#urban bedford

[sleepysuburb]

little urban for @dangerliesbeforeyou ! 🩷🪽

[stealerofthe2ndbraincell]

Rewatched the Stakeout recently and this bit (of all parts) really interested me, largely because it reminded me of another supernatural episode.

(This is all kind of a ramble sorry!!)

If I had a quid for every time a seemingly nice in9 Reece character that is revealed to have done and/or will do very violent acts used a silly term to avoid swearing, I would have two quid, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it's happened twice.

Although, unlike Varney, Urban breaks this facade a bit later on when he's panicking about the emergency power.

Similar to Varney during that call, Urban is alone when he breaks. Granted, Varney couldn't get away with dropping his plan to hunt and kill Thompson to the figure on the other side of the controller, but he is more free to break any present act he has when his future victim isn't present. And yet he doesn't, which interests me a ton about how much of what Varney shows is and isn't an act to lure in Thompson.

Also TINKLES?? I'm sorry how am I meant to take the threatening vampire seriously when he breaks out the "he's going tinkles"? 🙄 lol

[local-blog-for-local-people]

Reece Shearsmtih as Urban Bedford in How Do You Plead? episode of Inside No. 9

Made especially for @urbansfrienddolly

[urbansfrienddolly]

Just realised the resurrection of my Urban Bedford blog is a great place to share my letterboxd review for Logan

[bluvlet]

I’ve spent my life trying to save Carl Jackson.

[principiumindividuationis777]

[in9-character-tournament]

[stevebattle]

Wayfarer (2005) by Brian Yamauchi iRobot, Bedford, MA. Wayfarer is a fully-autonomous PackBot for urban reconnaissance missions. Equipped with LIDAR, stereo vision, GPS, and an Inertial Navigation System, it can travel beyond communications range to map urban environments, capture video and return autonomously. Wayfarer was funded by the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) Tank-Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering Center (TARDEC).

[archiveofkloss]

In conversation with fellow top model Christy Turlington, Karlie Kloss opens up on how being a muse and a mother unlocked the next great chapters of her life

Those in the world of fashion can recall the moment Karlie Kloss appeared on the scene at fifteen with feline, emerald eyes, and a smize that has made her a muse to many. 

A walking phenom since her early days of dominating catwalks, campaigns, and covers, the industry has been trying to keep up with Kloss as she makes leggy strides toward her next goals with intent, grace, and the guidance of her fellow supers in the business. For Kloss, that mentor position was filled by none other than Christy Turlington. “She is such a North star for me,” Kloss explains. “For what it could mean to be a model and also use your platform [to promote] things that make a real impact in the world.”

With Kloss now in her early thirties, her activism work and outspokenness echo that of Turlington. The two have walked uncannily parallel paths: both were discovered in their early teens, made the decision to step away from the modeling world to attend college in their early twenties, and now have two kids. Additionally, both have dedicated much of their efforts to their community-driven organizations like Kloss’ Gateway Coalition, focused on reproductive care, and tech education initiatives, Kode with Klossy, and Turlington’s Every Mother Counts. Most recently, Kloss has ventured into new territory, adding another title to her impressive resume by taking on the role of CEO of Bedford Media, overseeing the soon-to-be-revived publications, i-D and LIFE magazine. It seems nothing can stop the force of nature that is Karlie Kloss.

V MAGAZINE: How did you meet? Do you remember that first interaction?

CHRISTY TURLINGTON: You want to tell it, Karlie?

KARLIE KLOSS: The first time I met Christy Turlington, it was almost like a scene out of a movie because I’ve idolized Christy long before ever meeting her, and all that she stood for in the world and the industry. I remember many years of being on shoots and feeling like I got to know you by the stories other makeup artists or hair stylists [would tell me] about the legend of Christy. No Woman, No Cry[Turlington’s 2010 documentary] came out at that time, and you were running marathons…I was always a super fan. She was shooting in the Donna Karan studio over in the West Village. Donna invited me because she knew how much I admired Christy, and I remember walking into Urban Zen where the shoot was happening. I was standing face-to-face with Christy, and I just started crying. I’ve never had that reaction ever again with anyone in the world, but I was so moved and humbled to meet her, and so I just was bawling.

