Be Careful What You Ask For

Sermon for Sunday, October 25, 2009

Lessons:
Psalm 34
Job 42: 1-6, 10-17
Mark 10: 46-52

Be careful what you ask for. We've all heard that before. It has taken me a while, but I have finally learned not to pray for patience. A prayer for patience, I've found, grants me situations in which I am compelled to learn how to be patient.

In today's Old Testament lesson, we enter Job's story near the end, when Job's family and fortune are restored to him. Job's case is a very unusual one in that he suffers greatly and loses all that he has because of a wager between God and Satan. When the Book of Job begins, we learn that he is a good, righteous, and faithful man with a large family and many possessions. Satan bets God that he can convince Job to turn his back on his faith. God believes that Job will stay faithful, so he agrees to the bet, only stipulating that Job's life is to be spared. Everything else is on the table.

Given such a free hand, Satan tests Job in truly cruel ways. Job loses all of his children and all of his property. Ultimately, he is covered in boils and sores and spends all of his time sitting on an ashheap. His poor wife, who is, of course, simply a victim of the same circumstances, urges Job to "curse God and die," but Job will not do that. Some of his friends come to comfort him, but their manner is far from consoling. They question Job so they can help him figure out the sin he is guilty of that has apparently caused God to punish him so drastically. Job insists he has done nothing wrong, and we know he is telling the truth. It's just not fair.

Even as he remains faithful, not cursing God as his wife suggests, Job does ask something of God. In fact, he makes a demand: "Let the Almighty answer me"--what have I done to deserve this? And then, as the Book says, "God answers Job out of the whirlwind" : "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" Running down the list of creation's deep mysteries, God puts Job in his place. The passage has a "How dare you question me" kind of tone, but the point is clear: I am God, and you, Job, are not. Don't even try to understand what my power is capable of doing. Be careful what you ask for. Then, as today's lesson reveals, Job is humbled. He responds to God by saying, "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted...Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know...I had heard of you by the hearing of the ears, but now my eye sees you: therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." As an expression of obedient faith and humble repentance, these simple words of Job are exemplary. God rewards him by giving him a new set of children and unimaginable wealth.

The story of Job is a challenge. Who wants to imagine God gambling with Satan, our lives as the stakes? Maybe the only way to understand the significance of this story is to see it as an allegory about the unfairness of life. Life is unfair, and there is nowhere in the Bible where anyone is promised otherwise. Even so, we are promised the mercy and compassion of God, and in the end, Job receives an abundance of those blessings.

Our blind beggar in the lesson from Mark is also a victim of life's unfairness. Like Job, Bartimaeus has heard of the Lord "by the hearing of the ear" and he is ready when Jesus approaches. He shouts out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" When the crowd tries to hush him, Bartimaeus cries out even more desperately, and Jesus stops and says, "Call him here." But when this blind beggar throws off his cloak and appears before the Lord, Jesus says a most peculiar thing, or so it seems. He asks this blind man, "What do you want me to do for you?" Only after Bartimaeus says, "My teacher, let me see again" does Jesus heal him.

I say that Jesus's question is peculiar, but maybe obvious is a better word. It seems pretty clear to us, and it must have looked that way to the people in the crowd, that Bartimaeus would ask Jesus to remove his blindness and restore his vision. Why, then, does Jesus ask him what he wants?

I think it is because the Lord knows human nature, knows our innermost thoughts and feelings. He understands our true motives for doing things when we don't even admit them to ourselves. The story of the healing of Bartimaeus is not the only occasion in the gospels when Jesus asks such a question of someone imploring him for help. This is his gentle way of saying, "Be careful what you ask for."

Knowing the habits of thought and attitude humans are subject to, Jesus wants Bartimaeus to think about all of the ways his life will change when he can see. After many years of living as a blind beggar, it may be that Bartimaeus has come to enjoy the pity of others. He may have developed a sizeable share of self-pity as well, and that would be understandable. Within the confines of the very small world his blindness compels him to inhabit, Bartimaeus has created a comfort zone and a predictable life for himself. Jesus wants to know if he is really ready to give that up, because Bartimaeus's whole world will change " in the twinkling of an eye."

Given the opportunity, the Lord would ask the same question of us. Self-examination must be part of our prayer lives or we will enter prayer with conflicted hearts. As I worked on my last two sermons, I have been thinking about prayer and sharing my thoughts with you. I have said that prayer can be an ongoing conversation with God since God is present with us every moment of every day. As long as we choose to be aware of God, we can touch that gracious presence because God wants to connect with us and wants to bless us. When Christ said, "The kingdom of God is at hand" he meant us to believe him and to believe that he dwells in our hearts. That message is very clear.

The message of blind Bartimaeus and others like him is also clear. In order for us to receive the blessings Christ so willingly wishes to give us, we need to prepare for our lives to be changed. Whatever it is we earnestly seek in prayer, whether it is healing or relief from anxiety over financial matters, the answer we are given is bound to bring something new into our lives. That something new may not be exactly what we have expected, and human beings don't often respond well when we are required to make unexpected adjustments to our lives. In fact, we may not even recognize that our prayers have been answered if we expect a different answer.

Change is bound to happen in our lives--how many times have we been told "Change is inevitable"? Think about how much of every day we spend either accepting change as it comes our way or resisting it. Prayer gives us the opportunity to shape the changes in our lives as it helps us to see clearly the need for change and gives us the ability to accept it.

Maybe it would be helpful to pray for clarity or guidance before we pray for anything else. Maybe it is a good idea to pray to be ready for the answers we are given. When we can't let go of our need to have things our way, praying to be able to surrender is a good idea. That prayer alone could resolve a lot of issues.

Christ said to us, "Seek and you shall find. Knock, and the door will be opened." Prayer is the way we seek. Knocking suggests persistence. As today's psalm says, "They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." We just need to recognize and accept the good stuff when it comes our way.