Making the Periphery Permeable
- davidwperk
- Aug 18, 2023
- 5 min read
Daily Office Devotional, Friday, August 18, 2023
Proper 14, the week of the eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrases for reflection from today’s Gospel reading:
47When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ 48Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ 49Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.’. . .
51Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher, let me see again.’ 52Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.
You will find the full text of today’s Gospel reading at the end of this reflection.
Daily Office Lectionary readings (BCP, 978)
AM Psalm 102; PM Psalm 107:1-32
2 Samuel 15:19-37; Acts 21:37-22:16; Mark 10:46-52
Today we celebrate the Feast of Artemisia Bowden. (See below.)
David’s Reflections
This scene evokes feelings of empathy for a blind beggar, someone perhaps stigmatized by his culture as being blind because God was punishing him for his sin. He heard the tumult and learned that Jesus, the healer/prophet, was passing through. His shouts would have made it difficult for the onlookers to hear what Jesus might have been saying as he walked and engaged in teaching conversation with his followers.
Their attempts to silence Bartimaeus only provoked him to shout more loudly. Jesus stopped walking and asked them to call Bartimaeus to approach. Then, that very crowd that sought to silence him began to encourage him. “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.”
William Barclay, the Scottish New Testament scholar, once quipped, “The greatest disaster of the modern church is that a person has to be respectable in order to get in.” Many people find it daunting to consider approaching a Christian community because they feel intuitively their one-down situation. Their wounds and their style of life differ so markedly from the appearance of reality in the worshipping community (although that appearance belies the dark struggles of Christians).
That sense of their unacceptability works like the shouts of the crowd to hinder their approach. Yet, their secret heart-cry sounds much like Bartimaeus’, “Jesus, have mercy.”
Woe to us if we add to that sense of woundedness and difference that hinders anyone’s approach. We can hinder people by ignoring them, by targeting only the church-friendly, or by actually shunning and avoiding them outside the safe, enclosed confines of the worshipping community.
The wounded and ostracized around us need what Bartimaeus got from the crowd after Jesus stopped and called for him. “Take heart; get up; he is calling for you.” They need our encouragement. We can do that by breaking out of our safe relational circle and finding ways to encounter and interact with people we normally ignore and avoid. It might be something as simple as sitting in the bar area of a local gathering place, listening to the conversations, and beginning to socialize. It might be something as simple as volunteering at a food bank, clothing closet, or homeless shelter. It might mean going door-to-door with door knob hangers in a residential community.
Something Gordon Lathrop wrote about the worshipping community and outsiders transformed my entire approach to worship. Imagine extending this mentality beyond worship to daily life. “The task of the assembly is a task of polarity: make the center strong, the symbols large, the words of Christ clear, and make that center accessible, the circle large, the periphery permeable.”+
People are secretly hungry for the mercy of Jesus, even if consciously they do not identify the hunger in that way. We are the most visible and tangible bearers of that mercy. We can be their version of the encouraging crowd—“Take heart; get up; he is calling for you.” May our individual and corporate lives have a more fully permeable periphery.
+Gordon W Lathrop. Holy Things: A Liturgical Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993, p. 132.
Collect of the Day, Proper 14, the eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP 232)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Artemisia Bowden, educator (died 18 Aug 1969 CE).
Collect of the Feast of Artemisia Bowden
O God, by your Holy Spirit, you give gifts to your people so that they might faithfully serve your Church and the world: We give you praise for the gifts of perseverance, teaching and wisdom made manifest in your servant, Artemisia Bowden, whom you called far from home for the sake of educating the daughters and granddaughters of former slaves in Texas. We thank you for blessing and prospering her life’s work, and pray that, following her example, we may be ever mindful of the call to serve where you send us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
A Collect for Fridays
Lord Jesus Christ, by your death you took away the sting of death: Grant to us your servants so to follow in faith where you have led the way, that we may at length fall asleep peacefully in you and wake up in your likeness; for your tender mercies' sake. Amen. (BCP, 123)
A Collect for the Presence of Christ
Lord Jesus, stay with us, for evening is at hand and the day is past; be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts, and awaken hope, that we may know you as you are revealed in Scripture and the breaking of bread. Grant this for the sake of your love. Amen. (BCP, 124)
A Collect for Mission
Merciful God, creator of all the peoples of the earth and lover of souls: Have compassion on all who do not know you as you are revealed in your Son Jesus Christ; let your Gospel be preached with grace and power to those who have not heard it; turn the hearts of those who resist it; and bring home to your fold those who have gone astray; that there may be one flock under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 280)
Daily Office Gospel, Mark 10:46-52
46 They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. 47When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ 48Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ 49Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; get up, he is calling you.’ 50So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher, let me see again.’ 52Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.
Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
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