We're celebrating this weekend a very special occasion.  Our church building was completed and dedicated 50 years ago.  This is quite an accomplishment for our community in this day and age if instant this and instant that, to have something last as long as 50 years so that we can remember it.  This is a beautiful building - it has lovely stained-glass windows, the furniture and rugs are well appointed and it has all the nice features that we would like to see.  Nearly everyone I've met who has come here for the first time has said the same thing, “What the nice little church.”  We have those who went before us to thank for the sacrifice and effort it took to put this church together.  We know from the sacrifice that it has cost all of us simply to pay for the renovations, how much more then must have been for the early parishioners to pour their heart and soul into the construction of this building.

Over the years there has been a debate as to the usefulness of a large fancy church.  There are always those who will say, “Let’s make the church simple and spend the extra money that we might've spent on decorations to give to the poor.”

At the same time though, a beautiful church building may be the key to inspiration because we are both flesh and spirit.  Our eyes, our senses need something to touch them as well as our heart because it is through our senses that our heart is awakened.  It is through our senses that our spirit finds expression in this world. 

Even God the Father allowed his own Son to become flesh so that he may have reality in this world for us to see and touch.  And so the beauty and grandeur of a church, where it may seem nonfunctional at one level, often serves the greatest function of pointing those who are in it towards God and helping them see more clearly the glory of the spirit. 

Like all things it is a delicate balance to find the best of both and it is something that we will always strive for as humans. 

But as I said a building is more than just beautiful, it is also functional, and one of the things that we can be most proud of at St. Mary's is the fact that our building not only serves as a place for worship, but Friday nights it also serves as a gathering place for the homeless where on a cold winter evening they may get a good meal and a chance to share some fellowship with others to may have the same problems, with those who can help, and with us so that our eyes may be open to the plight of those who are not so lucky as we are.

When the church building serves this kind of extra function as well, it’s a guarantee and a signal to the community that we mean what we say he when we try to follow Christ.

I used to work in Toronto at Yonge and Eglinton, which is a very busy intersection and has a constant stream of people moving about.  There was a beggar who used to work the corner there and he was quite a unique individual.  Quite a large man, he reminded me somewhat of Wallace Beery, the old movie actor or perhaps Ward Bond.  He was big and rude, usually unshaven very often quite unkempt, his hair unruly and his clothes rundown. 

But the thing that was so striking, in fact it made him a bit of a local celebrity was his extremely aggressive approach to getting help.  He didn't lean against the building quietly with a hat in hand and hope that someone would drop in a quarter or loony.  No, this man came right to you stood in your path and spoken a very loud voice, “Buddy, give me some money, I need it now.  I haven’t eaten in days, I'm starving.  And he would emphasize the words “starving.”  And stretch it out to make it pitiful.

Isn't it amazing how often the homeless beggar becomes an embarrassment for us in public.  Heaven forbid that tourists should have to endure the imprecations of such a one as this, instead of spending their money in the shops where they really hope he would they would go!  So I don't know whether this man was in fact a charlatan, but then we aren't called the judge.  We are called to act in God's name and to pray for those who need that help and to give to some what help we can.  And so if we look at the case of each and every homeless person who comes to St. Mary's on Friday night looking for dinner, if we sat in judgment as to their suitability and fitness to participate, we would be missing the whole point of what Jesus tries to teach us today.

Let's look at the blind beggar Bartemeus.  How much he was like that man at Yonge and Eglington.  He didn't sit quietly and hope to be noticed, but he shouted out loudly and violently for attention.  He was an embarrassment to the community.  The disciples tried to shush him up.  But he called out all the louder.  Did the blind beggar really believe that Jesus could heal him when he heard that he was walking by or did he just think, “Here's a celebrity and here's a crowd and I might make some money out of this!” and so putting his most pitiful voice into it, he called out, “Jesus have mercy on me.”

But then instead of being passed by as would probably be the case with an official from the Sanhedrin or the fancy members of the council or the good businessmen of the town, Jesus stopped and  said to come here and then we see the transformation as the man springs up and goes to Jesus.

Jesus asks him, “What is it that you want.”  And I can just feel those words touching his heart as he says to himself, “What a voice, what kindness and love and power I hear in those few words.”  And perhaps at that moment the beggar actually allowed himself to hope and said those words “Let me see again!” 

He’d forgotten the money, he'd forgotten the things that might normally be included in the word “mercy” when he asked for help.  What a risk to take – laying it all on the line.  Imagine if Jesus had said, “I’m sorry, I can’t do that!”

But he didn’t, he said”Go, your faith has made you well!”

And the greatest gift that anyone could have given him was given back, his sight was restored.

Even those with the most bass motivations who haven't really thought of anything but themselves for years may be touched by Jesus, we've seen it over and over again.  What we pray for today when we recall this gospel is the faith to approach Jesus about our blindness about the things that we refuse to see and ask him to give us the power to see again.

We ask him to give us the strength to continue to help those who may or may not even deserve our help from the world's judgment, but we cannot judge all of the reasons that put a man in the gutter or a family on the street.  It is not our place, having not lived there ourselves, to make those judgments but only to help as best we can to show them that one who bears the name of Christian, like the Lord, will not walk by when someone asks for mercy.

We have a beautiful church building we've been very proud of it and we pray in it to the glory of God but it's also a building that can be home to the homeless for one evening.  We pray and search again for a way to restore the overnight stay, which we had to stop because of liabilities and insurances and the troubles of the world. We must continue to look out in new and interesting ways to find out how to help people who are isolated and marginalized from society. 

Jesus stopped when all this disciples wanted the noisy beggar to just shut up.  We need to stop, like Jesus, and we need to have the faith of the beggar, to ask Jesus to show us the things that we don't see.  Let's meet Jesus today in the Eucharist when we come forward and then maybe we can make a connection with him as the blind man made his connection to Jesus.  Then as we celebrate our church’s anniversary in Thansgiving for all we have, we may remember that we are called to share it with others as well.