{"id":665100,"date":"2024-10-06T21:17:47","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T01:17:47","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-06-24T18:48:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T22:48:24","slug":"what-do-you-want-me-to-do-for-you-pentecost-23-b-october-27-2024","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/sermons\/what-do-you-want-me-to-do-for-you-pentecost-23-b-october-27-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"What Do You Want Me to Do for You?, Proper 25 (B) \u2013 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-green-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-green-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm?e=DFMS7190921941&#038;light=true\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-green-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-green-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/lectionary\/proper-25b\/\">[RCL] Jeremiah 31:7-9; Psalm 126; Hebrews 7:23-28; Mark 10:46-52<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Pr25-2024-Cover-FB-1024x536.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-315104\" style=\"width:512px\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Who doesn\u2019t love blind Bartimaeus? Here is a man who knows what he wants and goes after it no matter how much he embarrasses everyone else. \u201cJesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!\u201d he shouts. His fellow townspeople are mortified. \u201cShut up!\u201d they say. \u201cBe quiet, you hollering maniac! The one celebrity we get in this town and you yell at him like a yokel!\u201d Bartimaeus doesn\u2019t care. He knows Jesus has what he needs and he is going after it. He will not be silenced. We could learn a lot about boldness in prayer from Bartimaeus. We could learn a lot about asking for what we need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But even more important than Bartimaeus\u2019 persistence in this gospel is Jesus\u2019 response to him. Bartimaeus is hollering and causing a ruckus, and \u201cJesus stood still and said, \u2018Call him here.\u2019 And they called the blind man, saying to him, \u2018Take heart; get up, he is calling you.\u2019 So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, \u2018What do you want me to do for you?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is one of the most important moments in the entirety of the gospels for telling us about who Jesus is. Jesus does not assume that Bartimaeus wants to be made able to see. He does not assume that Bartimaeus sees his blindness as a disability. Furthermore, although Jesus undoubtedly knows what is best for Bartimaeus, Jesus does not force it on him. Jesus asks him, \u201cWhat do you want me to do for you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Neither does Jesus impose his will on us, or make any assumptions about what we need or want. He asks us as openly as he asks Bartimaeus: \u201cWhat do you want me to do for you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just by asking this one question, Jesus provides us with a mechanism to delve deeper spiritually. It\u2019s a deceptively simple question. On the surface, it seems like a matter of value exchange. What can we earn or get from our relationship with Jesus? But if we spend time with this question we find new truths opening up within ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let\u2019s sit with the question ourselves. Jesus asks us, \u201cWhat do you want me to do for you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Well, first off, Jesus, it would be great if you could make our churches successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Is that really what we want? He asks us again, \u201cWhat do you want me to do for you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Could you magically make all our money and membership worries go away?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Again, that would be great, but that\u2019s not really what we truly want at the bottom of our hearts. We know because he\u2019s asking us again, \u201cWhat do you want me to do for you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Okay, we\u2019ll try again. Jesus, could you make our ministries a success? No, that doesn\u2019t feel right either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhat do you want me to do for you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Could you make us successful as disciples and ministers? No, still not it. We\u2019re starting to dig through the layers of our ego as Jesus continues to ask us this pivotal question. If we dig deep enough, maybe we\u2019ll hit our hearts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhat do you want me to do for you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Help us to do more, to try harder, to do better, we say to Jesus. Getting closer to the truest desire of our hearts, but not there yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhat do you want me to do for you?\u201d Help us to love people more, to love people better?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Very close, but he asks us one more time with such gentleness in his voice: \u201cWhat do you want me to do for you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMy teacher, let me see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bartimaeus\u2019 words become our words. Let us see how loved we are, let us see how hungry for love others are, how worthy of love they are, how precious and beautiful and wonderful our neighbors are. And let us see that all this love comes from you, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and God the Creator, and the indwelling Holy Spirit. \u201cMy teacher, let me see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Digging down through all the immediate superficial answers, down through fear and ego and all the concerns of this world, we find the desire at the core of our being, which is the desire to give and receive love, the desire to give and receive God. \u201cMy teacher, let me see.