1 00:00:02,900 --> 00:00:04,900 In the name of Jesus. Amen. 2 00:00:08,600 --> 00:00:10,400 They called him the beast. 3 00:00:12,100 --> 00:00:16,000 I saw pictures of Pastor Ron when he was a student here. 4 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:19,900 I think they're still down there in the field house in the hallway. 5 00:00:21,900 --> 00:00:26,800 They were pictures of him as a basketball player playing for the the 6 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:27,400 Preachers. 7 00:00:28,300 --> 00:00:33,200 And I heard that they called in the Beast because no one could contend 8 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:36,200 with him for a rebound, downlow in the paint. 9 00:00:37,100 --> 00:00:42,300 The beast but the nickname apparently stuck for other reasons than 10 00:00:42,300 --> 00:00:48,700 basketball. When Vicarage year came Ron volunteered for a year-long 11 00:00:48,700 --> 00:00:51,900 vicarage mission vicarage in Panama. 12 00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:54,400 And he drove there. 13 00:00:55,900 --> 00:00:58,300 He drove from St. 14 00:00:58,300 --> 00:00:58,500 Louis thorough Mexico to Central 15 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:07,200 America in a 1967 Dodge Dart, they called him the Beast. And then after 16 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:12,600 graduation he volunteered to go be a missionary to the Enge peoples 17 00:01:12,600 --> 00:01:16,100 of the remote Highlands in Papua New Guinea and he spent the next 18 00:01:16,100 --> 00:01:20,700 eight years in the highlands trekking through the jungle trails hacking 19 00:01:20,700 --> 00:01:25,200 his way through the jungle with a machete and sleeping on the ground 20 00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:31,000 and killing snakes and preaching the coming kingdom of God. And years 21 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:34,800 later when I was a student here at the Seminary and I heard people 22 00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:36,300 talk about Pastor Ron 23 00:01:36,300 --> 00:01:40,200 they still called him the Beast. 24 00:01:42,700 --> 00:01:43,700 Over the last 10 years. 25 00:01:43,700 --> 00:01:47,200 I've gotten to know Pastor Ron more deeply. 26 00:01:48,300 --> 00:01:51,700 And I saw his heart as a pastor. 27 00:01:53,700 --> 00:01:58,600 I saw him interact with children and with the elderly, with 28 00:01:58,600 --> 00:02:00,000 developmentally disabled adults. 29 00:02:02,300 --> 00:02:03,000 In many ways 30 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:06,100 I still see him as the Beast. 31 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:11,300 But I have another clearer picture of him now. 32 00:02:12,800 --> 00:02:19,900 My initial picture of the the power forward the Highland tricking 33 00:02:19,900 --> 00:02:24,300 snake crushing agent of the Kingdom wasn't false. 34 00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:27,700 It was just blurry. 35 00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:32,100 Over this year 36 00:02:32,100 --> 00:02:36,300 we're going to be listening to The Gospel According to Mark in our 37 00:02:36,300 --> 00:02:37,800 appointed gospel readings. 38 00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:42,900 And the gospel of Mark is in many ways as my teacher. 39 00:02:42,900 --> 00:02:45,500 Jim Voetlz says is about seeing. 40 00:02:46,700 --> 00:02:49,900 It's about seeing Jesus more clearly. 41 00:02:51,700 --> 00:02:55,400 Because when we come to see Jesus as Mark reveals that usually happens 42 00:02:55,400 --> 00:03:03,900 in stages. There is an initial blurry picture of Jesus and then there's 43 00:03:03,900 --> 00:03:04,500 a second one. 44 00:03:05,500 --> 00:03:06,500 that's clearer. 45 00:03:10,300 --> 00:03:15,600 In this initial blurriness isn't any problem with Jesus. 46 00:03:16,800 --> 00:03:18,200 The problems with us. 47 00:03:19,100 --> 00:03:22,900 The myopic vision is in us. 48 00:03:25,100 --> 00:03:30,100 It's because you and I we we tend to see Jesus we tend to see 49 00:03:30,100 --> 00:03:35,200 ourselves and our place in the world through the distorted lens of 50 00:03:35,200 --> 00:03:35,700 power. 51 00:03:38,400 --> 00:03:40,900 Think about your most pressing problems. 52 00:03:42,100 --> 00:03:44,100 Your most urgent problems today. 53 00:03:46,300 --> 00:03:47,400 What do they all have in common? 54 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:54,000 I'm guessing it has something to do with power or lack of it. 55 00:03:55,400 --> 00:03:59,300 You need more brain power more buying power. 56 00:04:02,100 --> 00:04:06,600 You need more willpower and muscle power and more 57 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:14,100 willpower and spiritual power you need more administrative power, 58 00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:20,700 more social power, more institutional power, more ecclesial power. 