Sermon Manuscript102906
Sermon Worksheet & Manuscript
Robert L. Hutcherson, Jr.
Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church
(Delivered at Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church)
Sermon Preparation/Delivery
Mark 10:46-52
“Help The Blind: Adventures in Spiritual Acuity”
The Rev. Karla J. Cooper, Pastor
October 29, 2006
Sermon Worksheet & Manuscript
AUTHOR
1. Who wrote (or is credited with writing) the text?
While there is little if any direct evidence of authorship, it was the unanimous testimony of the early church that this gospel was written by John Mark. Mark was a close associate of Peter, from whom he received the tradition of the things said and done by the Lord. The first mention of him is in connection with his mother, who had a house in Jerusalem that served as a meeting place for believers. When Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch from Jerusalem, Mark accompanied them.. Mark next appears as a helper to Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey, but he deserted them to return to Jerusalem. When Barnabas proposed taking Mark on the second journey, Paul flatly refused..Barnabas took Mark and left for Cyprus. Mark reappears in Paul’s letter to the Collossians written from Rome. Paul sends a greeting from Mark and adds “you have received instructions about him about him, if he comes to you, welcome him.” by the end of Paul’s life, Mark had fully regained Paul’s favor..
2. From what perspective does the author write?
Mark writes this Gospel not as a finished sequential account of the life of our Lord, but as the preaching of Peter preaching, which was directed to the needs of the early Christian communities. Tradition holds that the Gospel of Mark largely consists of the preaching of Peter arranged and recorded by John Mark.
3. What are the historical and social contexts?
TEXT
" 46And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. 47And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. 48And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. 49And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee. 50And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. 51And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. 52And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way." (Mark 10:46-52 KJV)
I. What does this passage say? (exegesis)
2. What does the passage mean? (hermeneutic)
A. To the original audience?
B. To the contemporary context?
READER
3. What does this passage say to the larger community? (homiletic)
What is the "Bad News" in the text? What is the "good News" for our
time?
What is the "Good News" in the text? What is the "Good News" for
our time?
How can the conflict between the Bad News and the Good News be
reconciled?
7. Specific Purpose/Central Idea.
(In one clear sentence say what the sermon is about and why you are
preaching it).
I propose to show ______________________________________________
To the end that the hearers will
8. What will the listener/audience celebrate as a result of hearing this
sermon? (Celebration happens in preaching when the Gospel becomes
Good News for the listener). Just as the sermon must have a specific
aim, the celebration must be specific as well.
9. How will I conclude the sermon?
10. Where will I make sermonic moves and transitions? List specific
transitional sentences.
11. What biblical translation and/or paraphrased version are consistent
with what I want to say in the sermon? What cross-references and/or
literary sources will I use?
BODY
In our society today, there is a great tendency to isolate or marginalize individuals for no other reason than that they are different from us in some way. Whether they are taller, shorter, larger, smaller, lighter, darker, the old saying “ people like people like us” still holds sway. Sometimes it is a person’s appearance that causes this, sometimes even a person’s complexion. We can see examples of this in the way persons of difference are portrayed through the media. One such example would be the visually impaired, or as they have been often tactlessly referred to, “ the blind”. In many movies, television shows, cartoons, etc. these persons have been shown with dark glasses, a cane, often times a cup with pencils as they stand on the street corner with a sign around their neck saying “ help the blind”. The image presented is one of helplessness, incapacity, and dependence. However, one has only to observe most visually impaired persons to discover the fallacy of this stereotype. I bring this up to illustrate just how flawed our observations are regarding these and other people….creations of God.
I talk about marginalization not only in the physical sense, but in the spiritual sense. I would submit that there are those who wore spiritually impaired, or “blind”. A major difference is that these people do not have signs around their necks saying “help the blind”, although it might be of great help for them to have such signage. It is even possible to include the spiritually impaired in the same way manner as we group the visually impaired into “the blind”. In any case, what they lack is spiritual acuity. Acuity is defined as a “sharpness” or “clearness”, so when we say a person is lacking in spiritual acuity, they may have spirituality but they lack a clarity or sharpness about that spirituality. In our text today, we will explore one such individual who, while lacking in visual acuity, was blessed with spiritual acuity.
