Proper 25 B, October 28, 2018
Job 42: 1-6,10-17,Psalm 34
Hebrews 7: 23-28, Mark 10: 46-52
St Thomas the Apostle
The Rev’d Joy A. Daley
It was raining. Sound familiar? The rainy period I’m referring to was a while back in 2005. I was serving with a mission team of folks on a small island. We actually had 3 teams one was tending to the medical needs of people. Another team was doing construction I think that year we were putting toilets in the little hand made huts in the Colonia. The team I was serving with was the Christian Ed team trying to give kids a sense of Christ and his love.
As I walked into the space where we would be having class with the children, I realized that the roof was leaking (That also might sound familiar) and I needed to do something before the children arrived. I emptied out containers of markers and strategically placed them to catch the water dripping through the ceiling.
I waited for the group of kids to come in. I stared at those little bucket on the floor and wondered. In the midst of all the rain, the mud and the many needs we were seeing all week – health needs, financial needs, soul needs, as I stood there watching and hearing the drops of rain hit the buckets, plunk, plunk, plunk, I thought, “Maybe that’s what our work here amounts to, a drop in the bucket. How can it really be anything more than that?” In that moment I was a little like the blind man in today’s gospel. My vision was impaired, limited. I couldn’t see the big picture even though I thought I did.
So often we have that notion don’t we? We think we get it. We think we know, We think we see. Sometimes we don’t even know we are blind. At least the man in today’s gospel knew that about himself. So Jesus asks him the same question that he asked his disciples last week. What is it do you want me to do for you? James and John had asked Jesus for power and honor out of ego, a desire to dominate to sit one at his right hand and one at his left hand. But this man today asks Jesus for something out of his need, his longing, his emptiness. He asks, “Teacher, let me see again.” Like the blind man I had a similar need in that drab, little leaking room. I needed to see again. I had lost sight of what we were doing. I was thinking our efforts are so small how can it make a difference? How can what I bring amount to anything? What is the point? We all ask that question at one time or another in our blindness, in our limited vision. We don’t have everything we want, we don’t have everything we would like to give, perhaps. We lose sight of our calling, to give what we do have out of grateful hearts and trust that God will do lifegiving things with whatever we offer. Think back to the title of Lon’s wonderful play from last week titled “The Butterfly Effect,” one small thing that we do has a ripple effect making a difference we may never even realize
The phrase was coined by Edward Lorenz in the early 1960’s. It refers to the idea that a butterfly’s wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere. The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which cascades to large-scale alterations of events. The butterfly effect presents an obvious challenge to prediction, since initial conditions for a system such as the weather can never be known to complete accuracy. One small action can make all the difference. It reminds me of something that was said at a clergy retreat I attended once The guy presenting was a sailor and said if a sailor changes his course just one degree he would end up in a totally different place. Small change big difference.
Now back to that little island I was on in 2005 with so much poverty. At the end of each mission day we would sit in a circle and share our thoughts about what we saw, what we had done and where Christ was present for us. One of our team members, Susan Moore reflected on the drop in the bucket idea. She said, “When you take each moment of each person’s work as a drop maybe we filled the bucket together. It was like the unspoken prayer within me had been answered, “Let me see again.” I realized it was all of us together putting our resources into motion that creates a wave of something the results of which move in the world in ways we can’t really understand. And it isn’t our job to understand but to offer ourselves to be generous with whatever we have.
So now back from that little building to this one. Right here right now. There are some folks that I know that are doing all they can and they worry it’s not enough. That it may be just a drop in the bucket. There are others who think why should we even give at all. In the end does it really matter? We don’t see the big picture we don’t really know. Where will it lead? Our job isn’t to know our job is to give what we can out of gratitude for all we have been given. In our stewardship insert today the author says “When you surrender to your Godward Path God’s generosity abounds by letting you see where you are to go”. So if you by some chance become blind like I sometimes do and have a hard time understanding how it will all work out in the end, remember we may never know what the butterfly effect will do, the graceful movement of lives in the direction of love and generosity is transformative in ways we can’t even imagine. Let’s transform our own sense of generosity and remember what my mission friend said that rainy day “When you take each moment of each person’s work as a drop maybe we’ll fill the bucket together. “Teacher let us see again”.