59 00:04:26,200 --> 00:04:30,700 That's how we tend to see ourselves in this world and the first 60 00:04:30,700 --> 00:04:31,400 followers of Jesus 61 00:04:31,400 --> 00:04:36,300 they tended to see things in the same distorted light. 62 00:04:39,100 --> 00:04:44,000 They were keenly aware of their place in the Roman Empire and their 63 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:46,300 lack of power, but they had this promise. 64 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:54,800 They ad a promise of a Messiah who would come in power for God's people 65 00:04:54,800 --> 00:04:56,900 and in the first half of the Gospel of Mark 66 00:04:56,900 --> 00:04:59,300 Jesus is doing just that. 67 00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:07,100 He's crashing the boards. Trekking around Galilee dismantling demonic 68 00:05:07,100 --> 00:05:12,000 strongholds working mighty works of power. 69 00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:14,700 Like lightning 70 00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:22,800 flashing from a trembling Mount Sinai power is literally radiating out 71 00:05:22,800 --> 00:05:23,400 of Jesus. 72 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:27,900 And this picture of him it's not false. 73 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:31,100 It's just blurry. 74 00:05:35,500 --> 00:05:37,200 And Mark wants us to see more and so 75 00:05:38,300 --> 00:05:42,300 he gives us this peculiar account. 76 00:05:43,100 --> 00:05:45,000 Right in the middle of his gospel. 77 00:05:46,600 --> 00:05:48,400 Sometimes we skip right over it. 78 00:05:49,400 --> 00:05:54,200 It's an account that no other gospel writer tells us about, only Mark, 79 00:05:54,200 --> 00:05:59,800 and Mark puts it right there in the middle like a hinge to hold the 80 00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:02,100 two halves of the Gospel together. 81 00:06:04,100 --> 00:06:09,800 Now on the one hand, it is a real literal historical event in the life 82 00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:13,900 and Ministry of Jesus and on the other hand 83 00:06:15,500 --> 00:06:18,400 Mark puts it there because he wants us to see more. 84 00:06:19,900 --> 00:06:22,100 He wants us to see ourselves in the story. 85 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:29,800 It happened when Jesus and his disciples were trekking through Galilee 86 00:06:29,800 --> 00:06:33,500 and they go into Beth-Sida. 87 00:06:34,700 --> 00:06:36,900 They bring the him a blind man. 88 00:06:37,900 --> 00:06:41,000 They plead with Jesus that he touch him. 89 00:06:42,300 --> 00:06:49,100 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside of the village. 90 00:06:50,300 --> 00:06:55,800 And after he spit in his eyes and placed his hands on him 91 00:06:55,800 --> 00:06:56,900 He asked him. 92 00:06:58,400 --> 00:06:59,200 You see anything? 93 00:07:00,800 --> 00:07:03,100 And upon looking up the the man says 94 00:07:07,200 --> 00:07:08,200 I see, I see. 95 00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:15,500 I see people walking around like trees. 96 00:07:16,500 --> 00:07:21,600 I do see, because I see the people walking around like trees. 97 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:27,500 Jesus placed his hands on his eyes again. 98 00:07:29,300 --> 00:07:31,100 And he began to stare 99 00:07:32,100 --> 00:07:33,000 with eyes 100 00:07:34,100 --> 00:07:34,800 wide open 101 00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:37,800 he was restored. 102 00:07:42,500 --> 00:07:44,800 He started seeing everything clearly. 103 00:07:48,100 --> 00:07:54,800 Jesus has made this man a living Parable for us. 104 00:07:57,400 --> 00:07:59,500 Now, yes, he actually healed him. 105 00:07:59,500 --> 00:08:05,000 He actually restored his physical sight Jesus really is that powerful 106 00:08:06,300 --> 00:08:07,300 and there's more. 107 00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:13,200 Because you and I who have come to look at Jesus through the eyes of 108 00:08:13,200 --> 00:08:13,400 faith 109 00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:15,400 we see in stages. 110 00:08:16,400 --> 00:08:19,900 And when I listen to the first half of the Gospel of Mark, I am 111 00:08:19,900 --> 00:08:25,300 attracted to the powerful Jesus because so much of my life and so many 112 00:08:25,300 --> 00:08:30,300 of my problems and my frustrations I see in terms of power or lack of 113 00:08:30,300 --> 00:08:33,299 it and maybe you see things the same way. 114 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:41,200 But Jesus reveals himself most profoundly 115 00:08:42,299 --> 00:08:44,600 not in his awesome power 116 00:08:46,500 --> 00:08:48,800 but in his pitiful weakness. 117 00:08:52,100 --> 00:08:56,200 In being rejected and humiliated, killed. 118 00:09:00,900 --> 00:09:05,700 He shows it in his self giving his self emptying to 119 00:09:09,400 --> 00:09:11,900 cover the sins of the multitudes. 