"Never Too Busy"
Mark 10:46-52
I've got a friend who is stuck.
A couple of years ago he retired and moved down to Chattanooga from the Northeast to settle and take care of his aging parents.
A little while after moving here he bought a new Lexus--a hybrid.
He had thought long and hard about putting the kind of money he did into that car.
He had checked it out for months.
He had weighed all his options.
Then he made his decision.
He bought the car.
One day, sitting in a coffee shop with he and his wife, he started to lament: "I don't think I should have bought that car.
It was the wrong decision."
Her response was: "You always do this.
You made the decision.
Stick with it.
Move on.
Be happy."
Over the course of the couple of years we have known one another, this friend of mine has second-guessed his career choice over and over again.
"I should have gotten out of what I was doing a long time ago."
"I never should have done this; I never should have done that."
Over the past several months, he has voiced his regret in making the move to Chattanooga.
He talks with longing about the place in the Northeast where he used to live.
Recently I missed a Tuesday morning coffee meeting with my friend and asked someone else who meets with us how my friend was doing.
"Oh, he's as cynical as ever" was the response.
"He came down here with plans to 'get involved' in the church and do great things.
He has so much to offer.
I worry he is paralyzing himself by all his constant second-guessing."
I imagine he's been that way all his life--living a paralyzed life.
Many of us do this, I think.
Do you?
It's hard, sometimes, to live in the "now."
We often think, "oh, if I just had this or if I just had that things would be 'just right.'"
This past week I was having a phone conversation with a friend.
She was sharing some of her misgivings.
She's afraid life is "slipping away" from her and she isn't doing what she set out to accomplish.
"I feel like I now only have about 10 years left to be what I want to be and do what I want to do with my career," she told me.
Then I said, "You are only in your 40's.
You've got 20 or 30 years or more."
Now this is someone I have always thought of as "having it all together."
She gives off the impression of being joyful, enthusiastic, full of energy and happy "where she is."
Little did I know.
Whoever came up with the phrase: "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" was a genius.
'Cause it's not.
We are all living in the "not yet," to some extent, are we not?
But friends, our life is "now."
We are never going to "arrive" during our short stay on this earth.
We are constantly in flux and transition.
And we will never be satisfied until we are able to make the best of where we are now.
That's not to say that we are not to aim to constantly improve.
But we are to make the most of "now."
I know of clergy who live for the next appointment, and then the next, and the next and it just goes on and on and on.
And this could apply to just about any line of work.
In our Gospel Lesson for this morning, Jesus and His followers are on the move.
They are heading for something "big."
Jesus is going to Jerusalem where He will ride into the city on a donkey with a crowd singing and shouting: "Hosanna! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!"
Soon, Jesus will be arrested, crucified and rise again.
He will ascend to heaven and sit at the right hand of God the Father, once again.
He will have accomplished His mission.
"And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
The crowd doesn't know all these things, but Jesus does.
In the meantime, Jesus and what we are told is a "sizable crowd" are zipping on through Jericho.
They are on a mission.
They are not thinking about where they are; they are concentrating on where they want to be.
But low and behold, "where they are" is an important place.
And the reason for this is that "a blind beggar named Bartimaes..." is "sitting beside the road."
And Bartimaes needs Jesus "right here and right now"...not just some time far off in the future.
And the crowd needs Bartimaes as well.
They need Bartimaes in order to be reminded what Jesus is about...
...in order to be reminded that they need not to be in a hurry to get to the "next big thing" when the "next big thing" is always going on.
So good old Bartimaeus is sitting on the side of the road.
And when he hears that Jesus is passing through he starts shouting: "Jesus, Son of David, show me mercy!"
But we are told that the throngs of folks told Bartimaeus to "be quiet."
After-all, Jesus was on to the "next big thing."
Jesus didn't have time for this now.
Perhaps some time in the future, after the donkey ride was over, Jesus could stop back and help him out--but not now.
Jesus is on to bigger and better things.
But that's not what Jesus was thinking.
Instead, we are told that Jesus stops in His tracks and says: "Call him forward."
Another translation says "Jesus stood still."
Jesus has set His face toward Jerusalem.
Indeed, He feels the divine "must" upon Him as He walks briskly for Jerusalem.
And yet here, when He hears Bartimaeus calling out for help, Jesus stops.
Jesus stands still.
Jesus lives with us in the moment.
And this is good news for us indeed.
One scholar has written: "The Gospels often portray Jesus' agenda being interrupted by unanticipated human need, unscripted cries of misery.
One begins to surmise that such actually is Jesus' (and therefore God's) true agenda."
Attending to interruptions, unanticipated human need, unscripted cries of misery--that's what God is about.
And is that not what we are to be about as well?
Why live for some future dream that may not even be in the cards--when our time really is "now" all the time?
A year or two ago following a church charge conference, I was having a conversation with our District Superintendent.
I was excited about what East Ridge United Methodist Church was doing; you were excited about what East Ridge United Methodist Church was doing; she was excited as well.
And she said something to me that I will never forget.
She said that East Ridge United Methodist Church is doing what it is called to do--it is no longer wringing its hands and worrying about whether it will one day cease to exist--it's living in the now.
Jesus lives in the now.
Jesus walks the paths of this life with us.
Jesus is always prepared to "stand still" and call us over.
Jesus is always prepared to "drop everything He is doing" and attend to our current needs.
And that's because Jesus, as God, sees the BIG picture.
Recently, I was speaking with someone who was caught in a very difficult situation.
And, at that moment in time, he saw no way out.
He couldn't "see the forest for the trees," so to speak.
So he decided he was going to kill himself.
Thankfully, he did not.
Many of us can relate to this man's predicament.
I've had these kinds of thoughts; many of you have as well.
Perhaps you are feeling this way right here and right now.
There is only One solution that works.
No matter how helpless things seem to be.
No matter how bad the "now" might feel--cry out to Jesus-- "Jesus, Son of David, show me mercy."
Jesus will stop.
Jesus will call you forward.
And when He does, throw that cloak of doom to the side.
Jump up and come to Jesus.
And when Jesus asks you: "What do you want me to do for you?"...
...tell Him.
And then follow.
And never, never, never ever look back.
