Joan Brown Campbell - "Eyes of Faith" (January 12, 1992)

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	Good	0:06
	morning.	0:06
	It's a wonderful thing to be here with you today. Your Dean has reminded	0:09
	me this morning that we were together a year ago and when he said that	0:14
	it seemed impossible to, to really recall	0:19
	that we were together there in that magnificent Washington Cathedral in	0:23
	a prayer service of some, I think estimated, eight, nine thousand	0:27
	people, praying that our nation would not go to war. And it	0:33
	seems almost impossible that that was only a year ago.	0:37
	Rosetta Breeze, thank you, God bless you. What a marvelous voice.	0:42
	I can hardly stand to have her sing and not have this congregation say a loud	0:48
	and rousing "Amen." Let's try it.	0:53
	Little did she know that my conversion and my reason	0:58
	for being the General Secretary of the National Council is almost entirely	1:03
	owed to the black church and to my experiences there.	1:08
	So Rosetta, you couldn't have made me feel more at home.	1:14
	And how can we listen to that and not believe that in fact she loves Jesus with all her heart.	1:17
	It's	1:23
	magnificent. Our sermon this morning is based on the reading from Mark.	1:24
	It is the story of blind Bartimaeus. And Hans-Ruedi Weber of the World Council	1:28
	of Churches, who was a missionary in Asia, told	1:33
	me a long time ago that unless we can tell the bible	1:37
	stories without reading them from the Scripture, we really don't know them.	1:41
	We have to remember that, in fact, the Bible stories were handed down from person	1:46
	to person as oral tradition. And so if we really want to come to	1:51
	know those stories, we have to know them and feel them and under.stand them well	1:56
	enough that we can tell them and in telling them ourselves, we begin	2:01
	to contextualize them into our time and place. Can you	2:06
	not imagine in our time and place a blind Bartimaeus.	2:10
	Imagine Jesus walking along and, you know, well-known people always	2:16
	have people pulling at their coattails and they always have people trying	2:20
	to save them from those people that are pulling at their coattail.	2:25
	And in part the story is about Jesus understanding	2:30
	that he needed to talk to Bartimaeus and he needed to hear his story. And you	2:35
	can just see the disciples all saying to Bartimaeus, who	2:40
	probably was not the cleanest, certainly	2:44
	not the most dressed up of those walking along, shoving him aside	2:46
	and telling him that Jesus was really quite busy and had another engagement.	2:51
	And really, he should stop bothering	2:57
	him. And then the story goes on to tell us that Jesus, of course, does	2:59
	turn to Bartimaeus and he asks Bartimaeus what he wants.	3:04
	And Bartimaeus says to him in the Hebrew, "Rabbi"	3:10
	or teacher, "I want my sight."	3:14
	But it's interesting, he says, "I want to see	3:18
	again." And Jesus says to him, "Go, your	3:23
	faith has made you well."	3:29
	And so, it is not so much Jesus the healer but	3:32
	the faith of Bartimaeus himself. It is, I think, a very	3:36
	important	3:42
	story, a very powerful story. And perhaps it will	3:43
	help	3:47
	us with the present reality that we face here in this country.	3:48
	I come to you from New York	3:53
	City. I live in Manhattan, right in the city of New York	3:56
	where poverty and pain confront us on a daily basis and	4:01
	at our very doorstep. There may be many Bartimaeuses	4:06
	who walk along the streets of no more, of New York	4:11
	City. No more can you walk down Broadway even	4:15
	in the quote unquote "better parts of town," without having	4:20
	to wind your way through numerous homeless people.	4:24
	Increasingly they refuse to be	4:29
	ignored and desperation makes them all the more aggressive.	4:32
	Those of us who live in the city have, I'm afraid, learned to simply walk	4:36
	by, to tell ourselves that possibly theirs is just	4:42
	a	4:46
	hustle. And that, after all, giving them small amounts of money won't really help	4:46
	the situation. It's, after all, a matter of social	4:51
	policy. But as the number of homeless	4:55
	grow and the conditions of life clearly worsen, as	4:59
	jobs become harder and harder for college graduates to find and	5:04