V: Oh, my God! What was your reaction, Christy?

CT: No, it was so sweet! We’ve talked about it a lot since. I feel like you were 15 or 16, you were at the beginning of your career, and you sort of started at the top, so you were very much everywhere. What I remember very specifically about you and Donna’s interaction is that you reminded me of some of my peers when I was around your age, where we would be so invested in the designers and the people we worked with, that every day after the show, we’d pick up WWD. You talked to Donna in a very sophisticated way, giving her commentary on the collection that you had just worn, which was very sweet. I was touched. Donna, I’ve known since the beginning of her career, she’s also such an incredible woman and leader. And I felt in the middle of these two worlds. It was kind of like the confluence of past, present, and future.

V: Do you remember what year that was?

KK: I think that might be in 2008 or 2009. 

CT: Yeah, I think it was before I was in school. I was at Columbia, working on my public health degree, and I feel like it was before Every Mother Counts, which was the beginning of my advocacy. But I had small kids, and [embarking] on a direction of where that step was taking me, so I was in a really important transition time, I would say.

V: I’ve seen many moments where you two were together—at events, in campaigns, and on covers—and I read in the New York Times that Christy actually wrote Karlie’s recommendation letter for college.

KK: Yes, for NYU!

V: How did that even happen?

KK: This was before ChatGPT, so she really had to write it! It was so generous of Christy to do that. Even knowing that Christy Turlington— who continues, over many decades, to have an extraordinary fashion career as an iconic supermodel—also cares about her education was so important for me. When I was in my early twenties, I was really nervous about the decision, because I thought, “If I take any amount of time away from my fashion career, will it all disappear?” and Christy was such an important sounding board to prove that [I should] invest in my own education. I couldn’t have done it—and wouldn’t have done it—without Christy’s example and encouragement.

CT: After we met, within a couple of years we started to get together and meet for lunch, and just talk about things. So, when Karlie mentioned that she was interested in going back to school, of course, I was ecstatic for her. When I decided [to get my degree], I was already making a conscious choice of stepping away and slowing down the career at like 10 years in. Karlie was still very much at the height. I think you were already recognizing that you were not as excited about all the things you’d already experienced. So I was really in support of this choice and also tried to give as much of a reality check of what it would feel like, and try to reassure her that the more that she did work on herself, the more in-demand she would be. The more you continue to evolve and invest in yourself, the more people want to be a part of that and want to get closer to you to learn all the different things that you’re now interested in. I think your curiosity, your earnestness, and your seriousness have always been, I think, what stood out to me. I’ve seen it in every phase since we first met. You just continue to evolve in the most natural, thoughtful, and purposeful way.

KK: Wow! This is like a dream. I’m glad this is being recorded. I think on days when I’m having a bad day, I need to look back at this.

KP: So with the both of you going back to school at the heights of your career, Karlie, did you happen to get any pushback at all from people advising the opposite?

KK: I think we all have that little voice in our head that is our own worst enemy, and as a young woman, I doubted myself in all sorts of ways. I was worried that if I made the choice to go back to school, this fairy tale of a fashion career that had happened quite quickly [would disappear]. I just had to trust my gut and kind of ignore what anyone else says. In modeling and fashion, everything changes from one day to the next, and nothing is promised. I had to take that leap of faith and believe that even if this all went away, I had a great time. I met a lot of great people, including my icon, Christy Turlington. Continuing the relationship we have with ourselves and being confident in knowing our power, our worth, and our potential—you can’t go wrong when you lean into who you are and invest in that. At that moment, that was the right thing for me to do.

V: Now at 31, having all that modeling experience and taking those investments in your education, you’ve gone on to start all these organizations. The same goes for Christy with Every Mother Counts, which Karlie has been involved in quite a bit. You went on a trip to Haiti a few years ago. I’d love to know at what point you had the ideas for those organizations.

