The business of reformation

 Dr. Martin Luther burned a papal bull, nailed 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral, and now we have the Lutheran church.  What a history lesson.

There's more to it than that, of course, but Luther wanted everyone to be aware of the fact that he didn't want to make a new church. All he wanted to do was to reform the existing one. This was not a new faith, this was a return to the one that was long forgotten. Now, how can you tell? 

One of the most important things for Luther was the scripture - reading and writing it in the vernacular of the area. The word of God was supposed to be known, read, marked, learned and inwardly digested. It wasn't much good if nobody could hear it or understand it. If it was kept far away, in a distant language, inaccessible to the masses, then what good was the scripture?

What's the proof of this? The proof of this being intended from the start is in the scripture itself. There are multiple occasions in the Bible where there are words, and then there are explanations after the words, and this happens in the text itself. For example 'Rabbi, which means teacher.' Why does the text tell you that? Why doesn't the text just say 'teacher?'  Well, passages like this are a reminder that the Holy Scriptures, at least the New Testament, have never not been translated.  From the word go, you find passages like that one, where a word is spoken, and a translation is given, but the original word is presented as a reminder to you, and to me, that the words were spoken in the language of Israel, but were translated into Greek to be written down. Why?

Well, how's your Aramaic?  If it's anything like mine, it ain't that great.  And that would have been the case for the vast majority of humans alive not only now, but at the time as well. It's a niche language, spoken by a people who were deliberately set apart from the rest of the world. An inscrutable language that would have been largely impenetrable to the Romans within the nations, and the pagans without.  But that would have been the language that Jesus would have been speaking to his crowds, and they would have understood him.

But your Aramaic isn't very good. Nor is mine. And how dare we read the scriptures without knowing Aramaic? Because very very little of the scripture is written in Aramaic, and that which is is helpfully translated one word later, so that you know what the speakers would have been saying, but you know it in your own language.  For the New Testament was written in Greek. 

Why Greek? So it could be understood.  I want you to look at this image for a second.

This is the reach of Alexander the Great, and how far he was able to get into the world. That's a big empire. And the Greeks did what they typically did, which was to spread out, and to spread Greece. Part of empire building for the Greeks was to spread Greece to the world.  To civilize. To make the known world into Greece, the pinnacle of civilization. Part of that was to bring Greek culture, religion, language to the rest of the world. Essentially, the empire was to not so much be an empire ruled by the Greeks, but would become part of greater Greece. For more on this topic, check out the books of the Maccabees from the apocrypha.

What that meant was that by the time of Christ, the Romans had inherited an empire that had Greek as a language from end to end. Sure, the Romans would have worked with Latin, and the Hebrews with Aramaic, but all over the empire, everyone would have had a passing knowledge and working relationship with Greek. It's what they would have all had at least as a second language.  What that means is that if you have something important to say, you're going to want to say it in Greek.

The story of Christ was something that had to get out there as rapidly as possible. The story of the salvation of the world, it was a story that would go out from one end of the empire to the other, and to all the known world. And so the disciples transcribed the word of God in Greek, so that it could be understood by people all over the world.  

The oldest and most reliable version of the Bible, then, isn't in Aramaic, but instead is translated out of Aramaic. Into Greek, sure, but done so that as many people as possible can hear and understand it.  And what that means is that Dr. Martin Luther, in his desire to make the scriptures as understood as possible in the world, wasn't bringing something new to the world, but was instead calling us back to something as old as the scriptures themselves.  From the word Go, the scriptures were made accessible, and Luther called the church of his age, and ours, back to that.

And it's still our job to make Christ known in the world. It's still our job to remove obstacles from Christ, for him to be known in this world, and for his word to be understood. We have to remove all the barriers, including the ones that we have made. It's a hard thing for a church to understand when they have placed stumbling blocks in the way of Christ, and most churches never get over it. But we are a reformation church, built on the principles of the reformation. We are built up off of the foundation of scripture alone, and we need to act like it. All those distractions, all those barriers or stumbling blocks, they all have to be pulled aside, and the purity of the Gospel message has to get through.  And that will mean that we're going to have to deal with occasionally getting out of the way ourselves.  Unleash the scriptures, and let them speak. Let the people hear them, and believe in them, without forcing them to first believe in you, and then let Christ speak to them. Just as he wanted to do from the beginning.

Blindness and kindness

 Who is Bartimaeus?  All we know about him is that he is the son of Timaeus, and that he is blind. And as far as details in the story go, that's all you need to know. Everything else isn't exactly relevant to the conversation. 