	increasingly middle class white collar workers find	5:10
	themselves	5:14
	unemployed, we ask ourselves, "Where	5:16
	is justice" or worse, we	5:19
	close our eyes to the plight and ask no	5:23
	questions at all.	5:28
	There is a wonderful true story about Andrew Young, the former mayor	5:30
	of Atlanta and a minister of the United Church of	5:35
	Christ. He became very distressed about the homeless problem in Atlanta.	5:39
	And when he was the mayor, he decided that he was going to dress in old clothes and live on the street for	5:44
	a few days to experience the	5:50
	problem, to see what he could learn firsthand. Well, you can imagine	5:53
	how that news was received at City Hall.	5:58
	The cynics discouraged him and told him that it was really one of his less	6:01
	bright ideas, that he would be recognized easily since he was on	6:06
	television practically nightly, and that the experiment would be totally useless, a	6:11
	waste of	6:15
	time. And the classic, of course, was beside that, they needed him at City Hall.	6:17
	The fact of the matter is that he did go into the streets. And much to his	6:22
	surprise and everyone else's, no	6:27
	one recognized him. Not because his disguise was so good but	6:30
	because, as	6:36
	he discovered, no one looks clearly into the face of	6:38
	the homeless. So he went unrecognized.	6:42
	The poor are faceless and nameless to	6:47
	most of us. You could say that we	6:51
	choose not to see and to the degree that	6:56
	we choose not to see the pain and the poverty and the suffering around	7:00
	us, we are as blind as Bartimaeus.	7:05
	The cry of Bartimaeus is "Teacher, rabbi,	7:10
	let me see again." And Jesus says to	7:16
	him, "Go forth, your faith has made you well."	7:20
	Think how often the parables of healing that refer to	7:26
	Jesus never credit Jesus himself with	7:33
	the	7:36
	healing. But almost always,	7:37
	Jesus credits the faith of the one who is healed with the cure.	7:41
	So Bartimaeus went forth that day not only able to see, not	7:47
	only freed from blindness, but much more importantly, gifted	7:52
	with the eyes of faith and that,	7:58
	my friends, is	8:01
	the point of the parable, for our life and our times.	8:02
	It says in Isaiah, justice is far from us and does not	8:08
	reach us. We wait for light but lo, there is	8:13
	only darkness. We are afflicted in our time with a kind	8:18
	of spiritual blindness, the	8:22
	kind of blindness that only	8:25
	faith will cure. But the eyes	8:29
	of faith do not see the world in the same way that others do.	8:33
	The eyes of faith see pain and problems and injustice.	8:38
	And the eyes of	8:45
	faith are unable to ignore that	8:46
	reality. Bartimaeus' wellness depended	8:50
	upon	8:55
	the depth of his faith. On first reading of the parable it	8:56
	might be easy to miss its deeper meaning. For we assume, of	9:01
	course, that anyone who is blind would prefer to	9:07
	be sighted.	9:10
	But when we begin to think more deeply we recognize	9:12
	that with the gift of	9:17
	sight, especially with the eyes of faith, comes	9:19
	responsibility and often, it is	9:25
	easier and less disruptive to remain in the world of darkness.	9:28
	Anyone who has ever been involved or had anyone they	9:35
	love be involved in any kind of therapy knows	9:39
	that precisely this is the root of good therapy, to	9:44
	remove the blindness.	9:49
	But anyone ever engaged in a kind of therapy knows	9:52
	very well that the removal of the	9:57
	blindness and the ability to function effectively requires	10:01
	a great deal of pain.	10:05
	So it is easier, often, and	10:10
	less disruptive to remain in a world of	10:12
	darkness. Not everyone wants to see.	10:16
	I have just returned from South	10:22
	Africa, that place where in these days pain	10:25
	and hope are mixed with equal portions. It is	10:29
	a world	10:34
	apart from ours and yet I think it is enough like ours to	10:35
	illumine our darkness. I want to tell you a true story out of the South	10:39
	African	10:44
	struggle. And it seemed important to me, because of	10:45
	who you are in this congregation, that	10:49
	I not tell you the story of Desmond Tutu or	10:53
	Allan Boesak or Frank Chikane or	10:57
	other of those	11:01