KK: It’s so funny, I actually had a YouTube channel at the time [where I recorded the trip], I’m going to go back after this and rewatch those videos.

CT: Yes, I forgot about that!

KK: Remember that? Oh, it’s probably so cringe, but I was such a nerd. I was so passionate and excited about being on this trip [to Haiti], it really was a turning point for me in a lot of ways. Christy was so kind to invite me on this trip with some other extraordinary women who have continued to stay in my life, including Sara Blakely, who is one of the most extraordinary, successful female entrepreneurs in this country, and has built a company that has done so much good in so many ways. I think it was such an important trip for me to physically see the work. [Because] we live in New York, it’s easy to kind of feel disconnected from these topics—you go to a charity event and you write a check. But actually going on this trip and seeing where Every Mother Counts was really changing the lives of women in Haiti in the most profound and important of ways, [especially] in that moment of when you’re most vulnerable: bringing your child into the world. I founded Kode with Klossy a year or two later. [That trip] set me on this path and helped show me what could be possible through my own natural curiosity. So after that trip, I went back to NYU and I started taking coding classes, which made me realize there are so many opportunities in the changing world that we live in, and for young women in particular— imagine the problems they could solve with this ability. It started simply like that with 21 scholarships, and next year is our 10th year.

CT: That’s big, that’s huge!

KK: It’s huge! We’ve had more than 10,000 young women and gender expansive teens in our programs over the past years. We’re going to probably have close to 4,000 scholars in our programs this summer alone. You never know the way that you can impact somebody else’s life. I don’t think Christy even probably knew inviting me on that trip would set me on my own journey in such a profound way, and I hope that our Kode with Klossy scholars have a similar experience of wanting to continue to light that spark for others.

CT: I’m a big fan of Bryan Stevenson [social justice activist], and I love the way he speaks about proximity. For me that’s really the truth. I would say through Kode with Klossy, similarly, you want to be with those kids. You want to be in the room where the lights turn on and everyone has that feeling of connectivity and you’re a part of a community. We’ve crossed paths once again in our parallel pathing and that’s through what Karlie is doing now with Gateway Coalition. I think to have younger moms and people coming from the communities that they’re trying to address continue to keep quality care and service [that considers] the full spectrum of reproductive health and rights, it’s going to be even more helpful. I think that’s one of the parallels that we share is the ability to build a community that will ultimately have a greater impact… I can see the multiplier effect happening between coding and technology and the community you’ve built, and also the commitment you’ve made to do this work at this moment. I’m even more excited to see it from this angle because that’s where we intersect more directly than we have in the last few years.

KK: Thank you, Christy. That means a lot. Even in this country, with the lack of access to basic resources and healthcare, I really continue to learn from Christy in so many ways. After I just had my first [child] and came back home, Christy and Grace [Burns], her oldest, came over and met my little guy, and it was just so crazy. Having the entry into motherhood, and having your first child, no matter the resources you have or where you live in this world, it is a profoundly life changing experience, and you have to have your community and village around you. I feel very lucky that Christy and Grace are now in my village.

V: I love that. You know, we actually recently photographed Grace for our V GIRLSseries.

CT: Yeah, that’s right. She loved that! In LA, right?

KP: Yes, that was it. We first saw Grace on TikTok, and I found out that she recently shot a campaign, too, for Tamara Mellon.

CT: Yeah, she’s doing a lot of shooting, and she’s shooting friends right now in Spain. I sort of marvel at Karlie, and how much she’s able to take on. Seeing her do all the things, it appears effortless, but I know it’s not. Then, with my daughter who’s 21 in October, it’s like really another full circle. She’s in class full time, she’s publishing books of poetry, shooting campaigns, and being shot in campaigns, I’m like, “Of course, you can do that because Karlie is your [role model].” So it’s a very direct correlation in the way that we’re all continuing to inspire and care for and support one another.

KK: Yes, I’m in that phase where my three-year-old at three in the morning last night was all of a sudden in my bed and I didn’t sleep, and I’m like, “Okay, this is my life.” 

