When I'm not at St. James, one of the things I work on is a project called "Pastoral Care for Trauma Survivors". Its focus is helping churches to become safer, more welcoming, more supportive, places for people who are survivors of major trauma like wartime combat, domestic violence, rape, childhood sexual abuse. I have been reading a training curriculum⁽²⁾ called Risking Connection which says that there are four healing things every one of us can offer another person. These things spell the word RICH - Respect, Information, Connection and Hope. Today I had planned to look at the first of these words - Respect.

The United Methodist and many other churches follow a common lectionary with scripture readings for each Sunday. You can see the readings at the bottom of the back page of your bulletin. To prepare for this morning I turned to this morning's Gospel lesson. The healing of Blind Bartimaeus is one of 23 healing stories in the book of Mark. Jesus gives a blind man his sight. Is there much more to this story than that? I discovered there is, indeed, and there's a lot about respect. Bartimaeus reached out and shaped this sermon to suit himself. It's been quite an adventure, which I want to share with you this morning.

The adventure starts with a man called Bartimaeus. He is blind, and sits by the side of the road, begging. Matthew and Luke tell the story, too, but only Mark gives him a name.⁽³⁾ Luke⁽⁴⁾ just writes about a nameless blindman. Matthew⁽⁵⁾ writes about two nameless blind men. When the Bible wants to convey that someone is respected, the Bible addresses the person by name, so we know at the beginning that Mark's story has some insights on respect that the other two don't. This issue is still with us -- it didn't go away 2000 years ago. Notice how when we want to honor someone we use their names respectfully; when we don't, we refer to them by category -- blue collar workers; teenagers; "just a housewife," or "the gall bladder in room 23."⁽⁶⁾

The differences between Matthew, Mark, and Luke, give us clues to how the New Testament was written. The Gospels weren't written down until several decades after Jesus' ministry. Mark may have been the earliest, after about 35 years. So imagine writing a book today about events in 1965, using stories that have been told from one person to the next for 35 years without ever being written down until now. When you look at it that way, what's surprising is not how different Matthew, Mark and Luke are, but how similar they are.

Even Mark, though, doesn't really give the blind man his own name. Bar Timaeus simply means son of Timaeus. So his father Timaeus has a name, but the blind man is just Timaeus' son.

What else do we know about Bar Timaeus? He is literally among society's marginalized people. Blind and begging on the edge of the road, he lives on the edge of society. There is no longer any room for him in the main stream. Here in America, as recent years have seen the gap grow between the very rich and the very poor, we have seen more marginalized people. It is not just more beggars on our streets. There has been a concerted effort to drive small farmers off their lands. We had a Secretary of Agriculture who put it plainly: Get big or get out. If you've seen the old movie the Grapes of Wrath, you can identify how awful it is for people who one day were self-respecting, land-owning farmers, trying to work hard enough to make a living, and the next day, driven off their farm by the catastrophe of Oklahoma dust storms, were now treated like trash as they moved from town to town in battered pickups. Bar Timaeus, sitting by the side of the road with his begging bowl, would understand.

In Luke's version Bar Timaeus hears something unusual and asks the crowd, "what's going on?" The crowd answers, "Jesus of Nazareth is going by." Immediately, Bar Timaeus begins calling out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me."

Just as Mark gets personal with Bartimaeus by giving him a name, Bartimaeus is now personal with Jesus. This isn't just a general appeal for alms for the poor, cash for the homeless. This is a specific appeal to a person whose reputation he already knows.

Bartimaeus knows first of all that Jesus is more powerful than he, especially in the area of healing. He can't do anything for his own blindness, but perhaps Jesus can. So his cry is an appeal from the powerless to the powerful.

But there is more than that. If Jesus is the Messiah, as people have said, then Jesus has a special connection with God. I suspect among Bartimaeus' feelings is anger at God, and I hear that in his plea. "Darn it all, people are supposed to be able to see, God! Why did you let this happen to me! See the condition I'm in now! Is this any way to live a life? Do you think I deserve this, God? Well, here I am near your Messiah now, God, and if he's got the power I hope he has, this is your chance to make things right." I hear a lot of emotion in Bartimaeus cry - humiliation at not being able to earn his own way and of having to beg for his food, and anger at being treated with contempt by people who are better off.

