him in his blindness or take care of him in their home. But he did none of these things. Instead he asked for exactly what he needed to solve his problem. He asked for his sight so that he could look after himself. And that is a fine gift indeed. Since Christ rarely cured people

11 | s e r m o n without being asked first. On the other hand he willingly granted them relief when they accepted what he must do for them. Well many unhappy people today do not have Bartimaeus ability. For they cannot put their finger on what is really causing their distress. Many unfulfilled people cannot even tell you what it would take to satisfy them. Many of us have no clear idea what our real needs, our real desires,

12 | s e r m o n and our real priorities are. And because we have never defined the problem or clarified our goals, we spend a lifetime anxiously wandering with very little to show for the travails of our pilgrimage. We can point to no rewards to the challenges he have faced. In all honesty we can wear no campaign medals for the battles we do not realise we have already won. When he was a little boy his uncle called him Sparky, after a comic-strip horse named Spark Plug.

13 | s e r m o n

School was all but impossible for Sparky. He failed every subject. Not only that but throughout his youth, Sparky was awkward socially. It wasnt that the other students disliked him; its just that no one really cared all that much. In fact, Sparky was astonished if a classmate ever said hello to him outside of school hours. Simply, Sparky was a loser. But one thing WAS important to Sparky,

14 | s e r m o n however drawing. He was proud of his artwork. No one else appreciated it. But that didnt seem to matter to him. In his 6th Year of school, he submitted some cartoons to the various publishers including Walt Disney and all the editors rejected him. But Sparky still didnt give up. Instead, he decided to tell his own lifes story in cartoons. The main character would be a little boy

15 | s e r m o n who symbolized the perpetual loser and chronic underachiever. You know him well. Because Sparkys cartoon character went on to become a cultural phenomenon of sorts. People readily identified with this lovable loser. He reminded people of the painful and embarrassing moments from their own past, of their pain and their shared humanity. The character soon became famous worldwide as Charlie Brown.

16 | s e r m o n

And Sparky is the highly successful cartoonist Charles Schultz. Here then is a lesson for us today if we feel we are losers to the slings and arrows of outrageous fate. For, listen for the Call of Jesus. Be persistent in our faith that He will cure our ills. And above all, remember that we always have a choice. We always the choice to be cured of our blindness our blindness

17 | s e r m o n to what we really need our blindness to our cure already at hand our blindness to our own success within the vision of Christ. And, in that insight, I will now let you draw your own conclusions. Amen Offering HYMN