CT: Aw! And the thing is, it doesn’t end, you know? Everyone had a mother in order to come into the world, and no matter what age or where you are, and what station you are in your life, your mother continues to worry, care, and be there ready for the call, just always there for you. I think that’s the part that’s so relatable, regardless of one’s decision to have a child or not have a child, which is why it’s so important to support that regardless. You see how important that is for the folks who don’t have it, and folks that do, and the difference that creates in terms of an opportunity for success and for people to thrive in their lives.

V: What are some of the ways you both see the results of all of your efforts through the mothers and the women that you’re helping directly?

CT: I get to hear a lot from mothers. We support mostly providers, from community-based folks that are community health workers, doulas or midwives, and also physicians. When I see people who are working at the community level—which is where we mostly are invested—they’re the people at the front lines. They’re the people who are not turning folks away, especially now that things are harder and more precarious, dangerous, and potentially riskier. They’re still there, and they are not going anywhere. Those are the people that give me the most motivation. I feel like our purpose really is to try to uplift them and give them the support and care that they need to continue to meet their communities where they are. 

KK: That’s why unrestricted funding matters. Because I’ve also run a nonprofit with Kode with Klossy, and I know when you put that trust in the leader of that community who is providing that care, they’re going to do what they can to allocate these funds in the most high-impact ways. With Kode with Klossy, there are more than 10,000 young people who are now in the world’s workforce, and they’re not just young teenage women with dreams, they’re actually pursuing their passions. It’s really for me what always has been most important: self-realization more so than like a technical skill set. Of our alumni in college, more than 70% of them go on to major or minor in computer science, which is crazy to me. That to me is such an indicator that Kode with Klossy really reaches them in a moment where they’re deciding what doors the world could open for them. Especially now with every industry being impacted and needing to evolve, this basic technical literacy is crucial. To see how that plays out in their lives, and also how they bring that back to the community of Kode with Klossy—they come back and help teach in our camps, and they go on to build apps and projects that are impacting their communities, and solving problems that reach many people that are far beyond even just Kode with Klossy.  So it’s pretty awesome. 

CT: I was just thinking about Haiti because I hadn’t thought about it in so long–you don’t have any photos from that trip, do you?

KK: I do! I’m gonna find those.

CT: If you do, that would be fun to revisit, because we have so many photos from events and things that aren’t that exciting and we’ve only shot professionally together, really, once.

V: Yup, it was your Cole Haan campaign.

CT: It was a while ago. Then we did Edward [Enninful’s] last cover [for British Vogue]. Otherwise, most of our life has been doing other things. But we’re connected through it and it’s really lovely. I love our story, Karlie.

KK: I love our story. Well, maybe we need to do a V shoot together.

V: Let’s please do it!

CT: Next Mother’s Day!

KK: Exactly!

[osrphotography]

An interesting example of Kiwi's DIY attitude spotted in Shannon recently.

New to Days International, I'm told this was probably a Bedford VAM70 when new.

It passed to Whites*, becoming their № 6

It went to Waipawa Buses, the last urban operator of the MAN SL202 in Aotearoa, and was completely rebuilt by Waipawa.

This rebuild entailed the removal of the original chassis and replacing it with an NDNZ one, which was basically a Hino 300 truck chassis with a few random bits added. It was renumbered to 88.

I am unsure when it ended its life with Waipawa, but it is currently living out retirement in Shannon, where it will likely remain.

*I have no idea who Whites were, unless it refers to White Bus Services, Dannevirke, and the person meant to write White's.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 5.9

