Limping with Jacob

(We experienced a technical difficulty in obtaining a recording of this week's sermon, so have included a text version here so that those who want it might have it in some form.)

Later in the service we shall sing John Newton’s great hymn, ‘Amazing Grace’, with it’s famous line- ‘I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.’ A reference to the gospel accounts of Jesus’ giving sight to the blind, just as we read in today’s passage from Mark chapter eight, but acting also as a metaphor for the transition from spiritual blindness to spiritual insight, from unbelief to faith. New ton of course had been a seaman for many years, actively participating in the slave trade at that time and he is lionised for his turnaround in those views and his later attempts to abolish the slave trade. That much is well known. What is less well known is that Newton had a conversion experience and regarded himself as a Christian for many years before he changed his views on slavery. Indeed following upon his ‘conversion’, around 1749, Newton continued to command slaving ships until 1754 when a major stroke forced him to retire. He continued, however, to invest in those ships thereafter. It was only later as an Anglican priest that he came to oppose slave trading per se. Newton himself came to regard his earlier conversion as only a partial affair. He came to believe that during the first five of his nine years as a slave trader he had not been true Christian: 'I was greatly deficient in many respects... I cannot consider myself to have been a believer in the full sense of the word, until a considerable time later.’ That may or may not have been the case, but it seems that this "true conversion" to Christianity had little immediate impact upon his views on slavery, as it was only much later that he eventually came to revise them. In 1788, 34 years after he had retired from the slave trade, Newton broke a long silence on the subject with the publication of a forceful pamphlet "Thoughts Upon the Slave Trade", in which he described the horrific conditions of the slave boats during the middle passage, and apologised for "a confession, which... comes too late....It will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders."

New ton required a ‘second touch’ to see the evil of what he was doing.

Someone else who required a ‘second touch’, but who perhaps failed to get it, is the famous founder of the American state, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was the principal architect of the Declaration of Independence, a great and learned man, humane and cultured, he was the enlightenment figure par excellence – the author of the grand phrases of the American declaration of Independence – most famously its grand and much quoted second sentence. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’ Jefferson of course wrote those words while black slaves worked on the plantation outside his window, and while he himself fathered many children on a black female slave. Some have argued that Jefferson was an abolitionist at heart, (and some of his recorded statements lend credence to that view), but that he was emeshed in a system that required slavery and that his own financial circumstances condemned him to its perpetuation in the South. Perhaps so, but not all men it seems were created equal or endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. More worringly, Jefferson was also the principal architect – though not the executor of the Native American removal plan- that desire to clear native Americans from valuable and desired land that was in effect the first modern genocide. Something passed over completely in most American versions of the birth of the country known as the land of the free. Jefferson had insight to be sure and saw much that was good and true and necessary for the formation of American civil and public life. He was undoubtedly-by any measure we might care to apply -a great man, but he needed a ‘second touch’, a ’second sight’. For in truth in relation to issues which are obvious and clear to us, he saw as the man in Mark’s gospel – dimly, as though they were ‘trees walking.’ His sight was only partial and he needed a second touch to gain greater insight.

All of this brings us to Mark’s account of the healing of the blind man- though by a circuitous route. The story comes at the conclusion of the story of the feeding of the five thousand- which we have been reflecting on more than a little these last couple of weeks, and it immediately precedes the story of Peter’s confession which is a pivotal turning point in the gospel itself. To understand why Mark places it here we have to remember that 8: 18 closes Jesus’ explanation of the feeding miracle by saying to the disciples- ‘Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?.’

The disciples are portrayed as not understanding the significance of what was happening right in front of their eyes and here Mark places the account of the blind man being healed. Often treat the healing stories completely individually and in isolation from what has gone before- as though they were simply discrete events in themselves, quite unrelated to the larger development of the story that the evangelist has in mind- and so we miss the author’s intention. We have to understand the gospel writers as creative authors, constructing their narratives to lead us in a certain direction, skilfully bringing us to the same point of view as the disciples. Mark’s gospel here is turning towards Jerusalem and the focus is upon the way of discipleship and the way of the cross. And he opens and closes that section with two miracles of the blind receiving sight. In Chapter 10 it is Bartimaeus who is healed and who follows on the way after Jesus towards Jerusalem. And we read this today against the background of our Old Testament passage in Isaiah35 where we are told that the lame shall walk, the deaf hear, the blind receive their sight. And when was all of this to happen? When the Lord returned and carried his people out of exile. Hen a way is prepared and the Lord carries his people home- when the Lord redeems Israel! For Mark that is what happening right now in the ministry of Jesus, but not everyone sees it clearly. The blind man therefore represents the disciples and all who only partially see who Jesus is and what he is about. They have ‘insight,’ but not yet clear vision. Thus we find that Jesus’ healing is not ‘at once’ or s’traight away,’ - the usual Markan terms- and unusually Jesus uses a medium other than his simple word of command. And the so the man sees, but unclearly at first, and he requires a second touch to see clearly what is before him.