	blacks for whom the South African	11:04
	struggle is their very life. But I am going	11:07
	to tell you the story, a true story about a white	11:11
	man. A white man who could have avoided the	11:16
	struggle but in fact chose to be in the middle of it.	11:21
	The man's name is Beyers Naude.	11:27
	I am not surprised if you don't know his name because	11:30
	he has never been the one whose name has made the papers.	11:35
	But if you look at the negotiating sessions and if you know	11:40
	Beyers as I	11:45
	do, you will see sitting at the right hand of Nelson Mandela, one Beyers Nau	11:46
	de and when I tell you his story, you will know just how	11:51
	remarkable that is. Beyers Naude is now seventy four years old.	11:53
	He is a man	11:57
	with his eyes wide open to all that surrounds	12:03
	him. But it was not always that	12:04
	way. When Beyers was a young man, he was bright and	12:07
	articulate, a rising star in South African society and	12:10
	in the Dutch Reformed Church where he was ordained to the	12:16
	pastorate. He was, when he was very young, given a large and	12:20
	prestigious congregation in the suburbs of Johannesburg.	12:25
	And very soon he was elected to a very special group of young men, yes, all men, called	12:29
	the Broederbond.	12:33
	They are the creme de la creme of South African	12:39
	society and of the Dutch Reformed Church. And as	12:42
	such, they were the architects and the	12:46
	defenders of the system of apartheid.	12:50
	Never forget, my friends, that apartheid was	12:54
	designed and defended by church leaders on matters	12:58
	of faith. It's chief proponent was	13:03
	the Dutch Reformed Church and Beyers Naude was	13:07
	slated by his colleagues to become a future state	13:11
	president of South	13:16
	Africa after he gained proper experience.	13:21
	But God had hold of Beyers and would not let him rest.	13:23
	He kept talking to the blacks that worked in his	13:27
	house, that worked near his church. That may not	13:33
	seem remarkable to you but forty years ago, that was not the	13:37
	pattern in	13:41
	South Africa. He wrestled with their	13:46
	plight and his conscience was gradually, like,	13:47
	dripping water on a stone being pricked. After	13:51
	the Sharpeville massacre where hundreds were killed, he	13:55
	could no longer rest easy and he asked to go into the Black areas. It's	14:00
	a small	14:04
	thing. But so like Beyers not just to	14:09
	go and interject	14:10
	himself but to ask permission to go.	14:14
	He wanted to see for himself the conditions of	14:16
	life for these children	14:20
	of Africa. You see, they were then and to some	14:25
	degree still are today virtually	14:27
	invisible. One can visit South Africa, clearly	14:31
	one of the most beautiful nations in this world, and one can	14:34
	come away never	14:39
	having encountered the areas in which the native	14:44
	people of South Africa live and work and	14:46
	have their being. But Beyers asked to go and see for himself.	14:50
	And once he	14:54
	saw, he knew for a certainty what	15:00
	he already knew in his heart, that what he saw was a travesty for	15:02
	human dignity and human freedom.	15:06
	And one could almost hear him say "Teacher, rabbi, let	15:13
	me see again." And his deep-seated faith removed	15:17
	the years of blindness and Beyers became one of the nation's	15:24
	most ardent and effective anti-apartheid	15:30
	activist.	15:35
	Yes, he paid heavily to be a sighted person. He	15:39
	was defrocked by his church, stripped literally of	15:41
	his robe and his clergy credentials.	15:45
	The day that he was asked to step down from his pulpit, he was literally	15:50
	asked by his congregation to remove his	15:55
	robe and to leave it on the pulpit	16:00
	chair. And without his robe that day he walked to	16:05
	the back of the church no longer recognized as a	16:09
	minister in the Dutch Reformed Church.	16:12
	He was ostracized by his friends, he was banned by his government.	16:17
	And if I had known that we were going to have such a fine soloist I	16:20
	would have asked her to work with me. Because nothing would have been more	16:26
	appropriate to sing here than that wonderful	16:31
	gospel	16:36
	song, "He touched me." Because what	16:41
	really happened to Beyers was he was touched in that special way by	16:41
