Daily Office Readings for Friday of Proper 14: Year 1
Morning, Psalm 102; Evening, Psalm 107:1-32;
2nd Samuel 15:19 to 37; Acts 21:37 to 22:16; Mark 10:46 to 52:
“So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.” (Mark 10: 50)
At some point when teaching a young child to ride a bicycle, we must take off the training wheels, those added security wheels that reminds them of the days of the tricycle. What then is to be done with the old training wheels?
When I taught my granddaughter to ride a bicycle, after many hours of walking and or running alongside her, holding her up, we stopped for a rest; at least for me. After a few minutes, she said to me, Grandpa, let me ride it by myself. To which I said, go ahead but be careful.”
She rode and rode up and down our driveway again and again, without me, without training wheels. She just needed me to get out of the way. She just needed to be released from both me, and the training wheels.
Bartimaeus needed to be released from his cloak. If one is blind it is so important to either hold on to personal things or put a lot of attention in where thins are laid in order that the item can be found again when needed. So throwing off his cloak and springing up to meet Jesus demonstrates his strong faith in what Jesus will do for him. He let go of his safety in order to gain sight.
We too must let go of whatever hinders our path to the healing of our Lord Jesus. And yes, there will be some folks trying to prevent us from being with Jesus alone. They have become our cloak or our training wheels. They too must be removed in order to fully absorb the life changing love of our Lord Jesus.
Today we also remember Jeremy Taylor, Bishop and Theologian (13 August 1667).
Jeremy Taylor is one of many Church saints that I read and re-read for spiritual health. He lived and served in adverse conditions due to England’s civil war and being in forced retirement.
“As Vice-chancellor of Trinity College, Dublin, he took a leading part in reviving the intellectual life of the Church of Ireland. He remained to the end a man of prayer and a pastor.” (Great Cloud of witnesses for August 13)
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done” (Genesis 2:1 and 2). So, for this evening and tomorrow day my friends, Shabbat Shalom.
Let us live to love, serve and teach, rather than just live to live, listening to what the Spirit is saying through the saints of God and to us, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
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