But, Then Jesus w/Pastor Jenn

Good morning, everyone. That response was as

quiet as my good morning. Good morning, everyone.

Thank you. Thank you, everyone. It's good to

see you all today. Good morning. Jake, I think

you're doing audio today. Guys, I'm getting over

a cold, and if I sound like I'm about to really

cough loud, you might want to. Hit mute on that.

I'll try to do a big lead up for it, guys, so

you know. This question this morning, I appreciated

that it hit home for Chris so much because as

I was thinking about it, I was like, oh gosh,

this is my whole life. The Post -it note thing.

Does anybody write Post -it notes with a good

faith effort that it's going to do the job it

has set out to do? And the Post -it has held

up its part of the deal. It comes through every

time. Unless you leave it up for four years in

which the sticky wears off and it does fall to

the ground and picks up all the lint on the ground.

But the Post -it was not supposed to carry that

kind of weight. It was supposed to just be a

temporary solution as a brain outside of your

own brain to be like, hey, 4 o 'clock tomorrow,

just remember that thing. And as Chris said...

That was a year ago, and now you don't remember

what was happening at 4 o 'clock, and you sure

hope you showed up. This is how things go. I

teach piano lessons, and I will often write a

post -it note and put it on the board. I have

an upright, and I put it on the board, and so

I have multiple... I did for a long time have

multiple post -it notes that would be reminders

for certain kids, and then they'd show up at

the house again a week later, and I'd be like,

I wrote that note about you. Sorry, guys. What

I have started telling my students to do, because

this is now what I have to do, because I know

how quickly something can become what I call

visual white noise, I will tell them that when

they see whatever that post -it note is, to move

it. so that it changes a location. Because otherwise,

it just becomes a part of the wall. It just becomes

a part of the whole thing. So I have all the

best intentions to take vitamins every day. And

they live on my counter. But they're just decoration

now. They are just a part of the counter. So

yeah, what are a couple other things that we

came up with this morning? I'm sure, who was

the post -it note? Nobody but Chris and I. Thank

you. I'm like, sweetie, sweetie's there with

us. Thanks, sweetie, for not letting me sit out

there hanging. What are some of the other things

that become just lost in the water bottles? That's

true. Yeah, it's the reason we all have 25 of

them. And they're all next to our bed. Yes. What's

that? Stuff in the fridge. 100%. How long has

the mustard been there, guys? You all have it.

Yeah. And what's the one thing way at the back

of the fridge? The fridge one's a really good

one, Scott. It's frozen. It has. That thing at

the back of the fridge has now frozen. Shoes

by the door or coats. They just become like you

lose those things wherever they just live. If

it's not in like a closet or something, they

now are a part of the floor and a part of the

wall. I have 332 unread texts on my phone. And

I know. It is not uncommon for me to miss messages.

Many of you know that. But I also might see something

come in while I'm teaching. and have every intention

of getting to it, but four hours later it's already

been buried. Or what I know a good chunk of us

do is we will read a message, and then what do

we do? We mark it as? We mark it as unread, because

we're going to go back to it. And that's how

you get 332 unread messages on your phone. And

here's the thing with that. Your phone will...

tell you I mean I I went and looked to see but

um that little alert it is again it is a part

of the app I don't it's not there it doesn't

exist right so it's faded it's faded into a place

I don't know but um I worked my way back from

from a story related to today's um passage to

think about things that like the things in our

everyday life that become visual white noise.

Because this passage today actually reminded

me quite a bit of a person or a kind of person

that might fade into sort of this place of non

-existence. So it was reminding me, when I was

reading the passage, we'll get to that part,

but it was reminding me of a gentleman back home

in Rochester. For, I mean, I grew up in the same

house from birth to when I soft launched moving

out by going to college. And for those six years

of middle school and high school, I went to the

same building. It was the same kind of location.

The bus took me the three miles along South Avenue

to and from my middle and high school. And the

bus passed a retirement home. And at some point,

I realized that there was an elderly man that

would sit in his wheelchair on the corner of

South Avenue and Highland and just wave at vehicles

passing by. And I was riding a bus, so somebody

else was driving. But, you know, it took me quite

a while to notice it. But for those on their

regular commute who were driving their cars,

I wonder if he just became one of the fixtures

of the corner, like the light post in the retirement

building itself and the man in the wheelchair,

much like he had been for me until all of a sudden

I just sort of was like, oh, there's a guy that's

waving there every single day. And it wouldn't

be the first time a person has faded from view

right in front of us. or faded right from view

to society. And I hate to think of it this way,

but I'm not sure I'm wrong. I think people manage

to become visual white noise to us. Something

or someone becomes part of the landscape long

enough, they begin to blend in, and eventually

we just stop seeing them. Our passage today is

from Luke, and it is about a blind man who sits

by the side of the road to beg for assistance.