120 00:09:14,100 --> 00:09:16,100 Bearing the cross for sinners. 121 00:09:17,800 --> 00:09:20,100 That's where we see Jesus most clearly. 122 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:27,600 It's also where we see him most clearly at work in each other. 123 00:09:30,500 --> 00:09:33,600 I got a clearer picture of Pastor Ron. 124 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:38,000 Not down in the glory of the Fieldhouse. 125 00:09:39,300 --> 00:09:44,000 Crashing the boards in front of a cheering crowd but behind the 126 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:44,100 scenes 127 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:47,000 bearing the cross. 128 00:09:49,400 --> 00:09:55,700 In the dim light of a forgotten room in a low-income nursing home with 129 00:09:55,700 --> 00:10:00,300 a 90 year old woman named Reba who is suffering the onset of dementia. 130 00:10:03,200 --> 00:10:05,500 Pastor Ron says Reba 131 00:10:05,500 --> 00:10:07,300 this is Pastor Ziegler 132 00:10:07,300 --> 00:10:09,200 he's going to be visiting you. 133 00:10:11,200 --> 00:10:13,200 Reba didn't even acknowledge that I was there. 134 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:19,000 She was still grumbling about the terrible people that work in this 135 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:19,400 place. 136 00:10:20,600 --> 00:10:21,500 She was agitated. 137 00:10:22,900 --> 00:10:24,100 The visit was 138 00:10:26,100 --> 00:10:28,100 stilted and awkward. 139 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:34,800 So Pastor Rall, Pastor Ron, transitions us into preparing for the 140 00:10:34,800 --> 00:10:35,300 Lord's Supper. 141 00:10:37,100 --> 00:10:41,400 Any he tells Reba, Reba, we're going to pray. 142 00:10:41,400 --> 00:10:44,300 I'll I'll say the words and you repeat after me. 143 00:10:45,400 --> 00:10:47,800 And so Pastor Ron prays, 144 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:51,200 I a poor miserable sinner 145 00:10:52,500 --> 00:10:53,700 and Reba repeats. 146 00:10:55,300 --> 00:10:58,600 Confess unto you all my sins and iniquities 147 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:01,300 Reba repeats. 148 00:11:02,300 --> 00:11:06,700 Of which I have ever offended you and justly deserved your present 149 00:11:06,700 --> 00:11:09,400 and eternal punishment and Reba repeats. 150 00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:11,800 And then we come to the next part. 151 00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:20,000 But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them and Reba 152 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:20,500 says. 153 00:11:23,700 --> 00:11:24,600 I'm not sorry. 154 00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:32,500 Pastor Ross, Pastor Ron, he's he what did you say Reba? 155 00:11:32,500 --> 00:11:33,600 She says. 156 00:11:35,200 --> 00:11:36,000 I'm not sorry. 157 00:11:38,800 --> 00:11:40,100 So what are you what do you mean 158 00:11:40,100 --> 00:11:41,800 you're not sorry and she says. 159 00:11:44,500 --> 00:11:46,500 Those people said that I couldn't go outside. 160 00:11:47,800 --> 00:11:51,300 But I wanted to go outside and I went outside and they got mad and I'm 161 00:11:51,300 --> 00:11:51,800 not sorry. 162 00:11:53,700 --> 00:11:58,600 Pastor Ron says if I understand you're upset, but that's not what 163 00:11:58,600 --> 00:11:59,200 we're talking about. 164 00:11:59,200 --> 00:11:59,700 Right now. 165 00:11:59,700 --> 00:12:01,400 We're we're talking to God. 166 00:12:01,400 --> 00:12:02,900 We're confessing our sins to God. 167 00:12:04,900 --> 00:12:05,900 Reba says 168 00:12:07,100 --> 00:12:07,900 I'm not sorry. 169 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:15,500 And afterward on the ride home, we're driving back to the to the to 170 00:12:15,500 --> 00:12:17,600 the church in the car with Pastor Ron. 171 00:12:17,600 --> 00:12:19,800 I'm I'm debriefing this moment with him. 172 00:12:19,800 --> 00:12:23,200 What what do you normally do in a situation like that? 173 00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:28,800 And he says, I don't know 30 years of ministry first time it's ever 174 00:12:28,800 --> 00:12:28,900 happened. 175 00:12:33,800 --> 00:12:36,800 I'm not sorry Reba says 176 00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:41,900 and so Pastor Ron he he takes her hand 177 00:12:44,400 --> 00:12:45,000 and he 178 00:12:46,100 --> 00:12:50,900 looks at her with the patient love of a father for a daughter 179 00:12:52,300 --> 00:12:53,000 and he waits. 180 00:12:59,300 --> 00:13:01,600 And as the three of us sat there 181 00:13:04,400 --> 00:13:05,200 powerless 182 00:13:06,600 --> 00:13:07,700 each in our own way. 183 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:10,800 I saw Jesus. 184 00:13:12,400 --> 00:13:13,800 Bearing the cross for us. 185 00:13:19,000 --> 00:13:19,600 Amen. 186 00:13:23,400 --> 00:13:25,900 If you're able please stand for the singing of the hymn.