And there's even more than that. Bartimaeus appeals with the word "mercy". The Greek word, and the Hebrew before it, mean more than just pity or kindness. When we say in the Old Testament that the Lord is "merciful," the Hebrew word is "chesed", often translated as steadfast or covenant love. Mercy is shorthand for the covenant between humanity and God. Bible writers talk about all the times we have broken our end of the covenant, but it is God's nature not to break God's end of the covenant." So when Bartimaeus uses the word "mercy", I hear him not just asking for a favor, but crying out with the full emotion of his condition, "God, you owe me."

And how does the crowd react? They tell him to keep quiet. In effect, they are saying, "we want to hear Jesus, not you, you worthless old blind beggar!"

I once had a friend who, when someone would do something she disapproved of, would say, "I've lost all respect for him." She used the word in the sense of approval and admiration. In that sense, respect is something you have for someone you look up to.

For the crowd, of course, that kind of respect didn't apply to Bartimaeus. He was someone you look down on. There's another kind of respect - willingness to be with someone just on the basis of their humanity. The crowd doesn't seem up for this either.

What kept them? I suspect it's fear. We don't want a homeless beggar to remind us that many us are one or two paydays away from homelessness ourselves. We don't want the sight of a blind man to remind us that our sight could easily be lost.

Even if the crowd felt compassion, then there's fear of getting involved. If I give this man some help, pretty soon I'll feel responsible for him. If I feed him today, what will I do tomorrow? If I give him hospitality, can I then just abandon him? Better to just not get started.

And our fear then makes us dehumanize. It's easier to reject someone if we don't even think of them as human.

And besides, Jesus is here, and he's so much more interesting than a blind man. The blind man is an obstacle, his noise is keeping us from hearing the Messiah! "Shut up, old man! You are a distraction, an embarassment."

Now we look at Jesus. Jesus is preoccupied, and he has a right to be. In all three Gospels, this story takes place when Jesus is on his way to up the hill from Jericho to Jerusalem, at the beginning of the last week of Jesus' life. His earthly ministry is just about over. He has experienced the hostility of the religious leaders and knows the oppression of the Roman armies. He must already be carrying a cross in his mind that will match the cross he will later carry on his back. So we would understand if he just kept going up the hill, ignoring the cry of the blind man on the side of the road.

Instead, Jesus gives Bartimaeus the gift of respect, and gives us a model for how to treat each other.

First, Jesus is willing to stop and listen. The text says Jesus, "stood still." Giving respect to another requires that first of all we have to be attentive.

Second, in Mark's version, Jesus recognizes Bartimaeus' strengths. Luke's version doesn't -- in Luke, Jesus orders the man to be brought to him. But in Mark, Jesus, after reflection, says, "Call him here." Bartimaeus may be blind, but he can still walk. Respect means not doing for others what they can do for themselves. At this moment Jesus is in a position of superior power to Bartimaeus-he can give commands like "call him here." But he exercises that power with respect--attentiveness to the other person's strengths and encouraging them. Sometimes another person irritates us and we let the irritation dominate the relationship. Listening for the strengths can help restore a respectful relationship. Referring to people who have been through terrible experiences, the Risking Connection text says, ""They are survivors. If you don't have respect for their strength, you can't be of any help."⁽⁷⁾

Third, Jesus creates a safe space for Bartimaeus. There in the crowd he can't do it the way a modern health professional might by creating a comfortable office and closing the door, or by gathering a group of people who are committed to keeping confidential everything said in the group.⁽⁸⁾ But just giving Bartimaeus his attention changes the crowd's attitude. Jesus is safe with the crowd, and now so is Bartimaeus. Taking their cue from Jesus, the crowd now encourages Bartimaeus - "Take heart, get up, Jesus is calling you." And blind Bartimaeus throws off his cloak, springs up and comes to Jesus.

The fourth thing Jesus does, now that they are face to face, is to seek information from Bartimaeus.⁽⁹⁾ Jesus asks him, "What do you want me to do for you?" Well, that's a pretty stupid question, isn't it?! Doesn't Jesus know without being told that fixing the blindness is what this is all about? Wouldn't be simpler to just go ahead and fix him. Why bother with the small talk?

The critical lesson here is that we need to hear from others as they express themselves, not as we imagine or assume to be. The theologian Gustavo Gutierrez says, "In all human relationships, and helping another is a form of relationship, we have to respect other persons... We have to give what we have, but in order to do that we must also be attentive to what others experience as their needs."⁽¹⁰⁾

Are there barriers between us and other people? Is what's missing that we haven't asked for others to express, in their own words, their perspective on things? Therapists are told that listening to someone else, attentively and respectfully doesn't necessarily mean that you agree with them-but it does mean that you are committed to hearing them, and for most people in the long run, being heard is even more important than being agreed with.