" 46And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. 47And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. 48And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. 49And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee. 50And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. 51And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. 52And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way." (Mark 10:46-52 KJV)
The text tells us that Bartimaeus is blind. There are different schools of thought as to how long he was blind… whether he was blind from birth or from something else. Blindness was a common condition in Biblical times, often due to various diseases or sanitary conditions. The Scriptures do not tell us how long Bartimaeus had been blind, we only know that he is blind at this writing. Which is another important point… all too often we are concerned with how long someone may been spiritually blind but the point the important point is that they are blind at this moment. Because of his blindness Bartimaeus was unable to find and perform a job to earn his living as the Scriptures tell us, he was by the side of the road begging. There was no welfare at that time or Social Security or other government programs, all he could to was set on the side of the road and depend on the kindness and generosity of those who went past. Where are you today, are you spiritually on the side of the road, or are you one who will go past? If you are one who goes past, will you be generous enough to share your spirituality with those of “on the side of the road”?
As I mentioned, vision, and or acuity, is not always limited to the physical. The performers Sammy Davis Junior in referring to an incident which cost him the loss of one eye remarked “ It is possible to lose a little vision, and gain a little insight”. Bartimaeus, so blind, undoubtedly had much greater spiritual acuity that day than many of those who were present. First, he recognized who Jesus was. When he heard Jesus was approaching he cried out “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me”. What’s also important to note here is in calling him Son of David he is not merely referring to Jesus’s linage. The reign of David by this time was considered to be the “gold standard”, the “benchmark” of the nation’s condition. Under David’s reign, the nation enjoyed its greatest prosperity and security and stability. So it was said that a “Messiah” would come to restore everything to the condition it was during David’s reign. To make things once again, the best they could be. So the term Son of David refers to that individual who will restore the lost greatness to the nation and parity and security to its people . So when Bartimaeus calls Jesus Son of David, as I said he’s not referring to is Jesus’ family line, but he is addressing Him with an honorific recognizing whom Jesus is and what he is capable of doing. He had undoubtedly heard of the lepers being healed, of the lane being made to walk, the blind made to see…of even the dead being raised. So here we Allies to wedge eases could do he had faith which is the first ingredient to receive anything from God. He saw and recognized who Jesus was, he recognized what Jesus could do, he recognized that his opportunity was at hand . He was at what we would call a “crisis”. In the Asian language, the symbol for crisis is comprised of two symbols… the symbol for danger, and the symbol for opportunity. Bartimaeus recognized his opportunities, as well as the danger that if he did not act,he was in danger of remaining blind. Just as he recognized his opportunity was at hand, he also realized that that this opportunity could very easily pass him by. How many of us approach a spiritual crisis, and allow the opportunity to pass us by? So Bartimaeus did what he needed to do to be sure he did not miss this opportunity. He knew he could not go through others. He knew that he had to make contact with Jesus directly. He was willing to do this in spite of the obvious obstacles that existed, that would prevent him from accomplishing this. He couldn’t walk over to where Jesus was… he couldn’t wave and motion him over…he couldn’t write and send a note so the only course left to him was to cry out. Many of us today have the same opportunity and similar if not identical obstacles. We too, often cannot depend on others to help us. The only course for us is to make contact with Jesus directly. Sometimes we too, need to cry out “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!! Bartimaeus wanted the change badly enough…desperately enough that he was willing to cry out in the midst of a crowd and continued to cry out even after it tells us they shushed him …they told him to be quiet. A message to those of us surrounding the spiritually lost, when they began to cry out, do we shush them because they’re making too much noise? Because they upset the apple cart of our order of service, because maybe even, we realize in hearing their cry just how much we need to cry out also but will not. We read that Bartimaeus continued to cry out, and the more they urged him to be quiet, the louder he got. I ask you today, is it possible that we as the church have forgotten how to cry out, have grown too comfortable in our humdrum ho-de-doh business-as-usual will will to keep crying out until we get our desired result? Or do we just sit back and grumble and complain about how things “aren’t the way they used to be back in the day”? Boredom is desired a change, do we? Are we ready to change? Are we willing to stop thinking about change and do what we need to do to change? I believe that we can. All we need is faith in Jesus. As the song says “ Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take Him at His word”. Are we willing to take aim at his word today? It’s time to cry out!