328 – Athanasius is elected Patriarch of Alexandria. 1009 – Lombard Revolt: Lombard forces led by Melus revolt in Bari against the Byzantine Catepanate of Italy. 1386 – England and Portugal formally ratify their alliance with the signing of the Treaty of Windsor, making it the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world which is still in force. 1450 – 'Abd al-Latif (Timurid monarch) is assassinated. 1540 – Hernando de Alarcón sets sail on an expedition to the Gulf of California. 1662 – The figure who later became Mr. Punch makes his first recorded appearance in England. 1671 – Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal England's Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. 1726 – Five men arrested during a raid on Mother Clap's molly house in London are executed at Tyburn. 1864 – Second Schleswig War: The Danish navy defeats the Austrian and Prussian fleets in the Battle of Heligoland. 1865 – American Civil War: Nathan Bedford Forrest surrenders his forces at Gainesville, Alabama. 1865 – American Civil War: President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation ending belligerent rights of the rebels and enjoining foreign nations to intern or expel Confederate ships. 1873 – Der Krach: The Vienna stock exchange crash heralds the Long Depression. 1877 – Mihail Kogălniceanu reads, in the Chamber of Deputies, the Declaration of Independence of Romania. The date will become recognised as the Independence Day of Romania. 1901 – Australia opens its first national parliament in Melbourne. 1915 – World War I: Second Battle of Artois between German and French forces. 1918 – World War I: Germany repels Britain's second attempt to blockade the port of Ostend, Belgium. 1920 – Polish–Soviet War: The Polish army under General Edward Rydz-Śmigły celebrates its capture of Kiev with a victory parade on Khreshchatyk. 1926 – Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claim to have flown over the North Pole (later discovery of Byrd's diary appears to cast some doubt on the claim.) 1927 – The Old Parliament House, Canberra, Australia, officially opens. 1936 – Italy formally annexes Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis Ababa on May 5. 1941 – World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma machine which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages. 1942 – The Holocaust in Ukraine: The SS executes 588 Jewish residents of the Podolian town of Zinkiv (Khmelnytska oblast. The Zoludek Ghetto (in Belarus) is destroyed and all its inhabitants executed or deported. 1946 – King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by Umberto II. 1948 – Czechoslovakia's Ninth-of-May Constitution comes into effect. 1950 – Robert Schuman presents the "Schuman Declaration", considered by some to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union. 1955 – Cold War: West Germany joins NATO. 1960 – The Food and Drug Administration announces it will approve birth control as an additional indication for Searle's Enovid, making Enovid the world's first approved oral contraceptive pill. 1969 – Carlos Lamarca leads the first urban guerrilla action against the military dictatorship of Brazil in São Paulo, by robbing two banks. 1974 – Watergate scandal: The United States House Committee on the Judiciary opens formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon. 1979 – Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is executed by firing squad in Tehran, prompting the mass exodus of the once 100,000-strong Jewish community of Iran. 1980 – In Florida, United States, Liberian freighter MV Summit Venture collides with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, making a 1,400-ft. section of the southbound span collapse. Thirty-five people in six cars and a Greyhound bus fall 150 ft. into the water and die. 1980 – In Norco, California, United States, five masked gunmen hold up a Security Pacific bank, leading to a violent shoot-out and one of the largest pursuits in California history. Two of the gunmen and one police officer are killed and thirty-three police and civilian vehicles are destroyed in the chase. 1987 – LOT Flight 5055 Tadeusz Kościuszko crashes after takeoff in Warsaw, Poland, killing all 183 people on board. 1988 – New Parliament House, Canberra officially opens. 1992 – Armenian forces capture Shusha, marking a major turning point in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. 1992 – Westray Mine disaster kills 26 workers in Nova Scotia, Canada. 2001 – In Ghana, 129 football fans die in what became known as the Accra Sports Stadium disaster. The deaths are caused by a stampede (caused by the firing of tear gas by police personnel at the stadium) that followed a controversial decision by the referee. 2002 – The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agree to have 13 suspected terrorists among them deported to several different countries. 2018 – The historic defeat for Barisan Nasional, the governing coalition of Malaysia since the country's independence in 1957 in 2018 Malaysian general election. 2020 – The COVID-19 recession causes the U.S. unemployment rate to hit 14.9 percent, its worst rate since the Great Depression. 2022 – Russo-Ukrainian War: United States President Joe Biden signs the 2022 Lend-Lease Act into law, a rebooted World War II-era policy expediting American equipment to Ukraine and other Eastern European countries.

