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Sentence

The redeemed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. Isaiah 51:11                              

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Collect 

O God

you give light to the blind and comfort to the

sorrowing, and in your Son you have given us

a High Priest who has offered the true 

sacrifice for us and yet can sympathise with 

us in our weakness:

hear the cry of your people

and lead us home to our true country,

where with your Son and the Holy Spirit

you live and reign, one God,

in glory everlasting. Amen.

Readings

• Job 42:1-6, 10-17
• Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22)
• Hebrews 7:21-28
• Mark 10:46-52

next week

• Ruth 1:1-18
• Psalm 146
• Hebrews 9:11-15
• Mark 12:13-17, 28-34

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A Thought to Ponder

Pentecost 22 – Mark 10:46-52

Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me . . . !”
“Master, I want to see.”
Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.”    

Mark’s story of the blind Bartimaeus, which takes place just before Jesus’ Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem, is as much a “call” story as a healing story. For Mark, Bartimaeus is a model of faith. The blind beggar calls out to Jesus using the Messianic title “Son of David.” He first asks, not for his sight, but for compassion: He understands this Jesus operates out of a spirit of love and compassion for humanity and places his faith in that spirit. Ironically, the blind Bartimaeus “sees” in Jesus the spirit of compassionate service that, until now, his “seeing” disciples have been unable to comprehend.

As Bartimaeus realises, Christ comes to heal our spiritual and moral blindness and open our eyes to recognise the Spirit of God in every person and to discern the way of God in all things; he opens our eyes as well as our hearts and spirits to new images of a world made whole by the grace of God, of lives transformed by the love of God.

As he restores to Bartimaeus not only physical sight but a sense of the reality of God’s love for him, Christ comes to restore our “sight” to see God’s sacred presence in our lives, to heal us of our blindness to the sins of selfishness and hatred we too easily explain away. 

Our deepest prayer is the cry of the blind Bartimaeus: “Master, I want to see”: to “see” with the human heart, to perceive in the spirit, to comprehend in the wisdom of God.  

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Sermon

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You can read the Pew Sheet here

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