"What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asks. After 30 or 40 years of this story being told from person to person, all three Gospels have the same important words. And Bartimaeus responds, "My teacher, let me see again."

The respect Jesus has shown has made a big difference to the relationship. In Matthew's story with the two nameless blind men, they just say they want their eyes opened; in Luke's story, the one nameless blind man addresses Jesus as "Lord", the submissive address of servant to master. But in Mark, the blind man has a name, he has been treated as a human being, and he addresses Jesus as "My teacher, rabbi." In the Mark story there is a connection where one expects not only to get something, but to learn something.

Because Jesus gave Bartimaeus a chance to be heard, we learn a critical piece of information. "Let me see again," Bartimaeus says. And then we know that this story is not just about blindness, but it is about loss. We know that Bartimaeus wasn't born blind, he became blind. So we know he's gone through an experience of pain, of loss, of despair. We don't know if it was disease or an accident, or violence from the Romans, but something took his eyesight away. If it happened when he was a child, he lost his hopes. If it happened when he was an adult, he lost his ability to make a living. So now we understand far more about Bartimaeus. He is hoping not just for sight, but restoration. How many years have passed since the loss? How many years has it been since he has been a beggar, unable to work? How many years has he begged beside the road without respect, until Jesus gives him the gift of respect by hearing him, listening to him?.

It turns out that the fourth thing, the stupid thing, is the most important, because it reveals Bartimaeus' heart.

Finally, Jesus shows respect by offering the help that is requested, but by now that help is enriched by Jesus' understanding and appreciation for Bartimaeus. Jesus had seen a human being where the crowd just saw a noisy obstacle; and so as I read this story I see the healing touching not just Bartimaeus eyes, but his soul.

And how about us? At one time or another all of us can identify with the people in this story. Sometimes we feel like Bartimaeus. We have experienced a loss or a trauma, we feel hurt and abandoned, and help may be passing by unless we find a way to raise a shout and move ourselves closer. Other times we may be like the crowd. Preoccupied with our own needs, we may suddenly realize we are trying to hush up the very people for whom Jesus spent his life. And other times still, we may find ourselves in the same position that Jesus did, where the simplest actions - like that Railroad Crossing sign that says, "Stop, Look, Listen,." may be just what is needed to give the gift of respect and start the healing process for someone else.

1. First of a series of four sermons on "The Healing Church", covering the RICH paradigm: Respect, Information, Connection, Hope.

2. Karen W. Saakvitne, Sarah Gamble, Laurie Anne Pearlman, Beth Tabor Lev, Risking Connection: A Training Curriculum for Working with Survivors of Childhood Abuse, Lutherville: The Sidran Press, 2000

3. Gustavo Gutierrez, Sharing the Word through the Liturgical Year, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1997. "Mark has preserved the name of that person who is insignificant in the eyes of his contemporaries....Acknowledging Jesus as the Christ comes from the insignificant people of society, from those who are by the roadside, from people that some try to silence (v. 38).

4. Luke 18:35-43

5. Matthew 20:29-34

6. Karen W. Saakvitne, Sarah Gamble, Laurie Anne Pearlman, Beth Tabor Lev, Risking Connection: A Training Curriculum for Working with Survivors of Childhood Abuse, Lutherville: The Sidran Press, 2000, p. 13

7. Karen W. Saakvitne, Sarah Gamble, Laurie Anne Pearlman, Beth Tabor Lev, Risking Connection: A Training Curriculum for Working with Survivors of Childhood Abuse, Lutherville: The Sidran Press, 2000, p. 35

8. Karen W. Saakvitne, Sarah Gamble, Laurie Anne Pearlman, Beth Tabor Lev, Risking Connection: A Training Curriculum for Working with Survivors of Childhood Abuse, Lutherville: The Sidran Press, 2000, pp. 13, 53

9. Gustavo Gutierrez, Sharing the Word through the Liturgical Year, New York: Maryknoll, 1995, : Jesus does not impose his will hurriedly; instead Jesus wants to listen and he asks him, what do you want me to do for you?" Jesus has come to reveal the love of a Father to us, not to impose dictatorial orders. The poor, the insignificant are not mere objects of our generosity or as\sitance, not even of our charity. They are subjects with their own desires and rights.

10. Gustavo Gutierrez, Sharing the Word through the Liturgical Year, New York: Maryknoll, 1995, p. 250