Blind Bartemaus
The Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost
October 28, 2018
When I lived in California in 1992-1993 (when I started Seminary at Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California), I went to visit many beautiful interesting places: The Red Woods, Yosemite National Park, the Sequoias, the Giant Artichoke in Watsonville California, and Forestiere’s Underground Gardens in Fresno, California. When I read the Gospel lesson for today, in a way that will become evident in a moment, I was reminded of that magical place.
Those Gardens want to tell you a story- a story that resembles perhaps a saga from the Old Testament, like Noah building the ark. Or a parable like the persistent Widow before the judge. Our story starts in 1875 on the northeastern tip of Sicily where a man named Baldassare Forestiere was born. He was a devout catholic who from his youth was fascinated by two things that start with the letter ‘c’: 1) catacombs, the tunnels and hiding places of the early Christians – now most often seen in Rome, and, 2) citrus. These two things become important in the story. Like many in Europeans at that time, Forestiere decided to immigrate to the United States and landed first in Boston sometime in the early 20th c. There he gained employment helping to dig and build tunnels for the subway system – the MTA.
But Balassare decided once he had saved enough money building subway tunnels he would move to sunny California. He first landed in Los Angeles around 1906 and found that land was mostly taken and what was available was terribly expensive. So he looked for an alternate solution. He came upon a deal – in a place roughly 200 miles north east of Los Angeles in a place called Fresno. Land was affordable and plenty. So he bought 80 acres with his dream of planting citrus groves.
So he found himself in Fresno and started to try to grow citrus, but unfortunately as he dug into the ground he found after 3 feet he ran into something called Hard Pan, a rock layer which is the third hardest rock layer in the world. The citrus groves of his dream was dashed. So he hired himself as a day laborer in the fields. But he found out that Hard Pan was not the only problem – the daytime summer temperature in the San Joaquin valley where Fresno is located is unbearable – with temperatures of over a hundred degrees for much of the summer. So remembering the catacombs, and falling back on his skill to build subways – he went back to his 80 acres with a pick axe and a hand shovel and he dug deep into the ground through the hard pan, and made a small room and then he threw a mattress down into the excavated hole, and voila, a bedroom. Then he did the same thing again, he built another room – he dropped a range down there, and voila, a kitchen, and then he built a third room, and dug and dug, and built a well. All his basic needs were taken care of food, shelter, and water.
So for 17 years he continued, working his day job, and digging and digging in the afternoons and evenings. During that time, he built a chapel, and grottos, for his private devotions. He found ways to have raised huge planters in his underground home so that he could plant his citrus trees and the trees could grow through the sky light to produce beautiful fruit. He planted and planned his home in 3s and 7s and 12s so he could populate his underground home and gardens in Holy Numbers – 3 for the trinity, 7 from the days of creation, 12 form the disciples – He would plant trees in groups of threes, and parts of the rooms with 7 columns, etc., When his citrus plantings in his underground garden could fully support him, he gave up his day laborer job and worked exclusively on his underground garden building multiple Roman arches, an aquarium, a ball room, and started work on building a resort. In total – 10 acres of underground rooms, roads and gardens. And quite miraculously he worked at it for 40 years, until he died.
Baldassare Forestiere was a genius and eccentric who was beloved by friends and families. He said once, “To make something with money, that is easy, but to make something out of nothing – now that is something.” Again, a pretty sound biblical principle that calls to mind everything from creation to the feeding of the 5,000.
But I want to focus on another quote. As you end of the tour of the underground gardens there is a quote in an 8 x 11 ½” frame which says, “Some men see things as they are, and ask why, I dream things that never were and ask why not?” It is originally a quote from a play by the English playwright George Bernard Shaw, but became well known in this country because it appeared in speeches said by both Bobby and John F. Kennedy, and also by Ted Kennedy when he used it in his eulogy for Bobby Kennedy.
Our gospel lesson for today is on the theme of Blindness. Biblical scholars claim that blind Bartemaus (which means in Hebrew Son of Honor) is the perfect example of a disciple. After Bartemaus is healed, and receives his sight, he is willing to follow Jesus and witness to Christ to the end of his days.
I don’t think it is a stretch to link both Baldassare and Bartemaus together, because they are examples of two people, who upon facing setbacks, decide with audacious tenacity to keep on keeping on. And they remind us that whenever we cannot seem to see our way out or through some challenge, that we can ask with the same audacious tenacity “ Teacher let me see again”
But when we ask Jesus to open our eyes, and to enlighten our spiritual blindness, we need to be prepared to see not only what is truly in front of us and before us, but also for us to see the possibilities we have neither before dreamt nor perceived.
That is what happens when we ask God to open our eyes, our hearts and minds. We may find ourselves changed. We may find ourselves performing hare-brained schemes and taking chances all for the kingdom of God. And when we do that, glorious things may come to be that the world deeply needs, and only you can give.
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