What Would You Ask For?

Sunday, March 08, 2020
Pastor Mark Aune

Healing Service

Mark 10:32-52

Dear friends in Christ, grace and peace. Amen.

How would you answer the question that Jesus asks in today’s reading – right now?

“What do you want me to do for you?”

Each of you is being asked the question because you showed up for worship this morning. You put aside the corona virus fear that is pulsating through our country and you came to worship and Jesus has a question for you today, “what do you want me to do for you?”

What would you ask for? How would you respond?

Keep in mind your context matters. What I mean by that is your current life status, what is going on in your life right now; what isn’t working, what are you struggling with, what do you want out of life right now, or what are you afraid of? All these things are part of your present context.

When Jesus asks this question to James and John he has just finished telling his disciples that “we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; ³⁴they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.”

This is the third time he has told them this very thing and they don’t understand.

They don’t see what this means.

Immediately after Jesus tells them that he must go to Jerusalem, James and John take Jesus aside and say to him, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.

I hear that and I think wow. Let us tell you what to do Jesus. Let us be in control Jesus. We really know better than you so let us show you the way.

And Jesus calmly responds, “what do you want me to do for you?”

They reply, we want power. We want status. We want to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left hand when you come into your glory, when you ascend your throne.

Some might call that 20/20 vision. These two men know what they want, and they go for it. They name it and claim it, glory be to God. But the problem is they are blind.

The only thing they see is themselves and this, this truly is a terrible form of blindness. Perhaps you know what I am talking about.

Now contrast James and John with Bartimaeus. The blind beggar. Sitting on the side of the road outside the city of Jericho. I wonder, did he sit and beg in the same spot every day.

Stuck there, day after day, hands out hoping for a piece of bread, a kind word. Pleading inside for someone to see him, acknowledge him, love him.

Bartimaeus, the outsider, the blind beggar, hears that Jesus is coming. Keep in mind hearing is a form of seeing and when Bartimaeus hears Jesus is coming he begins to shout out, “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!”

There is a stark contrast between James and John and Bartimaeus in terms of what they ask for.

I’m guessing that Bartimaeus had the greater need yet the first thing he asks for is mercy. Maybe he isn’t as blind as we think he is. Perhaps he has clearer vision than we do.

Is it possible that we are blind to our deep need for the Son of David, the Messiah, the crucified one? That we are blind to our poverty of spirit because the only thing we can see is for Jesus to do for us what we ask him to do.

Healing comes from the crucified one and it comes through the cross. The Son of David is the one who tells his disciples that he must got to Jerusalem, be mocked, spit upon, whipped, crucified and die. Blind Bartimaeus sees this truth in a way that James and John are unable to see. He sees this truth when he cries out, Son of David, have mercy on me.

How would you answer Jesus question today, what do you want me to do for you?

If you are in need of healing, then like Bartimaeus, first ask for mercy as a way to open the door so you can answer the question Jesus is asking you today.

What do you want me to do for you today?

Have mercy on me Son of David. Do you understand what that means?

It means you are confessing your faith. It means you have the vision, the ability to see more than our limited human sight can see.

Have mercy on me is spiritual 20/20 vision and it opens the door for you to answer the question that Jesus is asking you today.

James and John make a selfish request because they see power and glory as a benefit to themselves and they want the attention.

Bartimaeus makes one request – he asks for mercy. He is asking for a relationship with Jesus.
He is blind by our human standards and he knows his own poverty, yet he sees the way that connects him to life.
He sees the one he wants to follow, to know, to love. Bartimaeus is healed before he even regains his eyesight.

Take heart, get up, he is calling you. Yes you.

Do you hear the invitation?

Do you see your own blindness?

Do you recognize that you too are a beggar?

Can you imagine the sweet music this invitation was to the ears and the heart of blind Bartimaeus?

Bartimaeus throws off his cloak, the cloak of fear, the cloak of shame, the cloak of unbelief and he leaps to his feet and he goes to Jesus as Jesus calls his name. Keep in mind he is still blind; he cannot see yet a deeper and a more powerful light guides him in this moment. For Bartimaeus sees with his heart and not his eyes. He sees with what we would call the eyes of faith.

This is the kind of eyesight that isn’t clouded by fear or by a desire for power and prestige.

It is seeing with the eyes of the heart that focus on the one who brings mercy through the cross.
Mercy that heals.
Mercy that brings clarity.
Mercy that frees us up to see Jesus, love Jesus and follow Jesus.

And I believe that once we have this kind of vision, vision that sees Jesus as the crucified and risen one, the pressing and fearful need we have will not seem or feel so pressing and fearful.

I believe we will in fact see our blindness, our poverty, and our deep need for healing in a new and different way. We will know and trust that the only thing we need to say is,

Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.

Thanks be to God. Amen

Past Sermons

Sermons

Mutually Encouraged by Faith

Sunday, May 19, 2019
Pastor Megan Torgerson

Romans 1:1-17

The book of Romans is a letter. An actual letter. Like, a letter written by hand and then sent to someone else for them to read. Paul, the author of this letter, wrote a lot of letters. Paul was an apostle, that is, someone who is sent – in this case, he is one who is sent to preach the good news of Jesus Christ to the furthest reaches of the known world. He’s really, really good at it.