Mark’s gospel has brought the disciples (and of course ‘we’ his readers and hearers) to a point where they see something of who Jesus is, but they don’t yet understand fully. They are going to need a second touch to really understand what is happening and to fully comprehend who Jesus is. For the readers of Mark’s gospel we are going to have to follow the gospel from this pivotal point - which has brought us thus far and given us some insight into who Jesus is- we are going to have to follow it into its second half, towards Jerusalem and the cross, to fully understand who and what Jesus is.

And so Mark follows the healing of the blind man by having Jesus pose the great question – Who do men say that I am’. Or, if you like, What is it that they see before them? John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the great prophets they variously reply. In other words they see and understand something, but not yet clearly. And Jesus then says ‘Who do you say that I am?’
And Peter famously responds, ‘You are the Christ’ A flash of insight opens up and Peter sees clearly for the first time. The gospel reaches one of its climatic points and Jesus is revealed as the Christ – the Messiah – the saviour of Israel, but even here the sight is not quite what it should be. For immediately Jesus begins to draw out the implications of what it means to be the Christ. The Son of Man – ‘the human one’ – must suffer and die. The way ahead is death and seeming failure and Peter rebukes him and is rebuked severely by Jesus in return. Immediately, Peter has fallen back into hte old ways of seeing and doesn’t yet understand the significance of what it means for Jesus to be the Christ. He does not yet understand what it is to be a disciple of Christ. But the way is to opened up for him now – and it is not aw ay that is pretty . It is about taking up one’s cross and following Jesus on the way. It is about losing one’s life in order to gain it. It is about testifying to Christ before the world and not being shamed or afeared despite the cost. The disciples had been called to follow Jesus, now they were being shown the way in which they must follow. Now they are being shown the cost of discipleship-the cost of Christ’s way in the world. From this point on they are separated from those who only think of Jesus as a great prophet- now they see more clearly and have insight. Their eyes have been opened by a second touch and the way to Jerusalem lies before them.

Friends, what do see before you now when you look at Jesus? For we too are disciples on the way and Mark’s gospel intends us to be included in this story. Do you require a second touch from Christ to see clearly into the significance of faith in Christ for service in the world. Are many of us still in the situation of the man who was healed- we see, but not clearly – as though there are trees walking.? Are there things in our lives which occlude the path of following Christ. Have we yet to make the move from partial blindness to full –sight.
Are we prepared to say with Peter – you are the Christ, the saviour of the world, or are we satisfied with terms that regard him simply as a prophet or a moral teacher, an exemplar from whose life we can draw some inspiration. Have we seen clearly who he is and what he demands? Are we prepared to embrace the cost of discipleship in today’s world.

If I can give a personal perspective, many of the answers of many people in this congregation and elsewhere in the Church of Scotland would appear to be no. Here in the Old Kirk, for example, many of our members neglect the practice of worship. Many don’t support Christ’s work in this place or elsewhere with time, talents or money. Many when I visit, have simply fallen away from the fellowship of faith for the slightest and simplest of reasons. Sometimes it seems when speaking to people that it’s as anything that could possibly cut across attendance at God’s house – family commitments, childhood sports, golf, the need for leisure – are all given priority before worshipping the living God. And that’s all very well you might say, because these are real demands and pressures. Well ok they are, but let’s not delude ourselves that we are following as disciples in the way of Christ. For this is hardly losing one’s life in order to gain it type of stuff, is it? Sometimes it as though people are saying ,I will follow Christ faithfully – well that is until some slight or offence is taken at another person in the congregation, or, heaven forfend, until the Minister does something in the service to annoy me. Again that may be what happens, but’s let’s not then pretend that we have seen and confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the very hope of all the earth. Let’s not pretend that we are seeking to follow him as a disciple. In truth when we do such things or hold such views, we show that we see him only partially as a teacher or a moral example, a religious figure who inspires us in some way. Perhaps indeed we are doing even less than that and are simply hanging on to the practice of church worship because of patterns ingrained in childhood,? Perhaps it is just a habit we can’t get out of. Perhaps it’s a club or a building about which we have grown fond.? Friends, if we are in any of these places then we dearly need a second touch, a second sight, to see who it is who is before us and what he is calling us to be in the world. We need to move with Peter and the rest of the disciples from partial to full realisation, from merely following on the way to committed discipleship. This needs to happen here in the Old Kirk as elsewhere in the Church of Scotland. For the truth is the mainline churches of the protestant tradition are but one generation from extinction. Unless we wake up and ‘see clearly’ what is required of us, and what following in the way of Christ means in today’s world, then we shall surely be the final generation of the church in this land. We need to make the move that Mark intends us to make. We need to move simply being followers to disciples, people who have moved from partial blindness to full clarity of insights. We need to become people who know what it means to walk in the way of the Christ – the Messiah- the redeemer of the world.