	the hand of Jesus. And even as his worldly	16:46
	fortunes dwindled, his spirit	16:51
	soared, his faith had indeed made him strong and	16:57
	well and whole. And today he is a giant	16:59
	of a man, more than we will ever know except those of us who know	17:03
	him personally. History will never	17:07
	record the many times that he has interjected	17:12
	himself between Mandela and de Klerk because you see he's	17:16
	virtually bilingual, not only literally but figuratively. He	17:21
	has lived in both these worlds.	17:26
	He is one who says and speaks the truth in a place where	17:30
	most	17:32
	have preferred blindness. And for Beyers, the suffering	17:37
	is not over. He will never receive credit unless	17:38
	his children tell the story.	17:42
	His role will probably never be clearly known. He will never	17:48
	play a leadership	17:51
	role in the country that he has helped to free.	17:56
	In fact, the thought would never occur to	17:58
	him for he knows that his task is to prepare the	18:02
	way for native African leadership.	18:05
	Beyers has given much to South	18:10
	Africa and to the Church of Jesus	18:15
	Christ and I am proud to say to the ecumenical movement.	18:18
	He is one of the finest of the ecumenical leaders in the world today.	18:20
	He followed Desmond Tutu as director of the South African Council of Churches, mind	18:25
	you, he came out of	18:31
	retirement to take that difficult job when Desmond	18:37
	was elected a bishop. And he said then that he would only	18:39
	stay	18:44
	there until black leadership was identified and that's	18:48
	precisely what he did. But he was there at a very crucial	18:49
	time. And he has also	18:54
	suffered and been crucified. Make no mistake about	18:58
	it. To be given the eyes of	19:01
	faith is always and forever a	19:06
	disruptive experience. To be given the	19:08
	eyes of	19:13
	faith is always and	19:17
	forever a disruptive experience.	19:19
	After leaving the Dutch Reformed Church, Beyers spent most of his life in	19:21
	the ecumenical movement for there he found a	19:27
	home, there he found	19:32
	kindred souls who were also able to see what the rest of	19:35
	the world chose to	19:37
	ignore. That, I think, my friends, is both a gift and	19:42
	the challenge of the ecumenical movement. The ecumenical	19:44
	movement connects us with people who are very different from us and	19:49
	it is	19:54
	their	19:58
	that sharpens our vision and gives us a new way of	19:59
	seeing the reality around us.	20:09
	One of our most severe blind spots today is our inability	20:14
	to see that God intends for us to be one people, that	20:16
	God intends that we behave as family with	20:22
	those who share this	20:28
	planet with us.	20:32
	At least a part of the present difficulties faced by the ecumenical movement is	20:34
	rooted in the spiritual blindness that afflicts us as a	20:36
	nation. Any institution that	20:42
	continues to ask us to be with people who make us	20:47
	uncomfortable, with people who are not like us, with people	20:51
	who challenge our basic	20:56
	beliefs, any institution that asks us to see our	20:59
	racism, our sexism, our homophobia, our	21:02
	coldness toward the poor and the	21:06
	unlovely, toward the homeless,	21:11
	any institution	21:16
	that asks that of us can never expect to be popular.	21:18
	Yet, at their finest, ecumenical	21:20
	bodies	21:26
	are pressing us to the kind of faith that will open our eyes and	21:29
	our hearts, to a world of need around us. This is	21:30
	the necessary first	21:34
	step to solving the problems of violence and	21:39
	poverty and despair that plague us as a	21:42
	nation. The most confrontive message of today's	21:46
	parable is the awesome	21:49
	truth that Jesus expects us	21:54
	to be partners in our own salvation.	21:56
	The parable tells us that it is our	22:01
	faith that will make us	22:06
	well, that will heal our spiritual sickness.	22:10
	You heard her sing this morning, "God is real. I can	22:12
	feel God deep in my soul."	22:17
	It is that kind of	22:22
	faith that is needed	22:25
	to help us beyond our spiritual blindness. It is a radical	22:28
	idea to believe that the healing of the nations may just depend	22:31
	on the faith of those persons who have the eyes of	22:36