[stealerofthe2ndbraincell]

It feels important to share some of Urban's horrible(<3) jokes from the in9 scriptbook bit

And not forgetting his beautiful lawyer bit

[lboogie1906]

Bishop Charles Manuel (Sweet Daddy) Grace (January 25, 1881 - January 12, 1960) was born Marcelino Manuel da Graca in Brava Cape Verde Islands. He was the founder of the United House of Prayer for All People. Born off the coast of West Africa on Brava, Cape Verde Islands, he was one of nine children born to Emmanuel and Delomba da Gracia. In the early 1900s, the family moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts where he worked numerous jobs before founding the House of Prayer in 1919 in West Wareham, Massachusetts. In 1923, the second House of Prayer was established in Egypt and three years later the United House of Prayer for All People, was founded in Charlotte. Poor African Americans in urban areas were drawn to his ministry. Operating under Pentecostal-Holiness practices, followers witnessed musical brass shout bands, miraculous physical healings, and mass baptisms. Under his leadership, the United House of Prayer churches experienced growth and economic prosperity through the purchase of a real estate in the US and abroad. The church received revenue from donations and the sale of products named after its founder. Critics opposed his popularity, flamboyant appearance, and lavish lifestyle that included wealth, jewelry, and mansions. The Internal Revenue Service and numerous individuals estranged from the United House of Prayer brought lawsuits against Grace and his religious organization. None were successful. It is estimated that Grace founded hundreds of House of Prayers across the US and overseas with an estimated following of over 500,000 parishioners. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn2GwV6LCzY/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[urbansfrienddolly]

Will never forgive this website for not letting Urban Bedford into the final round of that in9 poll thingy

[worldtodai]

Why did the Dunkin' Donuts coffee challenge the Popeyes chicken sandwich to a game of checkers?

The intersection of Myrtle Avenue and Broadway in Brooklyn, New York, is a bustling crossroads that encapsulates the borough’s rich history, dynamic culture, and urban transformation. Located in the neighborhoods of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick, this intersection serves as a gateway between diverse communities and a site of constant motion, offering a mix of local commerce, historical…

[johnhardinsawyer]

Immediate Gratitude

John Sawyer

Bedford Presbyterian Church

10 / 27 / 24 – Reformation Sunday[1]

2 Corinthians 9:6-15

Mark 10:46-52

“Immediate Gratitude”

(Grace and Gratitude – Week 3)

I have mentioned this before, but when I was in the tenth grade I got glasses for the first time.  The change in my view of the world was immediate.  It was as if I had never known that there were so many beautiful, individual green leaves fluttering on the trees or that the writing on the chalkboard at school was actually legible, instead of just being fuzzy squiggles.  I put on my new glasses and the change was immediate.  

“Immediately. . .” I don’t know if you know this, but the word “immediately” appears – in one form or another – over thirty times in the Gospel of Mark.  And, if you were to read this book of the Bible – the shortest of the four gospel accounts, by the way – you get a sense in Mark’s Gospel that there is an undercurrent of urgency.  Immediately, Jesus goes from one place to another.  Immediately, this or that happens.  Immediately. . . Immediately. . .  In today’s story, a blind man named Bartimaeus asks to be healed and Jesus responds, “Go, your faith has made you well,” (Mark 10:52) and immediately, Bartimaeus regains his sight and follows Jesus on the way.  

We should note that Bartimaeus both gains his sight, immediately, and he immediately follows Jesus on the way.  It’s almost like a gratitude reflex response – like when you go to the doctor and they take that little hammer and gently bop your knee and your leg jumps.  Bartimaeus experiences the gracious gift of healing and then his whole body jumps to follow Jesus. . . immediately.  By the way, this is not the first time in today’s story that Bartimaeus jumps at the chance to be close to Jesus.  And we’ll come back to this, in just a moment. . . 