And that's all anyone knew about him. Blind Bartimaeus. And I'll bet that he did exactly what you'd expect him to do - sat by the same place, begging in the same location. Likely an area that got a lot of foot traffic, where he would get maximum exposure, and people would know who he was, which they did.  Blind Bartimaeus, as much of a fixture as a building or a signpost, regular enough to give directions by . And that helps if you're blind. If you know the features and the topography, you can get yourself around okay, but you really don't want to go too far afield. Stepping into the unknown is terrifying, as you can't see what may be ahead, so you stay in a world that you understand. So you stick to what you've got, you don't take too many chances, and you play it pretty safe.  And boy oh boy, Bartimaeus would just hang out there at the fringes, and wait for people to come by, and hope that they'd contribute something to him.

But guess what.  We're dealing with a problem that hasn't gone away.  We've gotten better at giving people better access to services, we've gotten better at providing them with opportunities, that kind of thing, but what we haven't really gotten better at has been how we treat the disabled. That is, we still have a real paternalistic attitude towards them . We still look down on them, treat them like children, and talk over them and past them.  After all, what do they have to contribute? What do we care? 

This has really continued.  It's still a problem where people will not exactly treat one another equally. The needier someone is, the greater the likelihood that we will treat them like overgrown children. That's true now, and it was true in the time of Christ. Here's the reading for this Sunday in the Good News translation which I think captures the tone quite well.  

46 They came to Jericho, and as Jesus was leaving with his disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus son of Timaeus was sitting by the road. 47When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus! Son of David! Take pity on me!”

48 Many of the people scolded him and told him to be quiet. But he shouted even more loudly, “Son of David, take pity on me!”

49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”

So they called the blind man. “Cheer up!” they said. “Get up, he is calling you.”

50 He threw off his cloak, jumped up, and came to Jesus.

51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.

“Teacher,” the blind man answered, “I want to see again.”

52 “Go,” Jesus told him, “your faith has made you well.”

At once he was able to see and followed Jesus on the road.

Did you catch how they treated Bartimaeus? Not exactly politely, or as an adult who can make his own decisions. Rather, they scolded him. In other translations, it says that they 'rebuked' him, but to rebuke is one of those words that seems to exist only in the scriptures. It's like being scourged, that seems to only exist in the scriptures too, and it seems to only apply to Christ. To rebuke is to be in the scriptures, in a stained glass world, and to not be much in the real world. But to scold? Well, who is it who scolds? 

Typically, you scold your inferiors.  You scold people whom you have power over. Teachers scold students, parents scold children, and here, in this reading, the good people scold Bartimaeus. They know better than him, they're able bodied, he is not, and therefore, they feel free to scold him, and to effectively talk down to him. To diminish him, and to let him know who is in charge. In other words, you sit there and shush up, and we'll get to you when we get to you, if at all.

But Christ calls to him. And when Bartimaeus comes over to Jesus, Jesus asks him 'what is it that you want?' What a moment that is. Someone who has been scolded, walked past, ignored, and dismissed, has God in the flesh approaching him, and asking him what he would have him do. The Lord of life, the creator of the universe comes to a beggar and asks him what he wants. And for the first time, perhaps ever, Blind Bartimaeus gets to choose.  What a moment. Blind Bartimaeus getting to select what it is that he would see happen, and Christ, the king of the universe, decides to allow.

Friends, this moment should remind us of two things for us to consider. One, that Bartimaeus really shouldn't have been treated like a small child. If this is someone that Christ spoke to, and didn't walk past or talk past, that should remind us that these are people who should not just be given charity, but who should be given dignity and respect.  They're people too, you know, and should be treated accordingly. Their dependence on help shouldn't cause you to look down on them precisely because of point number two, which is that before Christ, we're all beggars. Able bodied or disabled, blind or sighted, impaired or not, we are all beggars at that throne of grace.  And like it or not, we're all temporarily able-bodied.  Our approach to the throne of Grace is not as equals, but is as beggars, people who are needy, who cannot provide for themselves. And Christ deigns to listen. To provide. 

He asks us what we need. And he listens.  We tell him about our troubles, our strife. We tell him about our weakness, our fears, our sickness and distress. We tell him all about how we need so much, and can provide so little.  And then, we tell him what we want, and what we want is to live forever, to never run out, to never get tired or afraid. 

And that's what he listens to. Like blind Bartimaeus, we can't fix that problem ourselves, and are reduced to, as those spiritually blind, calling out to Christ in desperation. And he listens. And he heals and restores.  Our need doesn't keep us from Christ, in fact our need is the whole reason that he's here at all. To save and to restore those who know how needy they are. And once we work that out, we will cling to him all the more, as blind beggars finding the source of sight, life and salvation.