	faith. And yet, it may just be true but	22:40
	let us always be mindful of the reality that the eyes of faith see	22:45
	no boundaries, no	22:50
	special class of people, no color, no nationality and	22:55
	even more so, no faith more right than	22:56
	another. But our	23:01
	faith is based on love and	23:04
	it is our	23:07
	understanding that we are one	23:10
	people. For Christian people, it is the eucharist, it	23:13
	is the communion that calls us regularly to this understanding. It is	23:15
	at the table of the Lord that we remember that Jesus suffered and	23:18
	died for all humanity.	23:23
	The gospel song says, "the debt of love is ours."	23:28
	There we remember and are called to familial relationships.	23:32
	We are, you see, related to our sisters and brothers in	23:38
	this world by blood.	23:44
	It is not a casual relationship. We are related by the blood of	23:49
	Jesus and redeemed by his passion and his suffering.	23:51
	Communion may be a very personal moment but my friends it is	23:58
	never, never a privatistic event.	24:03
	It is instead a covenant to be community with all of God's	24:09
	creation. In the Middle East there is a cultural tradition that	24:12
	instructs us in the meaning of this meal.	24:18
	Now in the sophisticated times of today, I don't suppose that it is	24:23
	fully carried out. Yet there are still parts of the Middle East where	24:26
	this tradition holds	24:31
	true. You had better not accept an invitation to dinner in the	24:36
	Middle East easily.	24:37
	We're learning more and more about the Middle East these days as we watch carefully the peace process.	24:42
	And we come to know that the Middle East is a place where symbols and gestures have	24:44
	enormous meaning.	24:50
	Sometimes we say you must understand the smoke and mirrors if you are to understand what's going	24:57
	on in the Middle East.	25:00
	If you are invited to a person's home in the Middle East and you are invited to share a meal	25:05
	with them, you are, then, considered to be part of that family.	25:06
	And in some measure that is still true in Jewish tradition even	25:12
	outside of the Middle East. Not only are you invited, but you	25:17
	are expected then to call on that family forever, for anything	25:22
	that you might want - money, health, anything	25:27
	you might need. And remember, it was in this land, with	25:32
	this tradition, that the Jewish Jesus invited	25:36
	his disciples to supper. And it is in that same spirit that	25:41
	God invites all of God's children to that	25:47
	table, all over the world, week after	25:53
	week, year after year, age after age.	25:57
	And the people of	26:01
	God come to that table with	26:07
	familial privileges hosted by a God who showed his	26:08
	love for us on the cross and who	26:11
	expects that we will love one another.	26:16
	God's love for us is not now nor has it ever been platonic.	26:21
	We dare not offer	26:24
	less to our neighbors.	26:31
	Rabbi, teacher, Help me to see	26:33
	again.	26:37
	Forgetting about.	26:47
	Forgetting about.	26:51

Item Info

Title:

Joan Brown Campbell - "Eyes of Faith" (January 12, 1992)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 0:06. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 26:47.
As the preacher repeats twice, "to be given the eyes of faith is always and forever a disruptive epxerience." Things will have to change once we learn to see, to pay attention to the brutalities and travesties that surrounds us. We can choose to ignore it or we can through our faith work towards transformation. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: "To be given the eyes of faith is always and forever a disruptive epxerience."

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4v11w10r

Date:

January 12, 1992

Speaker:

Campbell, Joan Brown

Liturgical Calendar:

Christmas

Biblical Book:

Mark

Chapter and Verse:

Mark 10:46-52

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0575
ref9047_joj
uachapelsermaud
duke:320815
dcrau001407
ark:/87924/r4v11w10r
6dbbc1bf-4e89-465f-80f9-3d55f4dfacf6

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Joan Brown Campbell - "Eyes of Faith" (January 12, 1992)

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