And this is a person that has been a part of

societies for thousands upon thousands upon thousands

of years. When a community can't find its way

to caring for everyone, and not everyone in a

community is able to care for themselves within

their society systems. Something sets them at

a disadvantage from what's perceived as the norm,

and they move out of the sphere of comfortable

community and can just become a part of, again,

the landscape. We tend to see things we prefer

or expect to see, and so we overlook what we

prefer not to think about. And if we do see it,

we're not sure what to do with it. can often

want to silence those things. And so together

today, I want to open our Bibles to Luke, and

we're going to be in chapter 18. We'll be in

verses 35 through 43. I'm going to be reading

from the New Revised Standard updated version,

but whatever version you have, you'll be able

to follow along. You can follow on an app on

your phone. There are Bibles at your table as

well. And so Luke 18. 35 through 43. And I invite

you to take a posture of attention for some of

you that is standing. But we want to turn our

full attention to the word. So Luke 18, 35 says,

As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was

sitting by the roadside begging. And when he

heard a crowd going by, he asked what was happening.

And the crowd told him, Jesus of Nazareth is

passing by. Then he shouted, Jesus, son of David,

have mercy on me. And those who were in front

sternly ordered him to be quiet. But he shouted

even more loudly, son of David, have mercy on

me. And Jesus stood still and ordered the man

to be brought to him. And when he came near,

he asked him, what do you want me to do for you?

And he said, Lord, let me see again. And Jesus

said to him, receive your sight. Your faith has

saved you. Immediately he regained his sight

and followed Jesus, glorifying God and all the

people. When they saw it, they praised God. Let's

pray. God, I ask that you add your blessing to

these words, that they would be transformative

for us and that they would find their way deeply

into us. That we would be people who are not

just hearers of the word, but doers of it as

well. And that we would be moved to action from

this today. We pray this in your name. Amen.

This is a passage that easily preaches for itself.

I probably don't have to do a whole lot for the

message to come through. You don't need much

from me for it, but there will be some. helpful

things I want to spend time with here as we listen

to God together this morning. So at the time

of Jesus in the first century Common Era, Jericho

was positioned to be a place that catered largely

to the rich and the powerful. It was an ancient

city even at the time of Jesus. I mean, even

now it is considered to be Among, if not the

oldest consistently inhabited city in the world.

Going back even, they believe they've found evidence

for even as far back as 11 ,000 years. It is

down in the Jordan Valley from the Judean Hills

where Jerusalem sits. And it was home to the

regional royal class. It's a warmer option down

in the valley in the wintertime. And so it also

has freshwater springs that go to it. And so

it's lush with greenery. And I would imagine

you could say it's kind of like Florida for us

in the wintertime. It had become an important

city. And due to these things that I just mentioned,

Those that were outcasts often lined the roads

in and out of town because it was a good place

to encounter the well -to -do traitors and political

elites. And so it's not surprising that we find

our blind man from the story here along the road

as Jesus and the crowds approach Jericho on their

way to Jerusalem. The man in Mark's gospel is

named Barnimaeus. And he asks what's happening.

And honestly, this seems like a bit of an odd

question to me because Jericho was not a quiet

city. What I just told you was that it was kind

of a hotbed for the political elite and for traitors

and rich people. And so it was bustling. And

yeah, it was well populated. So that's one thing.

More specifically, we are currently at this story's

point one week out from the Passover. So you

could expect an increase of a few hundred thousand

people to this area making pilgrimage to Jerusalem

for the festival. So by the time they got to

Jericho, they had one more really difficult road

to complete the journey up into about 2 ,500

feet. into the Judean hills. It was a rough road.

It was about 18 miles. And so Jericho was a great

place to stop off. So when our buddy here asks,

what's happening? You want to be like, what do

you mean what's happening? Everything's happening

right now. So I think it's worth noting that

for this man, he must have been there often enough

to know that something was different about this

time. More different than the normal different.

