From the Pulpit: Healing Our Blindness

Dean Randy Hollerith asks what we're asking from Jesus: Power, or healing?

Looking at back-to-back Gospel passages, Dean Randy pointed out on the contrast between what the disciples wanted from Jesus (power and prestige) versus what Bartimaeus asked for (vision and healing).

It’s as relevant in 2024 as it was back then, he said.

The election is almost upon us, is just nine days away, and if you are paying attention, you can feel the tension and the anxiety rising, especially in this town where politics hangs in the air like humidity in August.

I know people are worried. Some people are frightened and lots of people on either side of the aisle think that those on the other side of the aisle are as blind as Bartimaeus. It’s easy to feel helpless these days like we’re being carried forward by forces much larger than ourselves. Lately, I’ve been asking myself as a Christian, what if anything should I be doing during this particular moment in our national life? It’s not an easy question to answer. 

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I realize how blind we all can be to the reality of other people’s lives, and I believe we need to be healed of that blindness. Power or healing: what should we ask for? What should we work for in the wake of this election?

Regardless of who wins, I think our primary calling as Christians is to be people who work for healing and not power. We are to be people who ask Jesus to heal our own blind spots so that we can better understand our brothers and our sisters. We are to be people who strive to push back the fear and lift up the hope. People who are less anxious and more confident that God is sovereign. People who realize that God’s purposes don’t ultimately rest on our efforts.

James and John wanted power for themselves. Jesus let them know that any power they might acquire would only come from serving others. Bartimaeus asked for healing and so should we healing for ourselves and healing for our nation.

It won’t be easy to do this kind of work. It requires strength and humility at the same time. It means being strong enough to speak the truth, strong enough to hold onto timeless principles strong enough to never trade one’s integrity for access to power, but it also requires a humility to know that we don’t hold all the truth, that we ourselves are blind to many things and in need of healing.

It requires us to be humble enough to know that we are as frail and as fallible as our worst enemy, and that the people we oppose are no less God’s children than we are. What do you want me to do for you? Jesus asks, how we answer that question says everything about what we value and about what kind of people we want to be in the world. Amen.