Just to give a little context, Jesus and his disciples are on their way to Jerusalem but, in those days, the main road down from Galilee to Jerusalem – following the Jordan River – passed through the city of Jericho.  They travel South to Jericho and turn right and go up the mountain to Jerusalem – a route that they and their ancestors have been traveling for generations.  Jericho is one of the most ancient continually-inhabited cities in the world – and the first urban area in all of Israel/Palestine.[2]  It is also just a few miles away from the Dead Sea – over 800 feet below Sea Level,[3] the lowest city on earth and has a history of being conquered and rebuilt, again and again on the same spot, because there are multiple springs that bring fresh water in a very dry place.  Jericho figures into the Bible as a crossroads of civilizations.  It is the first city that the Israelites conquer – with God’s help – when they enter the Promised Land in the Book of Joshua.[4]  Centuries later, it will be the city closest to one of the possible sites where Jesus is baptized by John in the nearby Jordan River.  Later, Jesus tells a parable about a man who is traveling down the well-known road to Jericho and is attacked by bandits and then saved by a Good Samaritan.[5]  Still later, Jericho will be the city where Jesus meets Zacchaeus – the “Wee Little Man” who climbs a tree – in the Gospel of Luke.[6]  And it is the city where Jesus meets Bartimaeus, in today’s story.  

Jericho is still home to over 20,000 people in the occupied West Bank – Christians, Muslims, and Jews all call Jericho home.  And even though there are a lot of fresh-water springs there, to this day it is very a dusty place.  Always has been.  Always will be.  For years, Bartimaeus has been sitting in the dust by the side of the road – a road traveled by pilgrims going up to Jerusalem – begging for money, food, anything to survive.  As to how he got there, to begin with, we do not know.  There were some, at the time, who believed that anyone who was in a position like Bartimaeus was – poor, blind, etc. – that Bartimaeus, or his father Timaeus, or someone else must have sinned and this was God’s punishment.  You should know that Jesus does not believe that God works in this way.  And, for what it’s worth, neither do I. 

By the time Jesus arrives in town, it is clear that Bartimaeus is well-accustomed to not being able to see.  Instead, he uses his other senses to make his way and learn about the world.  I imagine Bartimaeus catching snippets of conversation from those who are passing by on the road.  Lately he has been hearing about someone named Jesus of Nazareth who is a great teacher, or prophet, or even something more than that.  And, in today’s story, when Bartimaeus hears that Jesus is in Jericho and hears a crowd approaching – a crowd with Jesus at its center – what does Bartimaeus have to lose?  “Lord, have mercy!” Bartimaeus shouts, over and over, even when people tell him to hush.  Suddenly, the crowd slows and then stops.  All is quiet, except for some murmuring, here and there.  And then someone says quietly to Bartimaeus, “Take heart!  Get up!  Jesus is calling you.” (10:49)

“Take heart!  Get up!  Jesus is calling you,” they say.  So, throwing off his cloak and leaving it behind – almost like he doesn’t need it anymore – Bartimaeus springs up and goes to where Jesus is.  It doesn’t matter that he can’t see.  He has been blind for so long that he can almost hear his way through the crowd where the people are standing, quietly, breathing – looking at him.  He can’t see, but he can feel their eyes on him as he walks by.  And then, suddenly, there he is – right in front of Jesus.

“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asks him.  Bartimaeus doesn’t know that a few days earlier Jesus had asked the same question of a couple of his disciples and they had selfishly asked him to give them power, beyond imagining.  As we talked about last week, Jesus had not given this power to them, saying, “. . . whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant. . . for the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve. . .” (10:43, 45)  

And so, here is Jesus – the Son of God – ready to serve. . . the likes of poor and blind Bartimaeus.  “What do you want me to do for you, Bartimaeus?” Jesus asks.  Bartimaeus asks for the only thing that is on his mind and heart – not for power beyond imagining. . . just the power to see again. 

We should acknowledge, here, that Bartimaeus is not completely blind.  His physical eyes do not work.  He cannot see the world right in front of him, but in his heart and soul, he can see that the One who has called him close has the power to give sight to the blind.

“My teacher, let me see again,” Bartimaeus says to Jesus, Jesus says to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” (10:52). Another way of translating this phrase is, “Your faith has saved[7] you.”

