Blind not Deaf

 

Blind not Deaf

October 20, 2021

 

The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

There are several stories in the Gospels of the New Testament about Jesus giving sight to people who are blind. One of them is the story of blind Bartimaeus. You’ll find it at Mark 10:46-52. In that story Jesus is on his fateful trip to Jerusalem. He comes to the ancient city of Jericho. As he with his disciples and “a large crowd” were leaving that city, I suppose headed for the notorious Jericho to Jerusalem road that is the setting for the parable of the Good Samaritan, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus is sitting by the roadside. When he hears that Jesus is passing by he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” People in the crowd tell him to be quiet, though we aren’t told why they said that to him. Bartimaeus nonetheless keeps crying out “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus, apparently having heard him, says, “Call him here.” Then we read that “they,” presumably the people in the crowd, say to Bartimaeus, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” So Bartimaeus “sprang up and came to Jesus.” Jesus asks Bartimaeus what he wants him to do for him. Bartimaeus says, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus replies, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately Bartimaeus was able to see, then we’re told he followed Jesus, “on the way.”

As I was discussing this story recently with some clergy colleagues recently I saw in it a surprising number of topics worth considering. I think so far I’ve come up with eight of them. I won’t burden you by listing them all here, though some if not all of them will probably appear here later as blog posts. The one I want to discuss now comes from what seems an odd detail in the story. Bartimaeus is blind not deaf. He hears and speaks just fine, he just can’t see. When he cries out to Jesus for mercy Jesus calls him to come to him. The odd detail here is that though Bartimaeus is not deaf he apparently doesn’t hear Jesus calling him. We’re told rather that “they” tell him to “take heart” and go to Jesus, for Jesus is calling him. People in the crowd heard Jesus. Bartimaeus didn’t. Why does this story have people in the crowd hear Jesus calling Bartimaeus to come to him but Bartimaeus doesn’t? Is there a lesson for us in that detail? Of course I think there is otherwise I would be writing about it here.

Bartimaeus of course has a serious disability. He is blind, but his hearing works normally. Yet he doesn’t hear Jesus calling him when other people do. Those people tell Bartimaeus that Jesus is calling him. Bartimaeus comes to know that Jesus was calling him only when others who heard Jesus calling told him Jesus was calling. On his own Bartimaeus didn’t hear Jesus’ call to him. Only through others did he learn of that call.

That’s how it is with most all of us. In church communities it sometimes happens that someone or some people discern that another member of the community has a call from God, but that person hasn’t heard the call themselves. She begins to discern a call from God only when others in her congregation tell her that they have heard God calling her or at least believe that they have. God of course calls people to a great many things including a great many different kinds of work. God calls some people to be teachers. God calls others to be doctors or nurses. God may even call some people to work most of us hardly think of as divine, work like being a lawyer for example (although I am sure my becoming a lawyer so many years ago absolutely was not because God was calling me to that profession). I’ll use as my example here God calling a member of a congregation to ordained ministry in the church, an experience I and most of my clergy colleagues have had ourselves.

Sometimes a person will discern a call to ordained ministry on their own. I believe that I discerned my call to ordained at least initially on my own though it was later confirmed in community. Sometimes however a person God is calling to ordained ministry does not hear God’s call on their own. Say a member of a church is a middle-aged woman of deep faith. She has been very active in her church. She has taught Sunday School. She has served as liturgist for worship services. She has even preached once or twice when the church’s pastor was away. She has served on and chaired most of the church’s committees. She has been there for people in times of emotional distress. She makes a generous financial pledge to the church every year. The people of the church love her not so much because of the work she has done in the church but because she is simply a kind, friendly, loving, caring, intelligent person.

Some of the people of the church start to think: You know, she would make a terrific church pastor. Some of those people talk among themselves, and they all agree that it would be a great loss for the church if she did not become an ordained pastor. They discern not only that they think she should become a pastor but that God thinks so too and is calling her to ordained ministry. So the talk to her. They tell her that they believe that she should go to seminary and do the other things their denomination requires of a candidate for ordination. They tell her that they have heard God calling her to professional ministry in the church. At first she laughs them off. No, she says, God would never call me of all people to ordained ministry. (She’s a modest person too.) Besides, she says, I’m too old (she was in her late 40s or early 50s), and I can’t afford to start my life over like that. So no, she says. God can’t possibly be calling me to ordained ministry. You folks have just got that one wrong.

Her friends don’t give up. They tell her so often that they are sure God is calling her to ordained ministry that she starts to think about it a bit more. She talks to her spiritual director and her family about the matter. Finally she goes to her pastor (the pastor is often the last person in the church to know what’s been going on). She tells him what her friends have been saying and everything she’s done to consider the possibility herself. She still isn’t sure God is calling her, and she isn’t sure that if God were calling her to ordained ministry she’d have the courage, the confidence, and the resources to accept that call. Her pastor says: I’ve been waiting for you to come to talk to me about this question (the pastor often being the last person church people want to talk to even though that’s why the pastor is there). Your friends have told me what they think, but the decision has to yours not theirs and not mine. He says he has seen the potential pastor in her for a long time, but he didn’t want to press her to make a decision before she was ready. He prays with her, asking God for guidance and grace as she struggles with the question. Eventually she hears God calling her herself, enrolls in seminary, does all of the necessary work and bears the considerable expense of a seminary education, does the other things her denomination requires for ordination, receives a call, and is ordained to the ministry of Jesus Christ in her denomination. Her ministry becomes a blessing both for the church and for her.

Now, that hypothetical situation is of course idealized. Few people have done as much in and for the church as my hypothetical woman has, though thank God there are some who have. Few people wrestling with the question of a call do as much discernment work around the question as I have her doing. Not all pastors wait for someone in whom they see the possibility of ordained ministry to come to them. Some pastors are just more pushy than that.

Yet as idealized as it is, my hypothetical scenario really isn’t all that different from the experience many people called to ordained ministry have had. Few of them are deaf like Bartimaeus, though some of them are. But most of us in ordained ministry were deaf to God’s call at first. Some of us were deaf for a short period of time, others perhaps for years or even decades. And all of us eventually had our call confirmed in the community of the church. Most of us have resisted the call. At my first orientation meeting at seminary it became almost a joke among us that we could all say God called and I hung up. Community was an indispensable part of all of our journeys to ordained ministry.

Bartimaeus was blind not deaf, but he heard Jesus’ call to him not directly from Jesus but from the people gathered around him. God’s call to people, whatever that call may be, is usually so soft and subtle that it is easy to miss. It is not uncommon for the people around one God is calling to hear the call before that person does. So if your friends are telling you that God is calling you to something, listen to them. Then do your own discernment. If you think God is calling you to something take your thought to a faith community and get its help with your discernment. Bartimaeus needed to hear from the crowd around him before he could hear Jesus call him. It’s usually that way for the rest of us too.