Into the Blue
About a week and a half ago, 11 days to be exact, the world watched William Shatner, the actor most famous for his role as Captain James Tiberius Kirk on the original Star Trek TV show and movies, actually rocket into space and safely return aboard the Blue Origin.
At 90 years of age, with a whole life of extraordinary experiences, here was a chance to experience in real life what he had portrayed on the little and big screen.
I don’t know what he said after they landed before they opened the capsule door. I know what I want him to have said. I know what I needed him to say. For me, he needed to fix his steely gaze on the other passengers and say, “Phasers on stun.”
What he said when he came out was stirring. He said that he had some idea what to expect with the G-forces going up and the weightlessness, and seeing the earth as a blue ball. We all have some idea of what that might be like.
But what he didn’t anticipate and what really stunned him was the suddenness of seeing the incredibly beautiful blue of our atmosphere and watching it, as he said, “…flip by you, now you’re staring into blackness. That’s the thing. The covering of blue, this sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue we have around us, we think, ‘Oh, that’s blue sky.’ The suddenly you shoot through it all, as though you rip off the sheet when you are asleep, and you’re looking into blackness, into black ugliness. And look down and there’s the blue down there and the black up there. It’s just, there is mother and earth and comfort, and there is, is there death? I don’t know. Is that death, is that the way death is? Whoop and it’s gone…What is unknown, until you do it, is this pillow, is this soft blue, the beauty of that color, and it’s so thin, and you’re through it in an instant…It’s the suddenness of life and death.” (If you’d like to watch his reaction, click this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTfQVMH5SuI)
What he said is true. We are able to look deeper into space and know more about it now than ever before. While we see our night sky filed with billions of stars and the brightness of planets and our sun and moon, the truth is everything in space is impossibly distant and it is mostly a vacuum. God is in all of it, of course, and pondering that teaches us something about the greatness of God. But space is almost entirely devoid of biological life and would mean nearly instant death for us. While scientists are constantly looking for the possibility of life out there, somewhere, even if they discovered life on another planet or on a thousand other planets, it would still be exceedingly rare. Our life is here. How precious this planet must be to the one who created it! I imagine a galaxy or a supernova is quite something for God to see in all its power, but his most precious creation is here.
Let us keep that image in mind as we turn to today’s gospel. As Jesus works his way from Galilee to Jerusalem it makes sense to follow the River Jordan down to Jericho, where he will then turn toward Jerusalem. This scene is dripping with imagery.
Jericho was and remains today physically the lowest city in the world. You’ll recall Jericho was the gateway through which Joshua led Israel into their conquest of the Promised Land. It is 846 feet below sea level. From there, Jesus will have a physical ascent of over 3,300 feet across 20 miles to Jerusalem, which is 2474 feet above sea level. And in the very next scene in Mark’s gospel, Jesus will make his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, where he will face the conflict for the Kingdom of God.
It is here, in this lowest of low places and on the very edge of the new creation that Jesus encounters blind Bartimaeus, begging in the street as he always has. He cannot see Jesus, but he can hear what is happening and he knows Jesus is near.
When he gains his sight, it must have been like the reverse of what William Shatner described, or maybe what Shatner experienced on reentry. For Bartimaeus, everything was dark, black. The pall that his blindness laid across the rest of his life in that time was severe. Thank God we have so many adaptations that help the blind lead fulfilling and productive lives today, but back then he wasn’t able to work. He apparently had sight at one point and lost it. His life was likely mostly about survival and hoping no one attacked him.
When Jesus restored his sight, suddenly that dark pall was torn away, as though a sheet was ripped off and Bartimaeus could see life again. He could see the incredibly blue sky. Every shade of every color exploded into his awareness – all the blues, and yellows, reds, greens and oranges – every shade of every color in all their subtlety. Is that like life? Yes!
That is what is about to happen for the whole world. Jesus will go up to Jerusalem and be welcomed as the Son of David. He will endure his trial, suffering and death. Then his disciples will see the universe as it truly is for the first time, in light of the resurrected Christ. He will emerge from his tomb as the first fruit of the New Creation.
And there is more. The gift God gave us in Christ is an invitation to see the world as he sees it. Upon acceptance of Christ, upon true conversion, the veil of death, of hopelessness, the strife of life’s unending pains and sorrows is suddenly torn away and we are able to glimpse the joy and wonder of God’s love for his creation and for his people.
That glimpse is critical to life. If Jesus isn’t your ultimate goal, what is? Money? Power? Sex? Fun? Those are all, literally, dead ends. Life is too rare, too precious, too quick on this earth to settle for less than the joy, the grace, the hope and the love that God gives us in Christ. I truly believe that when we enter into Christ’s nearer presence, when we enter God’s Kingdom finally, it will be more beautiful than we can even hope.
Let’s consider that in light of our dear friend Eleanor. She came into our fellowship to train as a deacon almost a year ago. Immediately we all saw and marveled at the bright light of God’s grace shining through her presence, her warmth, her service, her reading and her preaching. Some of that was in her perseverance through the effects of her rheumatoid arthritis, which holds her back sometimes. Just beautiful. But this has also been a terribly difficult year for her as well. She and her dear husband Terry contacted COVID. Although Terry was vaccinated, he died. But Eleanor’s faith has given her sight to see her way forward through all these challenges. Eleanor’s recovery has been long and slow, but she is getting stronger day by day.
In those dark times, she has kept her eye on Jesus. She knows whose she is. And we are so very blessed to have her assigned to be with us. She will continue, by her ministry and by her example, to help us see Christ and his Kingdom, bringing hope and joy.
AMEN