Oct 25 Mark 10:46-52, Job 42
Blind Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus ( meaning has a sense of being esteemed, honored, maybe in the sense of an elder being honored)) (By ut if it is transliterated form Aramaic it would meanin unclean/impure.This first time I got some benefit from Greek in seminary was this passage. anablepo he replies to Jesus’s question-one word, anablepo, to see again, to regain sight,
What would you like me to do for you, Jesus asks. Notice what this question has followed, as we have gone through this chapter almost word for word this month.This morning that question is heard anew, and one answer is that a child be baptized in our congregation this morning.
He calls Jesus Son of David-He sees the truth. He call him teacher, rabbi,l and he sees more deeply, even though he is still blind.on the roadside, now he is on his way This child is on the way in baptism. All of us who accept the designation Christina are people on the way, on the road through life and toward God.
Faith has saved you just as made you well Poor Bartimaeus is left on his own. Baptism is an open door to most Christian churches. It is fundamentally citizenship in the church, a passport to the land of the faith.
I don’t know if being healed helped him live with the terrible loss of sight.Certainly all of the good that poured on Job did not make up for the horrible losses he suffered and those of his spouse as well. wonders as in signs and wonder and exodus or the exodus journey into the trackless wilderness of all nature
Presbyterian understanding of baptism-all older christian churches practice infant baptism.Just as the book of Hebrews considers Christ’s life death and resurrection once and for all, so too is baptism done once in our tradition, as we honor the promise of ?god for a lifetime. Nothing shows the power of grace, prevenient grace, more than infant baptism.It is odd ot speak of new birht for a newborn. Baptism wil continue to cleanse the spiritual life of this child all through life. This child’s spiritual sight will be seen through the prism of the Christian faith. Link to baptism as healing/restoring-it offer illumination through Christ in in and with the people of God. In part that is why we pray for illumination before the Scripture and its explication and application.Issue of spiritual insight
Job is not punished for his long cry, his long argument against a view of god as punisher. Instead God asks that Job offer sacrifice, to pray for those who spoke of god wrongly even as they were under the impression that they were the orthodox party. I pray that this child’s walk with god will be deep and abiding enough to be in conversation with god all the days of life.
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Part Of our prayer is that this child will be blessed like Job at the end of the story.Yes, in the world of heaven but also in this life.That life may not be perfect or even easy, but it is one accompanied by the presence of God within and without.Recently i attended a gathering and the notion of God’s way in the world, God’s commonwealth, God’s kingdom came up. The folks, typical of most folks, saw it as heaven. They were surprised to learn that the language points to heaven but speaks of god’s way, god’s people in the world right now as an outpost, a fortress, a safe place from which to live out God’s work in the world right now. Put differently this child is a citizen of God’s country now.
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