Toss the Cloak

This Sunday I will be giving a short reflection on Mark: 10 46-52 where Jesus meets up with Bartimaeus who was a blind beggar.

Mark tells this story in which those who are the professional holy people, those who have most exposure to Jesus and his teaching, and those who have the most money and status, all fall away and are all supplanted by this solitary blind beggar, who alone does exactly what Jesus wants - he "follows him on the way."

Thus as the final verse in the first half of Mark's gospel puts it, the first become last, and the last, the blind beggar Bartimaeus, becomes first.

The heart of the story of Bartimaeus lies in his cloak. The cloak is the one thing he has. It's his source of protection, from dust and wind and rain and cold. And it's his source of income, like a street musician's open guitar case. So tossing his cloak away means that this blind man is getting more vulnerable. At the 8:15 worship service I will explore this in some depth. At 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. I will give a short reflection as to what meanings will be tossed as we let go of our cloak. This may sound silly as we head into the colder days of autumn and winter, but I promise I'm not talking about down or wool coats, but rather how we might be open to some really good news.