\u201d Let us see that below all the noise and through all the distractions and beyond all the divisions that can isolate us from one another is the Presence that outlasts the stars. That is what we want you to do for us, Jesus. Let us see the Love. And then let us share it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bartimaeus occupies a unique niche in the gospel: his is both a healing story and a call story. It is his healing that enables his call and it is his call that is the final ingredient of his healing. \u201cJesus said to him, \u2018Go; your faith has made you well.\u2019 Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is worth a very close look in our own lives, this relationship between healing and call, how very short a distance there is between the two, how intermingled they are. Often we feel unequipped to answer the call Jesus places in our lives, too broken and mixed up, sinful or apathetic or trapped in a net of responsibilities and habits that seems inescapable, even for gospel work. How could someone as \u201cunhealed\u201d as we are do something radical for Jesus?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But we do not have to wait for healing to answer Jesus\u2019 call. Bartimaeus doesn\u2019t. The people in the crowd say, \u2018\u2018Take heart; get up, he is calling you.\u2019 So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.\u201d Still blind, relying on no guidance from the people around him to feel his way, reacting with joy and abandon, he throws away his cloak and goes to Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is not an insignificant moment. Bartimaeus was homeless, a blind beggar on the street. His cloak was his only asset. It was his only protection from the weather and the cold, the closest thing to shelter he had. He cast it away without a second thought, and still blind, still unhealed, answers the call to make his way to Jesus. We can do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And in perhaps the most remarkable turn in this remarkable story, Bartimaeus is not the only one healed and called in this story. Did you catch who else had a radical conversion? The crowd. They begin with cruelty and exclusion in their hearts, doing everything they can to keep Bartimaeus away from Jesus: \u201cMany sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, \u2018Son of David, have mercy on me!\u2019\u201d And this is the pivotal moment. Jesus does not call Bartimaeus directly. <em>He calls the crowd to call Bartimaeus<\/em>. \u201cJesus stood still and said, \u2018Call him here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And then the redemption, so easy to skip over if you\u2019re not paying close attention. \u201cAnd they called the blind man, saying to him, \u2018Take heart; get up, he is calling you.\u2019\u201d This is the moment of the crowd\u2019s conversion, the crowd\u2019s healing, and the crowd\u2019s call. Jesus\u2019 love is so sneaky and so powerful that it broke open their hardened hearts and they probably didn\u2019t even notice it. They go from trying to keep people away from Jesus to urging them forward. They go from seeing Bartimaeus as an embarrassment and trying to shut him up and keep him hidden, to telling him to take heart and go forward into Jesus\u2019 embrace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What we learn here is that call is never individual. We hear call in community. Bartimaeus calls for Jesus, Jesus calls the crowd, the crowd calls Bartimaeus, then Jesus calls Bartimaeus to follow him on the way. This entire process of call and response is deeply healing to everyone involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Where do we start? We listen, and we call out to Jesus, just as Bartimaeus did: \u201cJesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!\u201d Because he is always calling and always healing. And it begins with his simple question to us: \u201cWhat do you want me to do for you?\u201d So we take Bartimaeus\u2019 words to our hearts, \u201cTeacher, let me see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-8b07dd62-62f5-4be5-b7fe-0dbb220ca9d9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Sermon-Proper-25-B-English.docx\">Word \u2013 Pentecost 23 (B) Sermon<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Sermon-Proper-25-B-English.docx\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-8b07dd62-62f5-4be5-b7fe-0dbb220ca9d9\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-8942adb8-5d98-45c4-b6f9-a78d131056d3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Sermon-Proper-25-B-English.pdf\">PDF \u2013 Pentecost 23 (B) Sermon<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Sermon-Proper-25-B-English.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-8942adb8-5d98-45c4-b6f9-a78d131056d3\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[RCL] Jeremiah 31:7-9; Psalm 126; Hebrews 7:23-28; Mark 10:46-52 Who doesn\u2019t love blind Bartimaeus? Here is a man who knows what he wants and goes after it no matter how much he embarrasses everyone else. \u201cJesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!\u201d he shouts. His fellow townspeople are mortified. \u201cShut up!\u201d they say. \u201cBe&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43,52,33,3],"tags":[358],"class_list":["post-665100","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-the-season-after-pentecost","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-proper-25b"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":33,"label":"The Season After Pentecost"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":358,"label":"Proper 25B"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/665100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/665100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":951432,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/665100\/revisions\/951432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}