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Creekside Church
Sermon of October
15, 2006
"Minding
Your Afters"
Mark
10:46-52
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Rev.
David Bibbee
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When
I was a lad, my parents used a variety of expressions designed to
get their point across. One in particular I heard far more than others.
I heard it on the way to church. I heard it before our family visited
relatives or attended a special event. I heard before I left the house
to hang out with my friends. The expression was especially emphatic
if I was hanging out with the Pickens brothers.
The expression
was, "Mind your P's and Q's." I had no clue what it meant
when I first heard it. To my knowledge, I didn't have any P's and
Q's to mind. If I had to mind two letters of the alphabet, couldn't
I mind my T's and V's instead?
As an adult
I learned the possible origins of this old English idiom. P's and
Q's may have originated in English pubs. The letters stood for "pints"
and "quarts." It was a reminder to keep tabs on your bar
bill. It was also an expression used in seventeenth-century England
meaning, "prime quality." It can also be traced to print
shops where young type-setters were told to be careful with lower
case "p's" and "q's", since a backward "p"
looks like a "q." When my parent's invoked "P's and
Q's" it meant, "Stay out of trouble. Do what you are told.
And no fights with your cousin, Larry."
"P's"
and "Q's" however weren't the only things I had to mind.
I also had to mind my manners. Later I was told, "Mind your
own business." It's irksome to mind everything that needs to
be minded. This morning I want you to be mindful of something that
is more important than "P's" and "Q's" and manners,
and your own business. A writer named Ken Krouse tells us what it
is:
Mind your
afters:
after
Easter
after Christmas
after while
after work
after school
after the ball is over
after life
after death.
We invest so
much time, energy, and thought preparing for longed-for moments.
But after Christmas is over, and after the ball is over, after our
work is over, after life, and after death, THEN WHAT? What happens
"after" decisive events and routine experiences that shape
our lives?
The healing
story Marks tells is noteworthy, not only because of one man's encounter
with Jesus, but also because of what came after. This is the only
story in Mark that gives the name of the person Jesus healed. His
name was Bartimaeus. He was a blind beggar.
The disciples
are walking from Jericho when they pass Bartimaeus sitting by the
road. Bartimaeus asks, "Who's coming?" "It's Jesus,"
someone says. Knowing it could be his last best chance for a life,
Bartimaeus shouts, "Jesus, Son of David! Have mercy on me!"
No one likes
it when someone in the crowd causes a scene. I remember sitting
in front of a large, loud, obnoxious fan at a Notre Dame football
game. He wouldn't sit down. He blocked the view of people behind
him. He hollered as loud as he could to a buddy in the next section.
He screamed at the referees. He was politely asked to sit down and
quiet down, but he kept at it. Finally, the stadium staff was notified
and it took three ushers to haul the gentleman out of the stadium
where he could holler all he wanted.
Bartimaeus was
causing a scene. To appreciate what is going on in the text, let's
go back to last Sunday's passage in Mark 10:32. Jesus gave the third
prediction of his passion and death. The words were still warm when
James and John told Jesus, "Do whatever we ask of you."
"What do you want me to do for you?" When the Kingdom
comes, they want box seats next to Jesus. They missed the meaning
of discipleship BY A MILE.
A disciple is
not just an admirer of Jesus or a believer in Jesus. A disciple
is one who follows. A disciple follows the path set by the teacher.
Jesus said, "Foxes have hole. Birds have nests. But the Son
of Man has no place to lay his head," which suggests that disciples
of Jesus have no stopping places.
Hearing a commotion
to the side of the road, Jesus calls Bartimaeus and asks the same
question he asked James and John -- "What do you want me to
do for you?" He replied, "Master, I want to see."
Mark wants us to see, too. There is a lot of irony here. Though
Bartimaeus is blind, he sees Jesus in a way that those closest to
him do not. Bartimaeus not only sees that Jesus is his hope. He
sees that Jesus is the world's hope.
Without Jesus
saying his sins were forgiven-- without rubbing spit and mud in
his eyes-without even laying a hand on him-Bartimaeus received his
sight. But the story doesn't is just beginning. Check out the 52nd
verse: And immediately he received his sight and followed him on
the way. The disciples had their sight but didn't see. They followed
in fits and starts.
With no hesitation,
Bartimaeus saw and followed Jesus. If you had been given you sight,
what would you do? I'd want to see everything I had missed. I would
vacation in the mountains or on the beach-maybe take a Mediterranean
cruise. Bartimaeus could have gone his own way, but he decided to
follow Jesus' way.
If Bartimaeus
had shut up like the crowd wanted him to do, he would have spent
the rest of his days by the road. He didn't listen to people who
told him to be grateful for what he had and to accept the hand he
was dealt. He didn't mind his "P's" and "Q's."
He minded his afters.
We think of
examples of people who get second chances but don't mind their afters.
An unhealthy lifestyle leads to a coronary and bypass surgery. The
patient is fortunate to be alive but goes back to consuming a pack
of cigarettes and a box of Twinkies a day.
Jesus has a
parade of people at his door-- people like James and John, asking
for something. "Make all of my hassles disappear. Take away
my burdens. Fix my aches and pains. Do this and I'll be on my way."
But if I'm not mistaken, when we come TO Jesus, we must go WITH
Jesus. We do not mind our afters if we go our own way.
C. S. Lewis
wrote a book called The Screwtape Letters. In it, Screwtape, the
devil, gives his devil nephew advice on how to prevent people from
becoming Christians. He explains:
The great
thing is to prevent him from doing any-thing. As long as he does
not convert it to action, it does not matter how much he thinks
about his new repentance. Let the little brute wallow in it. Let
him write a book about it; that is often an excellent way of sterilizing
the seeds which the God plants in a human soul.
Let him
do anything but act. No piety in his imagination and affections
will harm us if we can keep it out of his will. As one of the
humans said, "Active habits are strengthened by repetition,
but passive ones are weakened. The more often he feels without
acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and in the long
run, the less he will be able to feel.
Your affectionate
Uncle Screwtape.
(Note: this
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