Relationship, Respect, Resources: A Model for Mission

This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, October 28, at First Church Simsbury.

 

Mark 10:46-52

Some of you know that this summer, with a team from First Church, I visited the clinic we helped establish in Masooli, Uganda. Our Masooli Project board is hosting a fundraising dinner for the Faith Mulira Health Care Center on Friday, November 9, to which those interested in supporting the clinic are invited. So, I have hoped to, in some way, feature the clinic in this morning’s worship service and sermon.

But every sermon should be rooted in the biblical text, so let’s begin with the story of Blind Bartimaeus from the gospel of Mark. In some ways this reads like many stories where Jesus heals someone who is sick or disabled. But there are a number of unique aspects of this particular story.

• Not only is the blind man given a name, he is located in relationship. Bartimaeus son of Timaeus. It is fair to assume that Timaeus is someone who is known and provides a connection to Mark’s audience.
• In the gospel of John Jesus heals a man born blind. Because this story does not say this, we might wonder if he wasn’t rendered blind from some trauma, illness or accident.
• Bartimaeus strongly advocates for himself, repeatedly crying out, “Jesus, have mercy on me!”
• Many among the disciples try to hush Bartimaeus, believing that Jesus should not be bothered with the likes of him.
• And, when Jesus invites Bartimaeus to come forward, the beggar shows himself to be quite capable, springing up and throwing off his cloak.
• And lastly, Bartimaeus simply names his need to see to Jesus, and Jesus responds, restoring his sight.

I suggest that these themes encapsulate an approach to giving that we might call: Relationship, Respect, and Resources.

Think of the ways we might respond to a beggar like Bartimaeus today, sitting on a sidewalk, loudly crying out for help and healing. We might see him as helpless and pitiable, broken and hopeless. In response we might drop some change in his cup, buy him some food, bring him to a shelter, or try to get him into a program that could help him live independently.

But just as we might want to “help” our modern-day Bartimaeus, we might also quietly judge him, wondering if he wasn’t somehow responsible for his situation. And our blame would likely lead us to distrust him. We might wonder if he was trying to manipulate our emotions, or outright scam us. Or, could he be mentally ill and dangerous?

The more we thought about these things, the more we might, like the disciples in the ancient story, talk ourselves out of responding to his need, and just wish he would be quiet.

While thoughts like these might have been behind the disciples’ hushing of Bartimaeus, Jesus thought nothing of the sort. Jesus took Bartimaeus as he presented himself, as a good, capable and competent man who had a particular need for help. So Jesus met his need.

Yesterday, First Church hosted an event put on by the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ, called Reviving Justice. Following a spirited worship service participants attended presentations and panel discussions on a variety of justice issues. My colleague, Rev. Damaris Whittaker, was the Revival Preacher. Some will remember Pastor Whittaker; she participated in my installation and has preached here.

Now serving Fort Washington Collegiate Church in Manhattan, Pastor Whittaker has led her church on five mission trips to Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria devastated the island a little more than a year ago. Herself Puerto Rican with family still on the island, Pastor Damaris provides a meaningful connection between her mission team and the people they were serving. They made their first trip there just as soon as commercial airlines resumed service, and they were the first ones to enter with relief supplies in some of the areas they visited. They went door to door, delivering non-perishable food and kits to purify drinking water. As they approached one of the central cities, they passed a hand-painted sign that read, “Los Olvidados,” The Forgotten Ones. Despite the complete absence of any government relief, the residents of the city were unwilling to wait passively for help. When they arrived, the church’s mission team found that the residents had already cleared the streets and highways themselves. Pastor Damaris describes being deeply moved when residents would end every encounter with the words, “We are alive, thanks be to God.”

Relationship, Respect, and Resources.

Note that these mission trips to Puerto Rico have many of the same qualities as Jesus’s encounter with Bartimaeus. The help provided is grounded in a personal relationship and respect. Even as leaders passed them by, like Bartimaeus, those that needed help proved to be faithful and capable advocates for themselves.

Which brings us to our mission to Uganda. Some of you know that the founding of the Masooli clinic began with a relationship between Nancy and Gordon Crouch and Faith Mulira. A nurse in Uganda, Faith fled the violence of Idi Amin’s regime and worked as a nurse’s aide here in Connecticut which is where she met Gordon and Nancy. Faith dreamed of returning to Uganda to open a clinic for people in her hometown of Masooli. And after lots of faith, hard work, and generosity from Gordon, Nancy and many others, the Faith Mulira Health Care Center opened its doors about twelve years ago.

Each year, our local board, the Masooli Project, has raised over half the income for the clinic. But no one from the church or board has been back to the clinic since it opened, until this summer.

Just as many in the crowd and among the disciples were quick to judge Bartimaeus, it would have been easy to question the work of the clinic, especially as the years went by without meeting the clinic staff face to face. In fact we had begun to ask seemingly reasonable questions. Is the money being well-managed? Is the staff well-trained and committed to their work? And most of all, is quality, affordable health care being delivered to those who need it most. Of course there is nothing wrong with these questions themselves, but without the respect that is born from relationships, the questions could imply suspicion and judgment.

I described the way we might react to a modern day Bartimaeus begging on the sidewalk, with pity and a desire to help, but also with suspicion and fear of being taken advantage of. I confess I wondered about these things when we set out on our 32 hour journey to Uganda.

Any doubts and judgements were quickly dispelled upon arriving at the clinic. Not only did we create new relationships, we were able to see the need with our own eyes. And just as Jesus respected Bartimaeus as able and competent, we got to see the entire clinic and its staff as extraordinarily capable. The clinic director, doctors, nurses, pharmacist, lab technician, and business manager were all the equivalent of their contemporaries in the United States, and the clinic functioned like a well-run American community health center.

And like Bartimaeus, through no fault of their own, the Faith Mulira Clinic simply lacks the resources necessary to entirely succeed on their own. Remember, I wondered whether some trauma had rendered Bartimaeus blind, unable to live independently. In Uganda we don’t need to wonder; the country suffered first under Idi Amin’s violent dictatorship, then experienced a series of civil wars that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives over decades. Though more stable now, the current government is also a dictatorship, and clinic staff joked with us that they might be jailed if they opposed the government.

I share this background because, like Bartimaeus, who maintained faith, hope, agency and competence despite the trauma that rendered him blind and dependent, so the people of Uganda in general and the clinic staff in particular, have likely experienced trauma unimaginable to us, yet remain extraordinarily faithful, hopeful, capable, and even cheerful. They lack only the resources to be successful on their own.

Relationship, Respect, and Resources.

As I said, on Friday, November 9, the Masooli Project board, of which I am a member, will be hosting a fundraising dinner. A video filmed and edited by son of the church Kirk Scully will debut there, and Karen Callahan, Heather Duncan and I will tell stories of our time there while showing some stunning photographs of our visit (you will see some of those photos displayed in Palmer Hall this morning). Those who attend the dinner will be asked to make a gift or pledge to support the clinic. There is an invitation in your bulletin, and you may rsvp to heather at the email address listed there.

Relationship, Respect, and Resources, a good model for our mission to the clinic in Uganda, an important model for stewardship, a faithful model for our lives, and an essential model for our world.