Now, to be clear, it is not Bartimaeus, himself, that has any role in this “saving” act.  No, it is Bartimaeus’ faith that Jesus recognizes as a key factor in this miracle.  So, how is it that Bartimaeus has faith – faith that Jesus identifies?  Where does this faith come from?  On this Reformation Sunday, we remember the example and theology of people like John Calvin, who wrote that “. . . faith itself has no other source than the [Holy] Spirit.”[8]  Faith is something that the Holy Spirit plants within us, like a seed – at the heart of who we are – so that, in the case of Bartimaeus (or in the case of any of us), it is God who does the saving, through the faith that God plants, and not we, ourselves.

When he writes about today’s story, Calvin says that even though “the power and grace of God sometimes extend[s] even to unbelievers, yet no [one] enjoys [God’s] benefits in a right and profitable manner, unless [they] receive them by faith.”  Bartimaeus has come to know, “. . . by faith. . . that God [is] gracious to him,”[9] and he is healed.  

I know how hard faith can be – especially if we think that faith has to come from us instead of coming as a gift from God.  It’s not like we can force ourselves into trusting in God by our own willpower or stick-to-it-iveness.  No, faith is a gift that doesn’t come from us.  It is a gift bestowed on us by God’s gracious invitation.  “Call him here,” Jesus tells the crowd when he hears Bartimaeus’ cry.  And so, immediately, Bartimaeus leaps up and draws close, because of the irresistible and gracious invitation of God.  

Jesus sees Bartimaeus’ faith – Jesus recognizes the Holy at the heart of Bartimaeus – this Holy seed of faith and trust and hope, planted there by the Holy Spirit – and immediately Bartimaeus regains his sight and follows Jesus on the way.

We should note that this phrase, “on the way” has a double meaning.  The first meaning is fairly clear:  Bartimaeus leaves town with Jesus, following him up the mountain to Jerusalem and all that will occur there.  Calvin says that this act of following is “an expression of gratitude. . . [showing] a grateful mind. . . and [presenting himself] to many, in that journey, as [a] mirror of the grace of Christ.”[10]  This does beg the question of each of us:  in what ways does our own following of Jesus reflect – like a mirror – the grace of Christ?  

But the phrase, “on the way” has another meaning that would have, likely, meant something to the community of the early church that first heard and read these words of the Gospel of Mark.  You see, the early church would often refer to themselves as “The Way,” or “People of The Way,” or “The Way of God.”[11]

Before they called themselves “The Church of the Apostles in Jerusalem,” or “The First Apostolic Church of Such-and-Such” they were simply part of “The Way” of Jesus.  The way they identified themselves was first, and foremost, was a way of life.  There were no theological labels – no liberals and conservatives, no Catholics and Protestants. . . there was just the Way – a way of life defined by and lived as a grateful response to the “surpassing grace of God, given as a gift”[12] that Paul writes about in today’s first reading.  

The Way of Jesus is a way that begins with gratitude – a reflex response of gratitude to and for God’s grace.  An immediate response to a gracious gift.  

Now, some of us have reflexes that are slower than others.  Some of us need to take some time to reflect on the gifts we have received from God.  But, if you start to think about your life – your God-breathed, God-filled life – you might just find some places in your life, and people, and events, and circumstances that make you grateful.  And the more you and I think about all of these blessings – our reflex response times might just get shorter and shorter – more immediate and full of grace.   

All good things – every blessing – comes from God.  May God help us see – may God grant us vision – and fill us with Holy gratitude.  And may our whole selves respond in faith, hope, and love.  

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  

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[1] Year B, Proper 25.

[2] Watson E. Mills, et al, ed. Mercer Dictionary of the Bible (Macon: Mercer University Press, 1990) 439. “Jericho” by William G. Dever.

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho.

[4] See Joshua 5.  

[5] See Luke 10.

[6] See Luke 19.

[7] Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979) 798.

[8] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960) 541. III.i.4.

[9] John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries – Vol. XVI, Harmony of Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2009) 432.

[10] Calvin, Commentaries, 433.

[11] See Acts 9:2, 18:26, 19:9/23, 22:4, 24:14/22.

[12] See 2 Corinthians 9:14-15.