He was very tuned in to what was happening around

him. And the passage even notes, when he says

to Jesus, I want to see, he says, I want to see

again. It's hard to know when he lost his sight,

what he knew, where he was from, what he had

in mind when he heard things. He had visuals

to go with it. So something to him today was

different. So he was tuned into what was happening

around him. He certainly had to be as somebody

who was blind, and his life depended on it. He

had to be alert. He had to be alert to the differences.

And so when the reply came, Jesus of Nazareth

is passing by, he shouted, Jesus, son of David,

have mercy on me. And I imagine he didn't even

have to think, because this sounds instinctual,

what kicked in. When he heard who it was, he

immediately began shouting. It wasn't a, oh,

Jesus is here? Jesus, son of David, have mercy

on me. Because he knew who Jesus was. Of course

he did. Jericho is less than 15 miles down the

road from where Lazarus was brought back to life.

And we are heading into Holy Week. Jesus would

be arrested soon. We are near. We are nearer

to Jerusalem than we are to Nazareth. And so

stories have spread. And Jesus was on people's

radar. And at this point, the people who had

control of the systems of orderly things, that's

the official department name I've decided, the

systems of orderly things. They had given orders

that if anyone learned of Jesus's whereabouts,

they were to report it to them. Jesus' name was

around three times in recent months at the Festival

of the Tabernacles, at the Festival of the Dedication,

and after Jesus resurrected Lazarus, certainly,

these leaders tried to have him killed. And so,

of course, people who knew who Jesus was, of

course, people knew who Jesus was. In fact, the

next story in Luke after this one takes place

a little further down the road in Jericho. about

a short king named Zacchaeus who climbed a tree

in order to see for himself who this Jesus was.

And so our blind man, on the approach to Jericho,

had believably heard about the man who could

heal and bring the dead to life. And he believed

him to be the Messiah. The son of David being

an explicitly messianic name. It was a term originating

in the Hebrew Testament that over time built

to refer to the one who would come from David's

lineage to rule God's forever kingdom. He was

making a declaration like he'd been waiting for

it. Yes, this man knew who Jesus was. And so

immediately when he said, when he heard, this

is Jesus, his... Kicked in response was, Jesus,

son of David. He called out to him. And immediately,

verse 39 says, those who were in front sternly

ordered him to what? Shut up. Be quiet. Where

have we seen this before? I believe just last

week. Luke 18, 15 says, people were bringing

even infants to Jesus that he might touch them.

And when the disciples saw it, they sternly ordered

them not to do it. People are very stern, guys.

But this man, when they rebuked him, shouted

more loudly, son of David, have mercy on me.

And I wonder if it was out of desperation for

fear of being passed over and having his chance

literally walk by. He shouted even more loudly,

son of David, have mercy on me. I cannot, I cannot

let him pass. I imagine this blind man in a crowd

that was not opening his arms to him must have

felt. His first wave of hope that the man and

son of God, Jesus, was right there. And then

immediately followed by a wave of hopelessness

as he shouts louder only to be found confronted

with the people who are telling him to quiet

up. We all know society has an order to it. And

this society certainly did. a very strict and

clear order. And for many, they were acutely

aware of what happened to those who stepped outside

of the order. Pax Romana, Roman peace, a period

of about 200 years from the start of the Roman

Empire through to nearly the second century,

this was the message of the empire. Pax Romana,

the peace of Rome. Romans used the phrase to

describe their goal and their state of mind.

It was a propagandized message, but it was, as

you can imagine, tightly held and enforced peace.