Even though they commanded him to be quiet, Bartimaeus did not worry about what those people said. Many times we tend to miss our opportunity, to miss our chance to change simply because we’re fearful of what others will say or do. So we miss God’s opportunities, the chance to be touched by God. Interestingly enough, the Scriptures tell us Jesus stopped when he heard Bartimaeus and asked for him to be brought to Him. At this point the same people around or near Bartimaeus that had been “shushing” him now told him to be of good cheer, to be comforted, that Jesus was calling for him. I have to ask, do we do this today? Do we tell those who are “crying out” spiritually to be of good cheer, to be comforted, that Jesus…the same Jesus who took human form, walked among men, and went to the cross and died and rose again…calls for them? For you,? For me? Or do we keep on “shushing” them?
Bartimaeus saw that his opportunity was now or never. The Scriptures tell us that Jesus was leaving Jericho. Bartimaeus could’ve said “ I’ll catch Him next time He’s in town” or “He’s too busy to help me now” or ”The crowd is too large“. Again I pose the question, do we make the same type of excuses for not taking advantage of our opportunity? Sometimes we wait for everything else to line up before we change. We’ll say “Well, I need to get my prayer life in order, then I’ll start coming to church again” or “Well, I need to get a budget in place before I can start tithing” or “I need to see what my work schedule looks like before I can start serving at church” Our opportunity to change is NOW, do we have the spiritual acuity to “recognize” and “realize”? Do we have the sharpness of spirit to desire our change? Do we have the clearness of conscience to pursue that change regardless of what people will say or do? Are we willing to “cry out” until we get our results? Our Lord Jesus waits for us and asks, even as he asked Bartimaeus “What do you want me to do for you?” can we answer him today? Do we have the faith that says that we can tell Him what our needs are so that He will take care of them? Jesus said “What do you want me to do for you?” Bartimaeus replied “I want to see.” Jesus told him “Go look at something then, your faith has restored you.”. There were all kinds of things Bartimaeus could have asked for. But all he asked for was vision so that he could take care of the rest of his needs, with the belief that Jesus could do it. Do you need to cry out this morning from the crowd on the side of the roadway? Are you able to hear just exactly where Jesus is? Our call is to cry out this morning… to cry out relentlessly until He hears us and calls for us so that He can grant us what we ask. He’s the one who said “Ask whatever you will in My name and I will do it” Do you need to ask Him this morning? Will you come and ask Him? Will you come and cry out today? Please don’t miss the opportunity to know who our Lord is, and what He can do. Let us pray.
CHILDREN’S LESSON
Order of Worship
Sunday October 29th, 2006
11:00 A.M.
Opening Hymn…………………….” Sing The Wondrous Love Of Jesus, Hymm 511
Doxology………………………………………………..All
Call to Worship……………………………….Bro. Robert Hutcherson
Hymn…………………………………… “Take My Life and Let It Be”, Hymn 292
Prayer…………………………………………..Bro. Robert Hutcherson
Prayer Response………………………………….Give Us This Day”
Scripture Reading……………………………..Bro. Robert Hutcherson
Decalogue………………………………………Bro. Robert Hutcherson
Gloria Patri………………………………………….Congregation
Sermon…………………………………………Bro. Robert Hutcherson
Invitation to Christian Discipleship………...””Jesus, Jesus, Jesus”, Hymn 187
Altar Call/Offertory………………………………………All
Offertory Response……………………………”All Things Come Of Thee”
Affirmation of Faith……………………………Congregation
Benediction……………………………………..Bro. Robert Hutcherson