All We Need Is A Little Faith

Philip Fromyer

Proper 25 • Year B • Youth Sunday

October 29, 2006

Mark 10:46-52

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Please Be Seated.

The gospel is an interesting one. It tells us the troubles of the blind beggar Bartimaeus. At first glance it seems to be quite a simple story. Just another one of the miracles that Jesus worked during his life. But as I looked at it more it meant something different to me. As it says in the reading, Bartimaeus was blind, a handicap that in those days was considered as a straight way to becoming a beggar. He had no one to help him; he sat on the side of the road begging for money to survive. That was his life and a hard one at that. Bartimaeus was obviously not happy with his life. He probably lost faith in the idea that anything could get better.

Everyone has felt this in their life as have I. Many times, things looked hopeless. But, I'm still here in one piece. Bartimaeus lost faith in himself, in life, and in hope. He was so desperate to reclaim some kind of purpose he sat on this crowded road, waiting for the amazing person he had heard of, Jesus. He had no idea when Jesus was exactly coming. He must have stayed there for days.

Now, I highly doubt it's easy for a blind person to make their way through a crowd and it must have been difficult for anyone to get his voice heard above the noise. Yet some how he gets to Jesus. That must have taken lots of courage and perseverance to accomplish something like that. Not only that but he doesn't ask for help from anyone. He is initially silenced by the followers of Jesus. He is treated like dirt. He is a reject from society.

We all know people like Bartimaeus. I see them everyday in the hallway at school. They deal with challenges in their life and sometimes aren't considered the "cool friend". They are the ones who get picked on or silenced like Bartimaeus. And people just walk past them. If people stand up for the uncool kids they are treated the same way as the uncool kids are treated, getting picked on and silenced. Getting rejected for trying to do the right thing.

I've never have really had one group of friends at school. It's not that I don't have friends; I just have a wide variety of friends. I may have one friend who gets girls, people like him and goes out with friends all the time. On the other hand I may have a friend one who is just content to have a few friends and do his thing.

Don't judge a book by its cover! I've heard that so many times! One person may look at the friend who is good looking, has lots of friends and is known as "cool" and assume that he or she is the one they should hang out with to make them feel cool and get looked on as "cool". They look at the other kid maybe not so good looking, maybe wearing a weird clothing style or some other awkward thing and say hey that person is probably not fun to hang around.

Everyone though of Bartimaeus as that "other kid", he was blind and poor and people didn't even try to help him. Jesus did. Bartimaeus may have lost faith in everything else but he didn't lose faith in Jesus. A man he had never met before and just heard of. He had faith in him.

I have a friend who is a bit similar to Bartimaeus. He unfortunately is quite below the normal height of a kid his age and has a bit of a problem with ADHD. And of course in high school if you have something wrong with you, you're guaranteed to get teased for it. And he does get teased for it. He gets short jokes a lot. And like anyone it wears down on him. I can see it happen. It builds up over time and sometimes my friend is having a bad day and getting teased just makes it worse. He's not completely alone, he has friends but as I watch them they don't seem like the greatest friends. More like half-way friends. They will hang out with him and all but after he leaves they talk about him behind his back. I don't support people who act like that. He knows about this talk behind his back. And like Bartimaeus he has lost faith. He is insecure and gets very defensive about things. He has lost faith in his friends and doesn't believe they will accept him for who he is and not what he looks like.

I have also lost my faith in friends few times. In the beginning of high school a few of my very close friends had gone to Blair. I still had friends at Northwood and all, but they weren't as close as my friends at Blair. I was apprehensive about whether things would work out with everyone and nervous about my future with my friends. Every time a friend made a little joke or I got into an argument with them I lost faith that I would ever have really close friends at Northwood. I was very sad about this and wanted to go to Blair. But, I slowly developed some even better friends that I didn't even know before high school. I began to have a little more faith and felt a bit more self-confident about myself and before I realized it I had more than enough friends.

All I needed was to find something in myself, believe not only that things would get better but believe in myself. Sometimes I think that's all my friend needs. To have faith in himself. People will keep teasing you if it's obvious that it is hurting you. And once my friend realizes that and has faith in himself he will feel a lot better about himself.

Bartimaeus wasn't asking Jesus to fix his eyes; he was asking Jesus to give him faith in himself, in life and in God. Once he embraced God fully, I think that is what healed Bartimaeus.

Now, I don't expect Jesus to walk into school and make my friend 6 feet tall and have all the friends in the school. He just needs faith. Besides, Montgomery County schools would probably be mad, the rules say no religion allowed there, especially not the son of God.

Sometimes it not so much getting faith but building it. Like most young kids I didn't really question my mom when she took me to church. I just went, even though as a kid all I wanted to do was go home and watch TV or play with some toys. I didn't really understand the whole church thing, I liked to see my friends at church and all but I didn't get it yet. The whole faith in God thing. As I got a little older I started to understand what the deal was. It wasn't my mom taking me to church, I wanted to go. Not only did I start to get the whole God thing but I really started looking at the congregation and the church itself. After a week of school, church was great. There aren't many places out there that are as accepting as the people are in Ascension. In a way just going to church helped me through my time of losing faith. I saw how nice and accepting people were at church and how much love they offered. I'm not trying to just flatter all of you so you think my sermon is great, I really mean it. Going to church was a big change from school. I gained even more faith in God from that. It helped me get more faith in myself also. It was a good boost for the coming school week.

I used to listen to the beginning of the song "Have a Cigar" by Pink Floyd before the school week which was not only a great song but it had some interesting lyrics in the beginning. It goes:

"Come in here, dear boy, have a cigar.

You're gonna go far, fly high

You're never gonna die,

You're gonna make it if you try;

They're gonna love you"

Now it doesn't exactly say go make friends at school in it but sometimes all you need is somebody telling you that you can do it. That all you need to do is try. Music is very important to me. Sometimes all I need to feel better is a song. All my friend needs to do is just try. It all comes back to faith. Faith in yourself, your life and God. If you go around with a pessimistic view on the world you obviously don't have much faith in anything. All we need is a little faith.