And so here in Judea, I cannot overstate how

fragile this area was when it came to its relationship

with Rome. It was a powder keg for which the

fuse was getting set to be lit within a few more

decades of Jesus' life. A few decades later,

the Judean -Roman wars were going to break out,

and that is when the temple fell. Everyone was

on edge, and there were those who preferred to

keep the peace, and there were those who were

ready for a revolution right now. And it was

tricky when those folks were all in the same

spaces. Much like in Jesus' own little band of

12 disciples alone, where you had Simon the Zealot,

you had a tax collector who liked the system,

and you had others that were trying to find their

place. So when a man began shouting for Jesus,

it is understandable that some were in the practice

of silencing any sort of disruption. Maybe because

it disrupted the system or maybe just out of

fear. But especially if it came from someone

lower caste in society, which we can assume this

man was. He was a beggar. And perhaps as far

as the crowd following Jesus was concerned, that

man should stay within his caste. Because that

is how order is kept. We don't move from our

layer. It's part of the unspoken and even sometimes

spoken rules. And so the crowd might have tried

quieting him long enough to get Jesus by and

past him. But then Jesus stood still. There in

the middle of the crowd, Jesus stopped. You know

when your ears start tuning to something that

is ringing above the noise that's immediately

around you? Sometimes it can literally be a high

-pitched sound, and you just hear it, and you're

like, where is that coming from? I need to find

it. As a parent, you may have some experience

with listening for your own child's voice in

a crowd. You can't see them, but when the call

goes out, you stand still. And you just become

this sort of oscillating radar. Where is the

sound? And you tune the dial just right to tune

in to where that voice is coming from. The man

was on the ground as the crowd was going by.

Jesus may never have seen him if he hadn't called

out. But that man called out louder and stronger.

when he was told to keep quiet, and Jesus stood

still and stopped. The man, not having seen that

Jesus paused, I imagine he kept shouting. It

was probably uncomfortable, and it was likely

a scene. And we get the one moment, the man shouts,

the crowd tells him to be quiet, he shouts back.

We sort of get this like, This, this, and this.

But we know how these scenarios happen. They're

probably just with a lot of shouting. This man

is shouting out, I am going to get my voice to

Jesus. I am going to have him hear me. And the

crowd, the louder he goes, the crowd is going

to try harder to get him to quiet down. It is

going to be chaotic at a cacophony. And so. Jesus

asked that the man be brought to him so that

he can see him. And this is the story of Jesus

and people. He will see them. He will see the

blind man. He will see the woman at the well.

He will see the child. He will see the widow

that gives the two coins from what she has. Jesus

sees them all. And the first story of God receiving

a name from someone like us was in Genesis. Given

by the Egyptian woman, Hagar, who was a slave

in the household of Abram. She was also low.

And she had been left with no hope. And God met

her and lifted her. And she named him El Roy,

the God who sees. No one will blend into the

background as far as Jesus is concerned. No one

will become white noise. And it will continue

to be the same for Jesus. However, in our society,

people do manage to become visual white noise

to us, don't they? And they know it, and we forget

it. They know they have become the passed over

or the invisible. And when they continue to place

themselves where they might be noticed, society

gets a little or a lot upset with them. They're

not staying quiet. They're not staying where

they belong. And perhaps in their way, they are

in fact shouting out to be seen by Jesus. And

perhaps in the way things work, we are also meant

to respond like Jesus and stand still and see

them. Jesus stops and then chooses to see and

responds with hope. And Jesus sees and hears

those we don't. And he guides us. In fact, calls

us, I would say, to learn how to tune into those

people the same way he does, to stop and to see.

This is one of the reasons why it's really good

that we pray for the Greenbush neighborhood.

There's a lot of reasons that's good, but it

reminds us to see our neighbors. And with everybody

who brings a unique perspective to how we pray

for Greenbush, Through their way of seeing, it

allows us to see too. And this is important.

Because we're not going to see everything as

one person, but somebody might see something,

and we should value and hear how they see, giving

thanks that God has given them the vision for

that thing. And so we borrow their sight so that

we can see too. And this room is full of that.

This room is full of people doing unique things,

involved in unique things, experiencing unique

things with people who need to be seen. And we

can learn from that so that our own sight can

be expanded, so we can also be spreaders of hope.

The people who have become white noise, God does

see, and we must too. And so for the blind man,

It would have been the same story that it always

has been for thousands of years. But then, Jesus.

But then, Jesus. Let's pray. Jesus, I am grateful

that you see all of us. And that wherever we've

been, However we've been, however our story has

gone, you see us and you see those that we don't.

And we need to borrow your sight. We need to

borrow sight from our friends and our neighbors

and from our community members and our brothers

and our sisters who see what we don't so that

our sight can be expanded. That we would stop

when we hear the calls and the cries. And that

we would turn and tune in and we would look and

really, really see somebody as you do. You restored

that man's sight. You joined the group and praised

God. And more people praise God because of what

they experienced when they went on their way.

You changed his life. And I pray that we can

hear more stories like that of lives that have

been changed because they experienced you seeing

them. But we need your help. And so we ask for

not just your guidance, but your courage to be

deep in us. Most of all, we ask that your love

would settle deeply in us. When the love of you

increases within us, God, so do these other things.

And so we ask for your help. We pray this in

your name. Amen.