At the time that Paul writes this letter to the church in Rome, he’s been doing this work for probably twenty years and is at the peak of his career. He’s developed a great pattern in his work: visit a place, get to know the people, continually share his faith with them, help gather a community of believers from all walks of life, and stay with them while they learn how to be followers of Jesus. Then Paul leaves – after all, he’s got other places to visit and more people to teach. He is an apostle – he is sent. But he doesn’t leave the church abandoned. He writes letters back to these churches, especially when he hears about crises or conflicts. Sometimes they need comfort, sometimes challenge, sometimes critique, but always he writes as one they know and love. They welcome his input.

The letter to the Romans is not like that. Paul has never been to Rome. There is already a Christian church there, one brought over likely from Jerusalem very early in the faith. And the church in Rome has recently seen conflict. A few years before the writing of this letter, the Roman emperor expelled all the Jews from Rome. Because Christianity was effectively a form of Judaism at the time, Christians were also exiled. After the emperor died and the Jewish Christians returned, they found a church that had continued to grow and develop – this time with Gentile Christians.

It’s hard for us to understand how shocking and despicable this would have been. Two weeks ago I preached on Acts 10, and how Peter’s vision of God calling all animals clean and good to eat flew in the face of millennia of culture, history, and society for Jewish Christians. Jesus himself was Jewish and kept these laws – surely if anyone else wanted to be Christian, they could likewise follow these rules. Peter’s vision and the general movement of the church revealed otherwise.

That didn’t mean it made things easy. It is hard to let go of tradition and expectation and legislation as the Spirit moves us to new places. I hear people struggle when someone sits in their pew or wears sweatpants to church. Let’s be honest: those are enormously trivial things. If still we grind our teeth at the thought of these worthless infractions how much more might faithful people be driven to despair by moving on from the purity laws ordained by God?

This is the faith community to which Paul writes. He writes to a church redefining and fighting. It is a church that feels a deep rift, a painful split, one that goes deep into matters of identity and righteousness, one that threatens to dissolve into name-calling and condemning and finger-pointing and disgrace to the very name of God in whose name they mean to gather – and if we’re honest, we know how that feels. Those fears are not unfamiliar.

So how does Paul start his letter? He has no standing in that church in Rome. They don’t even know who he is – and if they do, it’s possible that they might still remember him as he was in his youth, an aggressive persecutor of the early faith. What can he say that would possibly invite them to listen to him, to hear the word he will share, to receive the message that he hopes will join them together in the work of the gospel?

He keeps it simple: he tells them the truth. He tells them who he is, and it is fully wrapped up in who Jesus is. His self-introduction is the story of the gospel. Nothing he can say about himself means more than who he is in Jesus Christ.

He tells them he wants to come see them, that he wants to be with them, that he hopes he can share some spiritual gift – but even more than that, so that they might mutually encourage each other in faith. He doesn’t want to come to them because he’s better than them, because he can fix them so they can get things right, because they’re obviously sinful mess-ups who just haven’t been taught the truth. No, he wants to join them for mutual encouragement in faith. He wants to walk with them. He hopes he has something to offer them in his teaching and leadership, but just the same, he knows he will grow by being with them as well.

What if that’s how it’s supposed to be? What if we’re supposed to talk about what we believe and why, not because we’ve got it right and we want to establish our superior knowledge, but because we know that God works through our mutual encouragement in faith? What if we were not ashamed of the gospel, not afraid of getting it wrong, not worried that someone would think we were weird for talking about what we believe and why and then asking others the same? What if we trusted that the power of God was at work in this mutual encouragement? What if we were not so proud and short-sighted as to think that the way we see God is the only way God works in the world? What if we actually believed that God is at work in the world, that God has already been working long before we showed up, that we arrive as much to learn as to teach?

Ah, but I know the argument against it: we’re supposed to keep polite conversation, right? What don’t you talk about at the dinner table? Religion and politics, right? Look where it’s gotten us. It’s gotten us to a place where we can no longer have civil discourse, where we are more likely to condemn than to seek to understand, where we claim a Christian can only look one way, live one place, vote one direction, take one moral position. It’s gotten us built up and walled off and fighting against our own beloved members of the family of God.

So don’t do it. Take Paul’s example. Tell people who you are. Tell them where you’re from. Tell them what you believe. And then invite them to do the same. Make your story of faith as natural a part of your introduction as where you work and where you live and who’s in your family. And when someone’s story is different, listen to it. Hear it. See God at work in it. Be amazed. Allow for the mutual encouragement of faith, because this is how the gospel is shared.

No matter where you go from here, no matter where you find yourself, no matter what comes next for you – you can do this. You are called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel which is the power of God for salvation for everyone who has faith – no matter what. Thanks be to God. Amen.

What Would You Ask For?

Sunday, March 08, 2020
Pastor Mark Aune

Healing Service

Mark 10:32-52

Past Sermons

Crying Out

Waiting

A World Shaped by God’s Power

Sermons

Mutually Encouraged by Faith

Sunday, May 19, 2019
Pastor Megan Torgerson

Romans 1:1-17

Past Sermons

Crying Out

Waiting

A World Shaped by God’s Power

About Augustana

Quick Links

Contact Us

Worship Hours

What Would You Ask For?

Sunday, March 08, 2020 Pastor Mark Aune

Healing Service

Mark 10:32-52

Past Sermons

Sermons

Mutually Encouraged by Faith

Sunday, May 19, 2019 Pastor Megan Torgerson

Romans 1:1-17

Past Sermons

About Augustana

Quick Links

Contact Us

Worship Hours

Sunday, March 08, 2020
Pastor Mark Aune

Sunday, May 19, 2019
Pastor Megan Torgerson